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Books > Social sciences > Warfare & defence > Other warfare & defence issues > Prisoners of war

The Escape Artists - A Band of Daredevil Pilots and the Greatest Prison Breakout of WWI (Paperback): Neal Bascomb The Escape Artists - A Band of Daredevil Pilots and the Greatest Prison Breakout of WWI (Paperback)
Neal Bascomb 1
R405 R332 Discovery Miles 3 320 Save R73 (18%) Ships in 9 - 15 working days

In the winter trenches and flak-filled skies of World War I, captured soldiers and pilots narrowly avoided death only to find themselves imprisoned in Germany's archipelago of brutal POW camps. After several unsuccessful escapes, a group of Allied prisoners of Holzminden - Germany's land-locked Alcatraz- hatched the most elaborate escape plan yet known. With ingenious engineering, disguises, forgery and courage, their story would electrify Britain in some of its darkest hours of the war. Drawing on never-before-seen memoirs and letters, Neal Bascomb brings this little-known story narrative to life amid the despair of the trenches and the height of patriotic duty.

American POWs in World War II - Twelve Personal Accounts of Captivity by Germany and Japan (Paperback): Harry Spiller American POWs in World War II - Twelve Personal Accounts of Captivity by Germany and Japan (Paperback)
Harry Spiller
R975 R903 Discovery Miles 9 030 Save R72 (7%) Ships in 12 - 17 working days

About 130,000 American soldiers were captured during World War II, a fourth of them by Japan and the rest by Germany. These 12 accounts describe the battle experience, the different nations attitudes toward imprisonment, and the often-barbaric treatment of prisoners of war. Hardship, brutality, frostbite, hunger, strenuous working conditions, and the jubilation of release are presented in the words of the soldiers, portraying the Bataan Death March, Wake Island, D-Day, the Battle of the Bulge, and the camps where they watched their comrades in arms suffer and perish. The book also features photographs, maps, camp lists, and POW regulations.

Historical Memories of the Japanese American Internment and the Struggle for Redress (Hardcover): Alice Yang-Murray Historical Memories of the Japanese American Internment and the Struggle for Redress (Hardcover)
Alice Yang-Murray
R1,913 Discovery Miles 19 130 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

This book analyzes how the politics of memory and history affected representations of the World War II internment of Japanese Americans during the last six decades. It compares attempts by government officials, internees, academics, and activists to control interpretations of internment causes and consequences in congressional hearings, court proceedings, scholarship, popular literature, ethnic community events, monuments, museums, films, and Web sites. Initial accounts celebrated internee loyalty, military patriotism, postwar assimilation, and "model minority" success. Later histories emphasized racist "concentration camps," protests inside the camps, and continued suffering within the community.

Nazi Prisoners of War in America (Paperback): Arnold Krammer Nazi Prisoners of War in America (Paperback)
Arnold Krammer
R776 R636 Discovery Miles 6 360 Save R140 (18%) Ships in 9 - 15 working days

This is the only book available that tells the full story of how the U.S. government, between 1942 and 1945, detained nearly half a million Nazi prisoners of war in 511 camps across the country. With a new introduction and illustrated with more than 70 rare photos, Krammer describes how, with no precedents upon which to form policy, America's handling of these foreign prisoners led to the hasty conversation of CCC camps, high school gyms, local fairgrounds, and race tracks to serve as holding areas. The Seattle Times calls Nazi Prisoners of War in America "the definitive history of one of the least known segments of America's involvement in World War II. Fascinating. A notable addition to the history of that war."

