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Swansong 1945: A Collective Diary of the Last Days of the Third Reich

Walter Kempowski,

Shaun Whiteside (Translation)

4.17 · Rating details · 407 ratings · 48 reviews

Swansong 1945 chronicles the end of Nazi Germany through more than 1,000 extracts from letters, diaries, and autobiographical accounts, written by civilians and soldiers alike. Together, they present a panoramic view of four tumultuous days that fateful spring: Hitler’s birthday on April 20, American and Soviet troops meeting at the Elbe on April 25, Hitler’s suicide on Ap ...more

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Paperback, 512 pages

Published April 18th 2016 by W. W. Norton Company (first published January 1st 2007)

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Dec 01, 2018 Jill Hutchinson rated it it was amazing

Shelves: world-history, military-history, wwi-wwii

This is the 10th and last volume of a monumental work that captures the history of the Third Reich. It concentrates on the last days in 1945 of Hitler's Germany and is divided into four parts: Hitler's birthday, 20 April; American and Russian troops meeting at the Elbe, 25 April; Hitler's suicide, 30 April; and the German surrender,8 May. The story of these day is told through letters, diary entries, memos, meeting notes, and interviews of those where were there. And they range from the words of ...more

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Jan 29, 2021 Marc rated it it was ok

Shelves: world-war-2, holocaust

Obviously, this collection of voices from the last days of the Second World War in Europe is quite impressive. Kempowski really did his best to go very broad and to illuminate the last days of the war from very different angles. Political and military protagonists (Churchill, Nazi chiefs, Mussolini) as well as ordinary soldiers and people have their say, Germans, English, French, Russians, and so on. And they are all personal testimonials, which increases the emotional involvement.

Does this yie Obviously, this collection of voices from the last days of the Second World War in Europe is quite impressive. Kempowski really did his best to go very broad and to illuminate the last days of the war from very different angles. Political and military protagonists (Churchill, Nazi chiefs, Mussolini) as well as ordinary soldiers and people have their say, Germans, English, French, Russians, and so on. And they are all personal testimonials, which increases the emotional involvement.

Does this yield new insights? No, of course not, certainly not if you have already read a lot about this time period or have seen documentaries about it. It once again makes you realize that war has an enormous impact on a human life, and also that even in hopeless circumstances people persistently hold on to past convictions. In that sense, this book does not add much.

I also had a hard time with this publication for other reasons. And that is that the different voices are placed next to each other, without much explanation. In many cases this is indeed not necessary: the protagonists are well-known, and additions such as SS officer or French prisoner of war are often sufficient. But in some cases, the lack of additional information is problematic. I'll only give two. The Belgian fascist leader, and also SS officer, Leon Degrelle, speaks about his heroic flight to Spain, while it has been widely proven that Degrelle was a stubborn liar and his story was absolutely wrong. A German writer like Gerhart Hauptmann also passes by, without the reader knowing that his relationship with the Nazis was at least dubious. These are missed opportunities to interpret the testimonials.

But the problem with this collection is more fundamental: no fragment is precisely situated in time (I mean the time it is written and published), so crucial questions cannot be answered. Does the text really date from that period itself, or was it written much later, with all the risk of adaptation and distortion? Even so-called diary excerpts may have been rewritten on their release, according to a truth that was more appropriate at the time. And some of the testimonials very clearly were written 20-30 years later, which makes them totally problematic. In that sense, the value of this book is very relative. ...more

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Nov 01, 2020 Boudewijn rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: world-war-2, dutch, local-library, non-fiction, germany

When in the 1950s Walter Kempowski found a pile of photos and letters on the street, they turned out to be letters from a soldier to his bride. The soldier never returned from the front. Kempowski decided to collect fragments from letters, diaries and other accounts from World War II. This resulted in Das Echelot, a ten-part series which was a great success in Germany.

The first volume was published in 1993, the last in 2005. Swansong 1945: A Collective Diary of the Last Days of the Third Reich When in the 1950s Walter Kempowski found a pile of photos and letters on the street, they turned out to be letters from a soldier to his bride. The soldier never returned from the front. Kempowski decided to collect fragments from letters, diaries and other accounts from World War II. This resulted in Das Echelot, a ten-part series which was a great success in Germany.

The first volume was published in 1993, the last in 2005. Swansong 1945: A Collective Diary of the Last Days of the Third Reich is the last part of the serie and covers the final days of the Third Reich: April 2oth, April 25th, April 30th and the 8th and 9th of May 1945.

This book takes the reader on a travel across a devastated continent seen through the eyes of leaders, soldiers, farmers, city dwellers, prisoners of war and camp victims.

