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Höllensturm: Die Vernichtung Deutschlands, 1944-1947
Millionen vergewaltigt.... Millionen ermordet.... Millionen gefoltert.... Millionen versklavt.... Egal, was du über den Zweiten Weltkrieg gelesen, was dir darüber erzählt worden ist oder was du davon zu wissen scheinst... vergiß es! Jetzt, zum ersten mal seit 70 Jahren, erfahre, was deine Eltern bzw. Großeltern durchgemacht haben. Dies ist - in ihren eigenen Worten - ihre Geschichte.
575 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
September 25, 2013
Genuinely disturbing, and by no means an easy read, but an absolutely devastating account of the attempted genocide of the German people during and after WW2. Quite possibly mankind's darkest hour. I'll never look at WW2 the same way again. Thomas Goodrich is to be commended for this look at
a " forbidden" part of history.
a " forbidden" part of history.
Shelved as 'not-to-read'
March 30, 2016Nazi propaganda and holocaust denial
https://chechar.wordpress.com/categor...
http://www.ihr.org
https://chechar.wordpress.com/categor...
http://www.ihr.org
December 2, 2023
Mi-a plăcut mai mult ”Continentul barbar” de Keith Lowe.
Spune același lucru, doar că prin intermediul mărturiilor.
Spune același lucru, doar că prin intermediul mărturiilor.
August 10, 2016
This is a very disturbing book with horrendous descriptions of what happened to German POWs and German civilians in the aftermath of WWII. (BTW, this is not the first book or research paper I have read about this subject, just the most recent).
The only reason I give it 3 stars, is because of the veiled allusion to conspiracy theories. It detracts from the facts of Allied atrocities against the Germans. A less emotional and unbiased account would have packed a far greater punch.
As a historian myself, I know how difficult it is to try and stay unbiased and I don't believe there is a single historical account in the history of the world that is completely objective. Yet, the veiled allusions in this book irritated me for the simple reason as stated above, it detracts from the very real suffering of the Germans after WWII.
Yes, the Germans started the war to be sure, and many atrocities were committed by them. But it seems that few people truly adhere to the saying of "two wrongs don't make a right". Many plans and policies of especially Rooseveldt and Eisenhower (prompted by Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Morgenthau Jr., author of the Morgenthau Plan) are open for public view and undisputed. Kaufman's booklet "Germany must Perish!" is not a hoax. And so forth.
There are very real evidence of this, most tellingly also, George S Patton's letters and public disapproval of the treatment of the Germans, not to mention even Jewish reporters' horror at what they witnessed in respect of the way the common German civilians were treated. There is a lot more evidence of this than is reported in this book.
Is this a book worth reading? Yes. Although read it with caution.
I am amused and I despair, when I read the comments and reviews of the book. Either it is raving for the book without checking facts, or people are virulently against the book shouting anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial without evaluating the truth of what happened to the Germans after WWII. Describing Allied atrocities does not diminish the suffering of those in occupied territories or the Holocaust during WWII, it highlights that in truth, there were no "good guys" in this horrendous war.
The only reason I give it 3 stars, is because of the veiled allusion to conspiracy theories. It detracts from the facts of Allied atrocities against the Germans. A less emotional and unbiased account would have packed a far greater punch.
As a historian myself, I know how difficult it is to try and stay unbiased and I don't believe there is a single historical account in the history of the world that is completely objective. Yet, the veiled allusions in this book irritated me for the simple reason as stated above, it detracts from the very real suffering of the Germans after WWII.
Yes, the Germans started the war to be sure, and many atrocities were committed by them. But it seems that few people truly adhere to the saying of "two wrongs don't make a right". Many plans and policies of especially Rooseveldt and Eisenhower (prompted by Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Morgenthau Jr., author of the Morgenthau Plan) are open for public view and undisputed. Kaufman's booklet "Germany must Perish!" is not a hoax. And so forth.
There are very real evidence of this, most tellingly also, George S Patton's letters and public disapproval of the treatment of the Germans, not to mention even Jewish reporters' horror at what they witnessed in respect of the way the common German civilians were treated. There is a lot more evidence of this than is reported in this book.
Is this a book worth reading? Yes. Although read it with caution.
