Gravitas: Autumn in Hell

Review of Stig Dagerman's GERMAN AUTUMN.

Dagerman_German coverWhen what was left of the German leadership finally surrendered to the Allied forces in 1945, Germany was a devastated nation – politically, economically, socially, and physically. Its population, terrorized by the supporters of the cult of personality of its totalitarian leader, had already suffered over a decade of fear and privation. Then in 1945 with the destruction of the remainder of the National Socialist government the control of the nation shifted to the occupying English, American, Russian, and French forces who, in their eagerness to “de-Nazify” the country (as well as to exact punishment upon it), set in place a host of tribunals and regulations that had the result of making life for the average German citizen worse than it had even been during the war.

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Published in: Gravitas
By: John E. Riütta