Swansong 1945: A Collective Diary of the Last Days of the Third Reich. Dieser Artikel ist nicht verfügbar.Swansong 1945: A Collective Diary of the Last Days of the Third Reich

Swansong 1945These firsthand accounts, painstakingly collected and organized by renowned German author Walter Kempowski, provide the raw material of history and present a panoramic view of those tumultuous days. The more than 1,000 extracts include a British soldier writing to his parents to tell them there are no baths but plenty of eggs and chocolate, an American soldier describing “the tremendous burst of lilacs” as he approaches the Elbe, Mussolini wishing Hitler a happy birthday, Eva Braun bragging to a girlfriend about what a “crack shot” she’s become, and much more.Swansong 1945

Walter Kempowski (1929-2007) was one of Germany's most important postwar writers. In the 1980s he began gathering diaries, letters, and memoirs of World War II, which he edited into ten volumes published in German. Swansong 1945 is the first portion to appear in English.

Shaun Whiteside is a translator of French, Dutch, German, and Italian literature.