The Bitter Road to Freedom
A New History of the Liberation of Europe
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $20.20
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Mel Foster
About this listen
In this brilliant new book, historian William I. Hitchcock surveys the European continent from D-Day to the final battles of the war and the first few months of the peace. Based on exhaustive research in five nations and dozens of archives, Hitchcock's groundbreaking account shows that the liberation of Europe was both a military triumph and a human tragedy of epic proportions.
Hitchcock gives voice to those who were on the receiving end of liberation, moving them from the edge of the story to the center. From France to Poland to Germany, from concentration camp internees to refugees, farmers to shopkeepers, husbands and wives to children, the experience of liberation was often difficult and dangerous. Their gratitude was mixed with guilt or resentment. Their lives were difficult to reassemble.
This strikingly original, multinational history of liberation brings to light the interactions of soldiers and civilians, the experiences of noncombatants, and the trauma of displacement and loss amid unprecedented destruction. This book recounts a surprising story, often jarring and uncomfortable, and one that has never been told with such richness and depth.
Today, with American soldiers once again waging wars of liberation in faraway lands, this book serves as a timely and sharp reminder of the terrible human toll exacted by even the most righteous of wars.
©2008 William I. Hitchcock (P)2008 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
-
A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies
- By: Bartolome de las Casas
- Narrated by: Jason McCoy
- Length: 3 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies is the story of the Spanish Dominican priest Bartolome de las Casas, who came to the Americas in the 16th century. Immediately he was struck by the inhumane ways in which the native peoples were treated by the European explorers and conquerors, Las Casas went on to be a leading opponent of slavery, torture, and genocide of the Native Americans by the Spanish colonists.
-
-
History written from who witnessed
- By Leonardo on 07-09-20
-
When France Fell
- The Vichy Crisis and the Fate of the Anglo-American Alliance
- By: Michael S. Neiberg
- Narrated by: David de Vries
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
According to US Secretary of War Henry Stimson, the "most shocking single event" of World War II was not the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, but rather the fall of France in spring 1940. Michael Neiberg offers a dramatic history of the American response - a policy marked by panic and moral ineptitude, which placed the United States in league with fascism and nearly ruined the alliance with Britain.
-
-
Proceeds from a faulty premise
- By Buretto on 12-11-21
-
What Soldiers Do
- Sex and the American GI in World War II France
- By: Mary Louise Roberts
- Narrated by: Nancy Peterson
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How do you convince men to charge across heavily mined beaches into deadly machine-gun fire? If you're the US Army in 1944, you dangle the lure of beautiful French women, waiting just on the other side of the wire, ready to reward their liberators in oh so many ways. That's not the picture of the Greatest Generation that we've been given, but it's the one Mary Louise Roberts paints to devastating effect in What Soldiers Do.
-
The Third Reich at War
- By: Richard J. Evans
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 35 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Evans interweaves a broad narrative of the war’s progress with viscerally affecting personal testimony from a wide range of people - from generals to front-line soldiers, from Hitler Youth activists to middle-class housewives. The Third Reich at War lays bare the dynamics of a nation more deeply immersed in war than any society before or since. Fresh insights into the conflict’s great events are here, from the invasion of Poland to the Battle of Stalingrad to Hitler’s suicide in the bunker.
-
-
Masterful
- By Karen on 09-03-10
By: Richard J. Evans
-
Bloodlands
- Europe Between Hitler and Stalin
- By: Timothy Snyder
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 19 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bloodlands is a new kind of European history, presenting the mass murders committed by the Nazi and Stalinist regimes as two aspects of a single history, in the time and place where they occurred: between Germany and Russia, when Hitler and Stalin both held power. Assiduously researched, deeply humane, and utterly definitive, Bloodlands will be required listening for anyone seeking to understand the central tragedy of modern history.
