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THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!Also on the USA Today, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Globe and Mail, Publishers Weekly, and Indie bestseller lists.One of the most important stories of World War II, already optioned by Steven Spielberg for a major motion picture: a spectacular, searing history that brings to light the extraordinary accomplishments of brave Jewish women who became resistance fighters—a group of unknown heroes whose exploits have never been chronicled in full, until now.Witnesses to the brutal murder of their families and neighbors and the violent destruction of their communities, a cadre of Jewish women in Poland—some still in their teens—helped transform the Jewish youth groups into resistance cells to fight the Nazis. With courage, guile, and nerves of steel, these “ghetto girls” paid off Gestapo guards, hid revolvers in loaves of bread and jars of marmalade, and helped build systems of underground bunkers. They flirted with German soldiers, bribed them with wine, whiskey, and home cooking, used their Aryan looks to seduce them, and shot and killed them. They bombed German train lines and blew up a town's water supply. They also nursed the sick, taught children, and hid families.Yet the exploits of these courageous resistance fighters have remained virtually unknown.As propulsive and thrilling as Hidden Figures, In the Garden of Beasts, and Band of Brothers, The Light of Days at last tells the true story of these incredible women whose courageous yet little-known feats have been eclipsed by time. Judy Batalion—the granddaughter of Polish Holocaust survivors—takes us back to 1939 and introduces us to Renia Kukielka, a weapons smuggler and messenger who risked death traveling across occupied Poland on foot and by train. Joining Renia are other women who served as couriers, armed fighters, intelligence agents, and saboteurs, all who put their lives in mortal danger to carry out their missions. Batalion follows these women through the savage destruction of the ghettos, arrest and internment in Gestapo prisons and concentration camps, and for a lucky few—like Renia, who orchestrated her own audacious escape from a brutal Nazi jail—into the late 20th century and beyond.Powerful and inspiring, featuring twenty black-and-white photographs, The Light of Days is an unforgettable true tale of war, the fight for freedom, exceptional bravery, female friendship, and survival in the face of staggering odds. NPR's Best Books of 2021National Jewish Book Award, 2021Canadian Jewish Literary Award, 2021

What could induce a young pilot to walk out onto the wing of his burning aircraft at 13,000 feet? Why would a plucky young woman descend into the bowels of a sinking ship knowing that she would almost certainly die there? Why did a family remain on their farm, tending crops while suffering four long years of deadly artillery shelling? How did a former fishing trawler sink one of Hitler's deadliest U-boats, and who were the two Australian nurses who protected wounded patients with their own bodies while experiencing a savage machine-gun attack? Why did a young naval apprentice keep rowing when his hands had been so badly burned, they were literally glued to his oar? And who were the two selfless ‘Dad's Army'soldiers who miraculously saved the lives of hundreds of their comrades even when it meant sacrificing their own? These and many other fascinating questions are answered in one of the most remarkable books of gallantry, fortitude and selfsacrifice you will ever read. Quiet Courage: Forgotten Heroes of World War Two is a book about thoughtful, intelligent actions and above all, an enviable capacity for bravery.

An award-winning historian plumbs the depths of Hitler and Stalin's vicious regimes, and shows the extent to which they brutalized the world around them.Two 20th century tyrants stand apart from all the rest in terms of their ruthlessness and the degree to which they changed the world around them. Briefly allies during World War II, Adolph Hitler and Josef Stalin then tried to exterminate each other in sweeping campaigns unlike anything the modern world had ever seen, affecting soldiers and civilians alike. Millions of miles of Eastern Europe were ruined in their fight to the death, millions of lives sacrificed. Laurence Rees has met more people who had direct experience of working for Hitler and Stalin than any other historian. Using their evidence he has pieced together a compelling comparative portrait of evil, in which idealism is polluted by bloody pragmatism, and human suffering is used casually as a political tool. It's a jaw-dropping description of two regimes stripped of moral anchors and doomed to destroy each other, and those caught up in the vicious magnetism of their leadership.

'A truly thrilling expose of the previously unknown Nazi assassination plot that could have changed history.'— Edward Jay Epstein, New York Times bestselling author of The Assassination ChroniclesThe New York Times bestselling author returns with a tale as riveting and suspenseful as any thriller: the true story of the Nazi plot to kill the leaders of the United States, Great Britain, and the U.S.S.R. during World War II.The mission: to kill the three most important and heavily guarded men in the world.The assassins: a specially trained team headed by the killer known as The Most Dangerous Man in Europe.The stakes: nothing less than the future of the Western world.The year is 1943 and the three Allied leaders—Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin—are meeting for the first time at a top-secret conference in Tehran. But the Nazis have learned about the meeting and Hitler sees it as his last chance to turn the tide. Although the war is undoubtedly lost, the Germans believe that perhaps a new set of Allied leaders might be willing to make a more reasonable peace in its aftermath. And so a plan is devised—code name Operation Long Jump—to assassinate FDR, Churchill, and Stalin.Immediately, a highly trained, hand-picked team of Nazi commandos is assembled, trained, armed with special weapons, and parachuted into Iran. They have six days to complete the daring assignment before the statesmen will return home. With no margin for error and little time to spare, Mike Reilly, the head of FDR's Secret Service detail—a man from a Montana silver mining town who describes himself as “an Irish cop with more muscle than brains”—must overcome his suspicions and instincts to work with a Soviet agent from the NKVD (the precursor to the KGB) to save the three most powerful men in the world.Filled with eight pages of black-and-white photographs, Night of the Assassins is a suspenseful true-life tale about an impossible mission, a ticking clock, and one man who stepped up to the challenge and prevented a world catastrophe.