Through Kempowski, we learn through all of the fragments of varying persons how it must have been, those last days of a dying Reich. Russians have surrounded Berlin while German troops are still at the North Cape, in the Apennines and Crete. In the Reich, we learn of the horrors of fleeing people, flowing aimlessly back and forth, while a carpet of bombs falls around them. Meanwhile Hitler is preparing his suicide in the Führerbunker, which is related in personal accounts from his attendant Heinz Linge and Hermann Kandau, who sees the burned corpses of Hitler and Eva Braun.

Particularly harrowing are the accounts of the ‘normal’ people such as the accounts of a German housewife, who is instructed by her Volkssturm father how to kill herself, when the Russians will arrive. Or another housewife, who is victim of the rape by Russians soldiers, including her 8 year old daughter.

All set in the background of the gruesome thruth about the horrible crimes, which slowly come to light and for which the eye witnesses slowly need to come to terms with.

In the end, you realise what a miracle it has been how Europe has been able to recover from this enormous tragedy and learn to appreciate the world we live in today.

Read in Dutch ...more

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Aug 08, 2015 Bevan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This book is an apt companion to Ian Kershaw's "The End." In many ways, this book is a masterpiece of compilation and selection and translation: gathering this material from so many different sources, from ordinary individuals and important historical figures, the task must have been monumental.

Walter Kempowski has called his work, "rescuing the voices of the dead." It is a book that was difficult to put down: profoundly moving and very disturbing, and unforgettable. ...more

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Jan 10, 2015 Meagan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-harder, nonfiction, history

This was my "Published in 2015" selection for the Read Harder challenge.

I am endlessly fascinated by first-person historical accounts. I think you get insight and honesty in a letter from the Front that you'll never get from a history book written decades later, no matter how much context and hindsight it offers. Reading about food shortages is very different than reading a diary entry filled with excitement over finding a bit of meat in the rubble that wasn't too rancid. And that's why I was su This was my "Published in 2015" selection for the Read Harder challenge.

I am endlessly fascinated by first-person historical accounts. I think you get insight and honesty in a letter from the Front that you'll never get from a history book written decades later, no matter how much context and hindsight it offers. Reading about food shortages is very different than reading a diary entry filled with excitement over finding a bit of meat in the rubble that wasn't too rancid. And that's why I was super excited to hear that this book was being released in English.

The subtitle is A Collective Diary of the Last Days of the Third Reich. It chooses four important days at the end of the war in Europe (Hitler's Birthday, the fall of Berlin, Hitler's suicide day, and V.E. Day) and explores them through firsthand accounts from everyone they could find - anonymous German schoolboys, Russian soldiers, American journalists, concentration camp victims, Norwegian photographers, intellectuals in exile, up to the big names like Churchill, Stalin, Truman, and even Hitler. This technique gives a fuller understanding of what the chaos of those final days was like. You don't just see the Allies' grim determination to win and Hitler's crazed, manic overconfidence, but the exhaustion of German citizens trying to pick the ideal moment to fly the white flag. You get the exultation of Russian and American soldiers finally meeting as they fight their way to Berlin. Perspectives range from fanatical fascists planning the perfect suicide to people so beaten down that they can't bring themselves to believe, or care, that it will ever end. You get chatty letters home, pictures of marriages starting to crash and burn, diaries written in deep depression, and weighty philosophical musings on how this all was allowed to happen. It's absolutely fascinating. And seeing the same event from the same place through different eyes was just amazing. Whether it's two accounts of the V.E. Day celebrations at Trafalgar Square and Whitehall, or three accounts (from Russian Zhukov, German Keitel, and a Russian reporter) of the signing of the unconditional surrender, you can learn so much from the tiny details that differ, or the bits that are selected for inclusion, or left out entirely.

Highly recommended to anyone interested in World War II, especially the fall of the Reich. ...more

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Jan 29, 2021 Sense Of History rated it it was ok

Shelves: ww-2

Interesting and impressive take on the last days of the Second World War in Europe, but from a methodological point of view very questionable. See my review in my general account on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ...more

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May 08, 2015 Amanda rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2015

The tenth volume in what is considered a modern German classic, Swansong 1945 is the only volume to be published in English. This volume covers four dates during the last two months of the war: Hitler's birthday, the meeting of the Americans and Russians at the Elbe river, Hitler's suicide, and the German surrender. It is a stunning piece of work and an absolutely fascinating read of first-hand accounts of WWII. Kempowski has done the world a favor with his tireless compilation of these document ...more

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Apr 07, 2018 Jim Mullin rated it really liked it

This is a must read for any who are fascinated with WW2 history. The horrors of WW2 are fully exemplified through the interviews of participants including servicemen , citizens, politicians, refugees, and world leaders. This is compelling reading; one wonders why we as a nation persist in continued warring.