For the End of Time - The Story of the Messiaen Quartet (Paperback, Updated with New Material): Rebecca Rischin For the End of Time - The Story of the Messiaen Quartet (Paperback, Updated with New Material)
Rebecca Rischin
R669 R551 Discovery Miles 5 510 Save R118 (18%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days

The clarinetist Rebecca Rischin has written a captivating book. . . . Her research dispels several long-cherished myths about the 1941 premiere. . . . Rischin lovingly brings to life the other musicians Etienne Pasquier, cellist; Henri Akoka, clarinetist; and Jean Le Boulaire, violinist who played with Messiaen, the pianist at the premiere." Alex Ross, The New Yorker "This book offers a wealth of new information about the circumstances under which the Quartet was created. Based on original interviews with the performers, witnesses to the premiere, and documents from the prison camp, this first comprehensive history of the Quartet's composition and premiere held my interest from beginning to end. . . . For the End of Time touches on many things: faith, friendship, creativity, grace in a time of despair, and the uncommon human alliances that wartime engenders." Arnold Steinhardt, Chamber Music"The clarification of the order of composition of the movements is just one of the minor but cumulatively significant ways in which Rischin modifies the widely accepted account of the events at Stalag VIII A. . . . For the End of Time is a thorough and readable piece of investigative journalism that clarifies some important points about the Quartet's genesis." Michael Downes, Times Literary Supplement The premiere of Olivier Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time on January 15, 1941, has been called one of the great stories of twentieth-century music. Composed while Messiaen (1908 1992) was imprisoned by the Nazis in Stalag VIII A, the work was performed under the most trying of circumstances: the temperature, inferior instruments, and the general conditions of life in a POW camp.Based on testimonies by the musicians and their families, witnesses to the premiere, former prisoners, and on documents from Stalag VIII A, For the End of Time examines the events that led to the Quartet's composition, the composer's interpretive preferences, and the musicians' problems in execution and how they affected the premiere and subsequent performances. Rebecca Rischin explores the musicians' life in the prison camp, their relationships with each other and with the German camp officials, and their intriguing fortunes before and after the momentous premiere. This paperback edition features supplementary texts and information previously unavailable to the author about the Quartet's premiere, Vichy and the composer, the Paris premiere, a recording featuring Messiaen as performer, and an updated bibliography and discography."

The Anguish of Surrender - Japanese POWs of World War II (Paperback): Ulrich A Straus The Anguish of Surrender - Japanese POWs of World War II (Paperback)
Ulrich A Straus
R789 Discovery Miles 7 890 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

On December 6, 1941, Ensign Kazuo Sakamaki was one of a handful of men selected to skipper midget subs on a suicide mission to breach Pearl Harbor's defenses. When his equipment malfunctioned, he couldn't find the entrance to the harbor. He hit several reefs, eventually splitting the sub, and swam to shore some miles from Pearl Harbor. In the early dawn of December 8, he was picked up on the beach by two Japanese American MPs on patrol. Sakamaki became Prisoner No. I of the Pacific War. Japan's no-surrender policy did not permit becoming a POW. Sakamaki and his fellow soldiers and sailors had been indoctrinated to choose between victory and a heroic death. While his comrades had perished, he had survived. By avoiding glorious death and becoming a prisoner of war, Sakamaki believed he had brought shame and dishonor on himself, his family, his community, and his nation, in effect relinquishing his citizenship. Sakamaki fell into despair and, like so many Japanese POWs, begged his captors to kill him. Based on the author's interviews with dozens of former Japanese POWs, along with memoirs only recently coming to light, "The Anguish of Surrender tells one of the great unknown stories of World War II. Beginning with an examination of Japan's prewar ultranationalist climate and the harsh code that precluded the possibility of capture, the author investigates the circumstances of surrender and capture of men like Sakamaki and their experiences in POW camps. Many POWs, ill and starving after days wandering in the jungles or hiding out in caves, were astonished at the superior quality of food and medical treatment they received. Contrary to expectations, most Japanese POWs, psychologicallyunprepared to deal with interrogations, provided information to their captors. Trained Allied linguists, especially Japanese Americans, learned how to extract intelligence by treating the POWs humanely. Allied intelligence personnel took advantage of lax Japanese security precautions to gain extensive information from captured documents. A few POWs, recognizing Japan's certain defeat, even assisted the Allied war effort to shorten the war. Far larger numbers staged uprisings in an effort to commit suicide. Most sought to survive, suffered mental anguish, and feared what awaited them in their homeland. These deeply human stories follow Japanese prisoners through their camp experiences to their return to their welcoming families and reintegration into postwar society. The stories are being told here for the first time in English.

