Best of
German-Literature

2018

In the Face of Fear: The Authentic Holocaust Survival Story of the Weisz Family


Thomas Weisz - 2018
    Tomorrow they will be taken to the ghetto, the last step before deportation to Auschwitz and certain death. But one man defies the Nazis and seeks to deny them these victims. Alone, unarmed and crippled, Joseph Cseh, a smooth talking (black marketer), struggles to rescue the woman he loves and her entire family. Surrounded on all sides he stands up to the fascists, playing a life and death con game. But can he bluff the Gestapo and defeat an army? This is the amazing true story of the Weisz family and the man who took it upon himself to try and do some good in a world turned evil.

Enemies: A War Story


Kenneth Rosenberg - 2018
    From there, they traveled across the Pacific to Japan, and then on to occupied France, landing in that country on the very day that Germany declared war on the United States. Their epic adventure had suddenly taken a dark turn. Wolfgang Wergin and Herbie Haupt were American citizens, though German by birth. Both had lived in America since the age of five, yet now they were given a choice by German officials. They could join a Nazi sabotage mission heading back to the United States to blow up aluminum factories, or they could be drafted into the German army and sent to the Russian front. One of these young men chose the first option, and one the second. Only one of them would survive. While this fragment of history is mostly forgotten today, the episode became one of the most sensational news stories of its time, garnering intense national interest. "Enemies: A War Story" is a fictionalized version of this true story, sticking as close to the facts as possible. This is a novel that raises challenging questions about the meanings of patriotism, justice, and American morality during difficult times.

When the War is Over


Anja May - 2018
     The true account of a teenage soldier in World War 2 Germany. Germany, 1945. Ever since Anton Kohler first heard the vibrant sound of the violin, he’s dreamed of mastering the instrument. But when his father dies, the fifteen-year-old must give up his passion to support his seven younger siblings. As the Russian army marches closer to his hometown, Anton and his best friend Gerhard are pulled from their families and forced to help defend their home in a last desperate stand. When Anton witnesses the slaughter of concentration camp prisoners, he vows to escape the war and find a way home to his family and his girl, Luise. In the chaos of impending defeat, Anton is torn between his promise to protect the life of his best friend and his desire to survive the war with his conscience intact. Based on a true account, this coming-of-age story set in the last turbulent months of World War 2, Germany, is a tale of love and friendship, of hope and loss. Read When the War is Over now to experience the poignant journey of a teenage soldier.

Wood, Luck & Survival: The Journey of a Father and his Son Through the Holocaust Horrors


Reuven (Gutkin) Govrin - 2018
    When the German army invaded Riga, Latvian Jewry numbered about 95,000, of which only about 1,000 survived the war. The story of how Wood and luck somehow enabled Max and his father to survive the Holocaust, unlike so many, is riveting. The family business was engaged with forestry and wood, so Max, his older brother, and their father were forced to work in wood for the Nazis, while his mother and little brother were murdered. A harrowing journey replete with painful memories… The book traces their harrowing journey from work camp to work camp, a terrible choice that the father is forced to make, the aftermath of the war in Europe, and finally arrival in Israel. For 65 years Max silently bore the burden of these memories until the author led him on a path of discovery through his painful personal history. Scroll up now and get your copy of Wood, luck & survival!

A Spy In Vienna: A Paul Muller Novel of Political Intrigue


William N. Walker - 2018
    It is the second Paul Muller novel set in Europe before World War II. Muller is recruited to become a spy to resist Hitler's campaign to absorb Austria into the German Reich and, from his perch in Vienna, finds himself at the epicenter of the desperate struggle to preserve Austrian independence. Muller plays a dangerous game in helping Austria oppose Hitler's demands and he hatches a bold plan to divert Austria's gold reserves so they stay out of Hitler's grasp. The novel captures this gripping drama in rich and vivid detail as political pressures mount and the threat of war looms. A Spy in Vienna re-creates for readers the fraught atmosphere of 1930's, when the threat of Nazi violence hung over Europe. Aficionados of that epoch will relish the authenticity of the novel, which reawakens the tensions and turbulence of the era, with its undercurrent of violence and fear. The narrative recaptures the urgency of the crisis as repeated confrontations escalated to an explosive conclusion. Today, sitting at the safe remove of eighty years, we know the outcome. Hitler's bald aggression prevailed; his takeover of Austria became a crucial stepping stone leading to World War II. But the characters in the novel know none of this; for them, the events they are caught up in are frightening and bewildering, confronting them with dire choices and fearful consequences. The novel transports the reader into that contemporary maelstrom of intrigue and danger—combining real history with a compelling story. Admirers of Paul Muller in Danzig will revel in his new adventures in Vienna, as once again he confronts Nazi tyranny.

