Aftermath

Life in the Fallout of the Third Reich, 1945-1955

By: Harald Jähner, Shaun Whiteside - translator

Narrated by: Rob Shapiro

How does a nation recover from fascism and turn toward a free society once more? This internationally acclaimed revelatory history of the transformational decade that followed World War II illustrates how Germany raised itself out of the ashes of defeat and reckoned with the corruption of its soul and the horrors of the Holocaust.

The years 1945 to 1955 were a raw, wild decade that found many Germans politically, economically, and morally bankrupt. Victorious Allied forces occupied the four zones that make up present-day Germany. More than half the population was displaced; 10 million newly released forced laborers and several million prisoners of war returned to an uncertain existence. Cities lay in ruins—no mail, no trains, no traffic—with bodies yet to be found beneath the towering rubble.

Aftermath received wide acclaim and spent forty-eight weeks on the best-seller list in Germany when it was published there in 2019. It is the first history of Germany's national mentality in the immediate postwar years. Using major global political developments as a backdrop, Harald Jähner weaves a series of life stories into a nuanced panorama of a nation undergoing monumental change. Poised between two eras, this decade is portrayed by Jähner as a period that proved decisive for Germany's future—and one starkly different from how most of us imagine it today.

The human side of reconstruction

Great book about what the average German and unsettled person experienced post war. The book is not overly technical and describes board events. Overall good read.

learned a lot

I learned a lot from this book. It answered some of my questions, but I still have more.

Three and One-Half Stars

I bought this as a companion to Eight Days in May by Volker Ullrich, as the books were reviewed together by the Wall Street Journal. Ullrich's book was OK, but almost unlistenable due to the narration.

Fortunately, this book is well narrated. The substance is generally decent, but I would have to say that it meanders a bit, and certainly follows no definitive chronology. As such, it repeats itself at points. I think the book also at times wanders a little too much into the present day and perhaps indulges in a little overanalysis of the German psyche.

It's a good book with an interesting subject matter. But I wouldn't call it great or profound. A talented editor would have helped.

Long neglected narrative of post war Europe

The German people were obvious victims of WW II but a detailed account of their sufferings is rarely told in America. How a scientifically advanced, cultured and literate society could be swept up in the fanaticism of the Nazi’s deserves explanation. “Aftermath” fills that void brilliantly.

Insightful

A delightful peek into an often neglected time period. How did a nation guilty of such horror start anew? While this gets close, and maybe as close as we can get to the answer it left me wanting more. Excellent narration.