Based on 70 hours of interviews with Franz Stangl, commandant of Treblinka (the largest of the extermination camps), this book bares the soul of a man who continually found ways to rationalize his role in Hitler's final soulution.

Irish neutrality during the Second World War presented Britain with significant challenges to its security. Exploring how British agencies identified and addressed these problems, this book reveals how Britain simultaneously planned sabotage in and spied on Ireland, and at times sought to damage the neutral state's reputation internationally through black propaganda operations. It analyses the extent of British knowledge of Axis and other diplomatic missions in Ireland, and shows the crucial role of diplomatic code-breaking in shaping British policy. The book also underlines just how much Ireland both interested and irritated Churchill throughout the war.
Rather than viewing this as a uniquely Anglo-Irish experience, Eunan O'Halpin argues that British activities concerning Ireland should be placed in the wider context of intelligence and security problems that Britain faced in other neutral states, particularly Afghanistan and Persia. Taking a comparative approach, he illuminates how Britain dealt with challenges in these countries through a combination of diplomacy, covert gathering of intelligence, propaganda, and intimidation. The British perspective on issues in Ireland becomes far clearer when discussed in terms of similar problems Britain faced with neutral states worldwide.
Drawing heavily on British and American intelligence records, many disclosed here for the first time, Eunan O'Halpin presents the first country study of British intelligence to describe and analyse the impact of all the secret agencies during the war. He casts fresh light on British activities in Ireland, and on the significance of both espionage and cooperation between intelligence agencies fordeveloping wider relations between the two countries.

This book examines the internal controversies of the Roosevelt Administration in connection with Spain during World War II, the role of the President in these controversies, and the foundations of the policy that was followed from the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War until the launching of Operation Torch in 1942.

Britain, Turkey and the Soviet Union, 1940-45 explores the role of Turkey in British strategy and diplomacy during the Second World War. Drawing on the latest archival releases, including those from the secret world of British intelligence, it offers the first comprehensive analysis of Anglo-Turkish relations during the period. It bridges a significant gap in the international history of the 1940s 'between world war and cold war', addressing Turkey's place in British strategy at three key stages in the war effort - in the Balkans in the winter of 1940-41, on the 'Northern Front' in 1941-42, and in the Eastern Mediterranean in 1943. Tamkin addresses Turkey's prominent role in British post-war planning from the summer of 1943, and demonstrates some of the emerging strategic dilemmas in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East, which dominated British foreign policy after 1945.

How Effective is Strategic Bombing is a thought provoking analysis on the subject of air power and bombing and the use of surveys to explain the effects of air power on the enemy in conflict."
-- "Parameters"

In the wake of World War II, Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson and President Harry S. Truman established the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey, to determine exactly how effectively strategic air power had been applied in the European theater and in the Pacific. The final study, consisting of over 330 separate reports and annexes, was staggering in its size and emphatic in its conclusions. As such it has for decades been used as an objective primary source and a guiding text, a veritable Bible for historians of air power.

In this aggressively revisionist volume, Gian Gentile examines afresh this influential document to reveal how it reflected to its very foundation the American conceptual approach to strategic bombing. In the process, he exposes the survey as largely tautological and thereby throwing into question many of the central tenets of American air power philosophy and strategy.

With a detailed chapter on the Gulf War and the resulting Gulf War Air Power Survey, and a concluding chapter on the lessons of the Kosovo air war, How Effective is Strategic Bombing? is the most comprehensive and important book on air power strategy in decades.