Child of the Forest: Based on the Life Story of Charlene Perlmutter Schiff


Jack L. Grossman - 2018
    Alone, starving, freezing at times, and running and hiding for her life, Musia sought refuge in the forest for two years while Holocaust death camps loomed nearby. Child of the Forest is based on the true story and tribulations of Shulamit "Musia" Perlmutter, born in 1929 to Simcha and Fruma Perlmutter, and stands as a memorial to her extraordinary courage.

My Soul is Filled With Joy: A Holocaust Story


Karen Treiger - 2018
    It was August 3, 1943, just one day after Sam escaped the Camp during a prisoner uprising. With 870,000 murdered at Treblinka, Sam was one of approximately 65 to survive and live until the end of the war. Esther had been hiding in that patch of forest for a year and was out that morning, looking for mushrooms to eat. They met and after hearing of the prisoner revolt, she took him to the Righteous Gentiles who, at great danger to themselves, hid them in their barn for three days while the Nazis, Ukrainians and Poles scoured the area looking for escapees. Deciding to stay and hide with Esther, they dug a forest pit where they “lived” when it was not freezing. They subsisted in the pit and the barns – hungry, cold, and scared – for another year until they were liberated by the Red Army in July of 1944. This is only one piece of their harrowing story of survival. This book tells the story of Sam and Esther, Holocaust survivors, who lost their entire families because of Hitler’s Final Solution. After four years in Displaced Person’s Camps, they arrived in New York Harbor to build a new life. The author, Karen Treiger, is Sam and Esther’s daughter-in-law, and with in-depth research and a bit of luck was able to find the three surviving children of the Styś families – those Righteous Gentiles who helped Sam and Esther during that dark time. She and her family traveled to Poland to walk in Sam and Esther’s footsteps and to meet the Styś children. It was intensely emotional, and the family heard some of what Sam and Esther lived through from those who helped them survive. Also, with the help of a Polish Priest, she was able to locate and meet a Goldberg cousin they never knew they had. My Soul is Filled with Joy: A Holocaust Story brings to life the horror of the Nazis’ actions and the toll that it exacted on so many Jewish families. This is also a story of hope, love and determination; of a family rediscovering the path taken by their parents to find life and freedom in a new world. Sam and Esther’s story is one of love and the will to live no matter what they had to endure. It reminds us that we are still learning the lessons of the Holocaust. TRIBUTES “Karen has written a powerful and personal account of Sam and Esther Goldberg. This book is a must read for those interested in the greatest crime in the history of mankind.” Chris Webb, Author/Historian, Founder of the Holocaust Historical Society,br> “It is vital that this book—as well as other accounts of the Holocaust— be preserved and disseminated widely to future generations to help prevent anything similar from ever happening again.”Marion Blumenthal Lazan, Holocaust Survivor and Co-Author, Four Perfect Pebbles“One can only bow one’s head, out of an unutterable gratitude, to the author for her contribution to the sacred narrative of our people. I call this book sacred, for (as with all forms of scripture) it tells not only what happened - but how to live in light of the story.”Rabbi Yitz Greenberg, President Emeritus, CLAL: The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership; chairman, the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, 2000-2002. “We are haunted by the question of inexplicable evil. If you want to be inspired in spite of the horrors one human being can do to another human being, read this book.

Of Another Time and Place


Brad Schaeffer - 2018
    How many men after all could have that name, and be both a retired musician and a former Luftwaffe ace? She had so many unanswered questions. How would he explain the violence, the many deaths by his own hand? How had he survived when so many of his comrades perished under the guns of the Allied air armadas? And most important, had this man somehow found redemption? Or was he just another grizzled old Nazi living out his last days in undeserved anonymity, still unrepentant for the horrors his people inflicted upon the world, and her people in particular. Rachael Azerod, a New York reporter, flies to London to interview Harmon Becker, the former German WW II hero whom Hitler himself awarded the highest honors—but she has her own reasons for meeting. Was he just a soldier? Or did he do something so astounding that not even he was willing to remember it…until now.   Of Another Time and Place is a novel about love, redemption, and two young lovers separated by war and desperate to survive the unparalleled violence consuming their war-torn nation. It is the story of a country gone astray, mesmerized by their mad Fuehrer, and the artist-turned-warrior and his courageous bride who vow to break his spell and make a difference, even it if means dangling at end of a Nazi rope. A worthy addition to the pantheon of beloved war novels from A Farewell to Arms to All Quiet on the Western Front, Brad Schaeffer’s gripping story draws the reader into the very heart of the conflagration that was the Second World War. He takes the reader deep into the conflicts that raged not only in the skies over Germany, but within the hearts of combatants and non-combatants alike who found themselves trying to maintain their humanity when all decency seemed to have abandoned the happy lives they once knew.

