The book discusses a formerly unknown and invisible massacre in Budapest in 1944, committed by a paramilitary group lead by a women. Andrea Peto uncovers the gripping history of the fi rst private Holocaust memorial erected in Budapest in 1945. Based on court trials, interviews with survivors, perpetrators, and investigators, the book illustrates the complexities of gendered memory of violence. It examines the dramatic events: massacre, deportation, robbery, homecoming, and fi ght for memorialization from the point of view of the perpetrators and the survivors. The book will change the ways we look at intimate killings during the Second World-War. Watch our talk with the editor Andrea Peto here: https://youtu.be/dV6JEcE2RFk

This book investigates cinematic representations of the murder of European Jews and civilian opposition to Nazi occupation from the war up until the twenty-first century. The study exposes a chronology of the conflict's memorialization whose geo-political alignments are demarcated by vectors of time and space-or 'chronotopes', using Mikhail Bakhtin's term. Camino shows such chronotopes to be first defined by the main allies; the USA, USSR and UK; and then subsequently expanding from the geographical and political centres of the occupation; France, the USSR and Poland. Films from Western and Eastern Europe and the USA are treated as primary and secondary sources of the conflict. These sources contribute to a sentient or emotional history that privileges affect and construct what Michel Foucault labels biopolitics. These cinematic narratives, which are often based on memoirs of resistance fighters like Joseph Kessel or Holocaust survivors such as Primo Levi and Wanda Jakubowska, evoke the past in what Marianne Hirsch has described as 'post-memory'.

Situated on Europe's northern periphery, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden found themselves caught between warring powers during World War II. Ultimately, these nations survived the conflict as sovereign states whose wartime experiences have profoundly shaped their historiography, literature, cinema and memory cultures. Nordic War Stories explores the commonalities and divergences among the five Nordic countries, examining national historiographies alongside representations of the war years in canonical literary works, travel writing, and film media. Together, they comprise a valuable companion that challenges the myth of Scandinavian homogeneity while demonstrating the powerful influence that the war continues to exert on national identities.

Numerous books on the topic of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have been published hitherto. Yet, no one has written about the fire and atomic bombings in the context of the U.S. justification of the crime of indiscriminate bombings and its relationship to Japan's political exploitation of the atomic bombing to cover up Hirohito's war responsibility. Further, no one has analyzed the fundamental contradiction in Japan's peace constitution between the concealment of Hirohito's war crimes and the responsibility of the U.S. Readers will learn how Japanese and U.S. official war memories were crafted to justify their respective wartime performances, exposing the flaws and failing of present-day democracy in Japan and the U.S. This book also explores how Japanese people could potentially create a truly powerful cultural memory of war, utilizing various forms of artwork including Japan's traditional performing art, Noh. It should appeal to many readers-historians (both modern American and Japanese history specialists), constitutional scholars, students, peace and anti-nuclear activists, intellectuals as well as general readers.

By analyzing some of the most controversial topics related to the Second World War in south-eastern Europe: the Holocaust, the genocide of Serbs and Roma, the issue of political prisoners and state-sponsored crimes, censorship during Communist Yugoslavia, the use of memory in war propaganda, and representation of tragedies in museums and art, this book allows for a greater understanding of the development of intergroup violence in the former Yugoslavia.

Drawing on historiography of the Japanese occupation in the Chinese, Japanese, and English languages, this book examines the politics of the Manchukuo puppet state from the angle of notable Chinese who cooperated with the Japanese military and headed its government institutions. The war in Asia between 1931 and 1945, and particularly the early years of the conflict from 1931 to 1937, is a topic of world history that is often glossed over or misinterpreted. Much of the research and public opinion on this period in China, Japan, and the West deem these Chinese figures to be traitors, particles of Japanese colonialism, and collaborators under occupation. In contrast, this book highlights the importance of analyzing the national ideas of Manchukuo's Chinese government leaders as a method of understanding Manchukuo's operating mechanisms, Sino-Japanese interactions, and China's turbulent history in the early twentieth century. Chinese Government Leaders in Manchukuo, 1931-1937 fills a gap in this research and is an ideal resource for scholars studying wartime Asia and Europe, as well as non-specialist readers who are interested in collaboration in general.

