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Books > Humanities > History > European history > From 1900 > Second World War
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Journal
(Paperback)
Helene Berr; Translated by David Bellos
1
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R314
Discovery Miles 3 140
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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From April 1942 to March 1944, Helene Berr, a recent graduate of
the Sorbonne, kept a journal that is both an intensely moving,
intimate, harrowing, appalling document and a text of astonishing
literary maturity. With her colleagues, she plays the violin and
she seeks refuge from the everyday in what she calls the "selfish
magic" of English literature and poetry. But this is Paris under
the occupation and her family is Jewish. Eventually, there comes
the time when all Jews are required to wear a yellow star. She
tries to remain calm and rational, keeping to what routine she can:
studying, reading, enjoying the beauty of Paris. Yet always there
is fear for the future, and eventually, in March 1944, Helene and
her family are arrested, taken to Drancy Transit Camp and soon sent
to Auschwitz. She went - as is later discovered - on the death
march to Bergen-Belsen and there she died in 1945, only five days
before the liberation of the camp. The last words in the journal
she had left behind in Paris were "Horror! Horror! Horror!", a
hideous and poignant echo of her English studies. Helene Berr's
story is almost too painful to read, foreshadowing horror as it
does amidst an enviable appetite for life, for beauty, for
literature, for all that lasts.
For years, the history of the anti-Nazi resistance in Germany was
hidden and distorted by Cold War politics. Providing a much-needed
corrective, Red Orchestra presents the dramatic story of a circle
of German citizens who opposed Hitler from the start, choosing to
stay in Germany to resist Nazism and help its victims. The book
shines a light on this critical movement which was made up of
academics, theatre people, and factory workers; Protestants,
Catholics and Jews; around 150 Germans all told and from all walks
of life. Drawing on archives, memoirs, and interviews with
survivors, award-winning scholar and journalist Anne Nelson
presents a compelling portrait of the men and women involved, and
the terrifying day-to-day decisions in their lives, from the Nazi
takeover in 1933 to their Gestapo arrest in 1942. Nelson traces the
story of the Red Orchestra (Rote Kapelle) resistance movement
within the context of German history, showing the stages of the
Nazi movement and regime from the 1920s to the end of the Second
World War. She also constructs the narrative around the life of
Greta Kuckhoff and other female figures whose role in the anti-Nazi
resistance fight is too-often unrecognised or under appreciated.
This revised edition includes: * A new introduction which explores
elements of the Red Orchestra’s experience that resonate with our
times, including: the impact of new media technologies; the dangers
of political polarization; and the way the judiciary can be shaped
to further the ends of autocracy. The introduction will also
address the long-standing misconception that the German Resistance
only took action when it was clear that Germany was losing the war.
* Historiographic updates throughout the book which take account of
recent literature and additional archival sources
For nearly fifty years, Sala Kirschner kept a secret: She had
survived five years as a slave in seven different Nazi work camps.
Living in America after the war, she kept hidden from her children
any hint of her epic, inhuman odyssey. She held on to more than 350
letters, photographs, and a diary without ever mentioning them.
Only in 1991, on the eve of heart surgery, did she suddenly present
them to Ann, her daughter, and offer to answer any questions Ann
wished to ask.
When Sala first reported to a camp in Geppersdorf, Germany, at
the age of sixteen, she thought it would be for six weeks. Five
years later, she was still at a labor camp and only she and two of
her sisters remained alive of an extended family of fifty.
"Sala's Gift" is a heartbreaking, eye-opening story of survival
and love amidst history's worst nightmare.
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