Modern military history, inspired by social and cultural historical approaches, increasingly puts the national histories of the Second World War to the test. New questions and methods are focusing on aspects of war and violence that have long been neglected. What shaped people's experiences and memories? What differences and what similarities existed in Eastern and Western Europe? How did the political framework influence the individual and the collective interpretations of the war? Finally, what are the benefits of Europeanizing the history of the Second World War? Experts from Belgium, Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, and Russia discuss these and other questions in this comprehensive volume.

Jorg Echternkamp is a Senior Fellow of the Militargeschichtliches Forschungsamt, Potsdam, and co-editor of the journal "Militargeschichtliche Zeitschrift." He has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Calgary in Canada, Visiting Scholar at the German Historical Institute in Paris, and Visiting Lecturer at the University of Paris I (Sorbonne- Pantheon) and Martin-Luther-University of Halle-Wittenberg. His major publications include "Der Aufstieg des deutschen Nationalismus 1770-1840" (1998), "Nach dem Krieg" (2003), "Kriegsschauplatz Deutschland 1945" (2006) and "Germany and the Second World War: German Wartime Society 1939-1945, vols IX/1-2" (2008-2011, ed.).

Stefan Martens is Deputy Director of the German Historical Institute, Paris and coeditor of the journal "Francia - Forschungen zur westeuropaischen Geschichte." He has been a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Paris I (Sorbonne-Pantheon) and the Institut d'Etudes Politiques, Paris. His major publications include "Gorings Reich. Selbstinszenierung in Carinhall" (2009, with Volker Knopf); "Frankreich und Belgien unter deutscher Besatzung 1940-1944. Die Bestande des Bundesarchiv-Militararchivs in Freiburg" (2002, with Sebastian Remus); "Occupation et repression militaire allemandes 1939-1945: La politique de maintien de l'ordre en Europe occupee" (2007, with Gael Eismann).

During the Second World War, the United States benefited greatly from the espionage collaboration between a well-connected ex-professor of economics, Erwin Respondek, and his contact at the U.S. embassy in Berlin, Sam Woods. The intelligence gathered by Respondek and passed on to the U.S. government included the first detailed and accurate warning about the Germans' plans to invade the Soviet Union in 1941. It also included valuable information about German atomic research, military operations, and secret weapons. This espionage work--here described for the first time--forms an intriguing chapter in the history of U.S. intelligence operations during the war and is distinctive for the personalities of the principal figures, their web of high-level connections, and the impact of their achievements.

Among the important revelations of this book, which set it apart from previous, passing references to this espionage collaboration, are that Erwin Respondek was one of the United States's most valuable wartime informants in Hitler's Germany, responsible for the famed Barbarossa warning sent to the State Department; that Franz Halder, the German army's chief of staff, was a major source of Respondek's information on the Germans' invasion plan for the Soviet Union; that Du Pont and the German chemical firm IG Farben maintained a secret wartime exchange of scientific findings, up until 1945; that during 1943 and 1944 the German Armaments Ministry supported research leading toward the construction of a new kind of cyclotron; that Sam Woods received from Respondek a tip-off on Japanese war plans in the Pacific; and that Pope Pius XII was peripherally involved in the resistance activities of Respondek and his Berlin-based circle. This book should appeal to students and scholars interested in Nazi Germany and World War II espionage and to a wider, nonspecialist audience as well.

A vast amount of literature-both scholarly and popular-now exists on the subject of historical memory, but there is remarkably little available that is written from an African perspective. This volume explores the inner dynamics of memory in all its variations, from its most destructive and divisive impact to its remarkable potential to heal and reconcile. It addresses issues on both the conceptual and the pragmatic level and its theoretical observations and reflections are informed by first-hand experiences and comparative reflections from a German, Indian, and Korean perspective. Historical memory in an African context provides a rich kaleidoscope of the diverse experiences and perspectives-and yet there are recurring themes and similar conclusions, connecting it to a global dialogue to which it has much to contribute, but from which it also has much to receive.

Mamadou Diawara received his PhD from Ecole des Hautes Etudes, Paris and is Professor at the University of Frankfurt/Main. He specializes in anthropology and African history (oral history and the history of development).

