The survivors of concentration and extermination camps-particularly the Jewish population-are the focus of the final section. Rather than focusing solely on Germany, Hitchcock begins with the organization's work in Egypt, Greece, and Italy before shifting focus to central Europe. The next two chapters center on relief efforts, most notably those conducted by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA). The second segment examines the Soviet advance westward into Germany, the planning for Germany's occupation, and the first months of the process of occupation. The first part focuses on the process of liberation of France, Belgium, and the Netherlands by the western Allies. While this work adds depth to the historical understanding of liberation by deluging the reader with contemporary accounts of the process, its main argument is muted, beyond a general presentation of the violence and destructiveness of the process itself. William Hitchcock accommodates his latest work-which heavily foregrounds eyewitness and contemporary accounts-to this emerging literature, as he focuses on the individual and regional impact of military liberation, the grueling impact of the fighting on civilian populations, the relief efforts mounted immediately following conflict, and the impact of liberation on those the military freed from confinement in camps, particularly Jews.
However, a new conception of liberation is emerging in literature on the Second World War, one that seeks to move beyond liberation as a moment in time to a complex process, involving political, military, and social restructuring. Within traditional historiography, discussion of liberation has focused mainly on the D-Day invasion, key battles in the Allied advances eastward and westward into Germany, and the exposure of concentration, prisoner-of-war, and extermination camps across Europe. In the context of World War II, popular perception of "liberation" is that of a triumph, the freeing of peoples and places from the clutches of the Nazis.
Hilton (Department of History, Muskingum College)
The Bitter Road to Freedom: A New History of the Liberation of Europe.
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