A New York Times bestseller, The Conquerors reveals how Franklin Roosevelt's and Harry Truman's private struggles with their aides and Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin affected the unfolding of the Holocaust and the fate of vanquished Nazi Germany.

With monumental fairness and balance, The Conquerors shows how Roosevelt privately refused desperate pleas to speak out directly against the Holocaust, to save Jewish refugees and to explore the possible bombing of Auschwitz to stop the killing. The book also shows FDR's fierce will to ensure that Germany would never threaten the world again. Near the end of World War II, he abruptly endorsed the secret plan of his friend, Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau, to reduce the Germans to a primitive existence -- despite Churchill's fear that crushing postwar Germany would let the Soviets conquer the continent. The book finally shows how, after FDR's death, President Truman rebelled against Roosevelt's tough approach and adopted the Marshall Plan and other more conciliatory policies that culminated in today's democratic, united Europe.

Margarete Susman was among the great Jewish women philosophers of the twentieth century, and largely unknown to many today. This book presents, for the first time in English, six of her important essays along with an introduction about her life and work. Carefully selected and edited by Elisa Klapheck, these essays give the English-speaking reader a taste of Susman's religious-political mode of thought, her originality, and her importance as Jewish thinker. Susman's writing on exile, return, and the revolutionary impact of Judaism on humanity, illuminate enhance our understanding of other Jewish philosophers of her time: Martin Buber, Franz Rosenzweig, and Ernst Bloch (all of them her friends). Her work is in particularly fitting company when read alongside Jewish religious-political and political thinkers such as Bertha Pappenheim, Hannah Arendt, Simone Weil, and Gertrud Stein. Initially a poet, Susman became a follower of the Jewish Renaissance movement, secular Messianism, and the German Revolution of 1918. This collection of essays shows how Susman's work speaks not only to her own time between the two World Wars but to the present day.

From the stunning victory at Pearl Harbor to its dramatic reversal at Midway, the Imperial Japanese Navy swept all before it in its numerous victories in the Pacific and Far Eastern waters. "The Imperial Japanese Navy in the Pacific War "pulls from many of Osprey's bestselling books on the subject in addition to the most recent research on the subject, including many sources from Japan, and is the most recent and accurate book on this fascinating force.
Even after its setback at midway, the IJN remained a powerful force and inflicted sever setbacks on the US Navy at Guadalcanal and elsewhere. "The Imperial Japanese Navy "focuses on the Japanese ships which fought the battles in the Pacific including design details, where and when they were engaged and their ultimate effectiveness. In addition,
the construction, design and service history of each ship from destroyer size on up is included. A comprehensive survey of the submarine force is also included. Modifications of each ship are covered making this a valuable reference source for Pacific War enthusiasts and historians, as well as ship modelers.
A short history of the IJN during the Pacific War places all warship design and history in proper context. Finally, a chapter discussing the strengths and weaknesses of the IJN is included ultimately asking the question of whether the IJN really was a modern Navy which was fully prepared for the rigors of combat in the Pacific.

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES, WALL STREET JOURNAL, AND USA TODAY BESTSELLER "As exciting as any spy novel" (Daily News, New York), The Princess Spy follows the hidden history of an ordinary American girl who became one of the OSS's most daring World War II spies before marrying into European nobility. Perfect for fans of A Woman of No Importance and Code Girls. When Aline Griffith was born in a quiet suburban New York hamlet, no one had any idea that she would go on to live "a life of glamour and danger that Ingrid Bergman only played at in Notorious" (Time). As the United States enters the Second World War, the young college graduate is desperate to aid in the war effort, but no one is interested in a bright-eyed young woman whose only career experience is modeling clothes. Aline's life changes when, at a dinner party, she meets a man named Frank Ryan and reveals how desperately she wants to do her part for her country. Within a few weeks, he helps her join the Office of Strategic Services--forerunner of the CIA. With a code name and expert training under her belt, she is sent to Spain to be a coder, but is soon given the additional assignment of infiltrating the upper echelons of society, mingling with high-ranking officials, diplomats, and titled Europeans. Against this glamorous backdrop of galas and dinner parties, she recruits sub-agents and engages in deep-cover espionage. Even after marrying the Count of Romanones, one of the wealthiest men in Spain, Aline secretly continues her covert activities, being given special assignments when abroad that would benefit from her impeccable pedigree and social connections. "[A] meticulously researched, beautifully crafted work of nonfiction that reads like a James Bond thriller" (Bookreporter), The Princess Spy brings to vivid life the dazzling adventures of a spirited American woman who risked everything to serve her country.