The decisive role of Britain's wartime newspaper journalism in shaping public opinion and government policy has been majorly overlooked. Much of the existing historiography has framed Britain's newspapers as mouthpieces of state propaganda, readily conforming to the wishes of the wartime coalition. Tim Luckhurst challenges this through an analysis of illuminating and largely forgotten controversies which underscore the function the press held as guardians of democracy and propagators of dissenting opinion in British politics and society - from the overseas evacuation of children to the Allies' carpet bombing of German cities. Reporting the Second World War is a timely and important intervention that duly recognises the place of national, regional and specialist titles in speaking truth to power in a democracy at war.

The remarkable story of a championship college football team that achieved perfection in 1941 as America drew closer and closer to World War II and the sacrifices the young athletes made when Pearl Harbor turned their fears into reality. As the United States veered towards war during the fall of 1941, the University of Minnesota football team completed an undefeated national championship season just fifteen days before the strike on Pearl Harbor. After the attack, players left behind college football stardom to command PT boats in the South Pacific, sweep mines on the beaches of Normandy, and join the invasion of Iwo Jima along with so many others from the Greatest Generation. In From the Gridiron to the Battlefield, Danny Spewak shares the struggles and triumphs of the Golden Gophers' national championship season. He recounts how players from the University of Minnesota battled on the field even with the threat of war hanging over their heads, bringing to life the tensions Americans felt in their daily lives during a time when the country was bitterly divided about whether to aid the Allies. When the United States finally entered the war, every member of the team participated in the war effort in one way or another. Some, including team captain and Heisman Trophy winner Bruce Smith, remained stateside in the U.S. Navy. Others set sail for the Pacific Theater. Some saw more direct combat: reserve fullback Mike Welch earned a Purple Heart for saving five shipmates on the USS Tide at Normandy, halfback Gene Bierhaus fought with the Marines at Iwo Jima, and backfield mate Joe Lauterbach lost his left leg during the same invasion. In commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, From the Gridiron to the Battlefield reveals the sacrifices and courage of the Greatest Generation through the eyes of the 1941 Golden Gophers.

In 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union in the largest offensive operation ever undertaken. Operation Barbarossa saw defeat after defeat heaped on the Soviet army. With Russia's forces left staggering under the strain and in desperate need of supplies, Britain and the United States launched an ambitious operation to resupply the Soviet Union using convoys sent through the Arctic. Their journey was punctuated by torpedo attacks in freezing conditions, Stuka dive bombers, naval gun fire, and weeks of total darkness in the Arctic winter, with ships disappearing below the waves weighed down by the ice and snow on their decks. Drawing on hundreds of oral histories from eyewitnesses and veterans of the convoys, plus original research into the Russian Navy archives at Murmansk, historian Michael G. Walling offers a fresh retelling of one of World War II's pivotal yet largely overlooked campaigns.

"Few ships in American history have had as illustrious a history as the heavy cruiser USS Portland (CA-33), affectionately known by her crew as 'Sweet Pea.' With the destructionof most of the U.S. battleship fleet at Pearl Harbor, cruisers such as Sweet Pea carried the biggest guns the Navy possessed for nearly a year after the start of World War II. Sweet Pea at War describes in harrowing detail how Portland and her sisters protected the precious carriers and held the line against overwhelming Japanese naval strength. Portland was instrumental in the dramatic American victories at the Battle of the Coral Sea, the Battle of Midway, and the naval battle of Guadalcanal--conflicts that historians regard as turning points in the Pacific war. She rescued nearly three thousand sailors from sunken ships, some of them while she herself was badly damaged. Only a colossal hurricane ended her career, but she sailed home from that, too. Based on extensive research in official documents and interviews with members of the ship's crew, Sweet Pea at War recounts from launching to scrapping the history of USS Portland, demonstrating that she deserves to be remembered as one of the most important ships in U.S. naval history.

