After Hitler

The Last Ten Days of World War II in Europe

By: Michael Jones

Narrated by: Robert Ian Mackenzie

Length: 14 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

With the world at war, 10 days can feel like a lifetime....

On April 30, 1945, Adolf Hitler committed suicide in a bunker in Berlin. But victory over the Nazi regime was not celebrated in Western Europe until May 8 and in Russia a day later, on the ninth. Why did a peace agreement take so much time? How did this brutal, protracted conflict coalesce into its unlikely endgame?

After Hitler shines a light on 10 fascinating days after that infamous suicide that changed the course of the 20th century. Combining exhaustive research with masterfully paced storytelling, Michael Jones recounts the Fuhrer's frantic last stand; the devious maneuverings of his handpicked successor, Karl Donitz; the grudging respect Joseph Stalin had for Churchill and FDR as well as his distrust of Harry Truman; the bold negotiating by General Dwight D. Eisenhower that hastened Germany's surrender but drew the ire of the Kremlin; the journalist who almost scuttled the cease-fire; and the thousands of ordinary British, American, and Russian soldiers caught in the swells of history, from the Red Army's march on Berlin to the liberation of the Nazis' remaining concentration camps. Through it all, Jones traces the shifting loyalties between East and West that sowed the seeds of the Cold War and nearly unraveled the Grand Alliance. In this gripping, eloquent, and even-handed narrative, the spring of 1945 comes alive - a fascinating time when nothing was certain, and every second mattered....

©2015 Michael Jones (P)2015 Recorded Books

A great read! I couldn't put it down.

The book is exciting, clear, and addictive! A page-turner. And the narrator is absolutely terrific!

Hitler's Death And Events That Followed

After Hitler: The Last Ten Days of World War II in Europe by Michael Jones is a detailed examination of events in Europe from
Hitler's suicide through a very liquid VE DAY, and the beginnings of the Cold War. For many Americans, who then and now are taught the U.S. Military landed in Normandy and ended up in Berlin, this book will be an eye opener. One learns of the pockets of German Military fighting until the end and weeks later. Nazi brutality on prisoners and Concentration Camp victims carried out up until the last minute. There are revealing episodes of the collaborating Vaslov Russian Army who fought with the Nazis then against them. There is a great chapter of the 1945 Prague uprising. And, this Audible presentation covers allied tensions and post-surrender tensions between America, Britain, and the USSR. If the book has a fault it's that the author gives the Russians their due credit in defeating Nazi Germany, but he fails to mention the USSR's agreement with Japan, who the Russians did not declare war on until 2 weeks before VJ day, leaving America and Britain alone to fight the Japanese and prolonging the war in the Pacific. The narration by Robert Ian Mackenzie is flawless even if at times over sentimental in tone.

Great Stuff!

This book tells a tale that is rarely told in such a clear and concise manner: How WWIl really ended in Europe.

Great story not often told.

Very interesting story about how things ended in Europe. Well worth the read. History most are not aware of but should understand. Alot about how the cold war started.

Hitlers not gone

You can check his pelvis
To find out that he was really Elvis

Hit it?

Great Book Providing Many Unknown Facts

What did you love best about After Hitler?

It was a very easy listen and best of all had many personal stories that you rarely hear about at the end of WWII. For instance, I never had any idea who the last battle death in WWII was, the details of the Free Russian Independence Army and many other great tidbits that are in this book. In short, it is very little on Hitler and quite a bit on the intricate details of those last ten days.

What was one of the most memorable moments of After Hitler?

As I stated above, the little things that to me are so important. Explaining how the last American battle death occurred just showed how war, while necessary at times, is such a waste of human life.

What does Robert Ian Mackenzie bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Just very well written and the research was obviously very thorough.

Any additional comments?

I would have liked further answers such as the fate of many of the Russian soldiers but that is obviously not very easy to find out. In short, if you are interested in WWII than this will be a great read as it explores details of this particular point in time that at least I had no knowledge of going into the reading of this book.

stuff you never thought about. ... in detail

stuff you never thought about .... in detail. ...the 10 days following Hitler's death ...great

WW2 like you have never heard it

What made the experience of listening to After Hitler the most enjoyable?