I am amused and I despair, when I read the comments and reviews of the book. Either it is raving for the book without checking facts, or people are virulently against the book shouting anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial without evaluating the truth of what happened to the Germans after WWII. Describing Allied atrocities does not diminish the suffering of those in occupied territories or the Holocaust during WWII, it highlights that in truth, there were no "good guys" in this horrendous war.
July 12, 2015
The tragedies caused by our nation's GI's, the British and the Russians are deplorable. This insight into how WWII ended and the slaughter of German civilians and POWS is dispicable. Eisenhower, Churchill and Roosevelt have such a deep dark secret that needs to be exposed. Many of our GI's need to be condemned for their brutal actions, because what they did was not heroic; what many of them were were cowardly who bought the American propaganda during the 40s.
January 29, 2016
Excellent and well told. The account of the devastation of Dresden and of many other German cities as a result of a direct attempt to genocide a nation by the Allied powers is not only revealing, but enlightens readers to what governments are truly capable of doing and hiding.
The cowardice of attacking cities of mostly women and children and then hiding it under the theme of "righteous war" is disgusting, but this gets no attention whatsoever. Instead we are force fed the false narrative of the Jewish Holocaust while it is infused in our everyday lives, through movies, television, newspapers and magazines, books, and even in law enforcement and military training.
This book is a must read, especially for those who have been brainwashed into seeing only one side of history's most dramatic time. Read it with an open mind and learn something valuable.
The cowardice of attacking cities of mostly women and children and then hiding it under the theme of "righteous war" is disgusting, but this gets no attention whatsoever. Instead we are force fed the false narrative of the Jewish Holocaust while it is infused in our everyday lives, through movies, television, newspapers and magazines, books, and even in law enforcement and military training.
This book is a must read, especially for those who have been brainwashed into seeing only one side of history's most dramatic time. Read it with an open mind and learn something valuable.
May 27, 2017
Hellstorm of Emotion
My generation was trained from birth to view Hitler and the NDSAP as the ultimate evil.
I was uncomfortable at first with this sometimes sympathetic view towards the third Reich, but by the end of the book, the story became all too reasonable.
Had to take a break on a few occasions due to the macabre descriptions and testimony.
The old adage is true. History is shaped by the victors.
My generation was trained from birth to view Hitler and the NDSAP as the ultimate evil.
I was uncomfortable at first with this sometimes sympathetic view towards the third Reich, but by the end of the book, the story became all too reasonable.
Had to take a break on a few occasions due to the macabre descriptions and testimony.
The old adage is true. History is shaped by the victors.
September 17, 2014
Sad facts to learn. We've been fed a bunch of lies and Goodrich tells us the truth. I highly recommend this book to all who want to know what really happened. Give the book to your kids, your friends and coworkers. We've all been fed lies about WWll.
February 9, 2017
No history fascinates me like WW2 history. And the more I learn about this war, the more the predominant 'good vs evil' narrative begins to deteriorate. It is a complex and a disturbing tale. The author makes you want to reach out and help those suffering. The helplessness you feel is barely a reflection of the helplessness millions of Germans must have felt was their nation was plundered as everything was treated as war booty. That they rebuild West Germany and then East in such a short time, is surely a miracle. I have no doubt that our generation will witness more miracles.
October 17, 2018
What happened (and is still happening!) to Germany beginning in 1945 and lasting to this very day is absolutely atrocious. But from May of 1945 until about 1950 was truly a holocaust! Nevermind the supposed "gassing" of Jews by National Socialist Germany --the so called Holocaust™ (and the word the Jews co-opted), THIS is absolutely hands down the worst example of man's inhumanity to man in the history of the world. So very sad. Read this book and weep...
(As to the writing and content of this book, the atrocity of post war Germany is just too overshadowing.)
(As to the writing and content of this book, the atrocity of post war Germany is just too overshadowing.)
December 9, 2016
A haunting book...
I would recommend this book to readers of military history, seeking to gain an understanding of what the final months of WWII were like for people in Germany. I have read other good works (The Last Battle, Fall of Berlin), but I was unprepared for the scope and depth of misery and cruelty suffered by the German people, at the hands of all sides of the victors. I have a feeling that this is one of those books that stays with you for a lifetime.
