Pawel, A. Festung Harz. Der Todeszug der 11. Armee

The memory of the dramatic collapse of the Western Front in Central Germany is slowly sinking into the darkness of history today, 70 years after the end of World War 2. But shortly before the end of the war, the Harz mountains were declared a fortress. The last significant battles took place here, the last battle in the west of the Reich was fought here. Drawing on many sources and eyewitness accounts, the author tells of the dramatic retreat of the 11th Army. At the same time, he places its tragedy in the context of the collapsing Third Reich, describes the country and its people and the civil catastrophe of the war. Thus, the reader can by no means expect a typical war book. From Adelebsen Castle near Göttingen to the surrender in Blankenburg, the wartime furies rolling across the Harz Mountains become comprehensible. This account is supplemented by a fictional story about the diamond stick stolen by the SS in Amsterdam in 1940, which finds its way by adventurous means to the Harz mountains. A book that is as authentic as it is haunting about the painful past of the last days of the war in 1945 in the Harz mountains.