For many years, the history of Byelorussia under Nazi occupation was written primarily from the perspective of the resistance movement. This movement, a reaction to the brutal occupation policies, was very strong indeed. Still, as the author shows, there existed in Byelorussia a whole web of local institutions and organizations which, some willingly, others with reservations, participated in the implementation of various aspects of occupation policies. The very sensitivity of the topic of collaboration has prevented researchers from approaching it for many years, not least because in the former Soviet territories ideological considerations have played an important role in preserving the topic's "untouchable" status. Focusing on the attitude of German authorities toward the Byelorussians, marked by their anti-Slavic and particularly anti-Byelorussian prejudices on the one hand and the motives of Byelorussian collaborators on the other, the author clearly shows that notwithstanding the postwar trend to marginalize the phenomenon of collaboration or to silence it altogether, the local collaboration in Byelorussia was clearly visible and pervaded all spheres of life under the occupation.

Combining cultural history and literary analysis, this study proposes a new and thought-provoking reading of the changing relationship between Germans and Jews following the Holocaust. Two Holocaust survivors whose work became uniquely successful in the Germany of the 1980s and 1990s, Grete Weil and Ruth Kluger, emerge as exemplary in their contributions to a postwar German discussion about the Nazi legacy that had largely excluded living Jews. While acknowledging that the German audience for the works of Holocaust survivors began to change in the 1980s, this study disputes the common tendency to interpret this as a sign of greater willingness to confront the Holocaust, arguing instead that it resulted from a continued German misreading of Jews' criticisms. By tracing the particular cultural-political impact that Weil's and Kluger's works had on their German audience, it investigates the paradox of Germany's confronting the Holocaust without necessarily confronting the Jews as Germans. Furthermore, for the authors this literature also had a psychological impact: their 'return' to the German language and to Germany is read not as an act of mourning or nostalgia, but rather as a public call to Germans for a dialogue about the Nazi past, as a way to move into the public realm the private emotional and psychological battles resulting from German Jews' exclusion from and persecution by their own national community.

Katyn- the Soviet massacre of over 21,000 Polish prisoners in 1940 - has come to be remembered as Stalin's emblematic mass murder, an event obscured by one of the most extensive cover-ups in history. Yet paradoxically, a majority of its victims perished far from the forest in western Russia that gives the tragedy its name. Their remains lie buried in killing fields throughout Russia, Ukraine and, most likely, Belarus. Today their ghosts haunt the cultural landscape of Eastern Europe.

This book traces the legacy of Katyn through the interconnected memory cultures of seven countries: Belarus, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, and the Baltic States. It explores the meaning of Katyn as site and symbol, event and idea, fact and crypt. It shows how Katyn both incites nationalist sentiments in Eastern Europe and fosters an emerging cosmopolitan memory of Soviet terror. It also examines the strange impact of the 2010 plane crash that claimed the lives of Poland's leaders en route to Katyn.Drawing on novels and films, debates and controversies, this book makes the case for a transnational study of cultural memory and navigates a contested past in a region that will define Europe's future.

Murphy was one of a very small number of volunteer pilots who, with their flight crews, started bombing at low altitudes in B-17 flying fortresses in the Southwest Pacific. The aircraft were flown at a 200-foot altitude and at 250 miles per hour at night. One-thousand pound bombs, equipped with four-to-five second fuses, were dropped from the B-17s. On March 3, 1943, the Japanese made a desperate move to re-supply their forces on New Guinea. Twenty-two cargo, transport, and war ships proceeded toward New Guinea using bad weather for cover. They were found in the Bismarck Sea. The Allied Air Forces--using skip bombing--sank all twenty-two Japanese ships. Murphy was credited with sinking nine Japanese ships during his year of combat, including one in the Bismarck Sea battle. Skip bombing became a tactic that helped the U.S. win the war in the South Pacific.

During World War II at least 13.5 million people were employed as forced labourers in Germany and across the territories occupied by the German Reich. Most came from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldavia, the Baltic countries, France, Poland and Italy. Among them were 8.4 million civilians working for private companies and public agencies in industry, administration and agriculture. In addition, there were 4.6 million prisoners of war and 1.7 million concentration camp prisoners who were either subjected to forced labour in concentration or similar camps or were 'rented out' or sold by the SS. While there are numerous publications on forced labour in National Socialist Germany during World War II, this publication combines a historical account of events with the biographies and memories of former forced labourers from twenty-seven countries, offering a comparative international perspective.

