Best New Reading of 2005: The Last Days of Hitler
I bought The Last Days of Hitler before I came to Belfast, so before 1993, and never actually got around to reading it. Last year I finally got around to reading it and I’m both glad I did and sad that I took so long to get around to it. The version I read is a 1956 revision so it was interesting to see what was known at the time, especially as many of the German prisoners who knew details of the time were just being released from the Soviet Union.
One of the more interesting aspects of the book is to see what was believed at the time that has gone on to be proved or disproved. One example of this is with regard to Bormann’s fate. Roper acknowledges that he doesn’t know for certain what happened but does provide the evidence that he has acquired regarding it. Nowadays we know Bormann did try to escape and died in Berlin during that escape, so it’s interesting to note that the evidence Roper found does tie in with what we now know.
Roper writes well and gives a great sense of the importance of knowing Hitlers fate. It’s sometimes hard to remember nowadays that for a good while people weren’t sure if Hitler has escaped, and that this was a very important issue at the end of the war.