Endgame 1945 by David Stafford
Wars do not end when the fighting stops. While Hitler and Goebbels took their lives in the bunker under ruined Berlin, Mussolini was hanged in Milan and Himmler fled Germany, men and women everywhere faced the prospect of rebuilding peace. In this remarkable account of the days and months after Victory in Europe, David Stafford uncovers the stories of those who had lived through the Second World War and now had to endure the daily horrors and hardships of its aftermath: Robert Reid, a leading BBC journalist of the day, witnesses the Allied troops' first shocking encounter with the death camps at Buchenwald; British Intelligence officer Geoffrey Cox fights doggedly alongside Italian and Yugoslav partisans; and Fey Von Hassell, a German mother separated from her children in the labour camps, sets out on a heartbreaking mission to find them. Using letters and interviews, Stafford creates an unforgettable panorama of the defeat of Fascism, of ordinary people and extraordinary valour, and of Europe in every way tested to its limits. ENDGAME 1945 is the chilling final chapter of the Second World War.
'An all-too-vivid account of life lived in the shadow of Europe's worst war. . Will force anyone bold enough to read [it] to recognise just what modern war does to people' LITERARY REVIEW 'Stafford skilfully provides a connecting framework for a narrative of almost Tolstoyan proportions . . . he is therefore to be congratulated on his even-handed treatment of a subject which, in the depth of its almost incredible inhumanity, brutality, violence and scale, beggars the imagination and which only a writer of the first calibre, strongest nerve and monumental intellectual stamina could tackle' SPECTATOR 'Gripping and moving, Endgame 1945 makes brilliant use of the individual stories of ordinary people caught up in extraordinary events' SUNDAY TIMES 'Stafford relates the experiences of 'ordinary' people on both sides, brilliantly interleaved with the fate of the monsters who had precipitated this cataclysm, most compellingly' THE TIMES 'Stafford has assembled a remarkable gallery of human stories - heroic, tragic, squalid, moving - for his book, which reminds us that victory, even in a 'good' war, is almost as bitter as defeat' DAILY IRISH MAIL 'Stafford proves himself master of a dazzling narrative' EXPRESS 'Endgame 1945 isn't a footnote to history. It's the last chapter in a book from which to learn before another volume opens' OBSERVER REVIEW
David Stafford, a former diplomat, is an expert on the Second World War and intelligence history. He is Project Director of The Centre for the Study of the Two World Wars at the University of Edinburgh. He regularly reviews for the press and contributes to TV and radio features on history.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780316727945 |
| ISBN 10 | 0316727946 |
| Title | Endgame 1945 |
| Author | David Stafford |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Little, Brown & Company |
| Year published | 2007-08-30 |
| Number of pages | 608 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |