Their Darkest Hour: People Tested to the Extreme in WWII

by Laurence Rees

How could Nazi killers shoot Jewish women and children at close range? Why did Japanese soldiers rape and murder on such a horrendous scale? How was it possible to endure the torment of a Nazi concentration camp?

Award-winning documentary maker and historian Laurence Rees has spent nearly 20 years wrestling with these questions in the course of filming hundreds of interviews with people tested to the extreme during World War II. He has come face-to-face with rapists, mass murderers, even cannibals, but he has also met courageous individuals who are an inspiration to us all.

In Their Darkest Hour he presents 35 of his most electrifying encounters.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, World War II, War, Holocaust, Military Fiction, Politics

333 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 6, 2007

About the author

In addition to writing, Rees has also produced films about World War II for the BBC.

In New York in January 2009, Laurence was presented with the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ by ‘History Makers’, the worldwide congress of History and Current Affairs programme makers

In 2011 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate (DUniv) by The Open University(UK).

Reviews

[Lauren Hopkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really like 2.5 stars. Half impressive and half a letdown. I was hoping, based on the other works I've read of this author's, that this would be a massively in-depth look at how human beings are able to go on living their lives after committing atrocities and living through wildly horrific ordeals. That's what this book is at its core, using the most awful situations experienced in WWII to explore what it's like to live through them, told via interviews with the people who actually had to live through them. I was expecting all of these hard-hitting insane and chilling interviews with mass murderers and hand-to-hand combat soldiers and the guys dropping in the pellets of Zyklon B at Auschwitz...and while these people were interviewed and their stories do make up the book, there's so little from each of them that it becomes like...really? That's it? Each subject gets about five or so pages, with the majority dedicated to backstory and the author's own commentary before we finally get a couple of quotes, most of which aren't all that shocking. On top of that, at least 30% of these subjects were also featured in Rees' book "Auschwitz" so if you've read that, you've already heard a good number of the stories and experiences. It wasn't bad, per se, but it could've been SO much better had we actually spent more time listening to what these people had to say fully in their own words rather than getting a couple of little quotes from them in the midst of a rambling summary from the author.

[Katie.dorny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another brilliant audiobook and a different format for Rees books than I'm used to, but one that i massively enjoyed.

[Simon Dobson · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's hard to mark a book like this as four stars, since it's a harrowing rather than a purely enjoyable read. Nevertheless, it's a phenomenal work that really complements the author's other accompishments. It's a series of interviews with people involved in various aspects of World War 2, including both victims an victimisers, and tries to get them to open up about their experiences and motivations. Some of the people appear in Rees' other books, notably "Auschwitz, the Nazis, and the Final Solution," and one can read these extended interviews in the wider context of their experiences. Rees doesn't shirkthe dificult questions but also doesn't give in to facile equivalences either: ha asks whether the Allies' bombing of civilians and the Nazis' destruction of the Jews are in any way equivalent, and manages to nail the key differences without naively exculpating the Allied pilots.

The characters introduced include a SMERSH interrogator, a concentration camp guard, a man forced to work as a human minesweeper, a cannibal, an actress in propaganda films, and a woman nearly killed by her own mother in the aftermath of the Red Army's sweep through East Prussia. Taken together they offer a balanced portrait of people tested to the limit by their circumstances, bringing out the best and worst in themselves.

[S.P. Harrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book of interviews conducted by Rees of hundreds of people who endured the cruelties of the Second World War. Extraordinarily he also interviews those who carried out such atrocities giving Rees a "...........comparative, cross-cultural perspective on the horrors of the war that no academic could match."

Rees writes in an easy and fluid way not the dry, dense writing that one would expect from an academic. Central to this book is not only his incredulity at how people could behave in such bestial ways but his humility at the endurance of those who suffered.

He asks "How could Nazi killers shoot Jewish women and children at close range? Why did Japanese soldiers rape and murder on such a horrendous scale? How was it possible to endure the torment of a Nazi death camp?

This is a brilliantly written and brilliantly heartbreaking book about our very recent past, our very recent barbarous past. This is not just a history book but a memoir of individuals caught up and involved in World War II. It is also one of those very rare and important books that will make you glad and sad that you have read it.

[Paul Loong · Rating 4 out of 5]

The 35 interviewees, whether they are the mass murderer, rapist, soldiers, survivors, or citizens, all have their own reasons (or excuses?) for what they have done in WWII. To us, this seems to be unbelievable that they have made such decisions and most of them do not regret for what they have done. But, as the author says, position yourself in the same situation as them. Would you do the same as them?