Bernard C. Lategan is the founding Director of the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study. He studied classical languages, linguistics, literary theory, and theology at the Universities of the Free State, Stellenbosch and Kampen.

Jorn Rusen was President of the Kulturwissenschaftliche Institut in Essen (Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities at Essen) and is now Senior Fellow there and Professor emeritus of History and Historical Culture at the University of Witten-Herdecke.

In this collection of essays, leading scholars analyze the relationship between Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Vatican, and the Roman Catholic Church in America. With the nation mired in economic depression and the threat of war looming across the Atlantic, in 1932 Catholics had to weigh political allegiance versus religious affiliation. Many chose party over religion, electing FDR, a Protestant. This book, a complex blend of religion and politics with the added ingredients of economics and war, grew out of an international conference in 1998 held at the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute in Hyde Park, New York. From the multiplicity of Catholic responses to the New Deal, through FDR’s diplomatic relationship with the Vatican during World War II, and on to the response of the US and the Vatican to the Holocaust, this book expands our understanding of a fascinating and largely unexplored aspect of FDR’s presidency.

Based on archival research in Germany, Great Britain, the USA and Canada, this study provides the first complete examination of the relationship between the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (German Armed Forces High Command), and Anglo-American prisoners of war. German military policy is compared with reports of almost one thousand visits by Red Cross and Protecting Power inspectors to the camps, allowing the reader to judge how well the policies were actually put into practice, and what their impact was on the lives of the captured soldiers, sailors and airmen.

First-hand testimony of survivors and eyewitnesses is compiled in this shocking and graphic account of the crimes committed during World War II at the largest death camp in Yugoslavia. At the small Croatian town of Jasenovac, the fascist "Independent State of Croatia" (a satellite state of the Nazi Third Reich) constructed a concentration camp where more than 200,000 people, mostly Orthodox Serbs, were systematically murdered. Among the participants in this genocide were members of the Roman Catholic clergy, from the Franciscan monk who became the camp commandant to the infamous Archbishop Stepinac, the spiritual advisor to the fascist state appointed by Pope Pius XII. Vladimir Dedijer, a close associate of Tito, has collected irrefutable documentary and photographic evidence, attesting to thousands of atrocities and the complicity of the Catholic Church in these crimes. The events described in this important volume provide a historical context to the current conflict in Yugoslavia and shed light on the motivations behind the apparently senseless ethnic and religious strife which is tearing Yugoslavia apart. The massacre at Jasenovac was the terrible culmination of centuries-old animosities between Orthodox Serbs and Catholic Croats and a dark episode in the history of the Catholic Church, one that the Church has attempted to hush up for fifty years.

In the early morning hours of May 18, 1944 the Russian army, under orders from Stalin, deported the entire Crimean Tatar population from their historical homeland. Given only fifteen minutes to gather their belongings, they were herded into cattle cars bound for Soviet Central Asia. Although the official Soviet record was cleansed of this affair and the name of their ethnic group was erased from all records and official documents, Crimean Tatars did not assimilate with other groups or disappear. This is an ethnographic study of the negotiation of social memory and the role this had in the growth of a national repatriation movement among the Crimean Tatars. It examines the recollections of the Crimean Tatars, the techniques by which they are produced and transmitted and the formation of a remarkably uniform social memory in light of their dispersion throughout Central Asia. Through the lens of social memory, the book covers not only the deportation and life in the diaspora but the process by which the children and grandchildren of the deportees returned and anchored themselves in the Crimean Peninsula, a place they had never visited.

A few years after the Nazis came to power in Germany, an alliance of states and nationalistic movements formed, revolving around the German axis. Such an alliance, the states involved, and the interplay between their territorial aims and those of Germany during the interwar period and World War II are at the core of this volume. This territorial revisionism came to include all manner of politics and military measures that attempted to change existing borders. Taking into account not just interethnic relations but also the motivations of states and nationalizing ethnocratic ruling elites, the volume reconceptualizes the history of East Central Europe during World War II. Thus, the volume presents a clearer understanding of some of the central topics in the history of the War itself and offers an alternative to standard German accounts of the period 1933-1945 and East European nation-states' histories.

