Covering Berlin's fall, Berlin takes up where Beevor's earlier Stalingrad (bwl 4) left off. His technique is to piece together the story through many first hand accounts. There is plenty here to show the pitiless cruelty of total war (especially the full and previously under-documented extent of rape committed by the Russian army) but ultimately it is the rare but incredible examples of bravery and decency under extreme conditions that I took away from this remarkable book.
(Mark Baker - bwl 16 December 2002 ) |