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Apr 27, 2019 Paul Janiszewski rated it it was amazing

Walter Kempowski - Swansong: There is more than the "official", or even "popular" viewpoint to understanding the past, and this is brought home in Kempowski's powerful collection of the writings, notes, statements, letters and diaries of those who lived the dramatic conclusion at the end of the world's most catastrophic war. No source is denied. No argument is pursued, other than an illumination of the varied visions of lived reality. It is but left to the reader to interpret and disentangle the Walter Kempowski - Swansong: There is more than the "official", or even "popular" viewpoint to understanding the past, and this is brought home in Kempowski's powerful collection of the writings, notes, statements, letters and diaries of those who lived the dramatic conclusion at the end of the world's most catastrophic war. No source is denied. No argument is pursued, other than an illumination of the varied visions of lived reality. It is but left to the reader to interpret and disentangle the maze of concurrent experiences. Inevitably one is left with a gnawing shadow of doubt. A doubt: for to see "all" is to see "nothing". An emptiness whose voice can only ever be filled with the prejudices of ones own experiences. For me, the tremor of a writers soul vented a deep sadness:
The following is an extract from the diary/letter of a German prisoner of war, Wolfgang Soergel, captive in a Scottish POW camp, and written on the 8th/9th May 1945. Victory in Europe Day. His thoughts were for his loved ones:
"Adolf Hitler is dead. There is still fighting around Chemnitz. In the scrappy newspaper reports I read about civil-war-type situations in the area where I'm looking for you. Will I see you again?"
"At the end of April Nazi concentration camps were liberated by British troops, and the British Intelligence Officers have been giving out the most terrible reports of them. Serious criminals were arrested, the picture of Commandant Koch, the 'Beast of Belsen', is pinned to the information board, a vulgar contemptible face. The reality is much worse than the whispers and mutterings of the past few months, the portals of the underworld are opening up. No one lies honourably defeated on the ground, we are seen as gangs of murderers whose masks have been torn off. Blood, suffocating torture, skeletons and mass deaths drag their traces behind the beaten troops of the Reich. No cry for mercy helps, where ears are deaf and eyes blind. All Germans stand accused, from the youngest to the oldest, now burdened with the fate of Sisyphus, seeking in vain torment to throw off the stone of guilt, again and again, always in vain, as there can be no forgetting". ...more

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Jan 01, 2021 Ann Otto rated it really liked it

These first-person accounts from letters, diaries, and autobiographical accounts chronicle four significant days in the last three weeks of WWII from allied and axis countries, but primarily from Germans in the military. The most interesting are the ones documented from the Fuhererbunker in Berlin describing Hitler's deteriorating mind at this time through his discussions with the military and staff personnel. There are also many excerpts from concentration camp victims during their last few wee ...more

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Oct 28, 2017 Lora Templeton rated it it was amazing

Shelves: historical-biography-and-essay

"The soldier Popov was a strange person. He had nothing but bees in his bonnet. Thus he kept a diary in a thick volume of soft newsprint that he had bound himself. It was his pride and joy. At every free moment he had written something in it with the stump of an indelible pencil. As he was forever putting the pencil in his mouth to moisten it, he was always walking around with blue lips. Hence his nickname -- Ivan-Pencil Brigade. Just outside of Berlin his diary disappeared without a trace. He t "The soldier Popov was a strange person. He had nothing but bees in his bonnet. Thus he kept a diary in a thick volume of soft newsprint that he had bound himself. It was his pride and joy. At every free moment he had written something in it with the stump of an indelible pencil. As he was forever putting the pencil in his mouth to moisten it, he was always walking around with blue lips. Hence his nickname -- Ivan-Pencil Brigade. Just outside of Berlin his diary disappeared without a trace. He tried very hard, offered a big reward for its return, even reported it to the battalion commander. He wept! 'It's all over. For two years I've written down every village, every metre of the roads we traveled, from Stalingrad to Berlin. Now my book will be used to roll cigarettes...'"
Leonid Voytenko, Red Army Soldier b. 1922 (near Berlin)

Weaving the transcripts of published and broadcast sources, German historian Walter Kemposwski delivers a multi-faceted perspective of lives in the final weeks of Hitler's Europe. From the last, grim, state observances of the Fuhrer's birthday on April 20 to the final Wehrmacht report on May 9, and from voices ranging from well-known players like Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaulle and even Stalin's daughter to the front lines of army nurses, widows, soldiers, prisoners, prisoners of war and more in between, this is Kempowski's tenth volume of history of the period. Sadly the only one translated into English.