Wearing the Letter P: Polish Women as Forced Laborers in Nazi Germany, 1939-1945 (Paperback): Sophie Hodorowicz Knab Wearing the Letter P: Polish Women as Forced Laborers in Nazi Germany, 1939-1945 (Paperback)
Sophie Hodorowicz Knab
R457 R413 Discovery Miles 4 130 Save R44 (10%) Ships in 9 - 15 working days

Sophie Knab's parents were Polish forced labourers in Germany during World War II. For years her mother was unable to discuss or answer questions about this period of her life. Compelled to learn more about her mothers experience and that of other Polish women, Knab began a personal and emotional quest. Over the course of 14 years, she conducted extensive research of post-war trial testimonies housed in archives in the U.S., London, and in Warsaw to piece together facts and individual stories from this singular and often-overlooked aspect of World War II history. As mothers, wives, daughters, and sisters, female Polish forced labourers faced a unique set of challenges and often unspeakable conditions because of their gender. Required to sew a large letter "P" onto their jackets, thousands of women, some as young as age 12, were taken from their homes in Poland and forced to work for the Reich for months and years on end. In this important contribution to World War II history, Knab explains how it all happened, from the beginning of occupation in Poland to liberation: the roundups; the horrors of transit camps; the living and working conditions of Polish women in agriculture and industry; and the anguish of sexual exploitation and forced abortions -- all under the constant threat of concentration camps. Knab draws from documents, government and family records, rare photos, and most importantly, numerous victim accounts -- diaries, letters and trial testimonies -- to present an unflinching, detailed portrait of the lives of female Polish labourers, finally giving these women a voice and bringing to light to the atrocities that they endured.

A World apart (Paperback): Gustav Herling A World apart (Paperback)
Gustav Herling
R621 R542 Discovery Miles 5 420 Save R79 (13%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days
The Railway Man (Paperback, New Ed): Eric Lomax The Railway Man (Paperback, New Ed)
Eric Lomax 2
R140 R59 Discovery Miles 590 Save R81 (58%) Ships in 10 - 20 working days

A naive young man, a railway enthusiast and radio buff, was caught up in the fall of the British Empire at Singapore in 1942. He was put to work on the 'Railway of Death' - the Japanese line from Thailand to Burma. Exhaustively and brutally tortured by the Japanese for making acrude radio, Lomax was emotionally ruined by his experiences. Almost 50 years after the war, however, his life was changed by the discovery that his interrogator, the Japanese interpretor, was still alive - their reconciliation is the culmination of this extraordinary story.

Under the Heel of Bushido - Last Voices of the Jewish POWs of the Japanese in the Second World War (Hardcover, New): Martin... Under the Heel of Bushido - Last Voices of the Jewish POWs of the Japanese in the Second World War (Hardcover, New)
Martin Sugarman, Colin Shindler
R1,655 Discovery Miles 16 550 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

This book contains dozens of accounts - both horrific and inspiring, amusing and sad - of the experiences of Jewish prisoners of war and internees from Commonwealth and Dutch forces imprisoned by the Japanese during World War II. Along with dozens of photographs from private collections, the material presented is previously unpublished, gathered from personal interviews and archives worldwide. Under the Heel of Bushido is a tribute to the courage and suffering of these men and women of the Jewish community whose experiences have been virtually ignored. The veterans interviewed for the book share painful testimonies, offering a snapshot of the total Jewish involvement, as so many of the 550 or so Jewish prisoners of war who survived their ordeal passed away before they could tell their stories. There was a particular Jewish participation and encounter with the Japanese, and Under the Heel of Bushido chronicles this unique account for the first time. *** "Anti-Semitism was largely absent; the concept - and the Nazis' obsession with Jews - was puzzling to most Japanese, though there were incidents initiated by German liaison officers and Muslim propaganda, and, of course, cruel acts done simply out of spite toward the enermy....In the absence of synagogues and rabbis, many of the Jewish POSs attempted and managed nonetheless to practice accommodated forms of Judaic rituals, including Friday night Sabbath services and, too often, funerals." - The NYMAS Review; StrategyPage, May 2014