I myself do think that this book has given me another direction on viewing such topic. It is very easy to make a moral decision when one is not actually involved in the incident. But now, I am not so sure what I will do when I am put in such situation. A recommend read.

[Amber Leigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I would literally read anything laurence rees writes. I love them all!

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection interviews of people who survived WWII. Some were victims, some were villains. Rees tries to understand the spot these people were in - sometimes his commentary is chilling and psychological; but more often it is dry and detracts from the story. I would have probably preferred that most of the interviews were longer than 6-12 pages. Still, it's an important and captivating read.

[Michael Flanagan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is fantastic. It allows the reader to see the mind set of the people who committed the atrocities of world war II. Why not excusing their actions it allows an insight into their reasonings behind their actions. This book for me captures the essence of what fascinates me, that being a study of how people act under the extreme pressures of war. A true study into the nature of humans.

[Squid McFinnigan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was very interested in reading this book, after all, how could anyone understand the horror of those times unless they were there.

Mr Rees approached this book in the same way an academic would approach a medical study, which means that this book is most likely a very true representation of what people experienced.

However, this unemotional approach had a down side for me. I was left flat, emotionally, after reading what must have been the most difficult memories for these people to relive. I still found the book interesting but it could have been so much more. That is the reason for the three stars.

[Keith Hughes · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is a series of stories from individual interviews some of which, while powerful, are very harrowing.

[Keen Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Stars!

“I didn’t have any regrets, to put it bluntly. I was twenty-one years old that summer of the fire-bombing. And I really was wanting to get the war over and I wanted to go home. And if they told me to go and bomb some cities, I went and bombed cities.”

So says, one American officer, who would go onto lead a productive life as lawyer in the US after the war. What this testimony and more like it show, is how distance and remoteness from victims can sanitise the horror, whilst also paving the way for a greater emotional and psychological detachment, reducing the act of killing, to the simple act of pressing a button or pulling a lever. This makes it a lot easier to compartmentalise, because you are no longer a killer, but just the guy who pushed the button.

The book really brings home the phenomenal power of propaganda, particularly in the case of Imperial Japan, which had the population so brainwashed, aside from the thousands of kamikaze pilots, you had citizens killing themselves, and some killing their own mother, father and sister, in the mistaken belief that if captured by the Americans they would be made to suffer under torture and be killed.

Many of the stories and recollections here are fairly incredible, as well as gruesome stats like, apparently at Treblinka, “On arrival prisoners, stood on average, a 99% chance of being dead within three hours.” Or lesser known facts like, “By the end of the war more than 50% of the fighting strength of the SS was provided by foreigners-a mix of recruits from France, Croatia, Norway, Denmark, Latvia, Ukraine, Hungary, Estonia, Albania, Italy, Slovenia, Serbia and Belgium.”

Rees shows that in spite of what the history lessons try to tell us, WWII wasn’t simply a case of Good v Bad and the good guys doing good things, trying to stop the bad guys from doing bad things. It was a lot more complex and nuanced than that, good, bad and everything in between were done by people on all sides of the conflict. It’s this sort of open and bold approach that got him into trouble, not least from Lord Aldington who made a number of complaints against him to the BBC.

These complaints were raised in relation to two instances involving British forces that Rees talks about. Apparently the Brits were in charge of deporting thousands of soldiers back home. They had promised the Cossacks that they would be sent back to their country of origin. The Brits tricked and betrayed them, and even non-Soviets were sent back to Stalin’s Russia where a miserable fate awaited them. There was also a similar case involving the repatriation of Yugoslav people being deceived and sent back to Tito, even though Churchill had said not to.

The first-hand accounts are nicely edited and almost every one of them leaves you wanting more, which is testament to Rees. From a one armed, one eyed Belgian holocaust denier to the Japanese soldier who spent 29 years hiding out in the Philippine jungle, refusing to believe the war was over. We get quite an incredible contrast of subjects and survivors. He never labours a point, and this talent makes for a smooth and enjoyable read. There is no shortage of shocking revelations, “He estimates he killed between 20 and 30 Red Army soldiers during what he describes as the most exciting night of his life.” This was from an academic, who specialised in research into IQ tests. One Japanese soldier who raped, murdered and then ate a young Chinese woman, says, “Raping her, eating her, killing her - I didn’t feel anything about it. And that went for everything I did (In China). It was only afterwards that I really came to feel remorse.”

This is also a fascinating insight into the human psyche, showing how they deal in circumstances that the vast majority of us could only imagine. It also illustrates just how differently people deal with these situations and how they square their decisions with the rest of their life, when war is over and they go onto lead relatively normal lives with kids and grandchildren of their own. Retrospective reactions range from staunch denial to idealising and glorifying the period. It’s the sheer variance of experience and reaction to them, which makes this book so utterly compelling. As one former soldier puts it, “People who have never been tested go around making judgements about people who have been tested.”

This book shows why Rees remains one of the clearest and most eloquent voices on WWII, working in the English language today. Where so many other scholars, historians and writers on the conflict, churn out weighty, often long winded prose, designed to impress peers and rivals more than inform readers, Rees’s work is a breath of fresh air. His skills lie in his restraint and brevity, making for an articulate yet accessible experience.

[Russ Spence · Rating 3 out of 5]

an interesting read if you haven't read any of the author's other books before - this revisits some of the interviews from his earlier works, such as The Nazis, Horror in the East & Auschwitz, but puts them into a personal context, where Rees looks back over his own feelings concerning the interviewees experiences, motivations & beliefs. There are some horrors there, but also a couple of people who did what they thought was right, suffered the consequences for the rest of their lives, but would still do the same again.

[Shelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Maybe terrible adversity would bring out the best in us, or, just maybe, it would reveal the worst. What do you think? What would you have done?" pg. 278. An excellent question and one that keeps being asked throughout this thought-provoking and interesting book.

[Clare Russell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Utterly harrowing account of what humans are capable of, I was most struck by how the interviewees sought to justify actions in retrospect. Extraordinary research but difficult content

[Tony · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting book. A collection of short accounts of people's experiences of World War Two, which shows how people's behaviours were tested and the decisions they made. There are not just the usual accounts of German atrocities.

There are stories here about those who didn't necessarily contribute to what was done but who were part of it and never questioned it, such as the actress Kristina Söderbaum. We hear from Soviet men and women, including the terrifying Zanaida Pytkina who was a member of SMERSH.* We hear from the Americans and British. Occasionally we hear a story about genuine courage when someone stands up against the prevailing horror, but mostly these are stories about a failure to do that.

Rees raises two key questions: what would we have done (and how can we truly know) and what can we do to stop these things happening again, which in the current political climate is an interesting question. The accounts of the British treatment of Cossack and Yugoslavian POWs that we handed back to the Russians and Tito shows that sometimes we don't have the moral high-ground, although Rees rightly points out that whilst there is criticism to be made of the Allied bombing campaigns over Germany and Japan they stopped once the war came to an end. There was no question that Nazi and Japanese atrocities wouldn't have carried on had they won the war.

He also notes how the de-humanising of the enemy makes it much easier to kill them. The Japanese didn't see the Chinese as 'human' and the Germans were taught the same about the Jews. If you see someone as cattle it is easier to justify their murder. (And actually one of the saddest things about this book is how few people had any lasting guilt - apparently - about what they had done or - in the case of the Germans/Japanese - how much they pretended not to know.)

I found the Japanese and Soviet stories most interesting, possibly because I've read less about those sides of things than the Germans and one wearies of elderly Germans talking about how charming the Nazis were, how things were better then and how they couldn't possibly have known what was happening to the Jews.

However, it is worth a read because Rees key point is that if you want to stop these kinds of thing from happening you need to stand-up and be counted as early as possible: "The best protection lies in trying to ensure that the situational ethic of society as a whole conforms to the rule of law and the basic principles of humanity - values that after World War II were enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights**. Just pretending that bad things are not happening and only thinking of oneself is rarely a sustainable option. Ignoring the 'little' abuses when they begin only makes it harder to stop the bigger abuses that follow."

And that - in our new world - is an important lesson to learn. It's why you stand up for the rights of the people who hate and despise everything we stand for or whose behaviour we find repugnant. Once rights are taken away from them, which is an easy sell, it becomes easier for a government to take the rights from the next group and the next group. Until you find yourself in a Holocaust via a thousand little steps. It's what Niemöller's famous poem is trying to say.

It's a tough read at some points. It's an ugly insight into how thin the veneer of civilisation might actually be, but it illustrates the need to stand up and be counted as early as possible whilst pointing out that until we are truly tested we can never know how we would behave.

*Yep, a real organisation and not just something invented by Ian Fleming for James Bond.
**Those dastardly rights the Conservative Party wants us to repudiate and replace with some theoretical 'British Bill of Rights'.

