El final

Germany 1944-1945. When a catastrophic defeat loomed on the horizon in early 1945, Germans were sometimes heard to say that they preferred "an end with horror to horror without end". It was indeed "an end in horror" that they experienced, in a manner and magnitude unprecedented in history. The end caused destruction and loss on an immense scale. Much of this could have been avoided if Germany had been willing to compromise and accept the Allies' terms. For the Reich and the Nazi regime the refusal to contemplate capitulation before May 1945 was not only destructive but self-destructive.