The Yankee Plague - Escaped Union Prisoners and the Collapse of the Confederacy (Paperback): Lorien Foote The Yankee Plague - Escaped Union Prisoners and the Collapse of the Confederacy (Paperback)
Lorien Foote
R883 Discovery Miles 8 830 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

During the winter of 1864, more than 3,000 Federal prisoners of war escaped from Confederate prison camps into South Carolina and North Carolina, often with the aid of local slaves. Their flight created, in the words of contemporary observers, a ""Yankee plague,"" heralding a grim end to the Confederate cause. In this fascinating look at Union soldiers' flight for freedom in the last months of the Civil War, Lorien Foote reveals new connections between the collapse of the Confederate prison system, the large-scale escape of Union soldiers, and the full unraveling of the Confederate States of America. By this point in the war, the Confederacy was reeling from prison overpopulation, a crumbling military, violence from internal enemies, and slavery's breakdown. The fugitive Federals moving across the countryside in mass numbers, Foote argues, accelerated the collapse as slaves and deserters decided the presence of these men presented an opportune moment for escalated resistance. Blending rich analysis with an engaging narrative, Foote uses these ragged Union escapees as a lens with which to assess the dying Confederate States, providing a new window into the South's ultimate defeat.

Prisoners of War in the Hundred Years War - Ransom Culture in the Late Middle Ages (Hardcover, New): Remy Ambuhl Prisoners of War in the Hundred Years War - Ransom Culture in the Late Middle Ages (Hardcover, New)
Remy Ambuhl
R2,609 Discovery Miles 26 090 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

The status of prisoners of war was firmly rooted in the practice of ransoming in the Middle Ages. By the opening stages of the Hundred Years War, ransoming had become widespread among the knightly community, and the crown had already begun to exercise tighter control over the practice of war. This led to tensions between public and private interests over ransoms and prisoners of war. Historians have long emphasised the significance of the French and English crowns' interference in the issue of prisoners of war, but this original and stimulating study questions whether they have been too influenced by the state-centred nature of most surviving sources. Based on extensive archival research, this book tests customs, laws and theory against the individual experiences of captors and prisoners during the Hundred Years War, to evoke their world in all its complexity.

A Marine POW Remembers Hell - Sergeant Major Charles R. Jackson in Japanese Captivity (Hardcover): Bruce H. Norton A Marine POW Remembers Hell - Sergeant Major Charles R. Jackson in Japanese Captivity (Hardcover)
Bruce H. Norton
R1,439 Discovery Miles 14 390 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

In the bleak and bitter cold of a copper mine in northern Japan, U.S. Marine Sergeant Major Charles Jackson was allowed to send a postcard his wife. He was allowed ten words-he used three: "I AM ALIVE!" This message, classic in its poignancy of suffering and despair captures only too well what it meant to be a Japanese prisoner-of-war in World War II. In this riveting book, acclaimed military historian Major Bruce H. Norton USMC (ret.) brings to life a long-forgotten memoir by a Marine captured at Corregidor in May 1942 and held in Japanese captivity for three devastating years. In unflinching prose, Sergeant Major Jackson described the fierce yet impossible battle for Corregidor, the surrender of thousands of his comrades, the long forced marches to prison camps, and the lethal reality of captivity. One of the most important eyewitness accounts of World War II, this book is a testament to the men who sacrificed for their country. Jackson's unvarnished account of what his fellow soldiers endured in the face of enemy inhumanity pays tribute to the men who served America during the war-and why it ultimately prevailed.

Closing Guantanamo - Issues & Legal Matters Surrounding the Detention Centers End (Hardcover, New): Noah M. Claeys Closing Guantanamo - Issues & Legal Matters Surrounding the Detention Centers End (Hardcover, New)
Noah M. Claeys
R2,108 Discovery Miles 21 080 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

This book provides an overview of major legal issues likely to arise as a result of executive and legislative action to close the Guantanamo detention facility. It discusses legal issues related to the transfer or release of Guantanamo detainees (either to a foreign country or into the U.S.), the continued detention of such persons in the U.S., and the possible removal of persons brought to the U.S. This book also discusses selected constitutional issues that may arise in the criminal prosecution of detainees, emphasising the procedural and substantive protections that are utilised in different adjudicatory forums. Other issues discussed include detainees' right to a speedy trial, the prohibition against prosecution under ex post facto laws, and limitations upon the admissibility of hearsay and secret evidence in criminal cases. This book consists of public domain documents which have been located, gathered, combined, reformatted, and enhanced with a subject index, selectively edited and bound to provide easy access.