I would recommend this book to readers of military history, seeking to gain an understanding of what the final months of WWII were like for people in Germany. I have read other good works (The Last Battle, Fall of Berlin), but I was unprepared for the scope and depth of misery and cruelty suffered by the German people, at the hands of all sides of the victors. I have a feeling that this is one of those books that stays with you for a lifetime.
January 1, 2024
A hard book to read. The book is in the vein of The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression or Death by Government: Genocide and Mass Murder Since 1900, but focuses on Allied atrocities committed on German soldiers, POWs, and civilians during and mostly after World War II.
The book covers the fire bombing of Dresden, deliberate killing of refugee boats; the Soviet march across Eastern Germany and street battles in Berlin to end the war; American death camps; slavery of Germans by the USA, USSR, Great Britain, and France; expulsions of Germans from their ancestral homes; deliberate starvation; so many rapes; and more.
There were a few things that stood out, but the whole book is worth reading. While disturbing, it's not much more disturbing than third graders in America being shown photos of starved corpses in concentration camps in mandatory Holocaust education.
The Morgenthau Plan for semitic revenge against Germany was carried out by the Allies. After the end of the war, General Eisenhower enacted a policy of deliberate starvation, despite other countries and aid organizations willing to provide food to Germany.
While soldiers from every military engaged in rapes of German females, the worst offenders were Asiatics from the Soviet army. These weren't Russians or Eastern Europeans, but Mongols, Kulaks, Kazaks, Kalmuks, and others.
In the Soviet army, communist commissars traveling with the Red Army were "almost exclusively" Jews. After the war, Jews ran death camps in Eastern Europe. These could more accurately be termed semitic vengeance camps, although they took revenge on German soldiers and civilians alike. A Jew wrote a book about it called An Eye For An Eye.
In the West, American Jews who had fled Germany in the 1930s were often interrogators, and they had far more animus towards Germans than the German Jews who had remained in Germany.
Winners of wars don't care about the Geneva Convention. Eisenhower re-categorized POWs to get around it and starve Germans without the pesky International Red Cross. Fire bombing of entire German cities was simply denied by the Allies.
I wonder if, by engaging fully in semitic revenge after the war, the West unconsciously began to commit demographic suicide in the following decades out of guilt. The Holocaust narrative and every European being called a Nazi anti-semite at every opportunity probably also hasn't helped.
The book covers the fire bombing of Dresden, deliberate killing of refugee boats; the Soviet march across Eastern Germany and street battles in Berlin to end the war; American death camps; slavery of Germans by the USA, USSR, Great Britain, and France; expulsions of Germans from their ancestral homes; deliberate starvation; so many rapes; and more.
There were a few things that stood out, but the whole book is worth reading. While disturbing, it's not much more disturbing than third graders in America being shown photos of starved corpses in concentration camps in mandatory Holocaust education.
The Morgenthau Plan for semitic revenge against Germany was carried out by the Allies. After the end of the war, General Eisenhower enacted a policy of deliberate starvation, despite other countries and aid organizations willing to provide food to Germany.
While soldiers from every military engaged in rapes of German females, the worst offenders were Asiatics from the Soviet army. These weren't Russians or Eastern Europeans, but Mongols, Kulaks, Kazaks, Kalmuks, and others.
In the Soviet army, communist commissars traveling with the Red Army were "almost exclusively" Jews. After the war, Jews ran death camps in Eastern Europe. These could more accurately be termed semitic vengeance camps, although they took revenge on German soldiers and civilians alike. A Jew wrote a book about it called An Eye For An Eye.
In the West, American Jews who had fled Germany in the 1930s were often interrogators, and they had far more animus towards Germans than the German Jews who had remained in Germany.
Winners of wars don't care about the Geneva Convention. Eisenhower re-categorized POWs to get around it and starve Germans without the pesky International Red Cross. Fire bombing of entire German cities was simply denied by the Allies.
I wonder if, by engaging fully in semitic revenge after the war, the West unconsciously began to commit demographic suicide in the following decades out of guilt. The Holocaust narrative and every European being called a Nazi anti-semite at every opportunity probably also hasn't helped.
