Promise Me You'll Shoot Yourself: The Mass Suicide of Ordinary Germans in 1945
Named a Best History Book of 2019 by The Times (UK)

The astounding true story of how thousands of ordinary Germans, overcome by shame, guilt, and fear, killed themselves after the fall of the Third Reich and the end of World War II.

By the end of April 1945 in Germany, the Third Reich had fallen and invasion was underway. As the Red Army advanced, horrifying stories spread about the depravity of its soldiers. For many German people, there seemed to be nothing left but disgrace and despair. For tens of thousands of them, the only option was to choose death — for themselves and for their children.

"Promise Me You'll Shoot Yourself" recounts this little-known mass event. Using diaries, letters, and memoirs, historian Florian Huber traces the euphoria of many ordinary Germans as Hitler restored national pride; their indifference as the Führer's political enemies, Jews, and other minorities began to suffer; and the descent into despair as the war took its terrible toll, especially after the invasion of the Soviet Union. Above all, he investigates how suicide became a contagious epidemic as the country collapsed.

Drawing on eyewitness accounts and other primary sources, "Promise Me You'll Shoot Yourself" presents a riveting portrait of a nation in crisis, and sheds light on a dramatic yet largely unknown episode of postwar Germany.

1130039675
Promise Me You'll Shoot Yourself: The Mass Suicide of Ordinary Germans in 1945
Named a Best History Book of 2019 by The Times (UK)

The astounding true story of how thousands of ordinary Germans, overcome by shame, guilt, and fear, killed themselves after the fall of the Third Reich and the end of World War II.

By the end of April 1945 in Germany, the Third Reich had fallen and invasion was underway. As the Red Army advanced, horrifying stories spread about the depravity of its soldiers. For many German people, there seemed to be nothing left but disgrace and despair. For tens of thousands of them, the only option was to choose death — for themselves and for their children.

"Promise Me You'll Shoot Yourself" recounts this little-known mass event. Using diaries, letters, and memoirs, historian Florian Huber traces the euphoria of many ordinary Germans as Hitler restored national pride; their indifference as the Führer's political enemies, Jews, and other minorities began to suffer; and the descent into despair as the war took its terrible toll, especially after the invasion of the Soviet Union. Above all, he investigates how suicide became a contagious epidemic as the country collapsed.

Drawing on eyewitness accounts and other primary sources, "Promise Me You'll Shoot Yourself" presents a riveting portrait of a nation in crisis, and sheds light on a dramatic yet largely unknown episode of postwar Germany.

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Promise Me You'll Shoot Yourself: The Mass Suicide of Ordinary Germans in 1945

Promise Me You'll Shoot Yourself: The Mass Suicide of Ordinary Germans in 1945

Promise Me You'll Shoot Yourself: The Mass Suicide of Ordinary Germans in 1945

Promise Me You'll Shoot Yourself: The Mass Suicide of Ordinary Germans in 1945

Audio CD(Unabridged)

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Overview

Named a Best History Book of 2019 by The Times (UK)

The astounding true story of how thousands of ordinary Germans, overcome by shame, guilt, and fear, killed themselves after the fall of the Third Reich and the end of World War II.

By the end of April 1945 in Germany, the Third Reich had fallen and invasion was underway. As the Red Army advanced, horrifying stories spread about the depravity of its soldiers. For many German people, there seemed to be nothing left but disgrace and despair. For tens of thousands of them, the only option was to choose death — for themselves and for their children.

"Promise Me You'll Shoot Yourself" recounts this little-known mass event. Using diaries, letters, and memoirs, historian Florian Huber traces the euphoria of many ordinary Germans as Hitler restored national pride; their indifference as the Führer's political enemies, Jews, and other minorities began to suffer; and the descent into despair as the war took its terrible toll, especially after the invasion of the Soviet Union. Above all, he investigates how suicide became a contagious epidemic as the country collapsed.

Drawing on eyewitness accounts and other primary sources, "Promise Me You'll Shoot Yourself" presents a riveting portrait of a nation in crisis, and sheds light on a dramatic yet largely unknown episode of postwar Germany.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781549131578
Publisher: Little, Brown Spark
Publication date: 03/10/2020
Edition description: Unabridged
Product dimensions: 5.70(w) x 6.00(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Dr. Florian Huber was born in 1967 and wrote his PhD on British policy regarding the postwar occupation of Germany. He is the author of several works of history and has also produced award-winning documentaries on contemporary subjects, including the fall of the Berlin Wall, the mysterious end of the writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, and the 1936 Olympic Games.

Sam Peter Jackson is an actor, playwright, and filmmaker.

As an actor he most notably appeared in the BAFTA-winning Nuremberg and the BBC's D-Day. An accomplished voice-over artist, he has lent his voice to many high-profile documentaries, commercials, audio plays, and video games, as well as TV shows and films, including Wonder Woman, Bohemian Rhapsody, and The Crown. As a playwright, his play Public Property ran at Trafalgar Studios in London's West End and earned him a 2010 WhatsOnStage Award nomination for Best New Comedy.

Sam has written and directed six short films, which have won awards, sold for broadcast and distribution, as well as screened at BAFTA, the BFI, and festivals worldwide. His film Clothes & Blow was nominated for the 2018 Iris Prize-Best British Short and recently won Best Comedy at the 2019 Beeston Film Festival.

Sam is natively bilingual and works in both English and German.

Imogen Taylor was born in London in 1978 and has lived in Berlin since 2001. She is the translator of Sascha Arango, Dirk Kurbjuweit, and Melanie Raabe, among others. Her translation of Sasha Marianna Salzmann’s Beside Myself was short-listed for the 2021 Helen & Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize and the 2020 Schlegel-Tieck Prize.

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