On 1st of June, 1944, German troops controlled almost all of Europe.
By 1st of September, Hitler had barely survived an assassination attempt and the Allies were on the borders of the Reich. The end of the bloodiest war in history seemed imminent, but it would be another eight months until the collapse. And during this time, as many people died as in the previous five years.
In the summer of 1944, the death waltz began at a speed never previously thought possible. But life also flourished in the liberated cities and countries. The simultaneity of murder and joie de vivre is grippingly portrayed in Christian Bommarius‘s great narrative, a story that still astonishes.