Many Britains had distinct religious or theological interpretations of World War II. They viewed Fascism, especially the German National Socialism, as a form of modern paganism, a repulsive worship of Leader, Race, and State--a form of idolatry. However, for the most part, British clerics did not defend the war as a simple matter of Christian Britain versus Pagan Germany, because they saw only too well the pagan elements in British culture. Instead, the clergy defended the war as a defense of Christian civilization, a particular religious culture that had grown up under the aegis of the Christian faith.

Fascism had, in the opinion of many, family similarities to Liberal Humanism. Nazism was abusing the Scripture because everyone had allowed a liberal hermeneutic to slip into their thinking theologically. Naturally, the clerics view of the war as just meant that pacifism was wrong-headed, but they refused to demonize pacifists or to hound them into arrest. The clergymen did maintain that Liberal Humanism issued logically in pacifism and pacifism had weakened the national will, allowing it to make shameful concessions to the Fascist dictators throughout the 1930s. This study will also help explain the surprising Labor Party victory in the summer of 1945.

As World War II ended, dancing broke out in the streets of victorious capitals. But in Washington and Moscow, menacing ultimatums soon replaced declarations of common purpose. The music stopped, the Grand Alliance crumbled, and the Soviet Union and the United States squared off against one another. The victor in this war would be determined by the outcome of a series of geo-strategic battles. Which side would capture the Persian Gulfs oilfield's, and who would seize the Congolese uranium essential for the manufacture of atomic bombs? And whose air and naval bases would dominate the globe's vital traffic lanes from the Black Sea Straits to the Pacific Islands? Three British diplomats, Donald Maclean, Kim Philby, and Guy Burgess, did everything in their power to see to it that the Soviet Union prevailed in these clashes. The Cambridge Spies is the first book to detail their behind-the-scenes effort to sabotage America's national security apparatus during the crucial period between 1945 and 1951 when each, at various times, served at the British embassy in Washington. The book is the result of many years of digging through the State Department and Foreign Office records overlooked by previous scholars and undiscovered by government officials responsible for "purging" such files. For the first time in history the reader can follow the Soviet spies as they work behind enemy lines to sabotage the machinery of Western foreign policy. It is also the first book written by an American on these fabled British spies, and the first to chronicle their most effective period as allied diplomats and enemy agents. The Cambridge Spies reveals the story Washington managed to cover up for forty years. Telling it at a time the work is beginning to relive the fiftieth anniversary of many of the events described in these pages will only add to its explosive impact, and spark new historical debates on issues of abiding interest and contemporary concern.

Hold the Westwall is the dramatic story of Panzer Brigade 105, one of Germany's experimental independent armored brigades, and its formation, deployment (including its defense of the Siegfried Line), and ultimate destruction. Relying heavily on primary documents and interviews, it also presents American accounts of what it was like to fight the brigade. It is the first book in English on Germany's failed experiment with independent armored brigades in World War II.

What did Hitler really want to achieve: world domination. In the early twenties, Hitler was working on this plan and from 1933 on, was working to make it a reality. During 1940 and 1941, he believed he was close to winning the war. This book not only examines Nazi imperial architecture, armament, and plans to regain colonies but also reveals what Hitler said in moments of truth. The author presents many new sources and information, including Hitler's little known intention to attack New York City with long-range bombers in the days of Pearl Harbor.

In the last two decades our empirical knowledge of the Holocaust has been vastly expanded. Yet this empirical blossoming has not been accompanied by much theoretical reflection on the historiography. This volume argues that reflection on the historical process of (re)constructing the past is as important for understanding the Holocaust-and, by extension, any past event-as is archival research. It aims to go beyond the dominant paradigm of political history and describe the emergence of methods now being used to reconstruct the past in the context of Holocaust historiography.

"We will be judged in our own time and in the future by measuring the aid that we, inhabitants of a free and fortunate country, gave to our brethren in this time of greatest disaster." This declaration, made shortly after the pogroms of November 1938 by the Jewish communities in Sweden, was truer than anyone could have forecast at the time. Pontus Rudberg focuses on this sensitive issue - Jewish responses to the Nazi persecutions and mass murder of Jews. What actions did Swedish Jews take to aid the Jews in Europe during the years 1933-45 and what determined their policies and actions? Specific attention is given to the aid efforts of the Jewish Community of Stockholm, including the range of activities in which the community engaged and the challenges and opportunities presented by official refugee policy in Sweden.