Two Sisters: A Journey of Survival Through Auschwitz


Livia Krancberg - 2018
    Would she have made it on her own? Who knows, even with Livia’s remarkable resilience which she still exhibits today in her nineties. It was Rose, with her desire to protect Livia and her instincts for survival that kept them, time and time again, from the many dangers which could have cost both of them their lives. From the moment they were on the transport to Auschwitz, and then saw their mother, along with Rose’s little son taken away and sent to the gas chambers, it was Rose who seem to anticipate what lay ahead. Maybe it was an extra morsel of food that could be obtained or an article of warm clothing. Rose always came through, even at great risk. Two Sisters is so much more than a story of survival during the Holocaust. It is the beautiful portrayal of a young girl―and later young woman―coming of age in rural Romania. Her academic achievements, schoolgirl crushes, and family life are all explored, revealed in detail for all of us. Carefully written and beautifully crafted, it serves as an extraordinary example of the power of the memoir in Holocaust understanding.

Potato Thief: Surviving WWII as the Enemy's Daughter


Maria Wilhemina Brandner - 2018
     And yet she not only survived, but thrived. Through her memoirs, join this spunky young girl through adventure, heartbreak, spiritual growth, and lost innocence amid the realities of war.

The Time Between: Love, loyalty and betrayal in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam


Bryna Hellmann-Gillson - 2018
    They print illegal newspapers and false documents, hide Jewish children, commit sabotage and murder. Their lives come together through Adrian, a young man risking his life in the resistance. He is Pam’s brother, Jo’s first infatuation and Hannah’s lover. “Isn’t this the between time?” he asks. “One day real life stopped, when the Germans came, and some day real life will start again.” For some of them, it did.

Live For Me


Colin Falconer - 2018
    But this is Nazi Germany in 1933, and things like love don’t count for much any more. Netanel Rosenberg never expected Marie Helder to stand by him. He told her not to, it was too dangerous. She should forget about him. Even when he is the last Jew left in the town, hiding away in secret, still she will not abandon him. Her last words to him, when he is finally discovered: “Whatever happens, don’t give up – live for me.” Through the nightmare of the holocaust, Netanel clings to the promise he made her. But neither he or Marie can imagine what fate has in store for each of them – and what they will have to do to keep their promise to each other.

A Life Rebuilt: The Remarkable Transformation of a War Orphan


Sylvia Ruth Gutmann - 2018
    In the summer of 1942, three-year-old Sylvia, her two older sisters, and her young mother were arrested by the Vichy police and shipped to the French internment camp in Rivesaltes. Shortly thereafter, her mother was deported to Auschwitz, leaving her three children behind. Six months later, Sylvia’s bedridden father was also deported to Auschwitz. Sylvia and her sisters would never see their parents again.Deeply traumatized, Sylvia arrived in New York City at age seven, where a well-meaning uncle and a cruel aunt took her in. Don’t speak of it. Put it behind you. Move on, they told her. The messages she received in America forced her to again keep silent and hide in full view. She spent the next five decades struggling to put the pieces of her life back together and to fully understand the past she was too young to remember.A Life Rebuilt: The Remarkable Transformation of a War Orphan chronicles an odyssey that spans sixty years, three countries, and thousands of miles. Remarkably, at age sixty-two, Sylvia developed a relationship with a young man, forty years her junior, and against all odds she moved to Germany to live with him. Here she began to share the story of her family’s fate with German students, senior citizens, and even neo-Nazi groups. By doing so, Sylvia reconciled with the people she had feared and loathed, and resurrected the lives of the parents she cannot remember, and cannot forget. Heartbreaking and ultimately inspiring, this memoir of loss, love, resilience, belonging, identity, and authenticity has a surprising resolution, told in an intimate voice with candor, substance, and heart.

