00-FM pgd 3/27/10 4:18 PM Page i h e l l s t o r m 00-FM pgd 3/27/10 4:18 PM Page ii 00-FM pgd 3/27/10 4:18 PM Page iii h e l l s t o r m The Death of Nazi Germany 1944 1947 – by homas oodrich T G ABERDEEN BOOKS Sheridan,Colorado 2010 00-FM pgd 3/27/10 4:18 PM Page iv Hellstorm:The Death ofNazi Germany,1944‒1947 By Thomas Goodrich First printing,2010 Aberdeen Books 3890 South Federal Boulevard Sheridan,Colorado 80110 303-795-1890 [email protected] ·www.aberdeenbookstore.com isbn 97184-904-9777513086592-2-1 © 2010 Aberdeen Books All rights reserved. Printed in the United States ofAmerica. No part ofthis book may be reproduced without the written permission from the publisher except in the case ofbriefquotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Design by Ariane C.Smith Capital A Publications,llc Spokane,Washington 00-FM pgd 3/27/10 4:18 PM Page v To the voiceless victims of the world’s worst war 00-FM pgd 3/27/10 4:18 PM Page vi 00-FM pgd 3/27/10 4:18 PM Page vii able of ontents T C Prologue 1 1 Hell from Above 13 2 The Dead and the Dead to Be 43 3 Between Fire and Ice 69 4 Crescendo of Destruction 95 5 The Devil’s Laughter 129 6 The Last Bullet 161 7 A Sea of Blood 185 8 Unspeakable 225 9 A War without End 277 00-FM pgd 3/27/10 4:18 PM Page viii 10 The Halls of Hell 299 11 Crime of the Age 325 Epilogue:OfVictors and Victims 347 Bibliography 361 Index 367 00-FM pgd 3/27/10 4:18 PM Page ix llustrations I Ilya Ehrenburg 261 Hamburg 261 After the Fire Storm 262 Arthur Harris 262 The “Good War” 263 The Wilhelm Gustloff 264 Yalta:Winston Churchill,Franklin Roosevelt and Josef Stalin 265 Fire Bombs Over Germany 265 Dresden 266 Kurt Vonnegut 266 00-FM pgd 3/27/10 4:18 PM Page x Berlin:The Battle Below 267 Adolf Hitler:The Final Review 267 The Fall of Berlin 268 Total War 269 On the Road to Siberia 270 The Dachau Massacre 270 American Death Camp 271 Germany in Ruins 271 Andrey Vlasov 272 Henry Morgenthau 272 Leni Riefenstahl 273 Expulsion:Millions on the Move 273 The Spoils of War 274