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The Fire: The Bombing of Germany, 1940-1945
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Manufacturer: Columbia University Press
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 943
EAN: 9780231133814
ISBN: 0231133812
Label: Columbia University Press
Manufacturer: Columbia University Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 552
Publication Date: 2008-03-21
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Studio: Columbia University Press
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Editorial Reviews:
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Combining meticulous research with striking descriptions, Jörg Friedrich renders in acute detail the Allies' air campaign of systematic destruction of civilian life, cultural treasures, and industrial capacities in Germany's city landscape. He includes personal stories and firsthand testimony of German civilians, creating a portrait of unimaginable suffering, horror, and grief. He also draws on official military documents to unravel the reasoning behind the Allies' strikes.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Keep things in perspective
Comment: As this book is history, and that of a little known chapter of history, it is a welcome book, and I do not dispute the facts. I however suggest readers also google Tanya Savicheva's Diary, and the sad fate of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, read Harrison Salisbury's "900 Days Siege of Leningrad", or Alexander Worth's "Russia at War" and watch the film "Come and See" to understand why "the fire" was necessary and place it in its' proper historical context. The innocents who perished in the fire bombings of Germany are those very people who democratically elected Hitler because he appealed to their vanities, and illustrate the importance of casting one's vote wisely and considering the full ramifications of one's supposedly innocuous decisions, even in today's era, where centripetal nationalistic tendancies are making their ugly reappearance.
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Summary: First history of WW 2 published in the US and its a translation
Comment: To people familiar with histories in general and German history in particular, this book is a return to the gold standard of historiography: Tell it as it really was. Most so-called histories are
non-scientific, prejudiced this way or that and a waste of good paper. The Fire is actual history, not bearing the relationship to reality that
"HOUSE" (TV Doctor drama) plays to real medicine, but akin to a medical text to the physical condition. The true horror of the war, children burned alive in cribs by the thousands, protested by a single US Army General; bombing the same town or city many hundreds of times. Killing as genocide, as the US and UK Air Forces bombing fleeing women with babies trying to escape the horrors Stalin planned for the German population. This book is about the greatest disaster to befall Western Civilization, inflicting sickness unto death. People who react to this book with negativity may take a look at the issues talked about in Congress concerning saving the automobile industry and see moralistic positions and one-upsmanship and ignore the lives shattered. The first adult book about WW2 in English.
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Summary: Disappointing
Comment: Sebald's essay on German literature about WW2 in the volume Campo Santo reminded me of this book, which I read a few months ago. It was a huge success in Germany, and, unfortunately, one suspects at least partly for the wrong reason. The subject, or rather the message, has been a taboo in Germany for rather long.
The history of the allied bombing raids against Germany needs to be written. Friedrich's book is not it. I doubt that it is of much use to anybody, unless the main purpose is the creation of a spirit of self pity.
The book is not historiography, it is a rather impressionist collection of events and isolated facts and harrowing tales. The writer had mountains of material, but he fails to give any structure to his narrative. The list of contents suggests that he arranged material according to subjects, rather than according to chronology, but that is misleading. The chapter titles seem to bear little relation to the chapter contents.
In short, it is a mess.
Why do I give it 2 stars? Only because Friedrich manages to make the single events come alife. The book contains, in that sense, quite a few short tales which would have been better placed in a collection of 'true' war stories.
In a way, the failure of the book is very unfortunate, because it clouds an important issue. I don't want to enter a debate about whether the bombings were 'justified' on a moral level. However I do have the impression that those who say that they were unnecessary have a point. The bombings of cities like Dresden served no military purpose. The stated objective of demoralization was not attained. The war was won by the invading armies from the SU and the US with some help from some others. In other words, very likely the bombing raids had more of a negative impact rather than a positive one for the war effort of the allies.
Sebald in Campo Santo points to the parallell with Vietnam: there, the bombings were useless, the war was lost anyway. In Germany, the bombings were possibly also useless, because the war was won without contribution from them.
Customer Rating:
Summary: For This We Thank The Führer
Comment: "The Fire" by Jörg Friedrich. Subtitled: "The Bombing Of Germany 1940-1945.
Columbia University Press, New York 2006.
