Five Days That Shocked the World: Eyewitness Accounts from Europe at the End of World War II
Best has already written an account of WWI’s finale (The Greatest Day in History, 2008). For this WWII complement, he steers clear of scholarly treatments like Martin Gilbert’s The Day the War Ended (1995), shrewdly emphasizing a quality of proven popularity—fame. Characters who became celebrities in subsequent years but were ordinary civilians, soldiers, or refugees in the days Best’s narrative spans (April 28–May 2, 1945) permeate his structuring stories of the demises of Hitler and Mussolini. Sophia Loren, Audrey Hepburn, Günter Grass, Joseph Heller, Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI), and Henry Kissinger are names Best drops among those of notorious Germans escaping from Berlin or surrendering in Italy. Parallel to tracking Nazis trying to save their skins, Best recounts the liberation of infamous sites of their crimes, such as Belsen and Dachau, and culminates with Berlin’s fall to the Red Army as recalled by survivors of Hitler’s entourage. Accenting personal experiences of the famous-to-be, Best draws the audience interested in WWII’s apocalyptic climax. --Gilbert Taylor