The Nazi Conscience


Claudia Koonz - 2003
    In fact, the perpetrators of genocide had a powerful sense of right and wrong, based on civic values that exalted the moral righteousness of the ethnic community and denounced outsiders.Claudia Koonz's latest work reveals how racial popularizers developed the infrastructure and rationale for genocide during the so-called normal years before World War II. Her careful reading of the voluminous Nazi writings on race traces the transformation of longtime Nazis' vulgar anti-Semitism into a racial ideology that seemed credible to the vast majority of ordinary Germans who never joined the Nazi Party. Challenging conventional assumptions about Hitler, Koonz locates the source of his charisma not in his summons to hate, but in his appeal to the collective virtue of his people, the Volk.From 1933 to 1939, Nazi public culture was saturated with a blend of racial fear and ethnic pride that Koonz calls ethnic fundamentalism. Ordinary Germans were prepared for wartime atrocities by racial concepts widely disseminated in media not perceived as political: academic research, documentary films, mass-market magazines, racial hygiene and art exhibits, slide lectures, textbooks, and humor. By showing how Germans learned to countenance the everyday persecution of fellow citizens labeled as alien, Koonz makes a major contribution to our understanding of the Holocaust.The Nazi Conscience chronicles the chilling saga of a modern state so powerful that it extinguished neighborliness, respect, and, ultimately, compassion for all those banished from the ethnic majority.

On Being German: A Personal Journey Into the German Experience


Doris Pena-Cruz - 2021
    In my younger years I avoided that subject, be it in literature or in entertainment, whenever I possibly could. That was not easy. Television was full of programs in which Germans looked stupid and heinous. My own children watched these things with glee; I fled into another room. Since I have always read a lot, I was at least aware of the avalanche of books that were published about the Holocaust. Still, I kept my blinkers on. I firmly told myself that it was not my business, since I was just a child during that time. Sooner or later such an attitude will have to come to an end. It did for me after I fled a difficult marriage and finally began to examine my life. This was a slow process, aided by a patient psychiatrist. Now, years later, I want to write about my life and about the conflicted feelings such a search will cause in a woman of German nationality.

Auschwitz & The Holocaust: Eyewitness Accounts from Auschwitz Prisoners & Survivors


Ryan Jenkins - 2014
    In this companion volume to The Holocaust: An Introduction, you will go through a detailed account of the camp, its methods of killing and cruelty, and more. Buy your copy today to become educated in both the far reaches of evil in those responsible and the heights of bravery in those that survived. Here's a Preview of What You Will Learn * Origins of Auschwitz * Witold Pilecki * Auschwitz I * Auschwitz-Birkenau * First-hand accounts from the camps DOWNLOAD YOUR COPY TODAY

World War II Auschwitz: A History From Beginning to End


Hourly History - 2017
    It is the site where more than one million people were systematically tortured and killed in support of Adolf Hitler's determination to eradicate entire populations that he viewed as racially impure. Dr. Josef Mengele conducted horrific experiments on live victims, treating his subjects as if they weren't human. The Jews, homosexuals, Communists, Jehovah's Witnesses, and the mentally and physically disabled were less than human to the Nazis. The "Final Solution," a cornerstone of Nazi ideology, enacted a devastating sentence upon people whose only crime was their ethnic origin or their religious and political beliefs. But the voices of Auschwitz continue to be heard. Anne Frank's diary speaks for all the innocent who were sent there. Elie Wiesel spent his life speaking out against the horrors he and others endured at Auschwitz. The recorded histories of the survivors of the camps keep the memories alive for generations whose only knowledge of the Holocaust would otherwise be through a school assignment to read The Diary of Anne Frank or by watching a movie like Schindler's List. Auschwitz holds a bizarre fascination for those who hear about it; how could such evil thrive? How could an entire nation surrender to the rantings of a diabolical man who sought revenge against the followers of a religion? The names reverberate in a gallery of maniacs who purported to be leaders: Hitler, Goebbels, Mengele, Goering, Himmler, and the countless others who supported them. Inside you will read about... - Adolf Hitler and the Preservation of the Aryan Race - The Nazis in Charge - The Final Solution to the Jewish Question - The Angel of Death - Life in Auschwitz - Liberation and Judgment And much more! Germany today is staunch in its refusal to allow Nazism to thrive. The nation that built Auschwitz and employed its Final Solution is now the country that has enacted legislation to prevent the Holocaust from being repeated. But hatred is contagious. As Martin Luther King, Jr. once observed, Adolf Hitler operated within the law when he committed his vile acts. They were laws that he created. Evil can triumph if people allow it to do so. Today, Auschwitz is a museum where people can see for themselves the terrible extent to which humanity can hate. But Auschwitz is also a warning to subsequent generations. Do not be fooled into thinking that any ethnic group, any nation, any religion is safe. When demagoguery and prejudice are allowed to legislate their evil, genocide becomes a solution to a problem rather than an unthinkable act. It happened once; it can happen again. The survivors and the victims alike want their story to be told, lest we forget.