[Claracristela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Otra vez la segunda guerra mundial, ahora como historia oral a partir de un puñado de supervivientes de ambos bandos. Me recuerda un poco a "La belleza y el dolor de la batalla", con la diferencia de que aquella se escribió sobre textos de gente que ya había muerto, y que narraron la experiencia en el mismo momento de vivirla. El de ahora se hace tras 50/60 años de reflexión, que permiten abordar el problema desde la perspectiva de sus consecuencias históricas. A pesar de ello resulta escalofriante ver cómo se enfrentan a sus recuerdos, las más de las veces terribles, y tratan de entender y justificar sus acciones.
Acciones como violar y luego devorar a una mujer china, porque en el ejército japonés se les enseñaba que eran seres inferiores, no personas.
O como matar a tu madre y a tus hermanos para evitar que los coja el enemigo que, supuestamente, había de torturarlos (y vivir para comprobar que no hubiera sido así).
Degradaciones, humillaciones, daño, maldad…
Es importante recordar que esto es lo que somos, y que en determinadas circunstancias ese dios salvaje anida en cada uno de nosotros.
Se entiende mejor el suicidio si es por no caer en el animal que llevamos milenios tratando de domesticar. Con éxito más que relativo.

[Junhao · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, this book is a good read. It has 35 accounts of people who lived through WWII and had to make terrible decisions, albeit by our standards. The different narratives helped me understand why these 35 individuals did the things they did; each of them has logical reasons. As Rees constantly pointed out, what would we really do if we are put in their situations?

While there are some chapters which left me aghast at their accounts (especially the final section on Mass Suicide), there are some in which Rees took on a too-dominant tone and their focus became *his* interpretation of the events rather than his interviewees'. These chapters were the weakest in the book but fortunately, they form a minority. If Rees could have let his interviewees speak for themselves, then this would have been a much more impactful book.

[Gonzaga Escauriaza · Rating 4 out of 5]

Libro muy interesante ya pretende entender como se pueden cometer tantas barbaridades en una guerra.
La respuesta de las personas que cometieron las atrocidades reaccionan de distinta manera, pero la norma era que consideraban al enemigo muy inferior y entonces no valoraban sus vidas de la misma manera. Por ejemplo, los japoneses a los chinos, los alemanes a los rusos, y los occidentales, ingleses y americanos, a los japoneses. Esto les daba una visión diferente de lo que era matar y torturar.
Tremendo!!!!!!

[Ross Fossard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Harrowing and deeply upsetting so hard to say it’s enjoyable but it’s incredibly powerful. Not often that I’m apprehensive to continue a book but this was one of those. Hard to pick out patterns between the stories - other than the persistent horror - but one takeaway is the link between ‘othering’ and barbaric treatment of humans. Interestingly, that same psychological distancing is a tool which helped people to survive horrific circumstances as well as one that people used to cope with/come to terms with their own brutal actions later once the situational morality had shifted.

[Rhys Thomson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thought provoking and riveting, very moving from start to finish with accounts on a wide variety of WW2 from different perspectives. Some accounts are truly horrific and harrowing. This book shows how your average person during wartime can turn into an utter monster then revert back to an everyday person given a change in the rhetoric.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

A somewhat sad but very thought provoking book. As well as a collection of fascinating testimonies that give some real and fresh historical insight into WW2, fundamental questions are asked of the human condition, admirably summed up in the postscript.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good. Dark in places. My only criticism would be that I could have read more regarding each interviewee...the individual interviews were rather short, but on the other hand many interviews were included in this collection. Laurence Rees is always a good read. I'm glad I read it.

[IKO · Rating 2 out of 5]

Een werk dat je niet onberoerd laat. Zeker wanneer de auteur stilstaat bij hoe deze personen ook naderhand nog hun acties overschouwen. Wel jammer dat de stukjes zo summier zijn. Soms had het toch iets uitgebreider gemogen.

[Frank · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone should read this book.
One of the best books I have ever read.
Brutally honest truth about war and ordinary people.
Should be on the school corriculum.

[Ayaat Abdullah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Found it in my uncle's books , thought was interesting but it's sad way too sad for me ta handle.

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

insight of the stories and experiences of those who were involved in the war.
some heartbreaking others horrid

[Ulrike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Erg interessant om eens vanuit de andere kant te horen. Het is erg vlot geschreven en verdeeld in kortere hoofdstukken.

[Alan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Poorly written, lack of detail & repetative despite diversity of topics. No insights into the psychology of the actions.

[Richard Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read

[Mimina · Rating 5 out of 5]

The very best book explaining war crimes and psychology of singers... But sadly, still hard to explain rushists actions in Ukraine during #russianwaragainstUkraine