“A must-read book that explores a vital pre-war effort [with] deep research and gripping writing.” —Washington TimesIn The rise of the G.I. Army, 1940–1941, Paul Dickson tells the dramatic story of how the American Army was mobilized from scattered outposts two years before Pearl Harbor into the disciplined and mobile fighting force that helped win World War II.In September 1939, when Nazi Germany invaded Poland and initiated World War II, America had strong isolationist leanings. The US Army stood at fewer than 200,000 men—unprepared to defend the country, much less carry the fight to Europe and the Far East. And yet, less than a year after Pearl Harbor, the American army led the Allied invasion of North Africa, beginning the campaign that would defeat Germany, and the Navy and Marines were fully engaged with Japan in the Pacific.Dickson chronicles this transformation from Franklin Roosevelt's selection of George C. Marshall to be Army Chief of Staff to the remarkable peace-time draft of 1940 and the massive and unprecedented mock battles in Tennessee, Louisiana, and the Carolinas by which the skill and spirit of the Army were forged and out of which iconic leaders like Eisenhower, Bradley, and Clark emerged. The narrative unfolds against a backdrop of political and cultural isolationist resistance and racial tension at home, and the increasingly perceived threat of attack from both Germany and Japan.

A poignant and powerful portrait of Europe in the years between 1939 and 1941—as the Nazi menace marches toward the greatest man-made catastrophe the world has ever experienced—Under a Darkening Sky focuses on a diverse group of expatriate Americans. Told through the eyes and observations of these characters caught up in these seismic events, the story unfolds alongside a war that slowly drags a reluctant United States into its violent embrace. This vibrant narrative takes these dramatic personalities and evokes the engagement between Europe and a reluctant America from September 3, 1939—when Britain declares war—through the tragedy of Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Robert Lyman's distinctively energetic storyline brings together a wide range of encounters, conversations, and memories, including individuals from across the social spectrum, from Josephine Baker to the young Americans who volunteered to fight in the RAF, as part of the famous “Eagle Squadrons.” Hundreds of young Americans—like the aces James Goodison, Art Donahue, and the wealthy playboy Billy Fiske—smuggled themselves into Canada so that they could volunteer for the cockpits of Spitfires and Hurricanes, as they flew against the deadly Luftwaffe over ever-darkening skies in London.

“The underbrush through which Mr. Paper cuts his way... would be challenging for any writer. But Mr. Paper, with an eye for character and an easy narrative style, manages to keep his subject interesting.... And even though we know how it's all going to end, Mr. Paper manages to add a measure of suspense to his narrative — a tribute to his abilities as a writer.” —The Washington Times This is not just another book about Pearl Harbor. It is the story of Joseph Grew, America's ambassador to Japan, and his frantic effort in the months before the Pearl Harbor attack to orchestrate an agreement between Japan and the United States to avoid the war he saw coming. It is a story filled with hope and heartache, with complex and fascinating characters, and with a drama befitting the momentous decisions at stake. And more than that, it is a story that has never been told. In those months before the Pearl Harbor attack, Japan and the United States were locked in a battle of wills. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's economic sanctions were crippling Japan. America's noose was tightening around Japan's neck — but the country's leaders refused to yield to American demands. In this cauldron of boiling tensions, Joseph Grew offered many recommendations to break the deadlock. Having resided and worked in Tokyo for almost ten years, Grew understood what Roosevelt and his administration back home did not: that the Japanese would rather face annihilation than endure the humiliation of surrendering to American pressure. The President and his administration saw little need to accept their ambassador's recommendations. The administration's policies, they believed, were sure to succeed. And so, with increasing urgency, Grew tried to explain to the President and his administration that Japan's mindset could not be gauged by Western standards of logic and that the administration's policies could lead Japan to embark on a suicidal war with the United States “with dangerous and dramatic suddenness.” Relying on Grew's diaries, letters and memos, interviews with members of the families of Grew and his staff, and an abundance of other primary source materials, Lew Paper presents the gripping story of Grew's effort to halt the downward spiral of Japan's relations with the United States. Grew had to wrestle with an American government that would not listen to him – and simultaneously confront an increasingly hostile environment in Japan, where pervasive surveillance, arbitrary arrest, and even unspeakable torture by Japan's secret police were constant threats. In the Cauldron reads like a novel, but it is based on fact. And it is sure to raise questions whether the Pearl Harbor attack could have been avoided.