This copy was originally on the nightstand in the 'read and donate' pile, but you can see it survives in the household as a staple on the history shelf. And two and half years on, I return to complete my review.

Using the words of others, Kempowski's authorial voice is there in the choices of material he makes and the juxtapositions in his editing. There's dark irony that Hitler's first entry is the thank you note he wrote to Mussolini for sending him a birthday greeting. (One wonders if it arrived in time for Mussolini to read it...it had a scant seven days and counting) Goebbels' radio addresses cheering on the country and reveling in an assured victory that's just beyond the next brave push are damned in the same-day testimonies of ordinary German soldiers making do with half-rations for the birthday celebration and noting the collapse of morale all around them. Soviet army reports track westward progress and civilian diaries and letters in their path record fear and grief. London women embrace the giddiness of victory with the mobs in the West End, but still heed the advice of their mums and aunts who "remembered scenes of rape and wild debauchery from World War I" and put on "heavy man-proof" trousers before heading out.

Throughout this volume, Kempowski gives the voices of ordinary people as custodians of History the same weight and respect as the Great and Powerful. Perhaps even more as he shows that these are the people who bore the full brunt of War.

I gained two main lessons from this work. The first was a powerful reminder of just how far a seemingly advanced and educated country will delude itself in thinking all is well when all is clearly not, after it elects a disruptive and theatrical leader backed by a compliant media and an accomplished propagandist. The second is that America does not loom as large in the historical scope of Berlin's liberation as I was brought up to believe. That Soviet Army meant business! It's true that American voices and testimonies are thin on the ground here, but then...we'll always have Paris.

Excellent work. Five stars. Here's hoping the rest will be translated soon.*

Original snippet review from January 2018

Longer review in draft format but this is a rare instance of me rating a book with five stars. My only regret is that this volume is one of ten from German historian Walter Kempowski but it is the only one translated into English so far.

*I could do a whole separate review of the role of translating in this work. Kempowski originally translated English, French and Russian voices (to name but a few) into German. Did his translator translate that back or return to the original sources? ...more

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Sep 15, 2018 Therese rated it it was amazing

A thoroughly riveting compilation of the thoughts and writings of Germans as the Reich was self-destructing. Ranging from Hitler, the progenitor of "The 1,000 Year Reich" that died in infancy, his enablers and sycophants, to non-official Germans and a host of other people, their thoughts and impressions are recorded for posterity. Walter Kempowski chose four pivotal dates from which to capture the mood of Germans:- April 20: Hitler's birthday, on which even his most ardent and deluded liutenants ...more

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Jul 05, 2015 Karen Cowgill rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Very good book! Moving and sometimes chilling telling of the final days of the Third Reich. This book is a compilation of diary excerpts from many different people. Germans, Soviets, French, Americans, British, and also people from the many Concentration camps (these are so heart breaking!!) I do not recall the man's name, but one of the camp victims reaction to the liberation of Dachau just made me cry a river!!! If you enjoy reading about things that actually happened, you will LOVE this book. ...more

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Jun 28, 2016 Becky Loader rated it really liked it

As a librarian, I am very interested in original document research. I especially like correspondence and diaries, so this book is right up my alley.

Comprised of excerpts from letters, diaries, speeches, and other original documents, the text reads like a collage of thoughts about three days at the end of 1945. I could not stop reading. From people in Hitler's inner circle, to prisoners of war, to concentration camp inmates, to soldiers, to world leaders....so many impressions from different poi ...more

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Nov 27, 2016 Chet Taranowski rated it really liked it

I read it compulsively. these are all diary entries from various public and private historical figures. the only issue I had was understanding the contexts of the various authors. kempowski will tell you where they are located but nothing else about who they were. this often makes understanding their comments difficult.

still I couldn't put the book down.

Hitler and many of the Germans were true believers till the last minutes. the invaders were no angels either. the stories of rape were routine. ...more

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May 05, 2018 Reinhardt rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

A selection of letters, diaries, and other notes. From top-level politicians and generals to lowly privates and civilians. All levels, all sides. A good way to understand the sentiment on both sides at the end of WWII.

Could have used occasional intros to provide context. Even one sentence would help to put things in a bit of context, but I think they didn't want to slant the direct nature of the entries.

I don't suggest for nighttime reading as some of the entries contain some disturbing realitie ...more

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Jul 24, 2018 Angad Bajwa rated it really liked it

“History isn’t what happened but what Historians tell us”
This is the summary of this book.

