Life After the Third Reich

The Struggle to Rise from the Nazi Ruins

By: Paul Roland

Narrated by: Richard Trinder

Length: 5 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

In 1945, Hitler committed suicide in his bunker as the Third Reich collapsed and the Red Army swamped Berlin. But what was it like to live in Germany after World War II?

This is the story of Germany after the Nazis, a time when two separate states rose from the ashes to face each other across the Iron Curtain. Meanwhile, the people struggled to come to terms with both the physical and psychological impact of defeat, as well as guilt for the monstrous acts that had been committed under Hitler's regime.

When Allied forces took over Germany, they were shocked at the scale of destruction. But how did they ensure that those guilty of crimes against humanity were punished, and where exactly did all the Nazis go after the war?

©2018 Arcturus Holdings Limited (P)2023 Arcturus Publishing & ID Audio

A monumental task

It’s always been curiosity how life returns to some sort of normalcy when wars are ended. WWII was so big with so many countries and peoples involved with so many outrageous atrocities how does the human mind suddenly switch gears to a new normal. It turns out it’s a slow and deadly process. Paul Roland does an excellent job of covering the details and balancing different points of view, and whose vocabulary is excellent. It’s a difficult story to listen to, sometimes brutally gruesome, but somehow it’s necessary to hear these truths because they are truths - and reality checks. There’s no glamor or romanticizing throughout, as there shouldn’t be. Germany grew out of the ashes to thrive through damn hard work. Now that’s it’s been 75 years memories of it all have faded and new generations become detached, and with its affluence it’s population has started to whine. We’ll see where it goes but this book serves as a reminder of human flaws.