Savage Continent

Europe in the Aftermath of World War II

By: Keith Lowe

Narrated by: John Lee

Length: 15 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

The Second World War might have officially ended in May 1945, but in reality it rumbled on for another 10 years....

The end of the Second World War in Europe is one of the 20th century's most iconic moments. It is fondly remembered as a time when cheering crowds filled the streets, danced, drank and made love until the small hours. These images of victory and celebration are so strong in our minds that the period of anarchy and civil war that followed has been forgotten.

Across Europe, landscapes had been ravaged, entire cities razed and more than thirty million people had been killed in the war. The institutions that we now take for granted-such as the police, the media, transport, local and national government-were either entirely absent or hopelessly compromised. Crime rates were soaring, economies collapsing, and the European population was hovering on the brink of starvation.

In Savage Continent, Keith Lowe describes a continent still racked by violence, where large sections of the population had yet to accept that the war was over. Individuals, communities and sometimes whole nations sought vengeance for the wrongs that had been done to them during the war. Germans and collaborators everywhere were rounded up, tormented and summarily executed. Concentration camps were reopened and filled with new victims who were tortured and starved. Violent anti-Semitism was reborn, sparking murders and new pogroms across Europe. Massacres were an integral part of the chaos and in some places-particularly Greece, Yugoslavia and Poland, as well as parts of Italy and France - they led to brutal civil wars. In some of the greatest acts of ethnic cleansing the world has ever seen, tens of millions were expelled from their ancestral homelands, often with the implicit blessing of the Allied authorities.

Savage Continent is the story of post WWII Europe, in all its ugly detail, from the end of the war right up until the establishment of an uneasy stability across Europe toward the end of the 1940s. Based principally on primary sources from a dozen countries, Savage Continent is a frightening and thrilling chronicle of a world gone mad, the standard history of post WWII Europe for years to come.

©2012 Keith Lowe (P)2012 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Authoritative but never dry, stripping away soothing myths of national unity and victimhood, this is a painful but necessary historical task superbly done." ( Kirkus)

war within a war after a war

Any additional comments?

I have read many books about WWII and this book was very direct in reminding us how personal every "global conflict" is. no war is only between countries or ideologies, it is between people, and affects people. This book was very moving for me as my God-Mother is from Dresden and has many times made comments that this helps bring perspective to. Thank you K Lowe.

“Savage” is an understatement!

When WW2 ended, it wasn’t as if a switch was flipped and everyone in Europe went back to their old lives; the place was decimated!! We’ve all seen images of bombed-out cities; the hollow, barely recognizable shells of buildings stretching for miles and miles… multiply that by tens or hundreds of cities all across Europe – where are all the people! What did all the displaced peoples do? Where did they go? How did they rebuild?

This concept always intrigued me and I was happy to come across a book that explored it all in detail.

The first part of the book grabbed me right away, but by the time I was roughly half way through it was getting difficult to keep going. All the death and slaughter and annihilation and destruction, the worst of human nature in the need to seek revenge and retribution… it’s such a downer!!

I was not expecting rainbows and cheerful stories of communities who lived happily ever after, but after a while it was like my brain did not want to take in any more negativity or brutality and I started tuning out. I also found that the intricacies of all the sub-wars going on in Europe until well into the late 40s hard to follow – after a while I got confused and lost track of the details.

What I should have done is put the book aside at the mid-point, go read something else (something “fluffy”) and then come back to it.

I recommend this book if you are interested in the subject matter, but perhaps it’s better to read it in instalments!

eye opening

I was expecting history of Soviet domination of Eastern Europe, particularly right after the war. Rather I got a full depth history of West & East political fortunes and misfortunes.

I learned alot..well worth it.

Harrowing but illuminating story of post WWII Europe

A must read to understand past and current geopolitical realities in Europe and globally. Not for the faint of heart

I don't cry but this book made me

Eastern Poland was my home until collage years, as kids we find unused ammunition quite often, once whole 9 yards of anti aircraft bullets. What took place there during my parents generation is so horrible, so unimaginable and yet somehow real. I see this book as mirror reflection of humanity, it was not meteor or volcano but people like us living couple hundred kilometers away first east then west who came and destroy pretty much everybody and everything. Can we even comprehend today what really took place then? One quick story, after socialism collapsed in '89 on of our neighbor was finally recognized for being in resistance after war, he was one one of those partisans, he get some medals and government pension. He absolutely deserve it, it was also a common knowledge he shot and kill a 14 years old boy who came with polish army and stationed with them helping around horses, reason? he was Russian, lost every member of his family and just followed whoever did not deny him piece of bread.

One shortcoming of this book is just that, too short. Author scratch surface but he did not take sides or have hidden agenda. I honestly cry couple times and choke in almost every paragraph. I only hope future politician reads it now and learns about human nature a thing or two and as result we all will have peaceful future. Personal Thank you Mr Keith Lowe.

Another Top Shelf Reference

I have never adequately studied the immediate ww2 era and this helped greatly. To the same purpose 'Iron Curtain' is another work I recommend.

Must read for understanding 20th century Europe

Very sobering but an important account of how man's inhumanity to man continued after WWII ended.

War is not over when it's over....

if there's something to be learned from this book is that war is definitely not the way to end a dispute, and that the winners can be losers too.

Excellent account of aftermath of WWII in Europe

As in his other narrative work, John Lee does an adequate job here. The only gripe I have is that every time he tries to read in the dialect of the character, he always sounds Polish. His German is Polish, his Italian is Polish, even his Frenchman is Polish. (My advice: Just stop it John. You already have a weird delivery; don’t compound it.) Yet his American dialect is good. He does a good Eisenhower.

As to the book, it is a superb account of the last years and immediate aftermath of WWII in Europe. Lowe disabuses the traditional view that WWII ended in Europe when Germany surrendered in May 1945. He maintains that this only ended one aspect of the fighting. Fierce conflicts raged over the continent over race, nationality, and politics for month and years.

Don't feel good about the way WW2 ended.

An extensive look at how messy & unresolved the war ended. It explains today well.