This set of essays offers new insights into the journalistic process and the pressures American front-line reporters experienced covering World War II. Transmitting stories through cable or couriers remained expensive and often required the cooperation of foreign governments and the American armed forces. Initially, reporters from a neutral America documented the early victories by Nazi Germany and the Soviet invasion of Finland. Not all journalists strived for objectivity. During her time reporting from Ireland, Helen Kirkpatrick remained a fierce critic of this country's neutrality. Once the United States joined the fight after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, American journalists supported the struggle against the Axis powers, but this volume will show that reporters, even when members of the army sponsored, Stars and Stripes were not mere ciphers of the official line. African American reporters Roi Ottley and Ollie Stewart worked to bolster the morale of Black GIs and they undermine the institutional racism endemic to the American war effort. Women front-line reporters are given their due in this volume examining the struggles to overcome gender bias by examining triumphs of Therese Mabel Bonney, Lee Carson, Iris Carpenter, and Anne Stringer. The line between public relations and journalism could be a fine one as reflected by the U.S. Marine Corps creating its own network of Marine correspondents who reported on the Pacific island campaigns and had their work published by American media outlets. Despite the pressures of censorship, the best American reporters strove for accuracy in reporting the facts even when dependent on official communiques issued by the military. Many war-time reporters, even when covering major turning points, sought to embrace a reporting style that recorded the experiences of average soldiers. Often associated with Ernie Pyle and Bill Mauldin, the embrace of the human-interest story served as one of the enduring legacies of the conflict. Despite the importance of American war reporting in shaping perceptions of the war on the home front as well as shaping the historical narrative of this conflict, this work underscores how there is more to learn. Readers will gain from this work and new appreciation of the contribution of American journalists in writing the first version of history as the global struggle against Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and Fascist Italy.

This independent study has already attracted controversy. Containing much fresh evidence, it vividly portrays the Islanders' day-to-day Occupation experiences, whilst exploring - and often refuting - what are today becoming received ideas of a mostly 'shameful' wartime past. Aspects discussed include: collaboration; resistance; starvation; the fate of missing forced workers; whether Island Officials knowingly sent three Jewish women to their deaths in Auschwitz; and whether the Islands' experiences were unique, or would simply have charted the course of Hitler's planned invasion of Britain.

The Munich Crisis of 1938 had major diplomatic as well as personal and psychological repercussions. As much as it was a climax in the clash between dictatorship and democracy, it was also a People's Crisis and an event that gripped and worried the people around the world. The traditional approach has been to examine the crisis from the vantage points of high politics and diplomacy. Traditional approaches have failed to acknowledge the profound social, cultural and psychological impacts of diplomatic events, an imbalance that is redressed in this volume. Taking a range of national examples and using a variety of methods, The Munich Crisis, Politics and the People recreates the experience of living through the crisis in Czechoslovakia, Germany, France, Britain, Hungary, the Soviet Union and the USA. -- .

In this book, I would like to introduce to our readers the first major campaign of the Royal Hungarian Army fought against the Red Army in Ukraine from July until November of 1941. The Barbarossa campaign started 80 years ago, on 22 June 1941, pitting the forces of the Soviet Union against those of the Third Reich and its allies. Hungary was among the less willing allies who participated on the side of the Germans. On strategically level the Hungarian involvement during the first phase of the war against the Soviet Union was minimal. On the other hand, the Hungarian committed their most modern, partially motorized units; the Mobile Corps and the elite mountain jagers and border guard troops of the VIII Corps and the selected units of the Royal Hungarian Air Force. Through this lavishly illustrated book I wanted to show you what war meant for ordinary soldiers, civilians from the Hungarian perspective in 1941.

South of the Norman city of Caen, Verrieres Ridge was seen a key stepping-stone for the British Second Army if it was to break out of the Normandy bridgehead in late July 1944. Imposing in height and containing perfect terrain for armoured operations, the Germans viewed it as the lynchpin to their defences south of the city of Caen and east of the Orne river. Following the failure of British Operation Goodwood on 18-20 July and the containment of the Canadian Operation Atlantic, further Allied attacks to seize the ridge would have to defeat arguably the strongest German armoured formation in Normandy: The I. SS-Panzerkorps 'Leibstandarte'. In the second volume of this two-volume work, the fighting of 23 July-3 August is chronicled in detail, specifically the premier Anglo-Canadian operation to capture Verrieres Ridge, Operation Spring on 25 July. Designed as an attack to seize the ridge and exploit south with armour, this battle saw the 2nd Canadian Corps attack savaged again by German armoured reserves brought in specifically to defeat another Goodwood. Not satisfied with this defensive victory, German armoured forces would then seek to restore an earlier defensive line further north, attacking to destroy the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division. Largely unknown, these were some of the strongest and most successful German armoured operations to take place in the Normandy campaign.