Amsterdam 1940-1945 The Shadow of My Life


Bep Gomperts - 2018
    At the age of two Bep and her family were trapped by the Nazis when Germany occupied Holland on the 10th May 1940. Under no illusions as to the fate of the Jews, they went into hiding with the help of relatives and political associates active in the Dutch Resistance. Bep was separated from her mother and lived undercover as a “Christian” child until they were reunited at the end of the war. The majority of Bep’s family perished in the concentration camps. The brutal years of occupation and famine left an indelible scar on the people’s psyche. In Bep’s life, it cast a long shadow, the painful ramifications felt decades later. Told with great candour, Bep Gomperts richly depicts the extraordinary courage of innocent civilians engulfed by Total War.

Determined: A Memoir


Martin Baranek - 2018
    The fact that in this book Martin's own words testify in some detail to his experiences from ghetto to work camp to extermination camps to death march to liberation and eventual arrival to the Land of Israel, powerfully teaches us that the unbelievable actually happened. This is an eye opening window into humanity at its lowest and cruelest. It is also one human being's intense will to survive and rebuild his life anew. I found it riveting and gut wrenching. Martin Baranek's journey is a triumph of hope over despair."--Rabbi Gary Glickstein"I first encountered Martin Baranek as an articulate and reflective survivor in the course of my research on the Wierzbnik ghetto and the Starachowice slave labor camps. As his powerful memoir records, these were but the first two circles of Hitler's inferno through which he descended in the years of the Holocaust. They were followed by Birkenau, Mauthausen, and Gunskirchen, with each stage of his incredible odyssey more challenging and horrifying than the previous one. Martin's overall story remains very powerful."--Christopher R. Browning, Frank Porter Graham Professor of History Emeritus, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill"It has been said that a thousand doors had to open and close in the exact right time and succession in order for one to survive the Holocaust. If even one door opened or closed at the wrong time, your fate was sealed. Unlike 6 million other Jews, the doors Martin Baranek went through appeared for him at just the right time. But his survival was not just a matter of luck. Shining through on every page of this exceptionally moving tale are Martin's courage, perseverance and sheer will to live under the most brutal of conditions This painfully honest account is a true testament to the power of the human spirit to triumph over unimaginable adversity. Martin' story is a remarkable memoir that is nothing short of inspiring.You may have questions about God after reading this book - but you will most certainly believe in miracles."--Eli Rubenstein, National Director, March of the Living Canada"...This is a fascinating chronicle of the Holocaust by an amazing man who shares the tale of his painful tragedy and the triumph of his survival against all odds. We are privileged that Martin has shared his story with countless participants of the March of the Living that will pass on his message of NEVER FORGET to future generations..."--Mel Mann, Executive Director - Friends of the March of the Living, Miami, FL

Three Voices


Nora Sarel - 2018
    Now an elderly woman with nothing but her memories to guide her – she embarks on a journey to unravel the truth of her past, once and for all.You have never read a story quite like this. Based on real events, Three Voices illustrates the trauma and relief of a woman escaping the atrocities of the Holocaust, traveling the world and eventually reclaiming her childhood. This incredible tale, pieced together from three unique perspectives, weaves past, present and future into a heart-wrenching experience that will change you. Watch Lena take her life back Lena remembers everything from her childhood. She doesn’t know that her whole life is about to be turned upside down as she comes face-to-face with another Lena. A once-in-a-lifetime meeting between the two Lena’s and the town's priest, sends shockwaves that reverberate through the truth that was known to her. Scroll up and grab your copy of Three Voices today

In the Shadow of the Storm


Ella Zeiss - 2018
    Their friends the Scholzes are less lucky. Captured and transported to labour camps in the icy Far North, the future seems a bleak, dark nightmare for the couple and their three children.As the 1930s march towards the inevitable horror of war, and Europe is engulfed in hostility and persecution, the Pfeiffers find there is only so long—and so far—you can run before someone uncovers your past…In their darkest hours, these two families must do everything—anything—to survive. Will they ever find peace in the new world order?

The Black Earth


Philip Kazan - 2018
    When the Turkish Army occupies Smyrna, Zoë Haggitiris escapes with her family, only to lose everything. Alone in a sea of desperate strangers, her life is touched, for a moment, by a young English boy, Tom Collyer, also lost, before the compassion of a stranger leads her into a new life. Years later when war breaks out, Tom finds himself in Greece and in the chaos of the British retreat, fate will lead him back to Zoë. But he will discover that the war will not end so easily for either of them.