June 8, 2016
A difficult and often gruesome read. It offers a glimpse into the perspective of the losers of WW2, in this case the Germans. More often than not, this book details the horrors that were enacted not upon the Nazis, but upon innocent civilians. It just goes to show, there are never "good guys" in war, only victims and false prophets.
May 29, 2017
This book was written by a Neo Nazi, or as his bio more favorably spins it: "a White Nationalist"
I thought you should know.
I thought you should know.
June 17, 2018
It was the most deadly and destructive war in human history. Millions were killed, billions in property was destroyed, ancient cultures were reduced to rubble--World War II was truly man's greatest cataclysm. Thousands of books, movies and documentary films have been devoted to the war. There has never been such a terrible retelling of the story, however, as one will find in Hellstorm. In a chilling "you-are-there" style, the author places the reader at the scene, in the moment. Throughout this book readers will see what Allied airman saw as they rained down death on German cities; or the reader will experience what those below experienced as they sat trembling in their bomb shelters awaiting that very same death from above. The reader will view up close the horrors of the Eastern Front during the last months of fighting and through the mud, blood and madness of combat they may come to understand how the same German soldiers, who only moments before had destroyed an enemy tank, could now risk their own lives to rescue the trapped Soviet crew inside. Readers will witness for themselves the fate of German women as the rampaging Red Army raped and murdered its way across Europe--all females, from "eight to eighty" feared the dreaded words, "Frau Komm." The worst nautical disasters in history which claimed thousands of lives, the greatest mass migration known to man in which millions perished, the fate of those wretched victims in post-war death camps and torture chambers, these and many other dark secrets of World War II now come to light in Hellstorm.
October 28, 2016
It is terrifying to me, the nature of propaganda...how it feeds on the emotions of the reader/listener/viewer. This book, and its author, are no different from any other propaganda I've encountered. Many of his readership have not made the journey to Germany. Many of his readership have not been inside of concentration camps; read about WWII atrocities in the original language by the original authors (i.e. in German or Polish by the leaders and leading writers at the time).
So many readers simply feel the emotional tug of the words on paper without questioning them because the story is so well prepared and so well offered.
Make no mistake, this book is a work of fiction, absolute fiction. I have been overseas. I have read the treatises in the original language. I have visited concentration camps. I have spoken with survivors. That other 'story,' the one this author refers to as a work of Hollywood, it is no Hollywood story, it is the truth.
So many readers simply feel the emotional tug of the words on paper without questioning them because the story is so well prepared and so well offered.
Make no mistake, this book is a work of fiction, absolute fiction. I have been overseas. I have read the treatises in the original language. I have visited concentration camps. I have spoken with survivors. That other 'story,' the one this author refers to as a work of Hollywood, it is no Hollywood story, it is the truth.
December 6, 2018
It is a sad fact of human life that you can only start to read about so many nightmarishly gruesome deeds before they all start to sound the same. That is how I felt reading this book. After the first two chapters had me in a deep state of despair over the evils that innocent German civilians, and especially women and children, had to face at the hands of Allied conquerors, I had to struggle to read the rest of the book because it all just seemed like more of the same.
The Allied Nations should send Germany billions of dollars a year as reparations for the atrocities they committed against them. Never mind - they would just waste it all on refugees instead of helping their own people.
The Allied Nations should send Germany billions of dollars a year as reparations for the atrocities they committed against them. Never mind - they would just waste it all on refugees instead of helping their own people.
July 11, 2018
The most gruesome book I have ever read
And - I highly recommend it. To be true to oneself, to be true to the truth is one of the pinnacles of humanity. Pick up this book, read it, & imagine humanity at its worst. There are no glorious wars - just death, destruction and misery.
And - I highly recommend it. To be true to oneself, to be true to the truth is one of the pinnacles of humanity. Pick up this book, read it, & imagine humanity at its worst. There are no glorious wars - just death, destruction and misery.
June 24, 2022
This book was disturbing on many levels but is so achingly descriptive in trying to describe the horror of that war. I have read many books about this subject and the war itself and so far this one has been one of the most brutal descriptions I have read. Even so, I believe that it could not compare to the actuality these people lived through.