When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, the U.S. Navy had a total of 111 submarines. However, this fleet was not nearly as impressive as the number suggests. It was mostly a collection of ageing boats from the late teens and early twenties, with only a few of the newer, more modern Gato-class boats. Fortunately, with the war in Europe already two years old and friction with Japan ever-increasing, help from what would become known as the Silent Service in the Pacific was on the way: there were 73 of the new fleet submarines under construction. The Silent Service in World War II tells the story of America's intrepid underwater warriors in the words of the men who lived the war in the Pacific against Japan. The enemy had already begun to deploy advanced boats, but the U.S. was soon able to match them. By 1943 the new Gato-class boats were making a difference, carrying the war not just to the Japanese Imperial Navy, but to the vital merchant fleet that carried the vast array of material needed to keep the land of the Rising Sun afloat. As the war progressed, American success in the Solomons, starting with Guadalcanal, began to constrict the Japanese sea lanes, and operating singly or in wolfpacks they were able to press their attacks on convoys operating beyond the range of U.S. airpower, making daring forays even into the home waters of Japan itself in the quest for ever more elusive targets. Also taking on Japanese warships, as well as rescuing downed airmen (such as the grateful first President Bush), U.S. submarines made an enormous contribution to our war against Japan. This book takes you through the war as you learn what it was like to serve on submarines in combat, the exhilaration of a successful attack, and the terror of being depth-charged. And aside from enemy action, the sea itself could prove to be an extremely hostile environment as many of these stories attest. From early war patrols in obsolescent, unreliable S-boats to new, modern fleet submarines roving the Pacific, the forty-six stories in this anthology give you a full understanding of what it was like to be a U.S. Navy submariner in combat.

One man could have enabled the most audacious terrorist threat against America prior to 9/11 and helped the Nazis win World War II-the Nazi spy pastor, Carl Krepper. His riveting story brings to light a forgotten chapter in the history of the Second World War. As America continues to wrestle with issues surrounding the threat of sabotage and terrorism, this eye-opening work details a very real threat faced by our country in the Second World War, and the key aspects of the underground war that was fought in this country by Nazi agents. The Nazi Spy Pastor: Carl Krepper and the War in America presents the fascinating true story of a secret plot to be executed on American soil-a German sabotage operation with intended targets in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Illinois. This book chronicles, for the first time, the remarkable life of Carl Krepper-naturalized American citizen, Lutheran pastor, and the Nazi deep-cover operative who could have made possible the greatest terrorist threat on American soil prior to the attacks on September 11th. Historian J. Francis Watson draws on newly declassified archival and documentary materials to tell the full story of how a devoted clergyman lost his way and betrayed his calling, instead advocating an ideology that supported genocide and the deaths of innocent victims in America, and how he came to play a key role in the Pastorius sabotage plot. The book covers fascinating cloak-and-dagger details of submarine infiltrations, safe houses, and secret codes, detailing Krepper's life, his work as a Nazi agent, and the FBI sting operation that finally brought about his arrest in December of 1944. This little-known, real-life espionage story will serve students of World War II history and appeal to readers interested in immigration and the integration of immigrant populations as well as the histories of New York and New Jersey. Offers a compelling view into "the mind of a spy," identifying the elements and events that motivated Carl Krepper and led him to his treasonous work Utilizes newly declassified material from the FBI as well as other archival materials from the United States and Germany to provide a more accurate and complete portrayal of Krepper's actions and intentions than previously possible Draws connections between what happened to America during World War II and current national security challenges and threats of terrorism facing the United States in the modern context Documents how Krepper's arrest and trial were used as a basis for the arrest and trial of some of the prisoners at Guantanamo following the events of September 11, 2001

In July 1940, a desperately weakened Britain licks her wounds after the humiliating retreat from Dunkirk. How can the fight be taken to the enemy? New Prime Minister Winston Churchill orders the creation of the Special Operations Executive, to 'set Europe ablaze' through subversion and sabotage. But this most secret of agencies must be kept secure. Guardians of Churchill's Secret Army tells the mostly unknown human stories of the men who were brought into SOE, straight from Intelligence Corps training, to do just that. They were junior in rank, but far from ordinary people. They were Australian, Anglo-French, Canadian, Scandinavian, East European and British. They had been schoolteachers, journalists, artists, ship brokers, racehorse trainers and international businessmen. Each spoke several languages. These men stood alongside courageous agents in training: encouraged them, assessed their character, and tried to teach them the caution and suspicion that might just keep them alive, deep in enemy territory. But they did much more. Many became agents themselves and displayed great bravery. All played a crucial role in the global effort to undermine the enemy. We find them not only in the Baker Street Headquarters of SOE, but also in night parachute drops, in paramilitary training in the remotest depths of Scotland and in undercover agent training in isolated English country houses. We follow them to occupied France, to Malaya and Thailand under threat of Japanese invasion, to Italy and Germany as they play their part in the collapse of the Axis regimes. As we do so, we find a world of heroism and commitment so different from our own experience that it is scarcely believable.