No Man's Land


Chrystyna Lucyk-Berger - 2018
    He wants control. The Fascist regime wants both.1920, former Austrian Tyrol. Katharina Thaler faces becoming the first woman to ever own a farm in the Reschen Valley. The end of the Great War has taken more than her beloved family, it has robbed the province of its autonomy and severed it in half. As her countrymen fight to prevent the annexation to Italy, Katharina finds a wounded Italian engineer on her mountain. Her decision to save Angelo Grimani’s life, however, thrusts both into the midst of a new world order—a labyrinth of corruption, prejudice and greed.Trapped between a growing fascist regime and a man who threatens to tear her home away, Katharina must decide what to protect: love or country?

The Truth About Us


Tia Souders - 2018
    But what if your past is a lie?When eighteen-year-old Abigail Bridges' grandmother dies, she discovers a cryptic letter hidden in her jewelry box.With one final request, her grandmother asks her to reveal a long-hidden family secret.There is only one rule: tell no one.But breaking the rules is inevitable once she meets the enigmatic Kaden Oliver and confides in him.Armed with her grandmother's letters and a journal from the Holocaust, they search for answers, hidden in her family's heritage.Only, nothing can prepare her for the truth. Now, she is faced with the ultimate choice. Family or justice?

In Hitler's Shadow: Post-War Germany & the Girls of the BDM


Tim Heath - 2018
    Through the eyes of the BDM girls, it recounts the struggle to rebuild lives destroyed by years of war, and how a country came to terms with terrible war crimes committed in its name. The result is powerful, sad, harrowing, humorous and shocking. In the realms of the study of female Hitler Youth organizations in Nazi Germany, In Hitler's Shadow has no equal.

The Collected Poems of Bertolt Brecht


Bertolt Brecht - 2018
    Now, award-winning translators David Constantine and Tom Kuhn have heroically translated more than 1,200 poems in the most comprehensive English collection of Brecht’s poetry to date. Written between 1913 and 1956, these poems celebrate Brecht’s unquenchable “love of life, the desire for better and more of it,” and reflect the technical virtuosity of an artist driven by bitter and violent politics, as well as by the untrammeled forces of love and erotic desire. A monumental achievement and a reclamation, The Collected Poems of Bertolt Brecht is a must-have for any lover of twentieth-century poetry.

ACROSS THE CHANNEL: WWII NOVEL


Chris Glatte - 2018
     Nazi-occupied France is a dangerous place. Boyhood fantasies of taking the fight to the enemy are fine from the safety of England, but the reality is far different. To survive, the boys must learn to trust one another. Cold, scared and desperate they stumble upon a small country farm occupied by a girl and her father. They’ve little choice but to trust them. Soon, they become the target of a brutal Gestapo manhunt. The boys must harden their hearts to the brutality of a world at war, or be consumed.

I Am A Leftover From World War 2: A Memoir


Renee Antar - 2018
    For Renee Antar’s mother, the specter of Hitler and his Nazi’s followed her from Holland to New York City and was the defining feature of the next seven decades for her and her family’s life.In this brutally frank and candid memoir the author describes the personal hell of growing up under the shadow of a mother tortured by both mental illness and the recurring horrors of The Holocaust.

Love Lost in the War: A WW2 Historical Holocaust Survivors Love Story (Biographical Fiction Based On A True Story)


Orit Raz - 2018
    One day Israel tells Paula that he will marry her in a few years. She objects, and their friendship ends. But when the Germans enter the city, they flee together to Russia and volunteer in Soviet labor camps - to survive. They are sent to different places. Paula works as a nurse, where she excels and is sent to Moscow to study medicine. There she marries Mila and has a son, but Mila dies at war soon after. At war’s end, in love from afar, will they ever succeed in reuniting? Meanwhile, Israel returns to his hometown as a Polish soldier and finds a letter from Paula. Their love is rekindled from afar, and he proposes marriage by mail. But will Israel ever be able to manipulate the Russian authorities to obtain a visa to penetrate the Iron Curtain and then reunite with Paula in Moscow? Will their love ever again be free to flourish? Scroll up now and get your copy of Love Lost In The War!

Copley's Hunch


Douglas Clark - 2018
     By a chance meeting, Horton, a Spitfire pilot, and Copley, the commando sergeant of a small raiding party form an alliance to escape Nazi-held France. The two men carry their courage as they journey through the ravages of war-torn country. From hiding in cider barrels, unlikely allies and involvement in a minor-naval engagement, the pair endure moments of breathless peril, tension and action. Back home they are hailed as heroes—the pilot, Horton, especially, as he is the third of three brothers to have escaped from Nazi territory. But the sergeant, Copley, has nagging doubts about Horton’s story. He passes his doubts on to Military Intelligence. A very hush-hush investigation begins. And gradually a strange secret is revealed, and an even stranger conspiracy. An old hand with a new name, Douglas Clark’s venture into the world of Combined Operations is a brilliant success—absorbing as a mystery, gripping as an escape yarn—which is not surprising for he is an old soldier himself. About the author Douglas Clark was born in Lincolnshire in 1919 and died in 1993. He was educated at the University of London and during WWII he served with the Royal Horse Artillery. He wrote over 20 crime novels and under other names, including James Ditton and Peter Hosier.

