The Fall of Berlin 1945
by Antony Beevor

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Book Reviews of The Fall of Berlin 1945

Book Review: A sensationalist approach to history
Summary: 1 Stars

The author chose a sensationalist approach to writing on a highly controversial subject of the relationship between the Red Army and the German population during the last months of the Second World War.

Majority of the sources used by the author to support his allegations are not official documents but personal letters, memoirs, and interviews. Often vague individual descriptions of specific incidents are unfairly used to support Anthony Beevor's attempt to represent the Soviet Army in Germany as a horde of rapists, looters and murderers.

In some instances, as the case of alleged rape and mass-murder in Nemmersdorf, the author doesn't even bother to go into the details or to provide any relevant documentation.

Time and time again personal recollections of particular incidents that took place between the Soviet troops and the German civilians are used to paint the bigger picture, while official documents, though briefly mentioned, are not given much consideration and disregarded as either propaganda or massive cover-up.

A characteristic example is the quote from a letter written by a young Soviet woman soldier in which she gripes to a friend about the problems of her love life and writes: "How difficult it is here to find a really faithful man." Anthony Beevor uses this trivial, idealistic letter to substantiate his assertion that "The Red Army attitude towards women had become openly proprietorial..."

The author attempts to put together a giant and highly complex jigsaw puzzle with the most of the pieces missing. He tries to substitute his rich imagination in place of the many missing facts, but this approach just doesn't work for a history book.

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