The Gospel According to Artyom


Dmitry Glukhovsky - 2012
    This bonus piece was never published in English and comes exclusively on Amazon.com!Note: This is a standalone epilogue that has nothing to do with the comic bookA new chapter that turns upside down the entire story of Metro 2033 and that promise a continuation to the breathtaking story of survival and struggle for a future set in the catacombs of the subway system in post-apocalyptic Moscow. This epilogue is a link to the upcoming METRO: LAST LIGHT video game, to the yet untranslated METRO 2034 and to-be-written METRO 2035! An absolute must-read for all those who loved the book and the game! The original story that inspired both the METRO 2033 and METRO: LAST LIGHT video games! An international bestseller, translated into 35 languages.Set in the shattered subway of a post apocalyptic Moscow, Metro 2033 is a story of intensive underground survival where the fate of mankind rests in your hands.In 2013 the world was devastated by an apocalyptic event, annihilating almost all mankind and turning the earth’s surface into a poisonous wasteland. A handful of survivors took refuge in the depths of the Moscow underground, and human civilization entered a new Dark Age.The year is 2033. An entire generation has been born and raised underground, and their besieged Metro Station-Cities struggle for survival, with each other, and the mutant horrors that await outside.Artyom was born in the last days before the fire. Having never ventured beyond his Metro Station-City limits, one fateful event sparks a desperate mission to the heart of the Metro system, to warn the remnants of mankind of a terrible impending threat. His journey takes him from the forgotten catacombs beneath the subway to the desolate wastelands above, where his actions will determine the fate of mankind.

Partners To A Degree: Growing Up Under The Third Reich Book 4


Horst Christian - 2014
    Their knowledge of the city’s subway system plays a key role in their survival during the battle of Berlin and will do so again in the days that follow as the Soviets control the city.After being arrested by a Russian Political Kommissar, Karl and Harold are given the option of being shipped off to Russian labor camps or completing missions for the Kommissar and earning their freedom. The promise of freedom and the possibility of receiving information about the fate of their families is more than enough to ensure their cooperation.The Kommissar is continually surprised by Karl and Harold’s ingenuity and resourcefulness as they complete each mission. He develops a fondness for the boys and offers to adopt them and take them back to Russia with him when he returns. Holding out hope they will eventually be reunited with their families, they refuse the Kommissar’s offer. Unfortunately, only one boy’s dream of seeing his family again will come true.The ravages of war dramatically changed their lives and while Karl and Harold have each suffered the loss of loved ones – one has lost more than the other. One boy will struggle to put his life back on track and the other will embark on a path of revenge – fueled by grief and anger at the lies that caused his loss and the destruction of his homeland.One boy’s story comes to an end, while the other’s is just beginning.Books In The Series:Children To A DegreeLoyal To A DegreeTrust To A DegreePartners To A Degree

