Berlin was at the very center of the Second World War. Moorhouse uses diaries, memoirs, and interviews to provide a searing first-hand account of life, death, and chaos in the Nazi capital.

Prologue : "Führerweather" -- Faith in the Führer -- A deadly necessity -- A guarded optimism -- Marching on their stomachs -- Brutality made stone -- Unwelcome strangers -- A taste of things to come -- Into oblivion -- An evil cradling -- The people's friend -- The watchers and the watched -- The persistent shadow -- Enemies of the state -- Against all odds -- Reaping the whirlwind -- To unreason and beyond -- Ghost town -- Epilogue : Hope.