Bastiaan Willems

British soldiers inspect the documents of former SS guards at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, 15 April 1943. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

‘Don’t Let’s Be Beastly to the Germans’ by Daniel Cowling review

In Don’t Let’s Be Beastly to the Germans: The British Occupation of Germany, 1945-49, Daniel Cowling brings lost stories to light – some of them, at least.

The Red Army storms Königsberg shortly before the collapse of the city on 9 April 1945. AFP/Getty Images.

The Battle of Königsberg

For the German military command, the citizens of East Prussia were not a concern; they were a weapon to be deployed in the Battle of Königsberg.