THE year 1945 marked the end of World Wart II in Europe and then, a little later, in the Far East.

It sparked scenes in many parts of the world of uninhibited jubilation. Dancing, even love-making, in the streets and merry-making on a scale never before witnessed anywhere.

But after the last hurrahs the grim truth started to emerge. The discovery of millions of people slaughtered, maimed or starved in the name of Nazi-ism, millions homeless or dying as cities all across Europe lay in ruins, prolonged austerity, with no end in sight of food shortages, ugly revenge wreaked on those women, particularly in France, who had fraternised - to put it politely - with their German invaders. Corruption was rife while black-marketeers exploited the misery of the people.

Indeed, the author, Ian Buruma, of this masterly book points out that in some people's opinion the war did not really end until 1989, with the collapse of the Soviet Empire and the freeing of those many eastern European states from the shackles of Communist terror.

Well-written, immensely readable and impeccably researched, this book should be compulsory reading.

Some of it is shocking, and some descriptions are not for the queasy: for instance the horrific privations of those who lived through the concentration camps in conditions of unbelievable filth and squalor.

When some of the allied liberation troops offered the grotesquely malnourished inmates a biscuit, these victims died almost immediately - their digestive organs were so gnarled up with years of starvation that even a biscuit was too much for them.

This volume should be on the shelves of every serious reader who has a conscience.

Rating: 9/10
Review: Chris Moncrieff