Swansong 1945 by Walter Kempowski

It is fitting with the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II occurring this year, the stirring work of Walter Kempowski, Swansong 1945, be translated into English and distributed for all to read. It is a powerful book composed of the thoughts, ideas and writings of people from around the world during the finals days of Hitler's Third Reich.
The vast majority of the book is made up of writings from people who found themselves actually in Germany in the late days of April and early May of 1945. The country was awash in the flotsam and jetsam of the chaos it had created when it took on what became the Second World War. Kempowski provides accounts from Americans, British, French, Russians, and primarily Germans as they describe the horror and destruction that are uncovered in the final days of the war in Europe.
There are accounts from soldiers, politicians, writers, prisoners of war and concentration camp survivors all woven together to give you a feel of the uncertainty the world was about to face with the close of the war.
The strength of this book is in its first-person accounts and its varying viewpoints from the participants. Many of us had read about the battles that comprised the end of the war, but we are not as familiar when the specific people themselves - Swansong 1945 takes us down that path.