Divided Loyalties: Algiers 1941 (Fighting France)


Paul A. Myers - 2018
    This is the true story underlying this tale of historical fiction. People move history. A lonely wife works as a secretary for an important French general while her husband serves as a Vichy diplomat in Nazi Germany. A young American diplomat has a secret mission. A French counterespionage agent and his alluring lady friend have a score to settle. A slinky German foreign correspondent charms her way into the top social circles of Algiers. A Nazi diplomat has perverse tastes while his sadistic Gestapo bodyguard keeps blackmailers at bay. Refugees and adventurers, Vichy officers, German armistice officials, and American diplomats jockey for position as Sunday dinner at the posh Hotel Aletti approaches -- on December 7, 1941.

The White House


O'neil Sharma - 2018
    A victim of the concentration camps himself, Saul finds he must confront his own horrific past as a Sonderkommando, in order to solve the crimes being committed in the present day. However, he is fast losing control of his ability to restrain the nightmare images he has suppressed for so long. As his Alzheimer’s progresses Saul faces the prospect of spending his remaining days in the very place he has spent his life trying to forget: Auschwitz.

The Nazis: The Rise and Fall of History’s Most Evil Empire


Paul Roland - 2018
    As their figurehead, they chose an Austrian corporal with a twisted psyche, who rose from obscurity to command the world's most formidable military machine.The Nazis includes fascinating psychological profiles of Nazi henchmen in an attempt to discover the character flaws that made them commit their terrible crimes. This gallery of social misfits was held together by its admiration for Hitler, who dragged the German nation towards the abyss and brought about the deaths of more than 60 million people worldwide.

Silk Cocoon: A Story of Love, Treachery and Prejudice in War-torn Nazi Germany


PHILIP G BROCK - 2018
    He believes his future is bright and promising. He takes great pride in the new Nazi government and its vision to be a world leader. He lives by the Fuhrer’s words. “The weak must be chiseled away. I want young men and women who can suffer pain. A young German must be as swift as a greyhound, as tough as leather, and as hard as Krupp’s steel.” Hans has a beautiful wife and child and a successful business. He thinks he has total control of his life and nothing can change that. Hans soon finds, with the onset of war, his world spins out of his control. He’s called to active military service in the infantry and becomes the sniper for company C. He soon learns his life is in danger from both friend and foe. In his absence, his family and business fall into peril. As the war progresses, Hans begins to question the actions of the government. When he’s forced to witness the slaughter of men, women and children at the Plunda Work Camp, he realizes the country is run by monsters. In a surprise ending, Hans finds himself called upon to answer for the part he was forced to play in these atrocities.

Desperate Valour: Triumph at Anzio


Flint Whitlock - 2018
    The planners hoped that the Allied invasion would surprise the Germans and threaten their defensive line in southern Europe. But the invasion stalled a few miles inland and the Allies faced a five-month bloody fight. In the end, American and British troops accomplished one of the great defensive stands of all time, turning defeat into victory.Using previously unpublished archival material, including memoirs from American, British, and German veterans, award-winning historian Flint Whitlock reveals the entire allied and German campaign, never forgetting the experiences of the soldiers in muddy, freezing, water-filled foxholes, struggling to hold off endless waves of infantry assaults, aerial bombardments, and artillery barrages.Desperate Valour is the first comprehensive account of the unrelenting slugfest at Anzio and a stirring chronicle of courage beyond measure.

Smashing Hitler's Panzers: The Defeat of the Hitler Youth Panzer Division in the Battle of the Bulge


Steven J. Zaloga - 2018
    The Hitler Youth division was assigned the mission of the Führer’s Ardennes offensive: capture the main highway to the primary objective, Antwerp, whose seizure Hitler believed would end the war. Had the Germans taken the Belgian port, it would have cut off the Americans from the British and perhaps led to a second, more devastating Dunkirk. In Zaloga’s careful reconstruction, a succession of American infantry units—the 99th Division, the 2nd Division, and the 1st Division (the famous Big Red One)—fought a series of battles that denied Hitler the best roads to Antwerp and doomed his offensive. American G.I.s—some of them seeing combat for the very first time—had stymied Hitler’s panzers and grand plans.