The Instant New York Times Bestseller'I could not put this extraordinary book down. Three Days at the Brink is a masterpiece: elegantly written, brilliantly conceived, and impeccably researched. This book not only sparkles but is destined to be a classic!” —Jay Winik, bestselling authorFrom the #1 bestselling author and award-winning anchor of Special Report with Bret Baier, comes the gripping lost history of the Tehran Conference, where FDR, Churchill, and Stalin plotted D-Day and the Second World War's endgame. With the fate of World War II in doubt and rumors of a Nazi assassination plot swirling, Franklin Roosevelt risked everything at a clandestine meeting that would change the course of history.November 1943: The Nazis and their Axis allies controlled nearly the entire European continent. Japan dominated the Pacific. Allied successes at Sicily and Guadalcanal had gained them modest ground but at an extraordinary cost. On the Eastern Front, the Soviet Red Army had been bled white. The path of history walked a knife's edge.That same month a daring gambit was hatched that would alter everything. The'Big Three'—Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin—secretly met for the first time to chart a strategy for defeating Adolf Hitler. Over three days in Tehran, Iran, this trio—strange bedfellows united by their mutual responsibility as heads of the Allied powers—made essential decisions that would direct the final years of the war and its aftermath. Meanwhile, looming over the covert meeting was the possible threat of a Nazi assassination plot, code-named Operation Long Jump. Before they left Tehran, the three leaders agreed to open a second front in the West, spearheaded by Operation Overload and the D-Day invasion of France at Normandy the following June. They also discussed what might come after the war, including dividing Germany and establishing the United Nations—plans that laid the groundwork for the postwar world order and the Cold War.Bestselling author and Fox News Channel anchor Bret Baier's new epic history, Three Days at the Brink, centers on these crucial days in Tehran, the medieval Persian city on the edge of the desert. Baier makes clear the importance of Roosevelt, who stood apart as the sole leader of a democracy, recognizing him as the lead strategist for the globe's future—the one man who could ultimately allow or deny the others their place in history. With new details discovered in rarely seen transcripts, oral histories, and declassified State Department and presidential documents from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Baier illuminates the complex character of Roosevelt, revealing a man who grew into his role and accepted the greatest challenge any American president since Lincoln had faced.

A U.S. fighter pilot captured by the enemy. A father determined to rescue his son. One of the most remarkable and moving true stories of faith and perseverance to come out of World War II. October 6, 1944. Twenty-year-old Army Air Corps Second Lieutenant David “Mac” Warren MacArthur was on a strafing mission over Greece when a round of 88-mm German anti-aircraft flak turned his P-38 Lightning into a comet of fire and smoke. Dave parachuted to safety as the Lightning lived up to her name and struck the Adriatic Sea like a bolt of flames. In minutes, he was plucked from the water—only to find himself on the wrong end of a German rifle pointing straight at his head. Dave's father, Lieutenant Colonel Vaughn MacArthur, was a chaplain with the 8th Armored Division of Patton's Third Army when he learned of his son's capture. He made it his personal mission to find him. For the duration of the war, as Dave was shuttled from camp to camp—including Dachau—his father never stopped searching. Then in May 1945, Vaughn's last hope was Stalag VII-A in Moosburg, Germany. Through the barbed wire fence, he cried out his son's name. Incredibly, out of tens of thousands of POWs, one of them, squinting into the sunlight, turned and smiled. Father and son spent the next two weeks together celebrating, a forever cherished memory. Over the next twenty-five years, Dave would go on to honor his father on rescue missions of his own, becoming a highly decorated and genuine American war hero. In both Korea and Vietnam, Dave would carry with him the legacy of a great man who gave everything to save his son. An inspiring, harrowing, and unforgettable chronicle of love of family and love of country, Lightning Sky is a timeless testament to extraordinary lives in extraordinary times.

In this singular book written during World War Two, Bertolt Brecht presents a devastating visual and lyrical attack on war under modern capitalism.He takes photographs from newspapers and popular magazines, and adds short lapidary verses to each in a unique attempt to understand the truth of war using mass media.Pictures of catastrophic bombings, propaganda portraits of leading Nazis, scenes of unbearable tragedy on the battlefield - all these images contribute to an anthology of horror, from which Brecht's perceptions are distilled in poems that are razor-sharp, angry and direct.The result is an outstanding literary memorial to World War Two and one of the most spontaneous, revealing and moving of Brecht's works.

This is a comprehensive reference to the structure, operation, aircraft and men of the 1st Tactical Air Force, or Desert Air Force as it became known. It was formed in North Africa to support the 8th Army and included squadrons from the RAF, SAAF, RAAF and eventually the USAAF. The book includes descriptions of many notable defensive and offensive campaigns, the many types of aircraft used, weapons and the airfields that played host to these events. The five main sections of the book include a general historical introduction and overview, operations, operational groups, aircrew training and technical details of each aircraft type. Lengthy annexes cover personnel, the squadrons in World War II, accuracy of attacks, orders of battle for each wartime year, maps of airfield locations and numbers of enemy aircraft downed.

This new study provides a concise, accessible introduction to occupied Europe. It gives a clear overview of the history and historiography of resistance and collaboration. It explores how these terms cannot be examined separately, but are always entangled.Covering Europe from east to west, this book aims to explore the evolution of scholarly approaches to resistance and collaboration. Not limiting itself to any one area, it looks at armed struggle, daily life, complicity and rescue, the Catholic Church, and official and public memory since the end of the war.

A terrifying series of short poems by one of the world's leading playwrights, set to images of World War IIIn this singular book written during World War Two, Bertolt Brecht presents a devastating visual and lyrical attack on war under modern capitalism. He takes photographs from newspapers and popular magazines, and adds short lapidary verses to each in a unique attempt to understand the truth of war using mass media. Pictures of catastrophic bombings, propaganda portraits of leading Nazis, scenes of unbearable tragedy on the battlefield — all these images contribute to an anthology of horror, from which Brecht's perceptions are distilled in poems that are razor-sharp, angry and direct. The result is an outstanding literary memorial to World War Two and one of the most spontaneous, revealing and moving of Brecht's works.

