Aftermath
Life in the Fallout of the Third Reich
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Aftermath
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Narrated by:
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Sam Peter Jackson
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By:
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Harald Jähner
About this listen
Brought to you by Penguin.
Shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize 2021.
Germany, 1945: a country in ruins. Cities have been reduced to rubble and more than half of the population are where they do not belong or do not want to be. How can a functioning society ever emerge from this chaos?
In bombed-out Berlin, Ruth Andreas-Friedrich, journalist and member of the Nazi resistance, warms herself by a makeshift stove and records in her diary how a frenzy of expectation and industriousness grips the city. The Americans send Hans Habe, an Austro-Hungarian Jewish journalist and US army soldier, to the frontline of psychological warfare - tasked with establishing a newspaper empire capable of remoulding the minds of the Germans. The philosopher Hannah Arendt returns to the country she fled to find a population gripped by a manic loquaciousness, but faces a deafening wall of silence at the mention of the Holocaust.
Aftermath is a nuanced panorama of a nation undergoing monumental change. 1945 to 1955 was a raw, wild decade poised between two eras that proved decisive for Germany's future - and one starkly different to how most of us imagine it today. Aftermath evokes an immersive portrait of a society corrupted, demoralised and freed - all at the same time.
©2021 Harald Jähner (P)2021 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
Critic reviews
"Magisterial, fascinating, humane - a brilliant book of the greatest importance and achievement." (Philippe Sands)
"Absolutely extraordinary. Every page stops you dead with insight and revelation." (James Hawes)
"For those who want to understand the Germans, Aftermath is essential reading. Anyone with even the slightest interest in history and the human condition should read this book." (Julia Boyd)
What listeners say about Aftermath
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kelly2002
- 31-05-23
Filling a gap in recent history.
This book is a fascinating insight into Germany after May 1945, and it's development towards the country it is today. Covering a range of topics and some interesting characters or really fills in that time between the end of the war and the rider of the two German states. Excellent narration too.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Deborah
- 26-08-21
Excellent info.
Only reason for 4star is that it could be more succinct. Sam Peter Jackson is a star narrator.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mr Neil T Foley
- 10-04-23
Fascinating
I loved this book on so many levels - it helped me understand what happened in the years after the war from a social viewpoint, as i had often wondered how on earth does a society that broken managed to not only survive, but rebuild so quickly. I didn't want it to end!
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Hoops
- 02-08-23
Thought provoking
An interesting social history of Post WW2 Germany. The book is well narrated, which helps to keep you engaged. My main interest was to see if possible future parallels could be drawn in relation to the Ukrainian-Russian conflict. (Of course this could only happen if/when the Russians are defeated.)
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- C. Wells
- 17-04-23
Fascinating story, difficult delivery
I found this really hard to listen to, despite its really interesting premise. The delivery is so monotone it’s hard to concentrate on the content- I’ll go back to the kindle version
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Janet Jones
- 27-08-23
Informative....
interesting and compelling to listen to. I highly recommend this book. The narrator was very good.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Thegreenmamba
- 19-06-23
Heavy Going in places
I found this book interesting some parts really great, insightful and thought provoking and others just really random with no real significance. The narrator is not great.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Keith
- 15-10-22
Intensely interesting
This was great. It examines the period after Germany lost the war and the difficulties many of its people found in the ashes of what was left. It certainly provides a sympathetic view of many people that lost homes, had great difficulty getting food and a place to live, where migrants from lands destroyed by Germany or otherwise were the victims of the war. But it also really does go after Germans that felt hard done by what had happened or were insufficiently capable of recognising what their country had done. It also acknowledges that Germany did not really explore what it had done very well in the years after it turned itself back into a powerful economic juggernaut.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Avi D Reader
- 19-01-22
Brilliant history, superb prose, surprises too
I've spent fifty or more years reading of WW2 and it's Aftermath... but this was still full of history I wasn't aware of.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Sarah
- 25-11-23
Great listen
Great narration and really different perspective than most I've read on post war. Very interesting.
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