I Belong to Vienna: A Jewish Family's Story of Exile and Return


Anna Goldenberg - 2018
    Hans, their elder son, survives by hiding in an apartment in the middle of Nazi-controlled Vienna. But this is no Anne Frank-like existence; teenage Hans passes time in the municipal library and buys standing room tickets to the Vienna State Opera. He never sees his family again. Goldenberg reconstructs this unique story in magnificent reportage. She also portrays Vienna’s undying allure—although they tried living in the United States after World War Two, both grandparents eventually returned to the Austrian capital. The author, too, has returned to her native Vienna after living in New York herself, and her fierce attachment to her birthplace enlivens her engrossing biographical history. A probing tale of heroism, resilience, identity and belonging, marked by a surprising freshness as a new generation comes to terms with history’s darkest era.

Escape From Konigsberg


Lloyd Pilling Tosoff - 2018
    He captures the impossible predicament of so many Germans at the time—loyal to their native land but also left at the mercy of an insanely criminal regime." - Kirkus Reviews. "..." beautifully depicted by Tosoff "... "prose is lucid and crisp ." - Kirkus Reviews. "A fascinating read worthy of the Silver Screen, another Doctor Zhivago" - David Worrell, ScreenwriterEscape from Königsberg is an epic human drama set in the former German province of East Prussia during the last days of WWII. Based on a true story, it follows one family's struggle to survive the brutal onslaught of the Soviet Red Army and the Allied bombing campaign that leveled the 700-year-old city. After watching his beloved home of Königsberg fall into communist hands and faced with unspeakable tragedy, 16-year-old Walter Heinrich bravely escapes along with his two sisters aged six and 10 on what may have been the last coal train to Berlin before the tracks of the Prussian Eastern Railway are destroyed. Captured by German soldiers Walter is faced with a harrowing stay at the Mausbacher Waisenhaus in Berlin before escaping and setting out on a quest that changes his life forever. A complex plot that takes the reader on an intimate journey that pits the indomitable human spirit against the evil and devastation of war, Walter's story will touch your heart. Love, loss and hope define this beautifully written novel.

Saboteur - The Untold Story of SOE's Youngest Agent at the Heart of the French Resistance


Mark Seaman - 2018
    After the war, he continued to serve with MI6, and so was constrained not to relate any of his experiences. His is an exciting story; time and again he was faced by danger and incipient disaster. He brushed shoulders with some of the worst traitors of the Second World War, and was targeted by the Gestapo, who came within an ace of entrapping him.

Six Thousand Miles to Home: A Novel Inspired by a True Story of World War II


Kim Dana Kupperman - 2018
    They evade Nazi capture, only to be arrested by the Soviets, who have invaded Poland from the east. Deported to northern Russia, they endure the savage conditions in a forced-labor camp. The Nazis invade the USSR, and the release of Polish prisoners in the Soviet Gulag is negotiated. The Kohns’ journey continues through Russia, Central Asia, across the Caspian Sea to Iran. Now in a foreign land as impoverished refugees, their hometown occupied by Nazis, and their relations and friends displaced across the world, can they discover generosity, hope, and even love in Tehran?Hard to put down, difficult to forget. — Gina NahaiHere are the wages of authenticity: both the pervasive horror of a murderous era and the threatened yet valiant current of humanity. — Baron WormserTender and terrifying. — Eugenia KimConjures a world of man-made horror, where, every so often, cracks of exquisite light are made to shine through. — Rachel Basch

SS Einsatzgruppen: Nazi Death Squads, 1939-1945


Gerry Van Tonder - 2018
    Operational groups of the German Security Service, SD, followed into the Baltic and the Black Sea areas. Their orders: neutralize elements hostile to Nazi domination. Combined SS and SD headquarters were set up in Riga (northern), Mogilev (middle) and Kiev (southern), each with subordinate units of the SD, the Einsatzgruppen, and lower echelons of Einsatzkommandos. Communist and Soviet NKVD (People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs) agents were targeted, and from August 1941 to March 1943, 4,000 Soviet and communist agents were arrested and executed. In addition, far greater numbers of partisans and communists were shot to ensure political and ethnic purity in the occupied territories. Einsatzgruppe A, under Adolf Eichmann, executed 29,000 people - listed as 'Jews' or 'mostly Jews' - in Latvia and Lithuania in the early stages of the operation. In the Einsatzgruppe C report for September 1941, there is a comment, '50,000 executions "foreseen" in Kiev'. In five months in 1941, Einsatzkommando III commander, Karl Jager, reported killing 138,272 (48,252 men, 55,556 women and 34,464 children). The Einsatzgruppen were death squads - their tools the rifle, the pistol and the machine gun. It is estimated that the Einsatzgruppen executed more than 2 million people between 1941 and 1945, including 1.3 million Jews.