British Concentration Camps - A Brief History from 1900 1975 (Paperback): Simon Webb British Concentration Camps - A Brief History from 1900 1975 (Paperback)
Simon Webb
R458 R373 Discovery Miles 3 730 Save R85 (19%) Ships in 9 - 15 working days

For many of us, the very expression Concentration Camp is inextricably linked to Nazi Germany and the horrors of the Holocaust. The idea of British concentration camps is a strange and unsettling one. It was however the British, rather than the Germans, who were the chief driving force behind the development and use of concentration camps in the Twentieth Century. The operation by the British army of concentration camps during the Boer War led to the deaths of tens of thousands of children from starvation and disease. More recently, slave-labourers confined in a nationwide network of camps played an integral role in Britains post-war prosperity. In 1947, a quarter of the countrys agricultural workforce were prisoners in labour camps. Not only did the British government run their own concentration camps, they willingly acquiesced in the setting up of such establishments in the United Kingdom by other countries. During and after the Second World War, the Polish government-in-exile maintained a number of camps in Scotland where Jews, communists and homosexuals were imprisoned and sometimes killed. This book tells the terrible story of Britains involvement in the use of concentration camps, which did not finally end until the last political prisoners being held behind barbed wire in the United Kingdom were released in 1975\. From England to Cyprus, Scotland to Malaya, Kenya to Northern Ireland; British Concentration Camps; A Brief History from 1900 to 1975 details some of the most shocking and least known events in British history.

The Hated Cage - An American Tragedy in Britain's Most Terrifying Prison (Hardcover): Nicholas Guyatt The Hated Cage - An American Tragedy in Britain's Most Terrifying Prison (Hardcover)
Nicholas Guyatt
R770 R630 Discovery Miles 6 300 Save R140 (18%) Ships in 9 - 15 working days

'Beguiling' The Times 'Compelling' Wall Street Journal 'A vivid portrait' Daily Mail Buried in the history of our most famous jail, a unique story of captivity, violence and race. British redcoats torch the White House and six thousand American sailors languish in the world's largest prisoner-of-war camp, Dartmoor. A myriad of races and backgrounds, with some prisoners as young as thirteen. Known as the 'hated cage', Dartmoor wasn't a place you'd expect to be full of life and invention. Yet prisoners taught each other foreign languages and science, put on plays and staged boxing matches. In daring efforts to escape they lived every prison-break cliche - how to hide the tunnel entrances, what to do with the earth... Drawing on meticulous research, The Hated Cage documents the extraordinary communities these men built within the prison - and the terrible massacre that destroyed these worlds. 'This is history as it ought to be - gripping, dynamic, vividly written' Marcus Rediker

Enemy Combatant Detainees (Paperback, New): Earl P. Bettinton Enemy Combatant Detainees (Paperback, New)
Earl P. Bettinton
R1,196 R1,076 Discovery Miles 10 760 Save R120 (10%) Ships in 12 - 17 working days