This book presents a selection of the newest research on themes amplified by the sixth annual Beyond Camps and Forced Labour conference on the post-Holocaust period, including 'displaced persons', reception and resettlement, exiles and refugees, trials and justice, reparation and restitution, and memory and testimony. The chapters highlight new, transnational approaches and findings based on underused and newly opened archives, including compensation files of the British government; on historical actors often on the periphery within English-language historiography, including Romanian and Hungarian survivors; and new approaches such as the spatial history of Drancy, as well as geographies that have undergone less scrutiny, for example, Tehran, Chile, Mexico and Cyprus. This volume represents the vibrant and varied state of research on the aftermath of the Holocaust.

What does it take to kill your fellow man?

The horrors of World War One yield the answer for one troubled young man from Littlemore who finds himself at war on two fronts: at home and in the trenches - where his enemies number comrades as well as Germans. His pursuit of inner peace leads to the ultimate sacrifice.

A terrified teenage boy plunges from a bridge into a river before a baying mob of his peers.

Jumping from the Black Bridge is a rite of passage for every Littlemore lad on the cusp of manhood. It is meant to represent a test of courage. But Max Lanham is a self-reliant only-child, unafraid to walk alone, a maverick who regards this as a futile gesture. He is torn: scared to jump but even more scared of the consequences of not doing so.

The ordeal marks Max Lanham out as a misfit and a man constantly at war with his conscience. His isolation is replicated in his dysfunctional family presided over by a manipulative mother Intellectual comfort he draws from a former teacher, now a conscientious objector; fellowship he derives from a simple farm-lad who hero-worships him; while physical solace he finds in the arms of the village prostitute. Ultimately, he seeks peace of mind by forgoing his place at Oxford University in favour of volunteering to fight in the trenches with the Ox & Bucks.

The horrors of war deepen his anguish. He sees operations botched; men routinely slaughtered. Even first-love cannot halt his slide toward madness.

Then a final family row reveals a secret that sends him hurtling toward his destiny. He must brave an ordeal worse than the Black Bridge.

A publishing sensation, the publication of Victor Klemperer's diaries brings to light one of the most extraordinary documents of the Nazi period. 'A classic ... Klemperer's diary deserves to rank alongside that of Anne Frank's' SUNDAY TIMES 'I can't remember when I read a more engrossing book' Antonia Fraser 'Not dissimilar in its cumulative power to Primo Levi's, is a devastating account of man's inhumanity to man' LITERARY REVIEW The son of a rabbi, Klemperer was by 1933 a professor of languages at Dresden. Over the next decade he, like other German Jews, lost his job, his house and many of his friends. Klemperer remained loyal to his country, determined not to emigrate, and convinced that each successive Nazi act against the Jews must be the last. Saved for much of the war from the Holocaust by his marriage to a gentile, he was able to escape in the aftermath of the Allied bombing of Dresden and survived the remaining months of the war in hiding. Throughout, Klemperer kept a diary. Shocking and moving by turns, it is a remarkable and important account.

"A Filipina American woman recalls her childhood during wartime and peace"

Going from the jungles of the wartime Philippines to the schoolyards of northwestern Oklahoma is no easy transition. For one twelve-year-old girl, it meant distance not only across the globe but also within her own family.

Born to a Filipino father and an American mother, Helen Madamba experienced terrifying circumstances at a young age. During World War II, her father, Jorge, fought as an American soldier in his native Philippines, and his family camped in jungles and slept in caves for more than two years to evade capture by the Japanese. But once the family relocated to Woodward, Oklahoma, young Helen faced a different kind of struggle.

Here Mossman tells of her efforts to repudiate her Asian roots so she could fit into American mainstream culture--and her later efforts to come to terms with her identity during the tumultuous 1960s. As she recounts her father's wartime exploits and gains an appreciation of his life, she learns to rejoice in her biracial and multicultural heritage.