-
-
a warning for the future
- By judith on 11-06-19
By: Timothy Snyder
-
Red Famine
- Stalin's War on Ukraine
- By: Anne Applebaum
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 17 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1929 Stalin launched his policy of agricultural collectivization - in effect a second Russian Revolution - which forced millions of peasants off their land and onto collective farms. The result was a catastrophic famine, the most lethal in European history. At least five million people died between 1931 and 1933 in the USSR. But instead of sending relief, the Soviet state made use of the catastrophe to rid itself of a political problem.
-
-
Horrifying
- By Mendy on 01-21-18
By: Anne Applebaum
-
A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies
- By: Bartolome de las Casas
- Narrated by: Jason McCoy
- Length: 3 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies is the story of the Spanish Dominican priest Bartolome de las Casas, who came to the Americas in the 16th century. Immediately he was struck by the inhumane ways in which the native peoples were treated by the European explorers and conquerors, Las Casas went on to be a leading opponent of slavery, torture, and genocide of the Native Americans by the Spanish colonists.
-
-
History written from who witnessed
- By Leonardo on 07-09-20
-
When France Fell
- The Vichy Crisis and the Fate of the Anglo-American Alliance
- By: Michael S. Neiberg
- Narrated by: David de Vries
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
According to US Secretary of War Henry Stimson, the "most shocking single event" of World War II was not the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, but rather the fall of France in spring 1940. Michael Neiberg offers a dramatic history of the American response - a policy marked by panic and moral ineptitude, which placed the United States in league with fascism and nearly ruined the alliance with Britain.
-
-
Proceeds from a faulty premise
- By Buretto on 12-11-21
-
What Soldiers Do
- Sex and the American GI in World War II France
- By: Mary Louise Roberts
- Narrated by: Nancy Peterson
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How do you convince men to charge across heavily mined beaches into deadly machine-gun fire? If you're the US Army in 1944, you dangle the lure of beautiful French women, waiting just on the other side of the wire, ready to reward their liberators in oh so many ways. That's not the picture of the Greatest Generation that we've been given, but it's the one Mary Louise Roberts paints to devastating effect in What Soldiers Do.
-
The Third Reich at War
- By: Richard J. Evans
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 35 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Evans interweaves a broad narrative of the war’s progress with viscerally affecting personal testimony from a wide range of people - from generals to front-line soldiers, from Hitler Youth activists to middle-class housewives. The Third Reich at War lays bare the dynamics of a nation more deeply immersed in war than any society before or since. Fresh insights into the conflict’s great events are here, from the invasion of Poland to the Battle of Stalingrad to Hitler’s suicide in the bunker.
-
-
Masterful
- By Karen on 09-03-10
By: Richard J. Evans
-
Bloodlands
- Europe Between Hitler and Stalin
- By: Timothy Snyder
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 19 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bloodlands is a new kind of European history, presenting the mass murders committed by the Nazi and Stalinist regimes as two aspects of a single history, in the time and place where they occurred: between Germany and Russia, when Hitler and Stalin both held power. Assiduously researched, deeply humane, and utterly definitive, Bloodlands will be required listening for anyone seeking to understand the central tragedy of modern history.
-
-
a warning for the future
- By judith on 11-06-19
By: Timothy Snyder
-
Red Famine
- Stalin's War on Ukraine
- By: Anne Applebaum
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 17 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1929 Stalin launched his policy of agricultural collectivization - in effect a second Russian Revolution - which forced millions of peasants off their land and onto collective farms. The result was a catastrophic famine, the most lethal in European history. At least five million people died between 1931 and 1933 in the USSR. But instead of sending relief, the Soviet state made use of the catastrophe to rid itself of a political problem.
-
-
Horrifying
- By Mendy on 01-21-18
By: Anne Applebaum
-
Mao
- The Unknown Story
- By: Jung Chang, Jon Halliday
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 29 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Based on a decade of research and on interviews with many of Mao's close circle in China who have never talked before, and with virtually everyone outside China who had significant dealings with him, this is the most authoritative biography of Mao ever written.