Today Italy is a land of beauty and prosperity but in 1944-45 it had become a place of nightmares, a land of violence, war, and destruction. James Holland's ground-breaking account expertly documents the German advance and a segment of Italian history that has been largely neglected. The war in Italy was the most destructive campaign in the west as the Allies and Germans fought a long, bitter and highly attritional conflict up the mountainous leg of Italy during the last twelve months of the Second World War. For front-line troops, casualties rates at Cassino and then along the notorious Gothic Line were as high as they had been along the Western Front in the First World War. There were further similarities too: blasted landscapes, rain and mud. For the men who fought there, Italy really was the hardest campaign. And while the Allies and Germans were slogging it out through the mountains, the Italians were fighting their own battles, one where Partisans and Fascists were pitted against each other in a bloody civil war. Around them, civilians tried to live through the carnage, terror and anarchy while, in the wake of the Allied advance, beleaguered and impoverished Italians were forced to pick their way through the ruins of their homes and country and often forced into making terrible and heart-rending decisions in order to survive. 'Italy's Sorrow' is the first account of the war in that most beautiful of countries to tell the story from all sides and to include the experiences of soldiers and civilians alike. Offering extensive new research, it weaves together the drama and tragedy of a terrible year of war with new perspectives and material on some of the most debated episodes to have emerged from the Second World War. It is a magnificent achievement by one of our finest young military historians.

Arnhem 1944: the airborne strike for the bridges over the Rhine. The true story of the greatest battle of World War II and the basis of the 1977 film of the same name, directed by Richard Attenborough. The Battle of Arnhem, one of the most dramatic battles of World War II, was as daring as it was ill-fated. It cost the Allies nearly twice as many casualties as D-Day. This is the whole compelling story, told through the vast cast of characters involved. From Dutch civilians to British and American strategists, its scope and ambition is unparalleled, superbly recreating the terror and suspense, the heroism and tragedy of this epic operation. 'I know of no other work of literature of World War II as moving, as awesome and as accurate in its portrayal of human courage.' - General James A Gavin

Between Resistance and Collaboration is a study of the impact of the changes to the structure of authority and economy brought upon the population of northern France by the Nazi occupation. The book explores the various means by which the local population both protested hardships, forcing the authorities to do something about them, and evaded the plethora of political and economic regulations when the authorities were unable and unwilling to act.

Miss Dior is a wartime story of freedom and fascism, beauty and betrayal and 'a gripping story' (Antonia Fraser). 'Exceptional . . . Miss Dior is so much more than a biography. It's about how necessity can drive people to either terrible deeds or acts of great courage, and how beauty can grow from the worst kinds of horror.' DAILY TELEGRAPH Miss Dior explores the relationship between the visionary designer Christian Dior and his beloved younger sister Catherine, who inspired his most famous perfume and shaped his vision of femininity. Justine Picardie's journey takes her to wartime Paris, where Christian honed his couture skills while Catherine dedicated herself to the French Resistance and the battle against the Nazis, until she was captured by the Gestapo and deported to the German concentration camp of Ravensbruck. Tracing the wartime paths of the Dior siblings leads Picardie deep into other hidden histories, and different forms of resistance and sisterhood. She discovers what it means to believe in beauty and hope, despite our knowledge of darkness and despair, and reveals the timeless solace of the natural world in the aftermath of devastation and destruction. *A beautiful, full colour package featuring over 200 archival images.* 'Extraordinary . . . Picardie uses her investigative reporting skills . . . the result is Netflix-worthy and the pace page-turning . . . Catherine's story shines - the quiet Dior who preferred flowers to fashion, the unsung heroine who survived the abuse of the Third Reich to help liberate France.' SUNDAY TIMES

Of the three categories that Raul Hilberg developed in his analysis of the Holocaust-perpetrators, victims, and bystanders-it is the last that is the broadest and most difficult to pinpoint. Described by Hilberg as those who were "once a part of this history," bystanders present unique challenges for those seeking to understand the decisions, attitudes, and self-understanding of historical actors who were neither obviously the instigators nor the targets of Nazi crimes. Combining historiographical, conceptual, and empirical perspectives on the bystander, the case studies in this book provide powerful insights into the complex social processes that accompany state-sponsored genocidal violence.