That Lucky Old Son: Re-Discovering My Father Through His World War II Bomber Command and POW Experiences


Mark Coté - 2018
    158 Squadron RAF during the Second World War. Writing from a child's point of view, Mark Cote combines known facts with what he imagines his father doing from basic training through to being shot down and captured by the Germans. He poignantly communicates the terror, uncertainty, and fleeting hope felt by the crew, transporting readers back in time to 1940s Europe. Having lost his father when he was only eight years old, Cote embarks on a quest to discover the man who left him too soon, but who left behind a legacy of courage, love, and faith. That Lucky Old Son is a book that will educate, inform, move, and inspire readers of all ages....

At War's Summit: The Red Army and the Struggle for the Caucasus Mountains in World War II


Alexander Statiev - 2018
    When the German war machine began faltering from a shortage of oil after the failed Blitzkrieg against the Soviet Union, the Wehrmacht launched Operation Edelweiss in the summer of 1942, a bold attempt to capture the Soviet oilfields of Grozny and Baku and open the way to securing the vast reserves of Middle Eastern oil. Hitler viewed this campaign as the key to victory in World War Two. Mountain warfare requires unique skills: climbing and survival techniques, unconventional logistical and medical arrangements and knowledge of ballistics at high altitudes. The Main Caucasus Ridge became the battleground that saw the elite German mountain divisions clash with the untrained soldiers of the Red Army, as they fought each other, the weather and the terrain.

The Holocaust in Eastern Europe: At the Epicenter of the Final Solution


Waitman Wade Beorn - 2018
    First introducing Jewish life as it was lived before the Nazis in Eastern Europe, the book chronologically surveys the development of Nazi policies in the area over the period from 1939 to 1945. This book provides an overview of both the German imagination and obsession with the East and its impact on the Nazi genocidal project there. It also covers the important period of Soviet occupation and its effects on the unfolding of the Holocaust in Eastern Europe. This text also treats in detail other themes such as ghettoization, the Final Solution, rescue, collaboration, resistance, and many others. Throughout, Beorn includes detailed examples of the similarities and differences of the nature of the Holocaust in various regions, in the words of perpetrators, witnesses, collaborators, and victims/survivors. Beorn also illustrates the complex nature of the Holocaust by discussing the difficult subjects of collaboration, sexual violence, the use of slave labour, treatment of Soviet POWs, profiteering and others within a larger narrative framework. He also explores key topics like Jewish resistance, Jewish councils, memory, and explanations for perpetration, collaboration, and rescue. The book includes images and maps to orient the reader to the topic area. This important book explains the brutality and complexity of the Holocaust in the East for all students of the Holocaust and 20th-century Eastern European history.

A Symphony of Rivals


Roma Calatayud-Stocks - 2018
    Alejandra Stanford Morrison pursues her dream of becoming a symphonic conductor at an unfortunate time when culture and the arts are falling under the influence of Nazism, but through her devotion to music and Beethoven's legacy, she finds a measure of hope and strength. In Berlin, she meets and trains with renowned European conductors, and through her friends Hannah and Ben Adelman she meets art dealer Anton Everhardt, who falls in love with her. Alejandra's musical talent is a double-edged sword which places her at the center of a dangerous political world, where she attracts the unwanted attention of a high ranking German officer. While attempting to maintain her integrity, Alejandra confronts harrowing situations, which challenge her principles; and, when the upheaval and violence of the Nazi ascendency spreads to Vienna...

Breaking from the Enemy


J.R. Sharp - 2018
    Sharp's WWII Enemy series, Breaking From the Enemy is based on a true story. Gino Cartelli is an Italian soldier forced to fight for the Nazis in 1940. He knows it is only a matter of time before he meets the same fate as his two brothers who died in battle. After witnessing atrocities against his fellow Italians, he learns to fight the Germans who have made Rome their headquarters. When Gino makes his move to escape the Gestapo, they trail him to the ancient city of Monte Cassino, where other Italian partisans, including a nun named Caroline Franco, take him through the ancient trails of the Latin Valley to escape his pursuers. Will they be able to get past the Nazi roadblocks, or will they be caught before they escape to the north to finally become free and reunited with their families?