-
-
Fills many gaps! Very good..but!
- By Jene on 08-07-06
By: Jung Chang, and others
-
Gulag
- A History
- By: Anne Applebaum
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
- Length: 27 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Gulag - a vast array of Soviet concentration camps that held millions of political and criminal prisoners - was a system of repression and punishment that terrorized the entire society, embodying the worst tendencies of Soviet communism. In this magisterial and acclaimed history, Anne Applebaum offers the first fully documented portrait of the Gulag, from its origins in the Russian Revolution, through its expansion under Stalin, to its collapse in the era of glasnost.
-
-
Nice compliment to Solzhenitsyn
- By Thucydides on 08-03-17
By: Anne Applebaum
-
The Rape of Nanking
- By: Iris Chang
- Narrated by: Anna Fields
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In December 1937, in the capital of China, one of the most brutal massacres in the long annals of wartime barbarity occurred. The Japanese army swept into the ancient city of Nanking and within weeks not only looted and burned the defenseless city but systematically raped, tortured and murdered more than 300,000 Chinese civilians. Amazingly, the story of this atrocity- one of the worst in world history- continues to be denied by the Japanese government.
-
-
Powerful
- By Douglas on 09-05-09
By: Iris Chang
-
Leningrad
- By: Michael Jones
- Narrated by: Simon Shepherd
- Length: 11 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1941 Hitler's armies blocked the last roads leading into Leningrad. What followed was one of the most horrific sieges in history. When the German High Command encircled Leningrad it was a deliberate policy to eradicate the city's civilian population by starving them to death. As winter set in and food supplies dwindled, starvation and panic set in.
-
-
Great narration and a enthralling story line.
- By nathanfisch on 10-19-21
By: Michael Jones
-
My Brother's Keeper
- Christians Who Risked All to Protect Jewish Targets of the Nazi Holocaust
- By: Rod Gragg
- Narrated by: Rick Zieff
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
My Brother's Keeper unfolds powerful stories of Christians from across denominations who gave everything they had to save the Jewish people from the evils of the Holocaust. This unlikely group of believers, later honored by the nation of Israel as Righteous Among the Nations, included ordinary teenage girls, pastors, priests, a German army officer, a former Italian fascist, an international spy, and even a princess.
By: Rod Gragg
-
The Lemon Tree
- By: Sandy Tolan
- Narrated by: Sandy Tolan
- Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1967, not long after the Six-Day War, three young Arab men ventured into the town of Ramle, in what is now Jewish Israel. They were cousins, on a pilgrimage to see their childhood homes; their families had been driven out of Palestine nearly 20 years earlier. One cousin had a door slammed in his face, and another found his old house had been converted into a school. But the third, Bashir Al-Khairi, was met at the door by a young woman called Dalia, who invited them in.
-
-
Steeping The Lemon Tree
- By Faithfull Fan on 04-11-18
By: Sandy Tolan
-
The Fall of Berlin 1945
- By: Antony Beevor
- Narrated by: Sean Barrett
- Length: 17 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Red Army had much to avenge when it finally reached the frontiers of the Third Reich in January 1945. Frenzied by their terrible experiences with Wehrmacht and SS brutality, they wreaked havoc - tanks crushing refugee columns, mass rape, pillage, and unimaginable destruction. Hundreds of thousands of women and children froze to death or were massacred; more than seven million fled westward from the fury of the Red Army. It was the most terrifying example of fire and sword ever known.
-
-
Engrossing
- By Salui on 09-06-16
By: Antony Beevor
-
The German War
- A Nation Under Arms, 1939-1945; Citizens and Soldiers
- By: Nicholas Stargardt
- Narrated by: Michael Kramer
- Length: 24 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As early as 1941, Allied victory in World War II seemed all but assured. How and why, then, did the Germans prolong the barbaric conflict for three and a half more years? In The German War, acclaimed historian Nicholas Stargardt draws on an extraordinary range of primary source materials - personal diaries, court records, and military correspondence - to answer this question. He offers an unprecedented portrait of wartime Germany, bringing the hopes and expectations of the German people to vivid life.