Alexander von Plato is a historian and the former Director of the Institute for History and Biography at the University of Hagen (Germany). He has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Vienna, the Director of the International Life Story Project on Forced Labourers during WW II, and the Secretary of the International Oral History Association. His many publications include books and films on mentality history, focusing particularly on National Socialism, World War II, and German reunification.

Almut Leh is a historian and Research Fellow at the Institute for History and Biography at the University of Hagen (Germany) and co-editor of BIOS -Zeitschrift fur Biographieforschung, Oral History und Lebensverlaufsanalysen. She also is a council member of the International Oral History Association and has published on German history since 1945 and the methodology of oral history.

Christoph Thonfeld is a historian and language teacher and is currently Assistant Professor of German language and culture at Cheng Chi University in Taipei, Taiwan. He is also researching forced labourers' memories of WW II in an internationally comparative perspective. He is co-editor of the periodical WerkstattGeschichte.

In the United States there has been a wide divergence of views on the role of France's Navy in World War II. We have tended to remain trapped by wartime half-truths. This book attempts to set the record straight. Koburger's study discusses the history of U.S. dealings with Vichy France, especially in the French Antilles and St. Pierre et Miquelon. It describes and examines TORCH--U.S. landings in French North Africa--and its impact on us; the subsequent establishment of U.S. bases there and elsewhere on French soil; the rebuilding by the U.S. of the French Navy; and the results of our efforts. Koburger concludes that the United States did not do enough with the French, but "considering the era and the circumstances, we did the best we could hope to do."

'Goodbye! There's my good girl.' The German got hold of Papa's arm roughly and said, 'Come on!' They got in the car and sped away, leaving the two breathless girls standing on the street corner, staring at where the car had been. 'What on earth was all that about? Why has my Daddy gone with that German?' It made no sense. It made no sense at all. France, 1940: The British have retreated, evacuating their forces from Dunkirk. Nell and her girls stand on the beach on a clear day and see the outline of Dover Castle but it will be four and a half long years before they return to Britain. Jeanne, her sisters and their mother Nell are left to fend for themselves in occupied France when her father is arrested by the Nazis and taken to an internment camp.Proudly British, they have also been raised speaking French. Nell is determined to keep going, keep food on the table and see her girls continue in education. She takes in washing, teaches English and tries growing vegetables but the soil is too poor. They apply for Red Cross Parcels but are told, as they are not behind barbed wire, they don't qualify.Yet amid the struggles come great friendships and pleasure in the smallest things; the rare treat of a piece of cake or tart, a Christmas tree decorated with cotton or singing in church. Jeanne's sisters are distinct personalities, one bookish and quiet, the other outgoing. Letters from her interned husband Tom Sarginson and occasional visits to see him only temporarily eases the pain of being parted. Nell falls in love with a kindly German soldier. When liberation comes in 1944 Nell and the girls' excitement is tempered by a shocking event in their then home village of Rieux-en-Cambresis. There follows an exhilarating and frustrating stay in newly liberated Paris and the shock of arriving back in the war weary Britain of late 1944. Nell and the Girls is a remarkable, dramatic and heartwarming true story of a family told from the viewpoint of young Jeanne Sarginson, later Gask.

The behavior of many Poles towards the Jewish population during the Nazi occupation of Poland has always been a controversial issue. Although the Poles are supposed not to have collaborated with the invaders, there is evidence to show that in respect of the Jewish population, the behavior of many Poles, including members of the underground, was far from exemplary. Poland is also the only European country where Jews were being murdered after the end of the war and where strong anti-Semitic tendencies are still present. This book analyzes this question in an historical context and attempts to offer an explanation for the phenomenon of Polish anti-Semitism during and after the end of the war. The work is based on recently uncovered documents as well as on personal accounts of witnesses to the events during the war.

