Shock and violence. [WWII]

>At the beginning of 1945 Germany witnessed the greatest killing frenzy that the world has ever seen, as military casualties reached their peak, the Allied bombing campaign was at its most intense, and millions of Germans fled westwards ahead of the Red Army. The violence which Germans now experienced in their daily lives was a profound shock, which pushed into the background their memories of the earlier phases of the war when they had the upper hand and were more often the perpetrators of violence than its victims. The effects of the shock of violence, of the trauma which 1945 signified for millions of Germans, can hardly be overestimated. __________________________________ **Source:** Bessel, Richard. “Introduction: To Hell and Back.” *Germany 1945: From War to Peace*. New York, NY, HarperCollins, 2009. 5. Print.