-
-
Great read for history buffs
- By marykk on 05-12-16
-
Savage Continent
- Europe in the Aftermath of World War II
- By: Keith Lowe
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 15 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The end of the Second World War in Europe is one of the 20th century's most iconic moments. It is fondly remembered as a time when cheering crowds filled the streets, danced, drank and made love until the small hours. These images of victory and celebration are so strong in our minds that the period of anarchy and civil war that followed has been forgotten. Across Europe, landscapes had been ravaged, entire cities razed and more than thirty million people had been killed in the war.
-
-
Better in print?
- By Rodney on 10-10-12
By: Keith Lowe
-
One Long Night
- A Global History of Concentration Camps
- By: Andrea Pitzer
- Narrated by: Andrea Pitzer
- Length: 14 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For over 100 years, at least one concentration camp has existed somewhere on Earth. First used as battlefield strategy, camps have evolved with each passing decade, in the scope of their effects and the savage practicality with which governments have employed them. Even in the 21st century, as we continue to reckon with the magnitude and horror of the Holocaust, history tells us we have broken our own solemn promise of "never again".
-
-
Important subject. Horrible narration.
- By wmorrison on 07-04-19
By: Andrea Pitzer
-
Masters of Death
- The SS-Einsatzgruppen and the Invention of the Holocaust
- By: Richard Rhodes
- Narrated by: Neil Hellegers
- Length: 14 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Masters of Death, Richard Rhodes gives full weight, for the first time, to the Einsatzgruppen's role in the Holocaust. These "special task forces", organized by Heinrich Himmler to follow the German army as it advanced into Eastern Poland and Russia, were the agents of the first phase of the Final Solution. They murdered more than one and a half million men, women, and children between 1941 and 1943, often by shooting them into killing pits, as at Babi Yar.
-
-
Good book...but...
- By Disintegrator on 08-26-19
By: Richard Rhodes
-
KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps
- By: Nikolaus Wachsmann
- Narrated by: Paul Hodgson
- Length: 31 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In KL, Wachsmann fills this glaring gap in our understanding. He not only synthesizes a new generation of scholarly work, much of it untranslated and unknown outside of Germany, but also presents startling revelations, based on many years of archival research, about the functioning and scope of the camp system.
-
-
Narrator warning!
- By S R L COTTERILL on 04-24-15
Editorial reviews
In a story about the liberation of Europe during WWII, the author places a sad and shocking focus on the suffering of civilians caught among the warring armies. Instead of concentrating on the movement of troops or war strategy, Hitchcock investigates such subjects as hunger, rape, and postwar internment. At first, narrator Mel Foster sounds stilted and emotionless. However, in a short while, his voice moves to the background as the author's appealing knack for prose takes the limelight in a story filled with eloquent word pictures. Foster's French far exceeds his skill with German. His narration on the writings of Ernie Pyle, the most famous war correspondent, may be the best part of his performance.
Related to this topic
-
The Third Reich at War
- By: Richard J. Evans
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 35 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Evans interweaves a broad narrative of the war’s progress with viscerally affecting personal testimony from a wide range of people - from generals to front-line soldiers, from Hitler Youth activists to middle-class housewives. The Third Reich at War lays bare the dynamics of a nation more deeply immersed in war than any society before or since. Fresh insights into the conflict’s great events are here, from the invasion of Poland to the Battle of Stalingrad to Hitler’s suicide in the bunker.
