RaveThe Telegraph (UK)A giant and comprehensive history ... Jimmy Campbell, a 15-year-old steward’s boy – and yes, children that age could serve in the Merchant Navy – recalled how, in his lifeboat, one sailor lost his mind and thought he was going \'to the pub to meet his mates\'. He \'stepped off\' into the sea before anyone could stop him ... Testimonies such as these are the strongest part of Sebag-Montefiore’s book. Meticulously drawn from a range of archival sources, they must have taken years to assemble. The book was originally due for publication some time ago, which makes the author’s sustained commitment and scholarship all the more impressive.
Florian Huber
PositiveThe TelegraphIf you’re German, it can be hard to discuss the war ... And that’s why Florian Huber’s book about mass suicides in the last year of the war is so intriguing. Because here is a German dealing directly with German trauma ... It’s horrific, but it’s not a new story ... Nonetheless, Huber tells this terrible history with compassion and care. He writes with an ease that makes the book flow smoothly despite the bleak nature of the subject matter, aided by a fine translation from the German by Imogen Taylor. You would have to be heartless not to be moved as you read this litany of rape and suicide ... In these terrible circumstances, it is perhaps surprising that more people were not driven to suicide. Why this didn’t happen is not an issue that Huber properly addresses. Instead, he believes the suicides were an \'epidemic\'. But is this the correct way to describe the scale of what occurred? One problem is that no one knows exactly how many Germans took their own lives. Huber, rather confusingly, quotes two different estimates for the toll in Demmin ... Ultimately, the book offers us confirmation of truths we already knew. War is hell and ordinary people suffer.