Beneath the Killing Fields of the Western Front still lies a hidden landscape of industrialised conflict virtually untouched since 1918. This subterranean world is an ambiguous environment filled with material culture that that objectifies the scope and depth of human interaction with the diverse conflict landscapes of modern war. Covering the military reasoning for taking the war underground, as well as exploring the way that human beings interacted with these extraordinary alien environments, this book provides a more all-encompassing overview of the Western Front. The underground war was intrinsic to trench warfare and involved far more than simply trying to destroy the enemys trenches from below. It also served as a home to thousands of men, protecting them from the metallic landscapes of the surface. With the aid of cutting edge fieldwork conducted by the author in these subterranean locales, this book combines military history, archaeology and anthropology together with primary data and unique imagery of British, French, German and American underground defences in order to explore the realities of subterranean warfare on the Western Front, and the effects on the human body and mind that living and fighting underground inevitably entailed.

An epic narrative of World War II naval action that brings to life the sailors and exploits of the war's most decorated destroyer squadron.When Admiral William Halsey selected Destroyer Squadron 21 (Desron 21) to lead his victorious ships into Tokyo Bay to accept the Japanese surrender, it was the most battle-hardened US naval squadron of the war.But it was not the squadron of ships that had accumulated such an inspiring resume; it was the people serving aboard them. Sailors, not metallic superstructures and hulls, had won the battles and become the stuff of legend. Men like Commander Donald MacDonald, skipper of the USS O'Bannon, who became the most decorated naval officer of the Pacific war; Lieutenant Hugh Barr Miller, who survived his ship's sinking and waged a one-man battle against the enemy while stranded on a Japanese-occupied island; and Doctor Dow'Doc'Ransom, the beloved physician of the USS La Vallette, who combined a mixture of humor and medical expertise to treat his patients at sea, epitomize the sacrifices made by all the men and women of World War II.Through diaries, personal interviews with survivors, and letters written to and by the crews during the war, preeminent historian of the Pacific theater John Wukovits brings to life the human story of the squadron that bested the Japanese in the Pacific and helped take the war to Tokyo.

This book examines Jewish life in Vienna just after the Nazi-takeover in 1938. Who were Vienna's Jews, how did they react and respond to Nazism, and why? Drawing upon the voices of the individuals and families who lived during this time, together with new archival documentation, Ilana Offenberger reconstructs the daily lives of Vienna's Jews from Anschluss in March 1938 through the entire Nazi occupation and the eventual dissolution of the Jewish community of Vienna. Offenberger explains how and why over two-thirds of the Jewish community emigrated from the country, while one-third remained trapped. A vivid picture emerges of the co-dependent relationship this community developed with their German masters, and the false hope they maintained until the bitter end. The Germans murdered close to one third of Vienna's Jewish population in the “final solution” and their family members who escaped the Reich before 1941 chose never to return; they remained dispersed across the world. Thisis not a triumphant history. Although the overwhelming majority survived the Holocaust, the Jewish community that once existed was destroyed.

For many years the importance and contribution of the Hawker Hurricane was eclipsed by the Spitfire but statistically the Hurricane was superior in the majority of cases. Thanks to Tommy Sopwiths initiative and gamble the Hurricane was ready at the outbreak of the Second World War and in service throughout.As this superbly researched book reveals by examining the roles, actions and personalities of ten Hurricane squadrons, this iconic aircraft was not only exceptionally robust but astonishingly versatile. We track its performance from the Battle of France and Britain through the Middle East, Italy and on to Burma. It excelled as day and night interceptor, intruder and importantly as a rocket firing tank buster.The Hurricane inspired great loyalty among its pilots and their colourful personalities and thrilling experiences make this splendid book an informative and entertaining read.

Bravery, patriotism, and sacrifice marked the women caught up in conflict during the Second World War. This special collection of three books tells the stories of a young airwoman, prisoners of war, and women in service. Includes:The Accidental Captives: The Story of Seven Women Along in Nazi GermanyIn April 1941, a passenger ship sailing from New York to Cape Town was attacked and sunk by a German raider. The passengers were pulled from the water and transported to Nazi-occupied France, where the majority were released. Among those left behind were seven Canadian women. This is the tale of the year they spent together in Germany. Greatcoats and Glamour Boots: Canadian Women at War, 1939-1945The colourful story of Canada's forgotten women who volunteered for service during the Second World War. Props on Her Sleeves: The Wartime Letters of a Canadian AirwomanA first-hand account of the experiences of a young Canadian airwoman who served both in Canada and on overseas duty, this series of 150 letters brings home the day-to-day immediacy of life in uniform during the Second World War.

In the 12 months of 1945, the world was radically reshaped: both Hitler's Germany and imperial Japan fell to Allied armies, in scenes of death and destruction that still defy belief. A new world order began to emerge, as the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. began their long Cold War duel, the United Nations was founded, and Europe's colonial empires began to collapse. New technologies unleashed by the war-radar, computers, rockets and atomic power-began to revolutionize our lives. At home, millions flocked to new suburban homes, television began to replace radio, and returning vets sparked an era-defining'baby boom.'Now TIME captures all these earth-shaking events in 1945: The Year That Changed the World. Join us as vintage photos, illuminating graphics and fascinating'then and now'stories recapture the sense of turmoil, hope and change that followed history's greatest conflict.