This important reference work highlights a number of disparate themes relating to the experience of children during the Holocaust, showing their vulnerability and how some heroic people sought to save their lives amid the horrors perpetrated by the Nazi regime. This book is a comprehensive examination of the people, ideas, movements, and events related to the experience of children during the Holocaust. They range from children who kept diaries to adults who left memoirs to others who risked (and, sometimes, lost) their lives in trying to rescue Jewish children or spirit them away to safety in various countries. The book also provides examples of the nature of the challenges faced by children during the years before and during World War II. In many cases, it examines the very act of children's survival and how this was achieved despite enormous odds. In addition to more than 125 entries, this book features 10 illuminating primary source documents, ranging from personal accounts to Nazi statements regarding what the fate of Jewish children should be to statements from refugee leaders considering how to help Jewish children after World War II ended. These documents offer fascinating insights into the lives of students during the Holocaust and provide students and researchers with excellent source material for further research. Provides readers with insights into the vulnerabilities faced by children during the Holocaust Shows how individual rescuers and larger (though clandestine) rescue organizations sought to minimize the worst effects of Nazi anti-Jewish measures against children Explains how some Jewish children pretended to be non-Jewish as a way to survive Showcases adult victims of the Holocaust who, despite the risks to themselves, worked to save children

Crucible of a Generation tells the story of the fifteen days surrounding the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor through the pages of eight leading American newspapers. Focusing on publications such as The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune, J. Kenneth Brody paints a vivid picture of U.S. political culture and society at a pivotal moment in the nation's history. Brody considers the papers in full, from headlines to "help wanted" ads, in a text richly illustrated with archival images, wartime posters, and editorial cartoons. The book provides a compelling snapshot of the United States and the role of the media at a time of dramatic tension and global change.

Crucible of a Generation tells the story of the fifteen days surrounding the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor through the pages of eight leading American newspapers. Focusing on publications such as The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune, J. Kenneth Brody paints a vivid picture of U.S. political culture and society at a pivotal moment in the nation's history. Brody considers the papers in full, from headlines to "help wanted" ads, in a text richly illustrated with archival images, wartime posters, and editorial cartoons. The book provides a compelling snapshot of the United States and the role of the media at a time of dramatic tension and global change.

Despite growing up during the Second World War, watching the nightly vigil of German Bombers destroying the ship builders by the river, some of us did survive, had our fun, our adventure 's, first loves and misfortunes. As young adults our circumstance's changed. New pals, new loves, 'Don't forget to keep in touch', but as time went, you didn't. Untill one day by chance accidentaly colliding into my old school pal Graham, nearly seventy years after parting our ways, things changed. They say everything happens in three's, but in our case it increased as more, now grey haired delinquents from 4A joined the monthly meetings of the Survivers Club, to reminisce on old times over a few beer's. Being pressured into putting pen to paper, and transcribe the tesimony of our memorable youth, this narrative was composed.

The Holocaust stands as a focal event in modern Western history. With a vast array of literature, film, and historical work dedicated to the subject, it is increasingly difficult for educators to sift through the materials available and incorporate them into their curricula.

New Perspectives on the Holocaust offers guidance to those in the teaching professions confronting issues raised by the Holocaust. Authors, all actively involved in teaching about the Holocaust, reflect on a range of fundamental questions. Some offer guidance in selecting materials; others examine factors that determine the success or failure of Holocaust curricula; and still others essays examine questions of how much we can know about the Holocaust, investigating specifically the phenomenon of Holocaust denial. Providing a wealth of guidance for engaging students in a wide range of disciplines, from literature to history to geography to Jewish and Christian theology, and including contributions by such well-known scholars as Steven Katz, William Seidelman, Richard Breitman, John Pawlikowski, and Carole Fink, this volume is essential reading for all those in the teaching professions who grapple with the Holocaust.