END OF A BERLIN DIARY

One of the publishing events of the year- sorry we are so late reporting it! Exciting reading- unpalatable for those who would quickly forget the war and what it was fought for; but for those who want to see through the keen eyes, the alert mind, of one of our great newspaper and radio figures, a rewarding book, a searching analysis of Germany today, of the "beginning of the peace", of the failures — and the hopes. The first part of the diary records dramatic high spots of momentous months which saw the invasion of German soil, Roosevelt's death, the San Francisco conference and the birth of United Nations, the German surrender, the opening of the atomic age, the fall of Japan. At times Shirer- through hindsight- seems overly optimistic of the new world! The second half is more significant, as he returns to a London, grim over the failure of the peace makers to settle even matters of procedure, apprehensive of an America grown too powerful, experiencing the pangs of transition, economically. He returns to a Europe — facing a complete overhauling, to the wasteland of Berlin, to a Germany resentful rather than penitent. This section has a tremendous amount of source material- showing the German machine, the German mind, in action- grim reminder. The trials, the occupation, the deterioration of the American army, British blindness- and again and again the warning against forgetting too soon. Exciting- newsworthy- important.