Summary

Witnesses tell not only of the terror of flight but also of responsibility, guilt and innocence, hopes and fears in the years before and during the war. The story of East Prussia is the story of an eternal outpost. Prussia has always played a special role in Europe: as an island away from the German Empire, as a stronghold, as the home of a people with a unique language. Her dramatic downfall is just as unique. Consequently, Prussia became a myth. Beyond the Myth shows the East Prussians and their idiosyncrasies, their ambivalent ties to Germany, their fatal pact with Hitler, their fluctuation between ignorance and insight. East Prussia was at the forefront: a staging ground for campaigns, the site of Hitler’s headquarters, a gateway to the Red Army, the focal point of flight and expulsion.