Berlin at War

466 Pages·2010·4.948 MB·English

by  Roger Moorhouse

history Moorhouse
prAise for
B E R L I N $29.95 us / $35.50 CAN
Christian
A T W A R B
B erlin was the city at the very center of
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the Second World War. It was the launching
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pad for Hitler’s empire, the embodiment of
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dt his vision of a “world metropolis,” and the place where
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h arrogance, oppression, and corruption, which ended in such terrible destruction and civilian suffering.”
h Sc W the Nazi Reich would ultimately fall.
udit —ANtoNy Beevor, author of Stalingrad and The Fall of Berlin 1945 L r o g e r M o o r h o u s e From hosting the most lavish Nazi ceremonies,
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to its incessant aerial bombardment and final siege by
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is a historian “A well-researched, fluently-written and utterly absorbing account of what life (and, so very often) death I B E R L I N the Soviets, Berlin was the stage upon which the rise
and author specializing in modern German history. He R and fall of the Third Reich was most visibly played
was like for ordinary Germans in the capital of Hitler’s Reich during the Second World War. The Berliners’
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is the author of Killing Hitler: The Plots, the Assassins and the out. Though it was the political center of the Nazi
capacity for suffering, for sacrifice, for self-delusion, but also astonishingly for love—and even on occasion
Dictator Who Cheated Death, and is a regular contributor Reich, Berlin maintained its strong socialist and non-
humour—is superbly evoked by Moorhouse’s cornucopia of new information.” —ANdrew roBerts,
to BBC History Magazine. He lives in Buckinghamshire, conformist traditions through the war. Alongside the
author of Masters and Commanders: How Four Titans Won the War in the West, 1941–1945
England. privations of totalitarian racism, some defiant Berliners
A T W A R
resisted the Nazis’ intolerance and provided succour for
6.25 x 9.5
“A superb addition to the social history of Nazi Germany. . . . Using interviews, letters, journals, memoirs the city’s remaining Jews. In fact, more Jews survived
Spine: 1-7/16”
www.rogermoorhouse.com and archives, the author provides an absorbing account of daily life, as Berliners were less concerned about the Holocaust underground in Berlin than anywhere Bulk: 1-1/8”
the Reich’s glories than the fate of their men at the front and preoccupied by shortages of fuel, food, and else in Hitler’s Reich.
Hardcover
clothes. . . . An august contribution to the city-during-a-war genre, worthy to sit alongside such classics as In Berlin at War, historian Roger Moorhouse uses Basic Books
Margaret Leech’s Reveille in Washington (1941) and Ernest Furguson’s Ashes of Glory (1996).” diaries, memoirs, and interviews to provide a searing
—KirKus (starred review) first-hand account of life, death, and chaos in the Nazi 4/color process
+ Spot gloss
capital. Combining comprehensive research with a on title
gripping narrative, Berlin at War is the incredible story of
Finish:
Jacket design by Nicole Caputo the city—and people—that saw the whole of the Second matte poly
$29.95 US / $35.50 CAN
Jacket image © ullstein bild / The Granger Collection, New York ISBN 978-0-465-00533-8 World War.
52995
09/10
A Member of the Perseus Books Group 9 780465 005338
www.basicbooks.com
BERLIN
AT WAR
by the same author
Microcosm:
Portrait of a Central European City
(with Norman Davies)
Killing Hitler:
The Third Reich and the
Plots against the Führer
BERLIN
AT WAR
roger moorhouse
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
New York
Copyright © 2010 by Roger Moorhouse
Published in the United States by Basic Books,
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
Published in Great Britain by The Bodley Head, Random House
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever
without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied
n critical articles and reviews. For information, address Basic Books,
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Books published by Basic Books are available at special discounts
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Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group, 2300 Chestnut Street,
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or e-mail [email protected].
A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
LCCN: 2010907169
ISBN: 978-0-465-00533-8
British ISBN: 9780224080712
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For
Amelia
in the hope that she
will never have to experience
times such as these
and for her great-grandparents
Paul & Hildegard Schmidt
who did

Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgements xi
Introduction xiii
Prologue: ‘Führerweather’ 1
1 Faith in the Führer 13
2 A Deadly Necessity 34
3 A Guarded Optimism 50
4 Marching on their Stomachs 74
5 Brutality Made Stone 100
6 Unwelcome Strangers 117
7 A Taste of Things to Come 136
8 Into Oblivion 160
9 An Evil Cradling 184
10 The People’s Friend 203
11 The Watchers and the Watched 220
12 The Persistent Shadow 247
13 Enemies of the State 267
14 Against All Odds 285
15 Reaping the Whirlwind 307
16 To Unreason and Beyond 336
17 Ghost Town 357
Epilogue: Hope 382
Notes 389
Select Bibliography 418
Index 423

List of Illustrations
Insert 1
Hitler’s birthday parade, Berlin, 20 April 1939 (Bundesarchiv, Bild
102-00089).
Announcement of the invasion of Poland to the German Reichstag,
1 September 1939 (Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-E10402).
Whitewashing the kerb, 1939 (akg-images/ullstein bild).
Luftschutzraum sign on a Berlin street (Bundesarchiv Bild 183-E10650,
Fotograf: Wahner).
Camouflage nets near the Brandenburg Gate (akg-images).
A Berlin street scene: Unter den Linden, 1940 (akg-images).
BdM girls preparing to welcome the Führer, July 1940
(akg-images/ullstein bild).
Victory parade, July 1940 (Bundesarchiv Bild 183-L07586, Fotograf:
Eisenhardt).
Speer’s plans for ‘Germania’ (akg-images/ullstein bild).
Ploughing up the Gendarmenmarkt (akg-images).
Listening to the radio on a Berlin street (akg-images/ullstein bild).
Evacuation of children from Anhalter Station (akg-images/ullstein bild).
Woman and child with the Judenstern (Bundesarchiv Bild 183-B04491).
Man with the Judenstern (Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R99993).
Levetzowstrasse Synagogue, c.1930 (Bildarchiv Pisarek/akg-images).
Female forced labourers at Siemens, Berlin 1943 (Bundesarchiv
Bild 183-S68014).
Fourteen-year-old Ukrainian forced labourer, Berlin 1945
(Bundesarchiv Bild 183-H26334, Fotograf: Pips Plenik).
A public air-raid shelter, 1942 (akg-images/ullstein bild).
Berliners in a private cellar (Bundesarchiv Bild 183-L09148, Fotograf:
Ernst Schwahn).