Back in 1954-1955, I studied High German in high school in The Bronx. When Jörg Friedrich published his German book, "Der Brand" in 2002, I purchased a copy. I discovered that my high school German had decayed over half a century so that my German vocabulary was insufficient to easily read Jörg's book in German. So, I read the book in English translation. I found that my German "culture" was insufficient to handle all the little cities, towns and villages that J. Friedrich mentions. Each little place would be presented, the date of the air raid mentioned, and then the number of dead recorded. Some particularly historical item, a cathedral, a town hall, a monument , would also be listed and recorded as destroyed. For 482 pages, this goes on. Then there is an "Afterword" and 24 pages of notes, bibliography and an index. The author has done a staggering amount of work.
The work, however, is flawed on three counts:
(1) organization,
(2) extraneous matter and
(3) basic premise.
Organization: as many of my fellow Amazon Reviewers have noted, there does not seem to be any rhyme nor reason to the book's organization. The author jumps around, both geographically and chronologically. The early part of the book deals with bombing and bombers and then bombing strategy. Good engineering "stuff" that sets the stage.
But then, the author jumps from one section of Germany to a different section of Germany, and then, chronologically, from the early bombing campaigns to the end of the war. So, on some early pages, you will be reading about the area of Northern Germany, and how the German refugees were fleeing the Red Army in East Prussia, Pomerania ands Silesia in early 1945, and then a little later in book, he is dealing with the firestorm in Hamburg in 1943. (By the way, a nicely written book on that bombing raid is "Inferno" by Keith Lowe, Scribner 2007.)
Extraneous Matter: the author not only wants to cover the bombing, 1940-1945, but it seems that he wants to include much German (or perhaps, European) history. For example, the Wellington bomber is named after the Duke of Wellington (alright!), who was helped by Prussian General von Blücher to defeat Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo. But, recall that at time, the King of England was George IV, who ruled both England and Hanover. Then, the Anglicization of Hanover so angered Napoleon that he ceded Hanover to the Kingdom of Westphalia. (See pages 196-197). Little gems such as this are scattered throughout the book. The Austrian War of Succession, (p. 211), the Augsburg Confession, (p. 280), the Saxons and Boniface (p. 171). My history thesis advisor would call this "...extraneous matter equals a filler." But, then, look at what he left out. Auschwitz is mentioned, but Buchenwald is not. Did you know that at the concentration camp of Buchenwald, the "Goethe Oak" was destroyed by a bombing raid. Johann Goethe liked to walk under that oak and contemplate the universe. When the bombs destroyed the oak, the prisoners in Buchenwald cheered. ( See "The Real Enemy" by Pierre D'Harcourt, Charles Scribner's sons, 1967.)
Basic Premise: I sense the central thesis of Friedrich's book is that indiscriminate bombing amounts to nothing more than the killing of the innocent.
Every time that Jörg Friedrich lists the number of people killed... as, on page 407, the Cologne raid "...left in its wake ...644 dead",
I recall the slogan painted on the ruins of German cities: "For this we thank the Führer".
On page 403, the children were sent away for their protection: Kinderlandverschnicksung. This measure was unpopular as the children were put into the hands of the Hitler Youth. Jörg writes, "Think of the moral neglect". For this we thank the Führer. Some of the children of Munich returned and "...heavy raids killed 435 children". To protect their children, the English sent them across the Atlantic to Canada and the United States. Nazi submarines sank ships carrying these innocent children in the coldness of the North Atlantic. Are the English children dead in the cold any less dead than the German children dead in the heat of the bombs? For this we thank the Führer. The Luftwaffe killed some 400,000 or so in Leningrad and Stalingrad, and other Russian cities. For this we thank the Führer.
Some day, perhaps, Jörg Friedrich can write a book about the horrors of being ripped from your Polish mother's arms and carried away to Auschwitz. When he is done with book, he can give infinite details of the horror of being brought to Buchenwald to die of starvation. After that Chemnitz. Dachau. Und so weiter. For this we thank the Führer.
After having said all of this, I believe that the book still deserves five stars...just think of all the details and all the work! I would have written a different book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Germany's massacre
Comment: I was looking for some facts about these bombings. I could find some here, some there. This book gives you virtually everything on this account. This is a treasure chest of facts. It's not a well-structured story but a mammoth collection of recorded events, facts, numbers and witness accounts. The book is about how Germany took a deathly blow, how she was ruined, and how innocent people died.
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