A unique outlook from the point of view of thousand’s of people in the dying days of the second world war. Their stories and writing gives it a more personal touch to the events that unfolded almost 70 years ago!

Notes from both Allies and Axis are in this book and shows the general psyche of the opposing forces as the war ended.

The heart of this book rests with the stories of the non combatants whose words ...more

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Dec 05, 2017 Jan Geerling rated it it was amazing

A must-read for anyone interested in personal stories about the end of the Second world war. Horrible, but with glimmers of hope and beauty.

I'll always remember this quote from a russian soldier writing to his loved one at home: "I love you and we are forever ours." Sentences like that in the middle of the worst war possible make me feel like there is always something worth going on for. Even in the most dire of situations. ...more

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May 23, 2017 Andy rated it really liked it

This is a great book, at first I did not like the narrative style but it grows to come at you in waves of horror and sorrow. It gives a first hand account of the last days of the Nazis, of the weak and the devastation that Hitler brought to his people and the massive body count in World War II.
I wish the others in the series were available in English.

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Jun 29, 2015 Steve Bookman rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Relentlessly predictable on some level yet full of the unexpected -- famous names popping up without warning. Knut Hamson unreservedly endorsing Hitler as the best of the best for European civilization - on 8 May 1945, for example.

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Sep 11, 2017 Jonathan S. Mark rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Gets right down to the real nitty gritty

I have read the April 20 section over and over. It provides a sense of the disillusionment in Germany as it became clear that the Nazis could not do what they had promised.

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Jun 15, 2015 David Benn added it · review of another edition

This book is a struggle. Very different concept and it can get tedious, but I finished and learned a great deal.

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Mar 27, 2018 Lawrence rated it liked it

Shelves: history

A book of quotes and letters from people in axis countries in the last days of WWII. A person needs a an above average knowledge of WWII history to get much from this book.

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May 16, 2018 Chuck rated it really liked it

Really enjoyed this - the structure of the vignettes was very well done and their content evocative.

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Jul 16, 2018 Jane Lester rated it liked it

Last days of Hitler - only read if you are interested and know about WW11 events.

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Jun 04, 2020 Enid rated it it was amazing

The everyday mixed with the unique .Eva Braun plans Hitler's birthday party, Hitler can't acknowledge that the war is all but lost,starving people scrabble for a bite to eat , others just talk as if nothing especial is occurring, or steadfastly refuse to speak of anything miserable. A fascinating glimpse into the multiple activities ,both banal and extreme, of many, many different people during the final days of World war 2. ...more

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Feb 20, 2021 Lysergius rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: history

A patchwork quilt of letters, diary entries, reminiscences, interviews etc from the period between Hitler's last birthday and VE day (09.05.1945). The entries are drawn from a wide range of sources and make absolutely fabulous reading. One of the things that impresses most is that not all of the entries are positive and optimistic. The war is over, agreed, but what does the future hold? I suppose if you were Volksdeutsch in one of the countries in the Soviet sphere, your future was grim. ...more

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Jan 18, 2020 Charles rated it it was amazing

Cannot praise this original work enough. Loved hearing what different people experienced on each of the 4 crucial days Kempowski chose, to imagine those people writing at the same time, in different parts of the world, connected by the terrible events.

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Jan 07, 2021 Marc Thomas added it · review of another edition

The only truly great book that I read in 2020. It captures the complexity, contingency, tragedy, delusion, and hope of the last days of the Third Reich with a masterful collage of extracts from diaries, letters, press stories, official reports, and other documents. Fully humane and very moving.

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Apr 23, 2018 Chuck Mull rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Sorry, one of the few books I couldn't finish. Trying to read the German names and places was too tiring. ...more

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About Walter Kempowski

Walter Kempowski

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Walter Kempowski was a German writer. He was known for his series of novels called German Chronicle ("Deutsche Chronik") and the monumental Echolot ("Sonar"), a collage of autobiographical reports, letters and other documents by contemporary witnesses of the Second World War. ...more

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Uns geht's ja noch gold (Die deutsche Chronik 5)

Aus großer Zeit (Die deutsche Chronik, Band 1)

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Kerine Wint is a software engineering graduate with more love for books than for computers. As an avid reader, writer, and fan of all things...

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“They told us to take anything we wanted, be we were so delighted to be free, nothing else seemed to be of any value.” — 2 likes

“Perhaps that was the day when the bombed synagogue opened again. Or the one when I went to a cobbler who was repairing shoes with the leather from stolen Torah rolls. "I didn't know it was sacred leather," he said. We collected all the pieces together, and he refused the money that I tried to give him for a few ladies' shoes with Hebrew letters written in ancient ink on the soles.” — 0 likes

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