Europe's second Thirty Years'War—an epoch of blood and ashesFire and Blood looks at the European crisis of the two world wars as a single historical sequence: the age of the European Civil War (1914–1945). Its overture was played out in the trenches of the Great War; its coda on a ruined continent. It opened with conventional declarations of war and finished with “unconditional surrender.” Proclamations of national unity led to eventual devastation, with entire countries torn to pieces. During these three decades of deepening conflicts, a classical interstate conflict morphed into a global civil war, abandoning rules of engagement and fought by irreducible enemies rather than legitimate adversaries, each seeking the annihilation of its opponents. It was a time of both unchained passions and industrial, rationalized massacre. Utilizing multiple sources, Enzo Traverso depicts the dialectic of this era of wars, revolutions and genocides. Rejecting commonplace notions of “totalitarian evil,” he rediscovers the feelings and reinterprets the ideas of an age of intellectual and political commitment when Europe shaped world history with its own collapse.

During the six years of the Second World War, Canadian fighter pilots flew and fought with great distinction in every theatre of war to which Commonwealth fighter forces were deployed. All the Fine Young Eagles captures the spirit and magnitude of the Canadian contribution, which began in Europe's Low Countries in 1940 and ended among the Japanese Home Islands in 1945. In keeping with the country's developing autonomy, Canadians served in both RAF and RCAF units, fighting with great courage in their Spitfires, Hurricanes, Kittyhawks and Typhoons.All the Fine Young Eagles collects the wartime diaries and postwar reminiscences from a great variety of the Canadian fighter pilots who served in World War II. Their vivid first-hand accounts take the reader into the cockpit to experience dogfights, tactical manoeuvres, forced landings and injuries, as well as the often tedious periods between engagements. They also illuminate the day-to-day living conditions on base and include humorous accounts of the vivid personalities and lighter moments of wartime.To provide context for their stories, Bashow's authoritative voice offers both a large-scale historical framework and detailed information about tactics, equipment and people, including such famous flying aces as'Buzz'Beurling and'Moose'Fumerton.This updated second edition contains a substantial amount of new material that veterans have contributed since the publication of the first edition.

A scathing attack on Wall Street's illegal ties to Nazi Germany before WWII—and the postwar whitewashing of Nazi business leaders by the US government Prior to World War II, German industry was controlled by an elite group who had used their money and influence to help bring the Nazi Party to power. After the Allies had successfully occupied Germany and removed the Third Reich, the process of reconstructing the devastated nation's economy began under supervision of the US government. James Stewart Martin, who had assisted the Allied forces in targeting key areas of German industry for aerial bombardment, returned to Germany as the director of the Division for Investigation of Cartels and External Assets in American Military Government, a position he held until 1947. Martin was to break up the industrial machine these cartels controlled and investigate their ties to Wall Street. What he discovered was shocking. Many American corporations had done business with German corporations who helped fund the Nazi Party, despite knowing what their money was supporting. Effectively, Wall Street's greed had led them to aid Hitler and hinder the Allied effort. Martin's efforts at decartelization were unsuccessful though, largely due to hindrance from his superior officer, an investment banker in peacetime. In conclusion, he said, “We had not been stopped in Germany by German business. We had been stopped in Germany by American business.” This exposé on economic warfare, Wall Street, and America's military industrial complex includes a new introduction by Christopher Simpson, author of Blowback:America's Recruitment of Nazis and Its Destructive Impact on Our Domestic and Foreign Policy, and a new foreword from investigative journalist Hank Albarelli.

This book explores the Holocaust as a social process. Although the mass murder of European Jews was essentially the result of political-ideological decisions made by the Nazi state leadership, the events of the Holocaust were also part of a social dynamic. All European societies experienced developments that led to the social exclusion, persecution and murder of the continent's Jews. This volume therefore questions Raul Hilberg´s category of the ‘bystander'. In societies where the political order expects citizens to endorse the exclusion of particular groups in the population, there cannot be any completely uninvolved bystanders. Instead, this book examines the multifarious forms of social action and behaviour connected with the Holocaust. It focuses on institutions and persons, helpers, co-perpetrators, facilitators and spectators, beneficiaries and profiteers, as well as Jewish victims and Jewish organisations trying to cope with the dynamics of exclusion and persecution.

Experience the history, politics, and tragedy of World War II as you've never seen it before with original, often firsthand daily reportage of The New York Times, our country's newspaper of record.The Times'complete coverage of World War II is now available for the first time in this unique package. Hundreds of the most riveting articles from the archives of the Times including firsthand accounts of major events and little-known anecdotes have been selected for inclusion in The New York Times: The Complete World War II. The book covers the biggest battles of the war, from the Battle of the Bulge to the Battle of Iwo Jima, as well as moving stories from the home front and profiles of noted leaders and heroes such as Winston Churchill and George Patton.A respected World War II historian and writer, editor Richard Overy guides readers through the articles, putting the events into historical context. The enclosed DVD-ROM gives access to more day-by-day coverage of World War II in The New York Times -- from the invasion of Poland to V-J day with access to over 98,000 articles.Beautifully designed and illustrated with hundreds of maps and historical photographs, it's the perfect gift for any war, politics, or history buff.

'The most significant issue that Dockrill addresses is that of how Japan views the war in retrospect, a question which not only tells us a lot about how events were seen in Japan in 1941 but is also, a matter still of importance in contemporary East Asian politics.'Antony Best, London School of Economics This multi-authored work, edited by Saki Dockrill, is an original, unique, and controversial interpretation of the Second World War in Asia and the Pacific. Dr Dockrill, the author of Britain's Policy for West German Rearmament, has skilfully converted the proceedings of an international conference held in London into a stimulating and readable account of the Pacific War. This is a valuable contribution to our knowledge of the subject.