48 Hours of Kristallnacht: Night of Destruction/Dawn of the Holocaust


Mitchell G. Bard - 2008
    At least 96 Jews were killed and hundreds more injured, as many as 2,000 synagogues were burned, almost 7,500 Jewish businesses were destroyed, cemeteries and schools were vandalized, and 30,000 Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps. This pogrom has come to be called "Kristallnacht," "the Night of Broken Glass." Although numerous anti-Jewish regulations had been adopted prior to Kristallnacht, these measures had only imposed restrictions on German Jews' economic activity and occupational opportunities. Prior to Kristallnacht, the Jews had little reason to believe their physical safety was at risk. That all changed 70 years ago this coming November. The events of that night were the beginning of the Holocaust. It is fitting that a book record the events of this seminal historical event on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht. This book provides an account of the incidents immediately preceding the attacks on November 9-10, an oral history that provides a minute-by-minute and hour-by-hour account of what happened during the pogroms, and an analysis of the immediate aftermath and why the Holocaust can be dated from this evening.

"Where's Sylvia? The Story of an American Child Lost in Nazi Germany"


Linda LaMura McFadden - 2011
    They are supposed to bring her back before school starts in the fall. They don't. They can't. It's Autumn of 1939; Hitler's Blitzkrieg is in motion. Europe is at war! Sylvia is going to have to wait a lifetime. A US citizen, she will become an Enemy Alien when America enters WWII. Through the duration she lives with another aunt, a nun in a convent, has to go to German schools in the Rhineland then run east to Bavaria where her uncle is drafted into the German Army. Alone with Betty and her two babies she must survive the Allied invasion, her only hope of rescue. Her mother, deserted by her husband will go years without any knowledge of her only child. Everyone is waiting and wants to know, "Where's Sylvia?".

A Quiet Genocide: The Untold Holocaust of Disabled Children in WW2 Germany (WW2 Historical Fiction)


Glenn Bryant - 2018
    Jozef grows up in a happy household - so it seems. But his father Gerhard still harbours disturbing National Socialism ideals, while mother Catharina is quietly broken. She cannot feign happiness for much longer and rediscovers love elsewhere. Jozef is uncertain and alone. Who is he? Are Gerhard and Catharina his real parents? ˃˃˃ A dark mystery gradually unfolds, revealing an inescapable truth the entire nation is afraid to confront. But Jozef is determined to find out about the past and a horror is finally unmasked which continues to question our idea of what, in the last hour, makes each of us human. Scroll up and grab a pre-order copy at only 99 cents today.

Some Girls, Some Hats and Hitler: A True Love Story Rediscovered


Trudi Kanter - 1984
    Spearman. Largely unread, it went out of print until it was re-discovered by a British editor in 2011 and now, for the first time, it is available to readers everywhere. In 1938, Trudi Miller, stunningly beautiful, chic, and charismatic, was a hat designer for the best-dressed women in Vienna. She frequented cafes. She had suitors. She flew to Paris to see the latest fashions. And she fell deeply in love with Walter Ehrlich, a charming and romantic businessman. But as Hitler’s tanks roll into Austria, the world this young Jewish couple knows and loves collapses leaving them desperate to find a way to survive. Some Girls, Some Hats and Hitler is an enchanting true story that moves from Vienna to Prague to blitzed London, as Trudi seeks safety for her and Walter amid the horror engulfing Europe. In prose that cuts straight to the bone, Trudi Kanter has shared her indelible story. Some Girls, Some Hats and Hitler is destined to become a World War II classic.

Nuremberg: The Reckoning


William F. Buckley Jr. - 2002
    He hears the stories of the infamous Nazi killers and war makers, who face prosecutors determined to bring them to justice, and encounters the towering figures of twentieth-century legal, political, and military history, among them Justice Robert Jackson, Albert Speer, Hermann Goering, and the dark, untried shadow of Adolf Hitler. As the trial unfolds, Sebastian must come to terms with his family legacy and national identity. With his renowned authority and audacity, William F. Buckley Jr. creates a riveting thriller, taking the reader through unforgettable scenes of treachery and vengeance, love and hatred, and the struggle for justice found in a hangman's noose.

Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1948


Madeleine K. Albright - 2012
    Drawing on her memory, her parents' written reflections, interviews with contemporaries, and newly available documents, Albright recounts a tale that is by turns harrowing and inspiring. Prague Winter is an exploration of the past with timeless dilemmas in mind and, simultaneously, a journey with universal lessons that is intensely personal.The book takes readers from the Bohemian capital's thousand-year-old castle to the bomb shelters of London, from the desolate prison ghetto of Terezín to the highest councils of European and American government. Albright reflects on her discovery of her family's Jewish heritage many decades after the war, on her Czech homeland's tangled history, and on the stark moral choices faced by her parents and their generation. Often relying on eyewitness descriptions, she tells the story of how millions of ordinary citizens were ripped from familiar surroundings and forced into new roles as exiled leaders and freedom fighters, resistance organizers and collaborators, victims and killers. These events of enormous complexity are never-theless shaped by concepts familiar to any growing child: fear, trust, adaptation, the search for identity, the pressure to conform, the quest for independence, and the difference between right and wrong."No one who lived through the years of 1937 to 1948," Albright writes, "was a stranger to profound sadness. Millions of innocents did not survive, and their deaths must never be forgotten. Today we lack the power to reclaim lost lives, but we have a duty to learn all that we can about what happened and why." At once a deeply personal memoir and an incisive work of history, Prague Winter serves as a guide to the future through the lessons of the past—as seen through the eyes of one of the international community's most respected and fascinating figures.

Swansong 1945: A Collective Diary of the Last Days of the Third Reich


Walter Kempowski - 2007
    Together, they present a panoramic view of four tumultuous days that fateful spring: Hitler’s birthday on April 20, American and Soviet troops meeting at the Elbe on April 25, Hitler’s suicide on April 30, and the German surrender on May 8. An extraordinary account of suffering and survival, Swansong 1945 brings to vivid life the end of World War II in Europe.

When Time Stopped: A Memoir of My Father's War and What Remains


Ariana Neumann - 2020
    He was transported to Auschwitz. Eighteen days later his prisoner number was entered into the morgue book. Of thirty-four Neumann family members, twenty-five were murdered by the Nazis. One of the survivors was Hans Neumann, who, to escape the German death net, traveled to Berlin and hid in plain sight under the Gestapo’s eyes. What Hans experienced was so unspeakable that, when he built an industrial empire in Venezuela, he couldn’t bring himself to talk about it. All his daughter Ariana knew was that something terrible had happened. When Hans died, he left Ariana a small box filled with letters, diary entries, and other memorabilia. Ten years later Ariana finally summoned the courage to have the letters translated, and she began reading. What she discovered launched her on a worldwide search that would deliver indelible portraits of a family loving, finding meaning, and trying to survive amid the worst that can be imagined. When Time Stopped is a detective story and an epic family memoir, spanning nearly ninety years and crossing oceans. Neumann brings each relative to vivid life. In uncovering her father’s story after all these years, she discovers nuance and depth to her own history and liberates poignant and thought-provoking truths about the threads of humanity that connect us all.

Soviet Tragedy: A History of Socialism in Russia


Martin Malia - 1994
    He has written the history of a utopian illusion and the tragic consequences it had for the people of the Soviet Union and the world." -- David Remnick, The New York Review of Books "In Martin Malia, the Soviet Union had one of its most acute observers. With this book, it may well have found the cornerstone of its history." -- Francois Furet, author of Interpreting the French Revolution "The Soviet Tragedy offers the most thorough scholarly analysis of the Communist phenomenon that we are likely to get for a long while to come...Malia states that his narrative is intended 'to substantiate the basic argument,' and this is certainly an argumentative book, which drives its thesis home with hammer blows. On this breathtaking journey, Malia is a witty and often brilliantly penetrating guide. He has much wisdom to impart." -- The Times Literary Supplement "This is history at the high level, well deployed factually, but particularly worthwhile in the philosophical and political context -- at once a view and an overview." -- The Washington Post