Some 60 years on, it is difficult to reconcile the upbeat, thriving economy that is Germany today with the immediate post-war mood of guilt, shame and despair which the author movingly describes and which he lived through. He died in 1947.
“Nearly everybody lost faith, but in the end re-discovered a little bit of courage and hope,’’ he writes. His is powerful and personal and not an easy book to read but it deserves perseverance, as ultimately that “little bit of courage’’ comes through and the flicker of hope becomes stronger.
