Often enough when reading this, and the preceding Start, Shirer reminds one of the World's End series of the incomparable Upton Sinclair, they are so synchronised in their thinking and their mindset, but of course that is not to say they plagiarised - only that either both had the same spirit in viewing that era and probably pretty much most of what they saw through their lives, and perhaps they knew one another, spoke, corresponded, or at least read works of one another. The last alone would not of course bring about the similarities in writing to the extent that a shadow of one is visible to the mind's eye as one reads the other, it has to be a synchronicity of mind and spirit, at least in viewing the era around the two world wars and perhaps more too.
To anyone interested in that era, the first half of the twentieth century with its momentous events changing future of humanity, works of these writers are invaluable. And while Upton Sinclair writes in a novel form, Shirer published his diaries of the time, and memoirs, which are practically a small camera making one see it through his view. And this, Berlin Diary of the early years of the WWII, which began formally only in 1939 but of course was set in course to begin far earlier, is perhaps the most important witness account from someone who was neither a victim nor a perpetrator but an impartial observer.
Most of the diary consists of Shirer's everyday accounts of the happenings of what he saw, what he went through, but towards the end when he is set to leave Berlin to return home, he sets out his thoughts and analysis of the whole experience, of all he saw and more, and this provides a great insight to both the man that the author was even so young, and the times he lived in. For few then saw it quite as clearly as he did, most being affected by either fear or apathy, or selfish interests or even being willingly fooled or charmed by the nazis and their agents that worked hard enough to make that happen. Perhaps there were more such men who were not fooled, and a few names come to mind - F.D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and others of British who were not pro nazi, Upton Sinclair - but the rest of the world was only made aware of just how evil the nazi ideology and rule was when at the end of the war the discoveries of the camps revolted and horrified the world for ever.
It is hard to imagine now anyone being fooled quite as much as most of the civilised world then was by the facade, but perhaps that is just as much an illusion - racism, anti-semitism and other forms thereof including of course, hugely, misogyny, pervades the world, still pretty much, so much so most people are unaware of just how much they are confused about it all. Some confuse nationalism with nazi ideology just because of the name, others claim equality is about all women being equal (which is convenient for those that would deny equality to women and leave status quo re male domination intact, of course), and more.
All the more then, one needs to not forget that era when civilisation came close to perishing, and survived only by a miracle or more; one needs to know about what people went through, what they saw, what they experienced living in Europe during those years.