-
-
Masterful
- By Karen on 09-03-10
By: Richard J. Evans
-
The German War
- A Nation Under Arms, 1939-1945; Citizens and Soldiers
- By: Nicholas Stargardt
- Narrated by: Michael Kramer
- Length: 24 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As early as 1941, Allied victory in World War II seemed all but assured. How and why, then, did the Germans prolong the barbaric conflict for three and a half more years? In The German War, acclaimed historian Nicholas Stargardt draws on an extraordinary range of primary source materials - personal diaries, court records, and military correspondence - to answer this question. He offers an unprecedented portrait of wartime Germany, bringing the hopes and expectations of the German people to vivid life.
-
-
Great read for history buffs
- By marykk on 05-12-16
-
Savage Continent
- Europe in the Aftermath of World War II
- By: Keith Lowe
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 15 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The end of the Second World War in Europe is one of the 20th century's most iconic moments. It is fondly remembered as a time when cheering crowds filled the streets, danced, drank and made love until the small hours. These images of victory and celebration are so strong in our minds that the period of anarchy and civil war that followed has been forgotten. Across Europe, landscapes had been ravaged, entire cities razed and more than thirty million people had been killed in the war.
-
-
Better in print?
- By Rodney on 10-10-12
By: Keith Lowe
-
One Long Night
- A Global History of Concentration Camps
- By: Andrea Pitzer
- Narrated by: Andrea Pitzer
- Length: 14 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For over 100 years, at least one concentration camp has existed somewhere on Earth. First used as battlefield strategy, camps have evolved with each passing decade, in the scope of their effects and the savage practicality with which governments have employed them. Even in the 21st century, as we continue to reckon with the magnitude and horror of the Holocaust, history tells us we have broken our own solemn promise of "never again".
-
-
Important subject. Horrible narration.
- By wmorrison on 07-04-19
By: Andrea Pitzer
-
Masters of Death
- The SS-Einsatzgruppen and the Invention of the Holocaust
- By: Richard Rhodes
- Narrated by: Neil Hellegers
- Length: 14 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Masters of Death, Richard Rhodes gives full weight, for the first time, to the Einsatzgruppen's role in the Holocaust. These "special task forces", organized by Heinrich Himmler to follow the German army as it advanced into Eastern Poland and Russia, were the agents of the first phase of the Final Solution. They murdered more than one and a half million men, women, and children between 1941 and 1943, often by shooting them into killing pits, as at Babi Yar.
-
-
Good book...but...
- By Disintegrator on 08-26-19
By: Richard Rhodes
-
KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps
- By: Nikolaus Wachsmann
- Narrated by: Paul Hodgson
- Length: 31 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In KL, Wachsmann fills this glaring gap in our understanding. He not only synthesizes a new generation of scholarly work, much of it untranslated and unknown outside of Germany, but also presents startling revelations, based on many years of archival research, about the functioning and scope of the camp system.
-
-
Narrator warning!
- By S R L COTTERILL on 04-24-15
-
The Third Reich at War
- By: Richard J. Evans
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 35 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Evans interweaves a broad narrative of the war’s progress with viscerally affecting personal testimony from a wide range of people - from generals to front-line soldiers, from Hitler Youth activists to middle-class housewives. The Third Reich at War lays bare the dynamics of a nation more deeply immersed in war than any society before or since. Fresh insights into the conflict’s great events are here, from the invasion of Poland to the Battle of Stalingrad to Hitler’s suicide in the bunker.
-
-
Masterful
- By Karen on 09-03-10
By: Richard J. Evans
-
The German War
- A Nation Under Arms, 1939-1945; Citizens and Soldiers
- By: Nicholas Stargardt
- Narrated by: Michael Kramer
- Length: 24 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As early as 1941, Allied victory in World War II seemed all but assured. How and why, then, did the Germans prolong the barbaric conflict for three and a half more years? In The German War, acclaimed historian Nicholas Stargardt draws on an extraordinary range of primary source materials - personal diaries, court records, and military correspondence - to answer this question. He offers an unprecedented portrait of wartime Germany, bringing the hopes and expectations of the German people to vivid life.