After the U.S. Supreme Court held that U.S. courts have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 2241 to hear legal challenges on behalf of persons detained at the U.S. Naval Station in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in connection with the war against terrorism (Rasul v. Bush), the Pentagon established administrative hearings, called "Combatant Status Review Tribunals" (CSRTs), to allow the detainees to contest their status as enemy combatants, and informed them of their right to pursue relief in federal court by seeking a writ of habeas corpus. Lawyers subsequently filed dozens of petitions on behalf of the detainees in the District Court for the District of Columbia, where district court judges reached inconsistent conclusions as to whether the detainees have any enforceable rights to challenge their treatment and detention. In December 2005, Congress passed the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 (DTA) to divest the courts of jurisdiction to hear some detainees' challenges by eliminating the federal courts' statutory jurisdiction over habeas claims by aliens detained at Guantanamo Bay (as well as other causes of action based on their treatment or living conditions). The DTA provides instead for limited appeals of CSRT determinations or final decisions of military commissions. After the Supreme Court rejected the view that the DTA left it without jurisdiction to review a habeas challenge to the validity of military commissions in the case of Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, the 109th Congress enacted the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA) (P.L. 109-366) to authorize the President to convene military commissions and to amend the DTA to further reduce access to federal courts by "alien enemy combatants," wherever held, by eliminating pending and future causes of action other than the limited review of military proceedings permitted under the DTA. In June 2008, the Supreme Court held in the case of Boumediene v. Bush that aliens designated as enemy combatants and detained at Guantanamo Bay have the constitutional privilege of habeas corpus. The Court also found that MCA 7, which limited judicial review of executive determinations of the petitioners' enemy combatant status, did not provide an adequate habeas substitute and therefore acted as an unconstitutional suspension of the writ of habeas. The immediate impact of the Boumediene decision is that detainees at Guantanamo may petition a federal district court for habeas review of the legality and possibly the circumstances of their detention, perhaps including challenges to the jurisdiction of military commissions.

Journey Out of Darkness - The Real Story of American Heroes in Hitler's POW Camps--An Oral History (Hardcover): Hal... Journey Out of Darkness - The Real Story of American Heroes in Hitler's POW Camps--An Oral History (Hardcover)
Hal LaCroix, Jorg Meyer
R2,086 Discovery Miles 20 860 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

Journey Out of Darkness is a poignant collection of portraits, in words and photographs, of 19 former prisoners of war who bravely endured captivity in Nazi Germany in World War II. Through these men, one can learn essential truths about the POW experience during that war—truths that counter many popular myths and misconceptions. The men featured here gather every week in offices of the Veterans Administration in Boston and Brockton, Mass. to talk about their experiences and find comfort in each other. In their eighties and nineties, they are unique individuals with unique wartime experiences, but also representative of the more than 120,000 American POWs held in Nazi Germany. They are men who fought a double war, in combat and then as POWs. Using both oral histories and photographs to tell their stories, LaCroix and Meyer humanize a terrifying aspect of war, redefining how we think about these men as POWs, survivors, patriots, and members of the Greatest Generation. Journey Out of Darkness is a poignant collection of portraits, in words and photographs, of 19 former prisoners of war who bravely endured captivity in Nazi Germany during World War II. Through these men, one can learn essential truths about the POW experience during that war—truths that counter many popular myths and misconceptions. The 19 men featured here gather every week in offices of the Veterans Administration in Boston and Brockton, Mass., to talk about their experiences and find comfort in each other. In their eighties and nineties, they are unique individuals with unique wartime experiences, but also representative of the more than 120,000 American POWs held in Nazi Germany. They are men who fought a double war, in combat and then as POWs. Together, their photos and their stories go beyond typical first-person accounts. Until the men in this book began meeting in VA support groups, few had spoken of their POW experiences. Some were told by the military not to talk; others were coerced by military intelligence into signing non-disclosure papers called security certificates. With little exception, they received no recognition for enduring as POWs, even as they struggled with traumatic memories and shame for having been held captive, for losing power over their fate, and for surviving combat when friends died. These portraits also illuminate another little-known story: the plight of Jewish-American POWs. Two of the men featured in the book were Jews who concealed their religious identities from the SS. LaCroix and Meyer have crafted a powerful exploration of the struggles of these brave veterans. Using both oral histories and photographs, Journey Out of Darkness humanizes a terrifying aspect of war, redefining how we think about these men as POWs, survivors, patriots, and members of the Greatest Generation.

