Product Description

The traditional image of Europe in 1945 is of grateful civilians showering soldiers with flowers and dancing in the streets. In reality, liberation was an extraordinarily violent and chaotic process. Using first-hand accounts, Hitchcock describes the catastrophic effects of invasion on Northern France, Belgium and Holland, the huge civilian death tolls from indiscriminate bombing, with towns destroyed and crops burnt. He shows that the motives and behavior of the Allied forces were far from noble; they frequently abused power and authority, looted homes and sexually assaulted women. Hitchcock also writes about the discovery of the major concentration camps, and the often shocking lack of empathy shown by its liberators. Lucid and compelling, "Liberation" explores the paradoxes of 'the good war', its glories and its horrific human costs.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11085 in Books
• Published on: 2009-09-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

Review
"The first book I have read that explicitly addresses the plight of civilians during the `crusade for Europe.' ... This tale vividly demonstrates that there was no cause for triumphalism in the condition of Europe following the defeat of Hitler." --Max Hastings, Sunday Times

Review
"Remarkable . . . Underlines that the liberation of Europe was both a major military triumph and a human tragedy of epic proportions."

Review
"A powerful and important new work of history.... A thorough, passionate corrective to any simple telling of the terrible last year of this war."

Customer Reviews

Hitchcock leaves it to readers to piece it all together
William Hitchcock's study of the liberation of Europe in the Second World War is actually four interrelated books in one. The first book looks at the experience of civilians in northwestern Europe amidst the fighting during the final months of the war. Theirs is a story of painful, often overlooked hardship, as they were subjected to bombs and shells that did not discriminate between them and the German occupiers. For many Belgians, the Battle of the Bulge meant living through the thick of the fighting, while the Dutch, though spared much direct combat, suffered starvation from the disruption of food supplies.

The second book shifts to an examination of the fighting in the east. Here Hitchcock provides a broader account, one that begins with the German invasion in 1941. This allows him to recount the atrocities committed by Nazi forces, something that allows him to put the conduct of Soviet troops into context. Civilians are much less central to Hitchcock's analysis here, as he also discusses postwar planning for Germany's fate. It is only when Germany itself becomes the battleground that the civilians reemerge as the central focus of the narrative, where again they are presented as victims of the savagery of war.

The final two sections concentrate on the development and administration of relief efforts for those who survived the fighting. The third book addresses the problem posed by 'displaced persons', the millions of refugees created by the war. Here he examines the efforts not just of the Allied forces but of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), a newly-formed agency that sought to improve on the private relief efforts that characterized the last war. Hitchcock's final book looks at the civilians who suffered the most - the concentration camp survivors. His focus here is primarily on the Western allies, with separate chapters that address separately how the Americans and the British responded to the morally horrifying and politically complicated question of what to do for those who survived the Holocaust.

Each of these books offers an enlightening examination of the problems civilians faced at the end of the war and in its immediate aftermath. Yet each section stands in seeming isolation from the others, with little effort made to tie them together into a coherent overall portrait. Instead readers are left to piece together for themselves the overall assessment of the experience of liberation. This squanders what is otherwise an interesting book about an often-overlooked aspect of war, one that provides a more complete picture of just how much Europe suffered.

LIBERATION
A well researched and scholarly contribution to a relatively under investigated period. More for the scholar than the general reader but it filled in some gaps for me on an individual basis. It could usefully be read in conjunction with Sean Longden contribution "To The Victor The Spoils" published 2007. There is room for more on this subject matter perhaps from a lesser wider scope.

John Nicholson
2/3/09

Truly superb.
This is a top notch book and one that should be required reading for any interested in the human aspect of liberation. Rather than focus on the military, Mr Hitchcock tells the story of the poor civilian - largely ignored by all the great histories of the war. The result is a thought provoking book that invites the reader to share empathy with the poor and the put upon - be they Belgian civilians in the Bulge to German refugees fleeing from the Russians. Thank you Mr Hitchcock for bringing this subject out into the open.