I must add, along with everything else published and in witnessing conversations with some who survived the camps and atrocities - I do believe that this was payback for the unspeakable crimes that were begun by the German people themselves. The tables turned and they got a taste of what they had served and then were shocked at the treatment they received. I only hope and pray that future generations will see the damage and pain caused by war and attempt to settle any differences they may have in a more humane fashion. This war should never have happened - but sadly it did. There are still walking wounded living today.
I must add, along with everything else published and in witnessing conversations with some who survived the camps and atrocities - I do believe that this was payback for the unspeakable crimes that were begun by the German people themselves. The tables turned and they got a taste of what they had served and then were shocked at the treatment they received. I only hope and pray that future generations will see the damage and pain caused by war and attempt to settle any differences they may have in a more humane fashion. This war should never have happened - but sadly it did. There are still walking wounded living today.
July 12, 2020
Should be REQUIRED READING for any survey course on the history of the Second World War. In fact, for anyone who wants to strengthen their general understanding of the nature and course of twentieth-century history, this book is invaluable.
Goodrich is an excellent writer and "Hellstorm" is highly readable and accessible. This book is not a stale, lifeless review of some minor academic niche topic; this is an important social history of a topic that is relevant to our lives today.
We all live in the shadow of the cataclysm of 1944-1947, except most of us don't realize it. "Hellstorm" is therefore not just a well written history, but rather it is also a relevant and important book in our modern, contemporary political context.
Goodrich is an excellent writer and "Hellstorm" is highly readable and accessible. This book is not a stale, lifeless review of some minor academic niche topic; this is an important social history of a topic that is relevant to our lives today.
We all live in the shadow of the cataclysm of 1944-1947, except most of us don't realize it. "Hellstorm" is therefore not just a well written history, but rather it is also a relevant and important book in our modern, contemporary political context.
December 7, 2019
The author certainly does a decent imitation of legitimate historian/author. It took me until page 50 to feel uncomfortable enough with the author’s whitewashing of Hitler’s actions and zero recognition of Nazi atrocities that I did some investigating. Turns out the author is a white supremacist with an agenda that includes repositioning Nazi Germany as the innocent victim of WWII.
There’s plenty to be said about Allied excesses in WWII, but a slanted, hugely imbalanced account that absolves Germany of all wrong is not the honest way to do it.
There’s plenty to be said about Allied excesses in WWII, but a slanted, hugely imbalanced account that absolves Germany of all wrong is not the honest way to do it.
January 18, 2021
Very disturbing book about the suffering of the Germans at the end of and after WWII. Very graphic descriptions of the worst behaviour of human beings. The Hollywood myth about "The good war" is shattered completely.
June 10, 2019
Im expecting this to be gut wrenching. I need to plan for that.
September 19, 2019
Truth hidden from the crowd.
April 29, 2017
The treatment of ordinary Germans after WWII was quite horrific. The Hitler regime was imposed from the top down & mostly on a resentful populace,anyone displaying anti Nazi sentiment was either subjected to internment in a camp,condemned to death, or deported,so it isn't really surprising that few voiced any objections.
It is incredibly unfair how this nation of people were demonized.It is now obvious to me that the Jewish holocaust has been (overly) focused on to the exclusion of all other wartime atrocities.This excessive focus on the Nazi holocaust has been termed 'holocaust propaganda' and it has had an extremely detrimental effect on the psychological well being of the German nation.It has encouraged them to feel ashamed of their country and to hate themselves for being German.
Thousands of Germans chose to commit suicide rather than face the murderous wrath of the Russians.The Soviet soldiers who advanced through Germany were even raping the women from concentration camps.To be violated by their liberators is pretty sickening and grotesque.It has been documented that some Jews chose to escape from the camps with the camp guards rather than face the rapidly advancing Red Army,at this late stage of the war many of the guards assigned to the camps were just ordinary German soldiers. The guards murdered by the Americans were mainly old men, young teenagers and those not fit enough for front line service- they were all that were left to guard the camps.
