This book was a bit repetitive. Yet overall it was fascinating and disturbing to read. I had never given much thought to the experience of the German home front during the final phase of the war, nor had I ever wondered why the war did not end sooner. Hence I learned a lot. For a while I actually began to feel sorry for the German population ravaged by relentless bombing, terrorized or neglected by their own local leaders, and abused by the Soviet Army. But the book emphasizes the awful fate of the concentration camp prisoners and others deemed enemies of the state and concludes by reminding the reader that while the Germans were in a sense victims in the final months, they had enthusiastically participated in the regime in better days.