Research Catalog

Title

Endgame, 1945 : the missing final chapter of World War II / David Stafford.

Author

Stafford, David.

Publication

New York : Little, Brown, 2007.

Supplementary Content

• Publisher description
• Contributor biographical information

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xix, 581 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps; 25 cm

Summary

"To conclude a history of World War II in Europe at VE Day - as most do - is to leave the story only partially told. A war does not end when the last of its pitched battles stops raging. Soldiers of the defeated forces face long stays as POWs, the wounded continue to die, parents search doggedly for their missing children, the victors embark on epic missions to hunt down enemy leaders, enduring peace must be made." "In Endgame, 1945 historian David Stafford fills the hole in our knowledge of World War II, revealing how, for most people, VE Day was merely a brief pause in the action, and that horror and hardship lasted long after Allies accepted Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender. Drawing upon diaries, letters, personal testimonies, and memoirs, Stafford interweaves the lives of ordinary people with the machinations of military and political leaders to trace the elaborate web of events that led to the war's real resolution: the deaths of Hitler and Mussolini, the liberators of Buchenwald and Dachau, and the Allies' race against the Red Army to establish a victor's foothold in Europe."--BOOK JACKET.

Subjects

• World War, 1939-1945 > Miscellanea
• Nineteen forty-five, A.D > Chronology

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [555]-568) and index.

Contents

Pt. 1. Friday, 20 April 1945 -- 1. Cruel Spring -- 2. "Sorrow and Darkness" -- 3. Avenging Justice -- 4. "A Curious Pearly Color" -- 5. "To Fall Heroically" -- 6. "Ich War Immer Dagegen" -- Pt. 2. 20-30 April 1945 -- 7. "A Sort of Alice in Wonderland Air" -- 8. "The Most Degenerate Spectacle" -- 9. Death of a Dictator -- 10. Himmler's Bid -- 11. "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" -- 12. Alpine Refuge -- 13. "Death Fled" -- 14. "The Bitterest Battle" -- Pt. 3. Hitler's Death to VE Day -- 15. Dealing with Nazis -- 16. The Cap Arcona -- 17. "The Dead-End of Hitler's Reich" -- 18. Hitler's Loot -- 19. "The Dawn Has Broken through at Last" -- Pt. 4. VE Day to Potsdam -- 20. VE Day -- 21. "Fortune Is Not Always Joy" -- 22. "A Grotesque Comedy" -- 23. "An Iron Curtain" -- 24. "You Lost People as You Gained Your Freedom" -- 25. Berlin: The Gray City -- 26. Monday, 16 July 1945 -- 27. "Other Beasts in Other Lairs" -- Epilogue: What Happened to Them?

ISBN

• 9780316109802
• 0316109800

LCCN

• 2007030126
• 40014788876

OCLC

• 156902380
• ocn156902380
• SCSB-5379013

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries