"Promise Me You'll Shoot Yourself. The Downfall of Ordinary Germans in 1945" by Florian Huber (published by Allen Lane)

Death or 'dishonour'

18 July 2019 - 10.07 AM

A sense of dread permeates German writer Florian Huber's book from the very beginning. It is April 1945 and the Red Army is closing in on Germany from the east. Nazi propaganda has drummed it into the Germans that the Soviets will bring hell on earth. These horror stories about the invading "Bolshevik Mongol hordes" are supposed to fuel a loathing of the "beasts" and instill a fierce spirit of resistance, but instead they terrify the civilian population.

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