The Day the War Ended: May 8, 1945-Victory in Europe

Rating:
Summary: Graceful & tragic human stories in solid historical context.
Review: Martin Gilbet collects personal histories like other people collect stamps, but instead of just sticking them side by side in an album, he inserts them into their proper historical context. The result is a fascinating and readable account, not only of the final days of WWII, but of the events that preceeded and followed the official Victory in Europe Day, May 5, 1945. I highly recommend this book to both casual readers and scholars, and I anticipate reading it again.

Rating:
Summary: Graceful & tragic human stories in solid historical context.
Review: Martin Gilbet collects personal histories like other people collect stamps, but instead of just sticking them side by side in an album, he inserts them into their proper historical context. The result is a fascinating and readable account, not only of the final days of WWII, but of the events that preceeded and followed the official Victory in Europe Day, May 5, 1945. I highly recommend this book to both casual readers and scholars, and I anticipate reading it again.

Rating:
Summary: A Chronicle of VE Day
Review: On the surface, Gilbert is a "Dragnet" man - "Just the facts." A Gilbert history, however, has passionate undercurrents - there are few writers as dedicated to their causes and themes as Martin Gilbert. In this skilfully arranged series of vignettes, "The Day the War Ended," he conveys the relief and frustrations of VE day: the finished and the unfinished business of 1945. For me the most poignant scene is the adolescent German who, upon hearing of the surrender, leaves his civil defense unit, goes home and takes off his uniform. His name: Helmut Kohl.

Rating:
Summary: A Chronicle of VE Day
Review: On the surface, Gilbert is a "Dragnet" man - "Just the facts." A Gilbert history, however, has passionate undercurrents - there are few writers as dedicated to their causes and themes as Martin Gilbert. In this skilfully arranged series of vignettes, "The Day the War Ended," he conveys the relief and frustrations of VE day: the finished and the unfinished business of 1945. For me the most poignant scene is the adolescent German who, upon hearing of the surrender, leaves his civil defense unit, goes home and takes off his uniform. His name: Helmut Kohl.

Rating:
Summary: Wide scope of detail that covers a lot of ground
Review: Sir Martin Gilbert is known for his many books, especially those on World Wars One and Two. This is no exception, but takes a different twist than most by chronicling where people were, and what they were doing throughout the European theater when World War II ended for them.

Whereas most people think of the war's end as the day the Germans and their allies surrendered, Gilbert correctly notes that for some, it was earlier. For example, there are personal accounts of people who were liberated from concentration camps, whose war ended with the departure of their guards, and the arrival of their rescuers. People who were in occupied France, the crowds milling around London, New York and elsewhere who knew that the war was ending, but didn't get the "official" announcement due to Soviet grandstanding similarly did not need to wait for the formal surrender ceremony.

The contributors that made this book possible came from many affected nations- among them Germany, France, Britain, the U.S., and other countries that contacted Gilbert or whose memoirs allowed him to pinpoint where they were when their war was over.

The analysis of the relevant events book could be a little stronger, and comes off as stiff in most cases. But this is not a book that Gilbert wrote, per se. This is one that is best told by the survivors, veterans, and people whose individual stories make the book work. It is simply the only book of its kind I have found that looks at an event like the end of the war and treats it as more than just an act at a table by military representatives and government officials. It is, therefore, a useful and insightful accounting of how different people in differnt places experienced the same thing in very different manners.