Survival at Stalag IVB - Soldiers and Airmen Remember Germany's Largest POW Camp of World War II (Paperback, Annotated... Survival at Stalag IVB - Soldiers and Airmen Remember Germany's Largest POW Camp of World War II (Paperback, Annotated edition)
Tony Vercoe
R949 Discovery Miles 9 490 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

In addition to concentration camps, World War II Germany was also home to 54 prisoner-of-war camps, the largest of which was Stalag IVB. Throughout the 5-1/2 years of its existence, Stalag IVB supported numerous satellite camps, eventually housing thousands of prisoners of many nationalities. Here Poles, French, Belgians, British, Americans, Dutch and Russians fought to survive in a place where life's most basic needs were barely fulfilled. Interred in the camp for several months during late 1943, Tony Vercoe engaged in a struggle for life, sanity and escape. This historical chronicle evokes the heartbreaking reality of day-to-day life in Stalag IVB. Rich with firsthand accounts by the author and other veterans of the camp, it provides particulars regarding rations, prisoner-of-war registration, camp hygiene, inmate activities and prisoner morale. Special emphasis is placed on the role of the International Red Cross in prisoner survival and the multinational ""melting pot"" characteristics of the camp itself. Possibilities of flight and the events that motivated prisoners' daring escape attempts are discussed, along with the consequences of their frequent failures. Closing chapters detail the camp's final months and the prisoners' long awaited deliverance.

The Flamboya Tree (Paperback, New Ed): Clara Olink Kelly The Flamboya Tree (Paperback, New Ed)
Clara Olink Kelly 2
R479 R388 Discovery Miles 3 880 Save R91 (19%) Ships in 9 - 15 working days

"Why didn't you try to escape?" That was all she said. I had imagined my grandmother telling us how lovely it was to see us at last. I saw again in my mind's eye the barbwire fences and the soldiers with the glistening bayonets, and felt once more that excruciating fear in the pit of my stomach. Try to escape? Lots of people had tried to escape.'When the Japanese invaded the beautiful Indonesian island of Java during the Second World War Clara Kelly was four years old. Her family was separated, her father sent to work on the Burma railway, and she together with her mother and her two brothers, one a six- week-old baby, was sent to a 'women's camp'. They were interned there until the end of the war.

Clara's descriptions of the appalling deprivations and impersonal brutality of the camp - standing in the baking heat for hours of 'Tenko' role-call, living on one cup of rice a day - are countered by the courage and resilience shown by all the internees, most poignantly her own mother.

Allied Internment Camps in Occupied Germany - Extrajudicial Detention in the Name of Denazification, 1945-1950 (Hardcover):... Allied Internment Camps in Occupied Germany - Extrajudicial Detention in the Name of Denazification, 1945-1950 (Hardcover)
Andrew H. Beattie
R2,456 Discovery Miles 24 560 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Between 1945 and 1950, approximately 130,000 Germans were interned in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany, including in former Nazi concentration camps. One third of detainees died, prompting comparisons with Nazi terror. But what about the western zones, where the Americans, British, and French also detained hundreds of thousands of Germans without trial? This first in-depth study compares internment by all four occupying powers, asking who was interned, how they were treated, and when and why they were arrested and released. It confirms the incomparably appalling conditions and death rates in the Soviet camps but identifies similarities in other respects. Andrew H. Beattie argues that internment everywhere was an inherently extrajudicial measure with punitive and preventative dimensions that aimed to eradicate Nazism and create a new Germany. By recognising its true nature and extent, he suggests that denazification was more severe and coercive but also more differentiated and complex than previously thought.

A Soldier of the Reich - An Autobiography (Hardcover): Gunter Beetz A Soldier of the Reich - An Autobiography (Hardcover)
Gunter Beetz
R747 R606 Discovery Miles 6 060 Save R141 (19%) Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Gunter Horst Beetz was born in Berlin in 1926. Growing up as part of a typical family-his father was a banker, his mother a housewife-he joined the Hitler Youth-somewhat against his wishes-and after a short period manning anti-aircraft guns in Berlin he ultimately found himself in Normandy, fighting the Allies, where he was captured in July 1944. `A Soldier of the Reich: An Autobiography' documents one man's life in Nazi Germany. It examines what it was like to grow up alongside the rise of fascism, exploring the consequences it had on Beetz's life, including what this meant for his relationship with his Jewish girlfriend, Ruth. Beetz also relates his time as an unenthusiastic soldier fighting in Normandy, commenting on the ethics of war, his first sexual encounter with a French prostitute, and life in the sapper battalion with his and his comrades' bungling attempts at front-line soldiery. He was captured in July 1944 and then describes in illuminating detail the life of an ordinary prisoner of war in America. After two years in Pennsylvania he was transferred first for a short period in Belgium, and then to a PoW camp in Ely, England where remained until 1948. Including previously unpublished images from the author's personal collection, this first-hand account explores a perspective rarely acknowledged in discussions of the Second World War: that of an ordinary Wehrmacht soldier, detailing the beliefs and motivations that shaped him as a person.

