The Baltics suffered more than almost any other territory during World War II, caught between the vast military might of the German Wehrmacht and the Soviet Red Army. Initially devastated by the German invasion, these states became the site of some of the most vicious fighting during the Soviet counter-attack and the push towards Berlin. This book chronicles the cataclysmic experience of the region that includes modern-day Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia. Combining new archival research and numerous first-hand accounts, this is a magisterial description of conquest and exploitation, of death and deportation and the fight for survival both by countries and individuals.

Molotov, Ribbentrop and the first Soviet occupation --Rosenberg, Generalplan Ost and Preparations for Barbarossa -- The Wehrmacht in full flood -- The Baltic Holocaust -- Reluctant allies -- Narva, January to April 1944 -- Breaking the deadlock: summer 1944 -- From Doppelkopf to Cäsar -- The isolation of army group north -- Courland, October to December 1944 -- Endgame -- Aftermath.