The Towns of Death deals with the pogroms of Jews in Eastern Poland in 1941-1942 perpetrated by their Polish neighbors. The book relies on witness reports from survivors, bystanders, and the murderers themselves as found in court testimonies to describe the eerily similar, horrific events that occurred in some dozen towns throughout the region. It Importantly, the author demonstrates the pivotal role of the Catholic clergy and individual priests, the intellectual classes, and political circles in sowing the seeds that allowed anti-Semitism to grow and express itself in the pogroms in which tens of thousands of Polish Jews were slaughtered individually and en masse by their Polish neighbors.

This is a book that will change the American perception of the Pacific War. One important question is: Who actually started the Pacific War? By examining recently discovered facts revealed through the declassification of official documents, the decoding of secret communications between the Soviet Union and its operatives, and findings from American and Japanese writers in recent decades, the author clarifies the role played by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and members of his cabinet in pushing Japan to the brink of war. Another notable analysis concerns the U.S. occupation of Japan immediately after the war. The author finds it as a spectacular success in politically castrating Japan. The impact is still clearly observable. Many Japanese have lost the sense of nationhood as a result. The author examines the historical background of U.S.-Japan relations from the visit of Commodore Matthew Perry in 1853 to the present day. Utilized a wealth of Japanese as well as American materials, he presents a view of the history of the two countries. He finds that Japan was not very skillful in utilizing code-breaking or information-warfare, but tried to liberate colonies in Asia and Africa, and indeed her effort was successful and ultimately resulted in the loss of Western Colonies including India, Indonesia, Burma, and Malaysia. After reviewing nearly two hundred years of history, the author urges contemporary Japanese to be free from the self-incriminating view of history and to be confident that the nation is on a right track.

This is Operation Barbarossa as experienced by the soldiers of the 3rd Panzer Division and reported on the German homefront. After smashing its way deep into Soviet territory during the summer of 1941, the tanks of the division encountered difficulties as they got closer to Moscow, eventually being halted not far from the Soviet capital. Written by eyewitnesses to the invasion, these accounts chronicle the Division's exploits as the pace of advance slowed and the ravages of winter began to be felt. Two panzer experts have provided commentary, placing these events in their historical context and providing details about commanders, vehicles, and more.

In the 1930s and 1940s - amid the crises of totalitarianism, war and a perceived cultural collapse in the democratic West - a high-profile group of mostly Christian intellectuals met to map out 'middle ways' through the 'age of extremes'. Led by the missionary and ecumenist Joseph H. Oldham, the group included prominent writers, thinkers and activists such as T. S. Eliot, John Middleton Murry, Karl Mannheim, John Baillie, Alec Vidler, H. A. Hodges, Christopher Dawson, Kathleen Bliss and Michael Polanyi. The 'Oldham group' saw faith as a uniquely powerful resource for social and cultural renewal, and it represents a fascinating case study of efforts to renew freedom in a dramatic confrontation with totalitarianism. The group's story will appeal to those interested in the cultural history of the Second World War and the issue of applying faith to the 'modern' social order. -- .

This book analyzes how Second World War heritage is being reframed in the memorial museums of the post-socialist, post-conflict states of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia. It argues that in all three countries, a reluctance to confront undesirable parts of their national histories is the root cause explaining why the state-funded Second World War memorial museums remain stuck in the postsocialist transition. In most cases, Second World War museums, exhibitions, and displays conceived in the Yugoslav period have been left unchanged. However, there are also examples where new sections were added to the old ones and there are a small number of completely reconceptualized permanent exhibitions. The transitional position of the Second World War museums has made it possible to view these institutions as historical formations in their own right. The book will appeal to students and academics working in the fields of heritage and museums studies, memory studies, and cultural history of Southeast-Europe.