By the end of April 1945 in Germany, the Third Reich had fallen and as the Red Army advanced, horrifying stories spread about the depravity of its soldiers. For many German people, there seemed to be nothing left but disgrace and the prospect of torture, and tens of thousands of them instead chose death for themselves and for their children. Using diaries, letters, and memoirs, Florian Huber traces the euphoria of many ordinary Germans as Hitler initially restored national pride; their indifference as the Führer's political enemies began to suffer; and the descent into despair as the war took its terrible toll, and suicide became a contagious epidemic.