I really don't understand why this book is not more famous.

I have just finished it and my heart is still racing. The subject matter is very bleak, but the book somehow managed not to be too depressing. It is well written and the characters really come too life.

The only thing that is not quite perfect is the pacing. There are too many news articles and radio announcements added to the text and some of the meditations on National Socialism are too long. This is only a minor fault though.

To say that I enjoyed it would not be right, but it kept intriguing me, gave me anxiety and taught me a lot. ( )

Berlin Finale – A Wonderful Rediscovery

I would like to congratulate Penguin Modern Classics republishing this long forgotten book, with a new translation. It is hard to believe that this was a bestseller in Germany when it was published in the aftermath of World War Two.

This is a wonderful rediscovery, bringing to life the chaos of the dying Third Reich, the madness of the Nazis and particularly of Hitler. The lies they were telling the people on the radio and via the newspapers, that many people still believed all the way to the end. This in spite of what their eyes and ears would tell them.

What drips through the pages is the fear of many of the residents, the fear of the SS turning up and forcing you to fight street by street. How the old, the wounded and the young were fighting, some forced, some happily defending their capital from the Bolshevik hoards.

In the midst of this chaos a disparate group of men gather in Oskar Klose’s pub to put their plan of resistance in to action. While knowing they are under suspicion by the Block commander and the local SS, they know every move will have to be a careful one. The group, a deserter, a trade unionist and a doctor, are there to continue the fight back, and open the eyes of fellow Berliners.

The pages drip with the wisdom of someone who had to live through a nightmare “The war that was supposed to bring you freedom made you its prisoner,” is so true. The difference between those that had fought since the Nazi take over in 33 still had to fight in 45. How those who sold their soul to the devil in 1933, were still in his debt in 1945, even when common sense said let the devil go. Even how the regime had stolen the minds of the children and raised them as warlike nomads willing to die for a hollow promise.

While I may feel some sympathy for those ‘innocents’ in their cellars as the war raged around them and above them. Part of me felt, well you reap what you sow, remembering my Polish family had to face between 1939 and 1950, courtesy of the Nazis and their enablers in Russia.

This is a gripping, read, it will grab you by the throat, as these words were written from experience. Knowing the fear and stupidity that went on around those who just wanted peace. To see the lies being told to the Germans even when the evidence was clearly different, at times you will think of Orwell and his doublespeak when you read some of the Nazi propaganda, used to illuminate what was being said.

As we approach the anniversary of the outbreak of the war, it is a reminder there is no glory war, just pain and death. War breads resentment on all sides, fear and loathing. This is a wonderful lesson from history dripping with wisdom, earnt the hard way. ( )

This is one of the most brilliant books written about World War II, at least concerning the fall of Berlin. The book sheds light on opponents of the Nazi regime. This is a profound philosophical book, fascinating with a sweeping plot that tries to trace the roots of evil and the reasons that led to the blindness of the Germans and Hitler's success.

The book doesn't deal with the Holocaust! For me, this is another view of the terrible war and its victims, a story told through the eyes of German opponents of the regime on the absurd human devour, the loss of innocence and the victims who paid the price of the terrible war.

I recommend reading the book and not let go (because sometimes it is filled with descriptions too detailed.) ( )

Un "instant book" sulla seconda guerra mondiale. Pubblicato a puntate dalla fine del 1946 ai primi mesi del '47 il libro ebbe un grande successo. Racconta una vicenda di gruppi di resistenza negli ultimi giorni della battaglia di Berlino, fino alla caduta definitiva della città. Considerato nel complesso non è un "grande" romanzo, perché alterna parti avvincenti e molto ben raccontate ad altre, penso soprattutto a certi eterni dialoghi fra i membri del gruppo, nei quali la tensione cala parecchio. In queste parti mi sembra che Rein sia anche spesso fastidiosamente dimostrativo e didascalico, anche se le acute osservazioni di Mario Rubino nella postfazione, che notano "un evidente rifarsi ai moduli stilistici della Lega degli scrittori proletari, il movimento vicino al Partito comunista che alla fine degli anni Venti aveva propugnato un metodo di scrittura coinvolgente benché talora non privo di una qualche enfasi retorica" offrono elementi interessanti per contestualizzare e comprendere questo tipo di narrazione.
Un elemento invece che ho trovato straordinariamente efficace è il progressivo stringersi degli orizzonti dell'azione mano a mano che il racconto procede. Nelle prime parti la Berlino del romanzo è l'intera città, che il protagonista percorre, pur con mezzi di fortuna e in condizioni accidentate a causa dei continui bombardamenti già in atto, da un capo all'altro. Poi però, con l'avvicinarsi dei russi il raggio di azione si stringe sempre più, la battaglia si avvicina, diventa impossibile uscire prima dal quartiere, poi dall'isolato, attraversare una strada, rifugiarsi in un cortile, fino a quando tutto si riduce allo spazio di una cantina, che ha una porta su una strada nella quale ancora combattono le SS e un'uscita di servizio su una via liberata dai russi.
Molto interessanti anche certi ritratti di tedeschi convinti nazisti, che dichiarano un tentativo serio da parte di Rein di darsi qualche spiegazione su come questo fosse potuto accadere. Era molto presto e sappiamo che sarebbero occorsi ai tedeschi molti decenni per iniziare a metabolizzare e a riflettere seriamente su questo loro passato. Le riflessioni di Rein ci sembrano oggi quanto meno ingenue e parziali; credo però che allo scrittore vada riconosciuta l'onestà intellettuale di aver comunque voluto affrontare questo problema di enorme portata. ( )