The German educational system conditions children to feel guilt & blame for what their forefathers did to the Jewish people,but barely no mention is made of the fact that up to twenty million Germans died in the post war period, and that included women and children murdered by the Allied forces. Political correctness also comes into play with regard to this issue, because the German child ends up thinking something along the lines of, 'I cannot question the Nazi holocaust, as a German I must at all times appear to be very sorry & contrite in the public’s eyes'. Personally, I am against the stigmatisation of individuals who suffer blame for crimes they had nothing to do with.
This publication gives numerous accounts of deprivation, mistreatment and outright violence perpetrated by the Allies who were dealing with the German military and innocent civilians.
It is incredibly unfair how this nation of people were demonized.It is now obvious to me that the Jewish holocaust has been (overly) focused on to the exclusion of all other wartime atrocities.This excessive focus on the Nazi holocaust has been termed 'holocaust propaganda' and it has had an extremely detrimental effect on the psychological well being of the German nation.It has encouraged them to feel ashamed of their country and to hate themselves for being German.
Thousands of Germans chose to commit suicide rather than face the murderous wrath of the Russians.The Soviet soldiers who advanced through Germany were even raping the women from concentration camps.To be violated by their liberators is pretty sickening and grotesque.It has been documented that some Jews chose to escape from the camps with the camp guards rather than face the rapidly advancing Red Army,at this late stage of the war many of the guards assigned to the camps were just ordinary German soldiers. The guards murdered by the Americans were mainly old men, young teenagers and those not fit enough for front line service- they were all that were left to guard the camps.
The German educational system conditions children to feel guilt & blame for what their forefathers did to the Jewish people,but barely no mention is made of the fact that up to twenty million Germans died in the post war period, and that included women and children murdered by the Allied forces. Political correctness also comes into play with regard to this issue, because the German child ends up thinking something along the lines of, 'I cannot question the Nazi holocaust, as a German I must at all times appear to be very sorry & contrite in the public’s eyes'. Personally, I am against the stigmatisation of individuals who suffer blame for crimes they had nothing to do with.
This publication gives numerous accounts of deprivation, mistreatment and outright violence perpetrated by the Allies who were dealing with the German military and innocent civilians.
December 13, 2021
One of the most profound and difficult subjects I’ve yet to read. Most people aren’t aware that an estimate 10 million German non-combatants were massacred during WWII with the majority occurring after German surrender. “Hellstorm,” is a well documented account of American, British, and Soviet war crimes committed from 1944 - 1947 against innocent German civilians.
It’s a painful read, but should be required reading for every American to counter the whitewashed propaganda taught about WWII in public schools and textbooks. Dresden is only the tip of the iceberg. Under Eisenhower, and with his tacit approval, America ran death camps, raped, torture, looted, and starved German civilians. Only with growing Soviet tensions did America changed her approach out of fear of Germans embracing Communism.
“Germans still have much to feel guilty of before God. But they have nothing to feel guilty of before the Big Three. Any German who still feels guilty before the Allies is a fool. Any American who thinks he should is a scoundrel.” Hellstorm: The Death of Nazi German 1944-1947,” Thomas Goodrich.
It’s a painful read, but should be required reading for every American to counter the whitewashed propaganda taught about WWII in public schools and textbooks. Dresden is only the tip of the iceberg. Under Eisenhower, and with his tacit approval, America ran death camps, raped, torture, looted, and starved German civilians. Only with growing Soviet tensions did America changed her approach out of fear of Germans embracing Communism.
“Germans still have much to feel guilty of before God. But they have nothing to feel guilty of before the Big Three. Any German who still feels guilty before the Allies is a fool. Any American who thinks he should is a scoundrel.” Hellstorm: The Death of Nazi German 1944-1947,” Thomas Goodrich.
May 3, 2021
A well researched book on the ugliness of humanity and this time it wasn’t just the Nazi’s but us and our allies. Looking back how could Roosevelt have been so blind as to be taken in and used as a lackey by Stalin? The allies have nothing to be proud about after the war, only General Patton seemed to have great vision of the Russian intent and history.
Good work though depressing Thomas G.
Good work though depressing Thomas G.
December 24, 2018
Knyga apie Vokietijos žmonių kančias po karo. Istorijos faktų knyga apie nuo karo nukentėjusius žmones.
July 26, 2020
Huh? And we thought we were the good guys.
August 12, 2021
Not for the feint of heart.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews