How they fought

I have such faith in our destiny that nothing can shake a confidence which is born from our long history, from our glorious past, as Dr Goebbels says. It's impossible that things turn out differently. We may have reached a very low point at this moment, but we have men who are decisive. The whole country is ready to march, weapons in hand. We have secret weapons which will be used at the chosen moment, and we have above all a Führer whom we can follow with our eyes closed. Don't allow yourself to be beaten down, you must not at any price.

From a letter written by a German woman to her soldier husband, a POW in France, during the Second World War.

We no longer fought for Hitler, or for National Socialism, or for the Third Reich, or even for our fiancées or mothers or families trapped in bomb-ravaged towns. We fought from simple fear ... We fought for ourselves, so that we wouldn't die in holes filled with mud and snow; we fought like rats.

From a letter written by a German soldier of the Grossdeutschland Division, stationed on the Eastern Front in early 1945.

Both quotes from The Fall of Berlin 1945 by Anthony Beevor.