-
-
Great read for history buffs
- By marykk on 05-12-16
-
Savage Continent
- Europe in the Aftermath of World War II
- By: Keith Lowe
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 15 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The end of the Second World War in Europe is one of the 20th century's most iconic moments. It is fondly remembered as a time when cheering crowds filled the streets, danced, drank and made love until the small hours. These images of victory and celebration are so strong in our minds that the period of anarchy and civil war that followed has been forgotten. Across Europe, landscapes had been ravaged, entire cities razed and more than thirty million people had been killed in the war.
-
-
Better in print?
- By Rodney on 10-10-12
By: Keith Lowe
-
One Long Night
- A Global History of Concentration Camps
- By: Andrea Pitzer
- Narrated by: Andrea Pitzer
- Length: 14 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For over 100 years, at least one concentration camp has existed somewhere on Earth. First used as battlefield strategy, camps have evolved with each passing decade, in the scope of their effects and the savage practicality with which governments have employed them. Even in the 21st century, as we continue to reckon with the magnitude and horror of the Holocaust, history tells us we have broken our own solemn promise of "never again".
-
-
Important subject. Horrible narration.
- By wmorrison on 07-04-19
By: Andrea Pitzer
-
Masters of Death
- The SS-Einsatzgruppen and the Invention of the Holocaust
- By: Richard Rhodes
- Narrated by: Neil Hellegers
- Length: 14 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Masters of Death, Richard Rhodes gives full weight, for the first time, to the Einsatzgruppen's role in the Holocaust. These "special task forces", organized by Heinrich Himmler to follow the German army as it advanced into Eastern Poland and Russia, were the agents of the first phase of the Final Solution. They murdered more than one and a half million men, women, and children between 1941 and 1943, often by shooting them into killing pits, as at Babi Yar.
-
-
Good book...but...
- By Disintegrator on 08-26-19
By: Richard Rhodes
-
KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps
- By: Nikolaus Wachsmann
- Narrated by: Paul Hodgson
- Length: 31 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In KL, Wachsmann fills this glaring gap in our understanding. He not only synthesizes a new generation of scholarly work, much of it untranslated and unknown outside of Germany, but also presents startling revelations, based on many years of archival research, about the functioning and scope of the camp system.
-
-
Narrator warning!
- By S R L COTTERILL on 04-24-15
-
The Rape of Nanking
- By: Iris Chang
- Narrated by: Anna Fields
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In December 1937, in the capital of China, one of the most brutal massacres in the long annals of wartime barbarity occurred. The Japanese army swept into the ancient city of Nanking and within weeks not only looted and burned the defenseless city but systematically raped, tortured and murdered more than 300,000 Chinese civilians. Amazingly, the story of this atrocity- one of the worst in world history- continues to be denied by the Japanese government.
-
-
Powerful
- By Douglas on 09-05-09
By: Iris Chang
-
Moral Combat
- Good and Evil in World War II
- By: Michael Burleigh
- Narrated by: Michael Kramer
- Length: 26 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this sweepingly ambitious overview of World War II, Michael Burleigh combines meticulous scholarship with a remarkable depth of knowledge and an astonishing scope. By exploring the moral sentiments of entire societies and their leaders and how such attitudes changed under the impact of total war, Burleigh presents listeners with a fresh and powerful perspective on a conflict that continues to shape world politics.
-
-
terror
- By Ed on 02-12-12
By: Michael Burleigh
-
Berlin at War
- By: Roger Moorhouse
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 17 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Berlin at War, acclaimed historian Roger Moorhouse provides a magnificent and detailed portrait of everyday life at the epicenter of the Third Reich. Berlin was the stage upon which the rise and fall of the Third Reich was most visibly played out. It was the backdrop for the most lavish Nazi ceremonies, the site of Albert Speer's grandiose plans for a new "world metropolis", and the scene of the final climactic battle to defeat Nazism.
