The People's Dictatorship A History of Nazi Germany

Chapter 10 offers a wide-ranging examination of developments inside Germany from early 1943 to the end of the war in Europe in May 1945. After the major German defeat at Stalingrad, the Nazi regime announced a transition to a “Total War” footing, which involved a more thorough mobilization of women, university students, and youth for the war effort. The Allied air war against Germany intensified, inflicting widescale damage on German cities, and forcing German authorities to scramble to clear rubble and keep society functioning. Domestic resistance efforts intensified along a broad ideological spectrum but had little effect. The most notable instance of resistance was the failed attempt on July 20, 1944 to assassinate Hitler and have the army seize power. The end phase of the Nazi regime was characterized by the intensification of internally directed violence, the victims of which included foreign workers, Germans who wished to cooperate with the invading Allied armies in the West, and Jews who had managed to survive the Final Solution. The Volkssturm, a national militia created to help repel the invading forces, proved ineffectual. As Berlin was falling to the Red Army, Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945. The German surrender followed in early May.