One of the most common assumptions about World War II is that the Jews did not actively or effectively resist their own extermination at the hands of the Nazis. In this powerful book, Benjamin Ginsberg convincingly argues that the Jews not only resisted the Germans but actually played a major role in the defeat of Nazi Germany. The question, he contends, is not whether the Jews fought but where and by what means. True, many Jews were poorly armed, outnumbered, and without resources, but Ginsberg shows persuasively that this myth of passivity is solely that-a myth. The author describes how Jews resisted Nazism strongly in four major venues. First, they served as members of the Soviet military and as engineers who designed and built many pivotal Soviet weapons, including the T-34 tank. Second, a number were soldiers in the U.S. armed forces, and many also played key roles in discrediting American isolationism, in providing the Roosevelt administration with the support it needed for preparing for war, and in building the atomic bomb. Third, they made vital contributions to the Allies-the Soviet Union, the United States, and Britain-in espionage and intelligence (especially cryptanalysis), and fourth, they assumed important roles in several European anti-Nazi resistance movements that often disrupted Germany's fragile military supply lines. In this compelling, cogent history, we discover that the Jews were an important factor in Hitler's defeat.

The length, scale and intensity of the Battle of the Atlantic led the British and German navies to make substantial changes to their organisation, strategy and tactics. In this book, Dennis Haslop examines the pivotal lessons learned, and how these helped to determine the outcome of the Battle of the Atlantic Convoy War. He questions how well adapted the two organisations were to learn from the conflict, and how effective they were in identifying problems and producing remedies. Based on the in-depth analysis of British and German primary sources, this study provides an innovative basis against which to assess the German and British approach to changing warfare and provides important new insights into aspects of convoy warfare, in particular the virtually unknown subject of German 'Operational Research'.

With the sixtieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War looming, this new edition of the Wartime Scrapbook revives memories of this evocative time in Britain's history. Life on the home front revolved around rationing, blackouts, and air raid precautions, bringing out that British spirit - humour coupled with making-do and determination. Poster propaganda kept the population digging for victory during the years of the Home Guard, Women's Land Army and austerity with dried eggs. Drawn from Robert Opie's unrivalled collection, this new edition of The Wartime Scrapbook profusely illustrates a unique period in history - the song sheets, magazine covers, comic postcards, fashion and food, games, propaganda posters and a wealth of wartime ephemera whose very survival is remarkable.

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 Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut in Essen (Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities at Essen) and is Professor of History and Historical Culture at the University of Witten-Herdecke."

"This is an interesting, informative, and important work. Overall, the quality of the essays is very high, and the focus of the book is on a topic of great importance." . Stephen Nathanson, Northeastern University

In this first interdisciplinary study of this contentious subject, leading experts in politics, history, and philosophy examine the complex aspects of the terror bombing of German cities during World War II. The contributors address the decision to embark on the bombing campaign, the moral issues raised by the bombing, and the main stages of the campaign and its effects on German civilians as well as on Germany's war effort. The book places the bombing campaign within the context of the history of air warfare, presenting the bombing as the first stage of the particular type of state terrorism that led to Hiroshima and Nagasaki and brought about the Cold War era "balance of terror." In doing so, it makes an important contribution to current debates about terrorism. It also analyzes the public debate in Germany about the historical, moral, and political significance of the deliberate killing of up to 600,000 German civilians by the British and American air forces. This pioneering collaboration provides a platform for a wide range of views-some of which are controversial-on a highly topical, painful, and morally challenging subject.

Igor Primoratz is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, and Professorial Fellow at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, Charles Sturt University, Canberra. His publications include Banquos Geist: Hegels Theorie der Strafe (Bouvier, 1986), Justifying Legal Punishment (Humanities Press, 1989, 1997), and Ethics and Sex (Routledge, 1999), and a number of edited books, including Terrorism: The Philosophical Issues (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004) and Civilian Immunity in War (Oxford University Press, 2007)."