{"product_id":"9781101565506","title":"The End: The Defiance and Destruction of Hitler's Germany, 1944-1945","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom the preeminent Hitler biographer, a fascinating and original  exploration of how the Third Reich was willing and able to fight to the  bitter end of World War II.  \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003eCountless books have been written about why Nazi Germany lost World  War II, yet remarkably little attention has been paid to the equally  vital question of how and why it was able to hold out as long as it  did. The Third Reich did not surrender until Germany had been left in  ruins and almost completely occupied. Even in the near-apocalyptic  final months, when the war was plainly lost, the Nazis refused to sue  for peace. Historically, this is extremely rare.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDrawing on original testimony from ordinary Germans and arch-Nazis  alike, award-winning historian Ian Kershaw explores this fascinating  question in a gripping and focused narrative that begins with the  failed bomb plot in July 1944 and ends with the German capitulation in  May 1945. Hitler, desperate to avoid a repeat of the \"disgraceful\"  German surrender in 1918, was of course critical to the Third Reich's  fanatical determination, but his power was sustained only because those  below him were unable, or unwilling, to challenge it. Even as the  military situation grew increasingly hopeless, Wehrmacht generals  fought on, their orders largely obeyed, and the regime continued its  ruthless persecution of Jews, prisoners, and foreign workers. Beneath  the hail of allied bombing, German society maintained some semblance of  normalcy in the very last months of the war. The Berlin Philharmonic  even performed on April 12, 1945, less than three weeks before Hitler's  suicide.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs Kershaw shows, the structure of Hitler's \"charismatic rule\"  created a powerful negative bond between him and the Nazi leadership- they had no future without him, and so their fates were inextricably  tied. Terror also helped the Third Reich maintain its grip on power as  the regime began to wage war not only on its ideologically defined  enemies but also on the German people themselves. Yet even as each  month brought fresh horrors for civilians, popular support for the  regime remained linked to a patriotic support of Germany and a terrible  fear of the enemy closing in.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBased on prodigious new research, Kershaw's \u003ci\u003eThe End\u003c\/i\u003e is a  harrowing yet enthralling portrait of the Third Reich in its last  desperate gasps.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Penguin Publishing Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47106501869808,"sku":"9781101565506","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781101565506_p0.jpg?v=1763688408","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781101565506","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}