Looking back at the brutal end to the deadliest conflict

Nuremberg-born writer and documentary-maker Florian Huber uncovers the stories of the farmers, shopkeepers, students, journalists, home-makers, children and retirees who were far from either front in the final days of the war

Red Army soldiers discover a German family who had taken their own lives in the final days of World War II Pic: Getty

History: Promise Me You’ll Shoot Yourself: The Downfall of Ordinary Germans in 1945, By Florian Huber, Allen Lane Books, €25

Normally, when we think of the end of World War II, we picture the victorious Allies, liberating concentration camps as they march towards Berlin. If we think of the Germans at all, it tends to be the Nazi hierarchy who get our attention, as the Third Reich crumbles around them, memorably brought to ...