Five Days That Shocked the World: Eyewitness Accounts from Europe at the End of World War II (50 page)

Himmler’s bodyguards

Jewish Office of

massacres of, by Allied troops

orders to execute prisoners, not carried out

post-War plans

puts down Munich Resistance

recruitment into

refuses to surrender

slave labor used by

and the Wehrmacht

SS girls

SS-Totenkopf, concentration camp guards

Staaken

Stalin, Jacob

Stalin, Josef

learns of Hitler’s death

at May Day celebrations

military shortcomings of

speech of

Stalingrad, Battle of

Starace, Achille

Stars and Stripes
(newspaper)

starvation

in Berlin

death by

in Holland

Stauffenberg, Klaus von

Stettinius, Edward R.

Stimson, Harry

Stockholm

Strausberg

Stucki, Walter

Student, Gen. Karl

Stumpfegger, Dr.

Sudetenland

Sühren, Fritz

executed

suicides, of Hitlerites after Hitler’s death

surrender

to Americans

ceremonies of

of a concentration camp

factions pro and con

offers to surrender to the West

refusal to

to Russians by German soldiers, outcome of

solicited by Americans, refused

unconditional, demanded of Germany

Susloparov, Gen. Ivan

Sweden

Switzerland

frontier

frontier, closed at end of war

sanctuary in

Tangiers

Tenth Mountain Division (American)

Third Army (Allied)

Thirty-sixth Texas Division (American)

Thyssen, Fritz

Tito, Josip

Traunstein

Travemünde

Treblinka

Trieste

Triumph of the Will
(film)

Trotsky, Leon

Truman, Harry

becomes president

first days in office

two-front war

typhus

Tyrol

U-Bahn tunnels

Ukraine

Union Jack, not flown over Belsen

United Nations

charter for, drawing up of

flaws of structure of

membership in

San Francisco conference

United States

rocket scientists captured by

See also
American army

Unterbernbach

Upcott, Bob

Ustinov, Peter

Valtellina

van Heemstra, Baron Aernoud, and family

van Pels, Peter

Vatican

Velp

Venice

Versailles peace conference of 1919

Vichy French government

Vietinghoff, Gen. Heinrich von

Vikings

Villabassa

Villa Belmonte, near Como

Villani, Romilda

daughters of

Vishnevsky, Vsevolod

Volkenrath, Elisabeth

Völkischer Beobachter
(propaganda newspaper)

Volkssturm

von,
most names in
.
See next element of name, e.g. “Greim, Robert von”

Vonnegut, Kurt

later life

Waal river

Waffen-SS

Wagner, Walter

Walsh, Lt. Bill

Waren

Washington Heights, Manhattan, New York City

weapons, new (atom bomb)

Wehrmacht

conference at Neuroofen

contest with SS

delays surrender

deserters from

headquarters at Bolzano

Weidling, Gen. Helmuth

Welles, Orson

Weltzin, Günther

Wenck, Gen. Walther

Wenner, Eugen

Werewolf

Westerbork, holding camp at

Wheeler, Capt. Charles

white flag

White House correspondents

Whitelaw, Willie

later life

White Rose group

Wicker, Heinrich

Wieland, Magda

Wiesenthal, Simon

later life

Wilhelm II, Kaiser, asylum in Holland given to, after World War I

Wilhelmina, Queen of the Netherlands

exile in England during World War II

Will, Georg

Will, Liesel

Wilson, Woodrow

Windhorst, soldier

Winocour, Jack

Wismar

Wojtyla, Karol (later Pope John Paul II)

Wolff, Gen. Karl

women

concentration camps for

German civilian, raping of, by Russian troops

Italian Fascist wives and mistresses

Nazi wives and mistresses, well-fed

of Russian army, looking for loot and memorabilia

Woods, Sgt. John (hangman)

World War I

Holland’s stance in

Jews serving with distinction in

reported atrocities in

terms imposed on Germany after

World War II

British entry into, over Poland

continuation, of by Germany, to ward off Bolshevism

Germany urged by Gen. Rundstedt to make peace

necessity for Allies, to combat evil of fascism

separate peace refused by Allies

Spanish neutrality in

two-front war, Hitler’s realization about

war games before, predicting German defeat

Wulff, Wilhelm

Xavier, Prince of Luxembourg

Yohannon, Francis

Ypenburg

Yugoslavia

Yugoslav partisans

Zhukov, Marshal

Ziereis, Franz

A
LSO BY
N
ICHOLAS
B
EST

The Greatest Day in History: How, on the Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month, the First World War Finally Came to an End

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

NICHOLAS BEST grew up in Kenya and was educated there, in England, and at Trinity College, Dublin. He served in the Grenadier Guards and worked as a journalist in London. He was the
Financial Times
fiction critic for ten years and is the author of
The Greatest Day in History,
a narrative on the end of World War I. For more information, visit
www.nicholasbest.co.uk
.

THOMAS DUNNE BOOKS.

An imprint of St. Martin’s Press.

FIVE DAYS THAT SHOCKED THE WORLD: EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS FROM EUROPE AT THE END OF WORLD WAR II
. Copyright © 2011 by Nicholas Best. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

thomasdunnebooks.com

www.stmartins.com

The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

Best, Nicholas, 1948–

Five days that shocked the world : eyewitness accounts from Europe at the end of World War II / Nicholas Best. — 1st ed.

       p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-0-312-61492-8 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-4299-4135-8 (e-book)

  1.  World War, 1939–1945—Europe—End.   2.  World War, 1939–1945—Social aspects—Europe.   3.  World War, 1939–1945—Personal narratives.   4.  Europe—History—1945—Anecdotes.   5.  Europe—Social conditions—20th century—Anecdotes.   I.  Title.

D755.7.B475 2012

940.53'4—dc23

2011033144

e-ISBN 9781429941358

First Edition: January 2012