-
-
A unique study of part of World War II
- By Mike From Mesa on 08-25-17
By: Roger Moorhouse
-
Year Zero
- A History of 1945
- By: Ian Buruma
- Narrated by: Gildart Jackson
- Length: 14 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Year Zero is a landmark reckoning with the greatdrama that ensued after war came to an end in 1945. One world had ended and anew, uncertain one was beginning. Regime change had come across Asia and all of continental Europe. It was the greatest global powervacuum in history, and out of the often vicious power struggles thatensued emerged the modern world as we know it.
-
-
Great historical overview
- By marykk on 10-14-13
By: Ian Buruma
-
After Hitler
- The Last Ten Days of World War II in Europe
- By: Michael Jones
- Narrated by: Robert Ian Mackenzie
- Length: 14 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With the world at war, 10 days can feel like a lifetime.... On April 30, 1945, Adolf Hitler committed suicide in a bunker in Berlin. But victory over the Nazi regime was not celebrated in Western Europe until May 8 and in Russia a day later, on the ninth. Why did a peace agreement take so much time? How did this brutal, protracted conflict coalesce into its unlikely endgame? After Hitler shines a light on 10 fascinating days after that infamous suicide that changed the course of the 20th century.
-
-
The slow end to World War II in Europe
- By Mike From Mesa on 04-10-16
By: Michael Jones
-
Bloodlands
- Europe Between Hitler and Stalin
- By: Timothy Snyder
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 19 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bloodlands is a new kind of European history, presenting the mass murders committed by the Nazi and Stalinist regimes as two aspects of a single history, in the time and place where they occurred: between Germany and Russia, when Hitler and Stalin both held power. Assiduously researched, deeply humane, and utterly definitive, Bloodlands will be required listening for anyone seeking to understand the central tragedy of modern history.
-
-
a warning for the future
- By judith on 11-06-19
By: Timothy Snyder
-
The Thirty-Year Genocide
- Turkey's Destruction of Its Christian Minorities, 1894-1924
- By: Benny Morris, Dror Ze'evi, Claire Bloom
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 21 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Between 1894 and 1924, three waves of violence swept across Anatolia, targeting the region's Christian minorities, who had previously accounted for 20 percent of the population. By 1924 the Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks had been reduced to two percent. Most historians have treated these waves as distinct, isolated events, and successive Turkish governments presented them as an unfortunate sequence of accidents. This is the first account to show that the three were actually part of a single, continuing, and intentional effort to wipe out Anatolia's Christian population.
-
-
Pay Close Attention to This Stunning Achievement
- By J.Brock on 06-25-20
By: Benny Morris, and others
-
Last Hope Island
- Britain, Occupied Europe, and the Brotherhood That Helped Turn the Tide of War
- By: Lynne Olson
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey, Kimberly Farr
- Length: 18 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A groundbreaking account of how Britain became the base of operations for the exiled leaders of Europe in their desperate struggle to reclaim their continent from Hitler, from the New York Times best-selling author of Citizens of London and Those Angry Days.
-
-
Not What I Expected--More What I Needed to Know
- By DanD on 06-25-17
By: Lynne Olson
-
Leningrad
- By: Michael Jones
- Narrated by: Simon Shepherd
- Length: 11 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1941 Hitler's armies blocked the last roads leading into Leningrad. What followed was one of the most horrific sieges in history. When the German High Command encircled Leningrad it was a deliberate policy to eradicate the city's civilian population by starving them to death. As winter set in and food supplies dwindled, starvation and panic set in.
-
-
Great narration and a enthralling story line.
