EIGHT DAYS IN MAY

The author of an excellent two-volume biography of Hitler chronicles the demise of the Nazi regime.

The week between Hitler’s suicide, on April 30, and Germany’s unconditional surrender, on May 7 and 8, 1945, is often referred to as Germany’s “zero hour.” As German historian Ullrich writes, that short period represented a “profound caesura” between the end of Nazi rule and the beginning of whatever would come next. “Amid the exhaustion and bitterness,” he writes, “and despite the general lack of self-blame concerning the past, many Germans felt reinvigorated, almost euphoric, and ready to start over.” The author delivers a richly textured day-by-day account of that week in Germany and in parts of German-occupied Europe. On the morning of May 1, fighting continued in Berlin. A day later, Germany’s Army Group C surrendered in Italy. Throughout the book, Ullrich strains to encompass not just the political and military currents, but quotidian details, as well—e.g., that starving Berlin residents carved up dead horses on the street. The author excels in those smaller, more tightly focused moments, where his storytelling abilities are on full display. He relied on diaries, memoirs, and letters, among other sources, to inform his account, which is deeply researched without feeling weighed down. However, Ullrich’s descriptions of various political or military meetings sometimes feel onerous, as he lists the name and rank of every person present. These details might be crucial to a wider historical reckoning, but nonscholars may get bogged down. Ullrich can be uneven in his coverage, too, as when he describes the end of the war in the Netherlands but not in, say, England or France. Though his latest book is by no means comprehensive, it’s still a vital and often vibrant account of eight days when people all across Europe were suspended in confusion and chaos.

Strongly written and deeply researched, Ullrich’s account only suffers from an occasional surfeit of detail.