A Pocket History of Kilmainham Gaol (Hardcover): A Pocket History of Kilmainham Gaol (Hardcover)
R200 R168 Discovery Miles 1 680 Save R32 (16%) Ships in 9 - 15 working days

From its opening in 1796 to finally closing its doors in 1924, Kilmainham Gaol has held an iconic place in Irish history. Built as Dublin's County Gaol, it held hundreds of Irish patriots in its cells, from Robert Emmet and Anne Devlin in 1803 through to the leaders of the 1916 Rising, fourteen of whom were famously executed in the prison's stonebreaker's yard. It was also a place of suffering for thousands of ordinary men, women and children, whose petty crimes such as stealing food could lead to long interments and then a prison ship to Australia. Today the Gaol is a happier place, where each year hundreds of thousands of visitors enjoy learning about the lives of those who once lived within its walls. Kilmainham Gaol remains one of the most popular tourist sites in Ireland with visitors from both home and abroad. A Pocket History of Kilmainham Gaol contains everything you need to know about one of Ireland's most popular tourist attractions.

Guantanamo - America's War on Human Rights (Paperback, Main): David Rose Guantanamo - America's War on Human Rights (Paperback, Main)
David Rose 2
R298 R238 Discovery Miles 2 380 Save R60 (20%) Ships in 12 - 17 working days

The first book to be published on the subject, this is David Rose's look at 'Camp Delta' at Guantanamo Bay - the most controversial prison in the world. Rose's book is a well-informed indictment of the regime at Guantanamo - he has visited the camp, and interviewed guards, officials and the prison's commander. He has investigated the claims of British detainess released early in 2004, and describes a suffocating atmosphere of isolation, harrassment, Kafkaesque accusation and physical brutality.

A Spanish Prisoner in the Ruins of Napoleon's Empire - The Diary of Fernando Blanco White's Flight to Freedom... A Spanish Prisoner in the Ruins of Napoleon's Empire - The Diary of Fernando Blanco White's Flight to Freedom (Paperback)
Christopher Schmidt-Nowara
R680 Discovery Miles 6 800 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

A Spanish Prisoner in the Ruins of Napoleon's Empire offers a rare primary document from an important moment in history: the Spanish War of Independence, which culminated in the expulsion of France from the Iberian Peninsula in 1814. Fernando Blanco White, a Spaniard whose family made its fortune in trade in Seville - historically Spain's vital link to its American empire- experienced the turmoil of this time period, both as a prisoner of war and as a free man. Blanco White's diary offers personal insights into how people in Europe and across its global empires coped with these profound transformations. Taken prisoner by the French in 1809, Blanco White finally fled from captivity in 1814. Along with other Spanish escapees, he crossed Switzerland, the Rhineland, and the Netherlands before finally setting sail for England. Unlike most of his countrymen, who were quickly whisked back to Spain, Blanco White stayed in England for two years, during which time he composed his account of his flight across Europe. His diary offers gripping, witty, and sometimes cranky accounts of this time, as he records rich descriptions of places he passed through, his companions and fellow Spaniards, and his many encounters with soldiers and civilians. He writes vividly about his imprisonment, his fear of recapture, his renewed exercise of autonomy, and the inverse, his ""slavery""- a term he employs in evocative fashion to describe both his captivity at the hands of the French and the condition of Spaniards more generally under the absolutist Bourbon monarchy. Now available in paperback, Blanco White's diary tracks firsthand the Spanish experience of war, captivity, and flight during the War of Independence.

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