Written with the skill of a gifted storyteller and graced with photos that capture both of Helen's worlds, "A Letter to My Father" is a poignant story that will resonate with anyone familiar with the struggle to reconcile past and present identities.

This book explores one of the most notorious aspects of the German system of oppression in wartime Poland: the only purpose-built camp for children under the age of 16 years in German-occupied Europe. The camp at Przemyslowa street, or the Polen-Jugendverwahrlager der Sicherheitspolizei in Litzmannstadt as the Germans called it, was a concentration camp for children. The camp at Przemyslowa existed for just over two years, from December 1942 until January 1945. During that time, an unknown number of children, mainly Polish nationals, were imprisoned there and subjected to extreme physical and emotional abuse. For almost all, the consequences of atrocities which they endured in the camp remained with them for the rest of their lives. This book focuses on the establishment of the camp, the experience of the child prisoners, and the post-war investigations and trials. It is based on contemporary German documents, post-war Polish trials and German investigations, as well as dozens of testimonies from camp survivors, guards, civilian camp staff and the camp leadership

"The guidebook of Professor Snyder can be regarded not only as a unique undertaking, but also as one of the best sources of information on the Second World War ever published." Journal of Asian History

Longlisted for the 2020 William Hill Sports Book of the Year 'A gripping history' THE ECONOMIST 'The World Beneath Their Feet contains plenty of rollicking stories' THE TIMES 'Gripping' THE SUNDAY TIMES 'So far as adventure stories go, this book is tops.' Winston Groom, author of Forrest Gump '[Ellsworth] recasts the era as a great Himalayan race...[and] it works brilliantly...his account of the 1953 ascent of Everest...feels unusually fresh' THE SUNDAY TIMES 'Like if Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air met Lauren Hillenbrand's Unbroken ... an inviting and engrossing read' SPORTS ILLUSTRATED One of the most compelling international dramas of the 20th century and an unforgettable saga of survival, technological innovation, and breathtaking human physical achievement-all set against the backdrop of a world headed toward war. While tension steadily rose between European powers in the 1930s, a different kind of battle was raging across the Himalayas. Contingents from Great Britain, Nazi Germany, and the United States had set up rival camps at the base of the mountains, all hoping to become recognized as the fastest, strongest, and bravest climbers in the world. Carried on across nearly the entire sweep of the Himalayas, this contest involved not only the greatest mountain climbers of the era, but statesmen and millionaires, world-class athletes and bona fide eccentrics, scientists and generals, obscure villagers and national heroes. Centered in the 1930s, with one brief, shining postwar coda, the contest was a struggle between hidebound traditionalists and unknown innovators, one that featured new techniques and equipment, unbelievable courage and physical achievement, and unparalleled valor. And death. One Himalayan peak alone, Nanga Parbat in Kashmir, claimed twenty-five lives in less than three years. Climbing the Himalayas was the Greatest Generation's moonshot--one shrouded in the onset of war, interrupted by it, and then fully accomplished. A gritty, fascinating history that promises to enrapture fans of Hampton Side, Jon Krakauer, and Laura Hillenbrand, The World Beneath Their Feet brings this forgotten story back to life.

A STORY OF UNSUNG BRAVERY AT A DEFINING MOMENT IN BRITAIN'S HISTORY 'Superb' Stephen Fry 'Thrillingly told' Dan Jones 'Fascinating' Neil MacGregor 'Astonishing' Peter Frankopan We like to think we know the story of how Britain went to war with Germany in 1939, but there is one chapter that has never been told. In the early 1930s, a group of young, queer British MPs visited Berlin on a series of trips that would change the course of the Second World War. Having witnessed the Nazis' brutality first-hand, these men were some of the first to warn Britain about Hitler, repeatedly speaking out against their government's policy of appeasing him. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain hated them. Branding them 'the glamour boys' to insinuate something untoward about them, he had their phones tapped and threatened them with deselection and exposure. At a time when even the suggestion of homosexuality could land you in prison, the bravery these men were forced to show in their personal lives gave them extraordinary courage in public. Undaunted, they refused to be silenced and when war came, they enlisted. Four of them died in action. And without them, Britain would never have faced down the Nazis. A Guardian Book of Autumn 2020

Albert Speer was Hitler's architect before the Second World War. Through Hitler's great trust in him and Speer's own genius for organisation he became, effectively from 1942 overlord of the entire war economy, making him the second most powerful man in the Third Reich. Sentenced to twenty years imprisonment in Spandau Prison at the Nuremberg Trails, Speer attempted to progress from moral extinction to moral self-education. How he came to terms with his own acts and failures to act and his real culpability in Nazi war crimes are the questions at the centre of this book.