Nazi Germany and Southern Europe, 1933-45 is about transnational fascist discourse. It addresses the cultural and scientific links between Nazi Germany and Southern Europe focusing on a hybrid international environment and an intricate set of objects that include individual, social, cultural or scientific networks and events.

The development of air transport in the early 20th Century led military strategists to examine the concept of inserting light infantry at key points behind enemy lines by air landing and air drop.The Germans were first off-the-mark with assaults in Norway and at Eben Emael in 1940. Crete saw a larger scale attack but while ultimately victorious the cost of men and equipment involved deterred any further Axis operation.The Allies on the other hand developed the concept dramatically with the large scale operation HUSKY in Sicily. While only partially successful there was massive loss of life and aircraft airborne operations were a key, if relatively minor, element of Op OVERLORD The D-Day Invasion.The most famous airborne operation was the large scale but ill-fated MARKET GARDEN. Almost successful the Arnhem battle goes down as a heroic defeat. The culmination of WWII airborne operations was the multi-division Rhine Crossing VARSITY.Expert author and collector Roy Stanley traces the history of airborne landings in words and pictures.

This classic study is considered essential reading for its analysis of fast aircraft carrier development in WWII. It provides a fascinating record not only of the U.S. Navy's metamorphosis from a battleship-oriented to a carrier-centered fleet, but also of the heated debates that took place over the changing naval strategy. With an insider's grasp of the famous individuals involved, award-winning naval historian Clark G. Reynolds takes readers from the war rooms of Washington to the flight decks of the Pacific. He vividly describes the battles over the concept of fast carriers between the air admirals and battleship admirals and offers little-known details gleaned from personal interviews and private diaries.

Places of Memory examines the post-war history of the site where the 1942 Wannsee Conference was held. The author analyses the different uses of the house to investigate how a site turns into a site of memory.

The “extraordinarily informed” account of how US cryptographers broke Japan's Purple cipher to change the course of World War II (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).Marching Orders tells the story of how the American military's breaking of the Japanese diplomatic Purple codes during World War II led to the defeat of Nazi Germany and hastened the end of the devastating conflict. With unprecedented access to over one million pages of US Army documents and thousands of pages of top-secret messages dispatched to Tokyo from the Japanese embassy in Berlin, author Bruce Lee offers a series of fascinating revelations about pivotal moments in the war. Challenging conventional wisdom, Marching Orders demonstrates how an American invasion of Japan would have resulted in massive casualties for both forces. Lee presents a thrilling day-by-day chronicle of the difficult choices faced by the American military brain trust and how, aware of Japan's adamant refusal to surrender, the United States made the fateful decision to drop nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Hailed as “one of the most important books ever published on World War II” by Robert T. Crowley, an intelligence officer who later became a senior executive at the CIA, Marching Orders unveils the untold stories behind some of the Second World War's most critical events, bringing them to vivid life. With this book, “many of the mysteries that have eluded historians since the end of the war are much clarified: the Pearl Harbor fiasco, D-Day, why the Americans let the Russians capture Berlin, and why the decision to drop the atomic bomb was made. This is the most significant publication about World War II since the recent series of books on the Ultra revelations” (Library Journal). It's a story that, as historian Robin W. Winks said, “no one with the slightest interest in World War II or in the origins of the Cold War can afford to ignore.”

The Guadalcanal campaign began with an amphibious assault in August 1942 – the US's first attempt to take the fight to the Japanese. It escalated into a desperate attritional battle on land, air, and sea, and by the time the Japanese had evacuated the last of their forces from the island in 1943, it was clear that the tide of the war had turned. The inexorable Japanese advance and the myth of Japanese invincibility shattered. In this new study of the campaign, Pacific War expert Mark Stille draws on both US and Japanese sources to give a balanced and comprehensive account of a crucial, brutal conflict. Analyzing the three Japanese attempts to retake the island in the face of ferocious American resistance, this book shows how the battle was won and lost, and how it affected the outcome of the Pacific War as a whole.

Alarming levels of fear and suspicion developed in Australia following the German victories in Europe of 1940. It was believed the Nazis had prepared an army of subversives a Fifth Column to undermine the war effort. These suspicions plagued the Australian home front for much of the war.

Winner of the Plutarch Award for Best BiographyNational Book Critics Circle Award FinalistPEN Literary Award FinalistNew York Times Notable BookWashington Post Notable BookBoston Globe Best Book of the YearThe award-winning author of Villa Air-Bel returns with a painstakingly researched, revelatory biography of Svetlana Stalin, a woman fated to live her life in the shadow of one of history's most monstrous dictators—her father, Josef Stalin.Born in the early years of the Soviet Union, Svetlana Stalin spent her youth inside the walls of the Kremlin. Communist Party privilege protected her from the mass starvation and purges that haunted Russia, but she did not escape tragedy—the loss of everyone she loved, including her mother, two brothers, aunts and uncles, and a lover twice her age, deliberately exiled to Siberia by her father.As she gradually learned about the extent of her father's brutality after his death, Svetlana could no longer keep quiet and in 1967 shocked the world by defecting to the United States—leaving her two children behind. But although she was never a part of her father's regime, she could not escape his legacy. Her life in America was fractured; she moved frequently, married disastrously, shunned other Russian exiles, and ultimately died in poverty in Wisconsin.With access to KGB, CIA, and Soviet government archives, as well as the close cooperation of Svetlana's daughter, Rosemary Sullivan pieces together Svetlana's incredible life in a masterful account of unprecedented intimacy. Epic in scope, it's a revolutionary biography of a woman doomed to be a political prisoner of her father's name. Sullivan explores a complicated character in her broader context without ever losing sight of her powerfully human story, in the process opening a closed, brutal world that continues to fascinate us.Illustrated with photographs.