- By nathanfisch on 10-19-21
By: Michael Jones
-
The Fall of Berlin 1945
- By: Antony Beevor
- Narrated by: Sean Barrett
- Length: 17 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Red Army had much to avenge when it finally reached the frontiers of the Third Reich in January 1945. Frenzied by their terrible experiences with Wehrmacht and SS brutality, they wreaked havoc - tanks crushing refugee columns, mass rape, pillage, and unimaginable destruction. Hundreds of thousands of women and children froze to death or were massacred; more than seven million fled westward from the fury of the Red Army. It was the most terrifying example of fire and sword ever known.
-
-
Engrossing
- By Salui on 09-06-16
By: Antony Beevor
-
Trail of Hope
- The Anders Army, an Odyssey Across Three Continents
- By: Norman Davies
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 15 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this remarkable work, renowned historian Professor Norman Davies draws from years of meticulous research to recount the compelling story of the Polish II Corps or "Anders Army", and their exceptional journey from the Gulag of Siberia through Iran, the Middle East, and North Africa to the battlefields of Italy to fight shoulder-to-shoulder with Allied forces. Complete with firsthand accounts from the men and women who lived through it, this is a unique record of one of the most fascinating episodes of World War II.
-
-
Amazing story of Polish peoples and never giving up hope for free Poland.
- By Peter Chmiel on 09-24-19
By: Norman Davies
-
Moscow 1941
- A City and Its People at War
- By: Rodric Braithwaite
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 13 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The 1941 Battle of Moscow, unquestionably one of the most decisive battles of World War II, marked the first strategic defeat of the German armed forces in their seemingly unstoppable march across Europe. The Soviets lost many more people in this one battle than the British and Americans lost in the whole of the Second World War. Now, with authority and narrative power, Rodric Braithwaite tells the story in large part through the individual experiences of ordinary Russian men and women.
-
-
slow, repetitive
- By Wylie on 12-27-06
What listeners say about The Bitter Road to Freedom
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Patricia
- 06-16-13
Revisionist History in the GOOD sense of the word
There are audiobooks that make you laugh out loud in public but this one had me in tears on the subway more than once. Fortunately, the reader had an academic style, which kept the book from being even more difficult to bear. The book is also academic in nature with distinct chapters devoted to various populations. In addition to actually learning a lot of history, what I got from the book was a sense that I (and a lot of other people who grew up in the '50s) had been effectively brainwashed - the book contrasts press presentations such as those of The Allies entering Paris with the lack of information on the misery and devastation on the Normandy front, the starvation of Holland, and a number of other situations in which 'the little people' felt the pain of the efforts underway to free them from Nazi rule ranging from actual bombing to misplaced political and military decisions. Not an easy read, but a must read for anyone attempting to understand WWII and the years that followed (up to the future for that matter).
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Z
- 12-07-13
Illunminating
Any additional comments?
Wonderful listen and gripping account of WWII through a western lens. While this book is a perfect standalone work, I would highly recommend reading "Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin" (by Timothy Snyder) as a companion book. While Hitchcock's book provides a vivid western account, there is a whole other side of the war that goes for the most part unmentioned. Snyder's book provides a gut-wrenching account of the atrocities committed by both the German and Soviet forces in eastern Europe and helps to provide a more complete context for the war. After reading both books I felt as though I had a complete understanding of the European theater of WWII rather than a fragmented western view.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ted C.
- 06-01-23
Must listening and necessary history
First of all William I. Hitchcock is always a pleasure to listen to. His works are thoroughly researched, generally objective and he's a great writer. Second, this history of the injuries and atrocities suffered on all sides should be required reading for military leaders in the U.S. That said, particularly at the beginning of the book and again at the very end Hitchcock does some armchair quarterbacking - sincerely trying to summarize and interpret the information - which seems a bit unreasonable. The allied leaders were trying to defeat the forces of the axis' various national-level socialisms and the victory was not at all guaranteed. And in retrospect leadership for the axis side did come from a relatively small group of socialist political and military leaders. I would have enjoyed the book more if Hitchcock could have limited his introduction and summaries to facts. Still, 4 1/2 stars. A brilliant read and necessary history.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!