Out of the numerous books and articles on the Third Reich, few address its material culture, and fewer still discuss the phenomenon of Nazi memorabilia. This is all the more surprising given that Nazi symbols, so central to sustaining Hitler's movement, continue to live long after the collapse of his 12-year Reich. Neither did Nazi ideology die; far-right populists would like to see the swastika flown over the White House or Buckingham Palace. Against a backdrop of right-wing extremism, military re-enactors think nothing of dressing up in Waffen-SS uniforms and romanticising the Third Reich in the name of living history. Auctioneers are prepared to hammer down Nazi artefacts to the highest bidder, but who is buying them, and why do they do so? Should collectors be allowed to decorate their homes with Nazi flags? The Anarchy of Nazi Memorabilia begins by examining the creation and context of Nazi artefacts and symbols during the volatile Weimar Republic to their wider distribution during the Third Reich. There were few people in Nazi Germany who did not wear a badge or uniform of some sort. Whether it be mothers, soldiers or concentration camp inmates, they were all branded. The chapter on the Second World War demonstrates that although German soldiers were cynical about being given medals in exchange for freezing in Russia. They still continued to fight, for which more decorations were awarded. A large proportion of this book is therefore given to the meaning that Nazi symbols had before Nazi Germany was eventually defeated in May 1945. Equally important, however, and one of the characteristics of this book, is the analysis of the meaning and value of Nazi material culture over time. The interpreters of Nazi symbols that this book focuses on are internationally based private collectors and traders. Sustained attention is given in a chapter outlining the development of the collectors' market for Nazi memorabilia from 1945 onwards. No matter how much collectors go out of their way to paint the hobby in a positive light, their activities do not fully escape the troubled past of the material that they desire. So contested are Nazi symbols that another chapter is devoted to the ethics and morals of destroying or preserving them. The issues surrounding private versus public custody and ownership of Nazi artefacts are also discussed. So far, in this book, the examination of Nazi artefacts has been restricted to physical objects within societies that are generally aware of the consequences of Hitlerism. As we increasingly move into the digital age, however, and there are few survivors of the Second World War left to relay their horrific experiences, the final chapter contemplates the future of Nazi symbols both digitally and physically, fake or real. This book will appeal to all those interested in the Third Reich, Nazi ideology, Neo-Nazism, perceptions of the Nazis post-1945, modern European history and political symbolism. It will also hold particular appeal to those interested in the collecting and trading of contested and highly emotive artefacts. It considers aesthetics, authenticity, commodification, gift exchange, life histories of people and objects, materiality and value theory.

Courage and Fear is a study of a multicultural city in times when all norms collapse. Ola Hnatiuk presents a meticulously documented portrait of Lviv's ethnically diverse intelligentsia during World War Two. As the Soviet, Nazi, and once again Soviet occupations tear the city's social fabric apart, groups of Polish, Ukrainian, and Jewish doctors, academics, and artists try to survive, struggling to manage complex relationships and to uphold their ethos. As their pre-war lives are violently upended, courage and fear shape their actions. Ola Hnatiuk employs diverse sources in several languages to tell the story of Lviv from a multi-ethnic perspective and to challenge the national narratives dominant in Central and Eastern Europe.

The book tells the story of a little known artillery regiment, the 155th (Lanarkshire Yeomanry) Field Regiment, RA which saw constant action during the ill-fated Malayan Campaign of 1941/42 and whose members later experienced the worst kind of hell as POWs of a cruel and bestial enemy. Following the Japanese invasion of Malaya, the Regiment fought a brave and resolute rearguard action all the way down the Malayan Peninsular and onto the so called impregnable fortress of Singapore. Held in the highest respect by comrades and foe alike, this former territorial cavalry regiment fully deserved its Royal Artillery moto - Ubigue - 'everywhere'. In the years that followed, the Gunners slaved, suffered an d died on the infamous Burma Railway, in copper mines of Formosa and camps throughout the Far East. More men of the Regiment died as POWs than fell in action. They should not be forgotten. Included is a full nominal roll which allows the reader to identify the camp/s where each individual Gunner was held. A Roll of Honour provides the date, place and cause of death and place of burial/commemoration of the Regiment's casualties.