Max Hastings's “exceptional” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) account of the famous World War II D-Day landings “[will] stand with that of the best journalists and writers who witnessed it” (The New York Times Book Review).On June 6, 1944, the American and British armies staged the greatest amphibious landing in history—called Operation Overlord—the battle for the liberation of Europe. Despite the Allies'absolute command of sea and air and vast firepower, it took ten weeks of fierce fighting for them to overpower the tenacious, superbly skilled German army. Forty years later, British war correspondent and military historian Max Hastings shares a dense, dramatic portrait of the Normandy invasion that overturns the traditional legends. First published in 1984, Overlord “will shock those who regard the invasion of Normandy and the subsequent battles as triumphs of American, British, and Canadian military heroism” (The New York Times). Instead, Hastings provides a brilliant, controversial perspective on the devastating battles, based on the eyewitness accounts of survivors from both sides, plus a wealth of previously untapped sources and documents. “A masterly book, rich in insight, shrewd and weighty in judgement…Max Hastings stands in the first rank of writers on modern war” (Financial Times).

“Entertaining history…Donovan was a combination of bold innovator and imprudent rule bender, which made him not only a remarkable wartime leader but also an extraordinary figure in American history” (The New York Times Book Review).He was one of America's most exciting and secretive generals—the man Franklin Roosevelt made his top spy in World War II. A mythic figure whose legacy is still intensely debated, “Wild Bill” Donovan was director of the Office of Strategic Services (the country's first national intelligence agency) and the father of today's CIA. Donovan introduced the nation to the dark arts of covert warfare on a scale it had never seen before. Now, veteran journalist Douglas Waller has mined government and private archives throughout the United States and England, drawn on thousands of pages of recently declassified documents, and interviewed scores of Donovan's relatives, friends, and associates to produce a riveting biography of one of the most powerful men in modern espionage. Wild Bill Donovan reads like an action-packed spy thriller, with stories of daring young men and women in the OSS sneaking behind enemy lines for sabotage, breaking into Washington embassies to steal secrets, plotting to topple Adolf Hitler, and suffering brutal torture or death when they were captured by the Gestapo. It is also a tale of political intrigue, of infighting at the highest levels of government, of powerful men pitted against one another. Separating fact from fiction, Waller investigates the successes and the occasional spectacular failures of Donovan's intelligence career. It makes for a gripping and revealing portrait of this most controversial spymaster.

The Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy served with distinction in every theatre of war throughout World War II. From its poorly equipped beginnings it started the war with few suitable, modern, carrier-born fighters to the final campaigns over the Japanese home islands, the FAA proved an effective fighting force wherever it went. FAA Pilots had the distinction of being responsible for both the first, and last, enemy aircraft to be shot down during the war. Featuring first hand accounts, combat reports, photographs from private collections and an array of colour plates depicting the range of profiles and symbolic markings that were used, this book will detail the history and combat experiences of these forgotten pilots who served with such distinction for the Allied cause.

Although most famous for their role in the Battle of Britain, many Spitfire squadrons also served in the Mediterranean theatre, aiding the Allied victories in North Africa and later in the invasion of Italy. Numerous pilots, both Royal Air Force and South African Spitfire squadrons, made ace during these engagements. This book tells their story.

The Americans lagged behind their European contemporaries in military aviation in the late 1930s, and it took the Battle of Britain to awaken America to the necessity of having aircraft that could defend targets against night-time attack by bomber aircraft. This book examines the numerous aircraft types that were used by the US in this role, beginning with the early stop-gap conversions like the TBM Avenger, Lockheed Ventura and the A-20 Havoc (P-70). It goes on to detail the combat history of the newer, radar-equipped Hellcats, Corsairs and Black Widows that were designed to seek out enemy aircraft and which registered most of the kills made by the Navy, Marine Corps and USAAF in 1944–45. With full-colour profiles and rare photographs, this is an absorbing account of an underestimated flying force: the American Nightfighters.

This was a duel between the stalwart of the Wehrmacht armored divisions the Panzerkampfwagen III and the American's as yet untested M3 Grant. In reality both would prove unequal to the task as they floundered amidst the rugged hills and ravines of the Tunisian landscape. This book charts the design and development of these two disparate rivals their vastly different armament and armor as well as their tactical concepts. Analysing the strengths and weaknesses of these two opponents, this book explores the successes and failures of the Grant and Panzer III as they clashed at the critical battles of North Africa. Moreover it is an insight into the lives of the tank crews themselves as they struggled with the twin horrors of tank warfare and the fight for survival amidst some of the most inhospitable terrain on earth.

The outbreak of World War II set in motion a massive expansion of the United States Marine Corps, leading to a 24-fold increase in size by August 1945. This book is the first of several volumes to examine the Corps's meteoric wartime expansion and the evolution of its units. It covers the immediate pre-war period, the rush to deploy defense forces in the war's early months, and the Marines'first combat operations on Guadalcanal, New Georgia, and Bougainville. It focuses on the 1st, 2d, and 3d Marine Divisions (MarDivs) and the provisional 1st, 2d, and 3d Marine Brigades (MarBdes).