The minutiae of some details that I never learned, such as Prague and Eisenhower dealing with the Soviets

What was one of the most memorable moments of After Hitler?

The Russian general interacting with Bernard Montgomery lol

Have you listened to any of Robert Ian Mackenzie’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I don't think I have, no.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Not extreme no, although I was saddened by the Prague situation.

Any additional comments?

If you are interested in the European theatre of WW2, I HIGHLY recommend this book.

A well researched and well read history

Jones's research and writing provides an excellent coda to the many histories of WWII in Europe. Ian MacKenzie is the perfect voice for this book. Excellent!

The slow end to World War II in Europe

This is one of a number of new books covering the Second World War without the filter of the cold war and hence provides a more even-handed view of the role of the Soviet Union. This book basically covers the period from Hitler’s death to the end of actual fighting and, in doing so, covers a period either not covered in other histories of the period or covered too lightly to yield much information.

The chapters are thematic with most chapters covering a single day of the war after Hitler’s suicide, one describing the events which caused the observance of VE day to differ in the West and in the Soviet Union (and now Russia), one covering how the end of the war was celebrated in Russia and one covering the discoveries of the concentration and the extermination Camps. Many of the chapters contain background information explaining why the events being discussed were important and there is a great deal of background information for those who may not be thoroughly familiar with World War II as well as the period leading up to the start of fighting.

What makes this book particularly interesting is the effort the author put into trying to explain why the Soviet government and the Red Army took some of the actions that it did and why actions that the West saw as examples of the Soviet Union just being “difficult” were critically important to the Soviet Union. Mr Jones goes out of his way to make many of those actions seem quite reasonable from the Soviet perspective and often blames the Western resistance to those actions on US and British ignorance of why these items were of importance to The Soviet Union. While he often makes his case, he also appears to completely miss the point at times. For example he describes Stalin saying that the US had developed the Atomic Bomb in secret and had not told Russia, its ally, of the effort, thereby giving Russia cause to distrust the honesty of its allies in the West. This comment might carry more weight if it were not for the fact that the Soviet Union knew all along of the effort through its spies in the Atomic Bomb program as well as the secrecy that the Red Army surrounded all of its actions with. The Red Army would never tell either the US or the British about its planned actions, its time tables or even its strength, the Soviet Government would not allow the US or the British to land bombers in the Soviet Union, even for humanitarian reasons and kept those airmen who were forced down in the Soviet Union as internees and refused to return them to the West during the war. It seems odd to hear Joseph Stalin complain about secretiveness of the US and the British when they themselves were even more secretive.

Still this book covers much that I had not read before. The efforts of the Doenitz Government to split the Allied Powers apart by offering to surrender to the West, but not to the Soviet Union, its continual efforts to prolong the war and split hairs in its agreements, the actions of some of the German units who refused to surrender when the German government had finally agreed to do so, the actions of the two Russian divisions fighting along side the Germans and against the Red Army (until the very end) and the revolt of the Prague partisans in trying to seize the city from the Germans were mostly all new to me. As a bit of a warning to potential readers the book covers the liberation of the concentration and extermination Camps in quite some detail and some of those descriptions are very difficult to listen to. I had to skip forward in some parts because the descriptions of what took place were too painful for me to hear.

The narration by Robert Mackenzie is quite good, but some of the pronunciations of Russian names are different from those Americans are used to. For example Americans are used to hearing Joseph Stalin pronounced as STA-lin while Mr Mackenzie pronounces it as sta-LEEN and other Russian names are similarly pronounced with an emphasis on different syllables than Americans are used to. Other than that the narration is very well done.

I found this book to be very thorough and it added quite a bit to my knowledge of how World War II actually ended and I recommend it to anyone who has an interest in learning how the war in Europe finally concluded.