The delivery of entire divisions to battlefields behind enemy lines by parachute and glider was a unique feature of World War II, and by the end of the war the US Army deployed the largest airborne force in the world, created in only three years, and boasting such impressive units as the 82nd'All American'and 101st'Screaming Eagles.'This book details the organization and operation history of these units throughout the war in Northwest Europe from 1944 to 1945, covering the desperate night drops over Normandy in support of the D-Day invasions, through the capture of Nijmegen during Operation Market-Garden to Operation Varsity, the last great airborne operation of the war to secure the crossing of the Rhine.

From 1940 to 1943 North Africa saw the first major desert campaign by modern mechanised armies. The British, Italians, German Afrika Korps and US Army all addressed and learned from the special problems human, logistical, mechanical and tactical of the desert environment, most significantly fighting in a terrain empty of resources and offering little chance of concealment. Paddy Griffith traces the fast-learned development in armour, artillery and infantry tactics in this exceptional arena and illustrates them with references to the major engagements in the North African theatre, which involved some of the greatest tacticians of World War II in one of the pivotal theatres.

The American Volunteer Group, or'Flying Tigers', have remained the most famous outfit to see action in World War II. Manned by volunteers flying American aircraft acquired from the British, the AVG fought bravely in the face of overwhelming odds in China and Burma prior to the US entry into World War II. Pilots such as'Pappy'Boyington, R T Smith and John Petach became household names due to their exploits against the Japanese Army Air Force. The AVG legend was created flying the Curtis P-40 Tomahawk and Kittyhawk. This volume dispels the myths surrounding the colours and markings worn by these famous fighters.

Pilots of the Polish Air Force saw action from the first day of World War 2 until the final victory in Europe. Flying hopelessly outmoded P.11 fighters in defence of their country in September 1939, a handful of aviators inflicted serious losses on the Luftwaffe before being overwhelmed. The survivors escaped to then neutral Hungary and Romania, before being ordered to France by the new C-in-C of exiled Polish Armed Forces, General Sikorski. With the invasion of Western Europe in May 1940, the surviving pilots were once more thrust into desperate action in newly-formed Polish units

No single volume in English has ever appeared in the West dealing with this intriguing subject area, but now that restrictions have relaxed in the former Soviet Union, records of the deeds of the elite pilots of the various Soviet Air Forces are coming to light. Although initially equipped with very poor aircraft, and robbed of effective leadership thanks as much to Stalin's purges in the late 1930s as to the efforts of the Luftwaffe, Soviet fighter pilots soon turned the tables through the use of both lend-lease aircraft like the Hurricane, Spitfire, P-39 and P-40, and home-grown machines like the MiG-3, LaGG-3/5, Lavochkin La-5/7/9 and the Yak-1/3.

This volume details the experiences of 107 elite American aces in combat against the Japanese. The highest scoring US pilots of World War 2 fought against the Japanese Army Air Force and Imperial Japanese Navy over the jungles of New Guinea and the Philippines. Flying P-38s and P-47s, men such as Dick Bong and Thomas McGuire won the Medal of Honor for their successes in combat in 1943-45.'Twelve to One'is a rare document that details the'tricks of the trade'employed by these men. This volume also includes biographies of the men whose tips for aerial combat make up the text, and the V Fighter Command Manual.

The most produced Japanese bomber of the war the G4M saw action on every front from the first day of the Pacific conflict through to VJ-Day. The'Betty's'very long range made it a key weapon during the opening year of the war. However, to achieve this, the aircraft was built with very little protective armour for its crew or fuel tanks, and Allied pilots soon exposed its extreme vulnerability. In the first in a series of volumes examining the key Japanese aircraft of WW2, Dr Osamu Tagaya details the G4M's extensive combat history, and lists all the units which operated the bomber.

At the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, Germany's armoured forces the Panzerwaffe were still in their infancy. The restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles meant that German tank production lagged behind its enemies. Initial armour campaigns in Poland were not overly successful and changes were needed before the invasion of France. This book examines the organizational changes, developments in doctrine and tactics and improved command and control that provided the basis for the spectacular success of the Panzer divisions in 1940. Achieving tactical and operational surprise, the Panzer divisions broke through enemy defences, enveloping a large number of hostile forces at Dunkirk. The legend of the Blitzkrieg was born.

The Boeing B-17, which has come to epitomise the American war effort in Europe, took the fight to Germans from the late summer of 1942 through to VE-Day. Its primary operator in Western Europe was the'Mighty Eighth', who controlled 27 bomb groups for much of the war. This second of two volumes covers the 14 Bomb Groups of the Third Air Division. First hand accounts, period photography, profile artworks and nose art scrap views bring to life aircraft from each of the groups within the Third Air Division.

In 1940 a British offensive in the Western Desert provoked a major Italian military disaster. By early February 1941 the whole of Cyrenaica had been lost, and German help became necessary to avoid the loss of all of Libya. On 14 February 1941 the first echelons of German troops hurriedly arrived at the port of Tripoli, starting the 27-month German engagement in Northern Africa. This book covers the complex and oft-changing organisation and structure of German forces in North Africa from their first deployment through to the conclusion of the battle of El Alamein, an engagement that irrevocably changed the strategic situation in the Western Desert.