Book Description
During and following WWII, a special multinational group of more than 350 men and women served behind enemy lines and joined frontline military units to ensure the preservation, protection, liberation and restitution of the world's greatest artistic and cultural treasures. This "band of unsung heroes," formally referred to as the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives (MFAA) section, or commonly referred to as the "Monuments Men," worked tirelessly to track down, identify and catalogue millions of priceless works of art and irreplaceable cultural artifacts, including masterpieces by Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rembrandt and Vermeer, that had been stolen by Hitler and the Nazis.
The story of the Monuments Men, including their heroics and exploits in rescuing and safeguarding many of the world's greatest artworks for the benefit of mankind, has never before been fully revealed until now, with the publication of
Rescuing Da Vinci, an exhaustively researched historical account written by Robert M. Edsel. Mr. Edsel can best be described as a successful athlete and business entrepreneur turned modern day "Indiana Jones." Mr. Edsel has dedicated the last five years of his life to painstaking and far-reaching research to unravel the secrets of the Monuments Men and, in so doing, to make the world aware of their unprecedented contributions, both during and after WWII, and to ensure that these unsung heroes receive appropriate recognition from the United States government, as well as the broad public.
The detailed documentation, inventories and photographs developed and catalogued by the Monuments Men during and following World War II, have made possible, and continue to make possible, the restitution of stolen artworks of to rightful owners and their descendents. Long after WWII, many Monuments Men went on to become renowned directors and curators of preeminent international cultural institutions, including the National Gallery of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Toledo Museum of Art and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, among many others, as well as professors at esteemed universities such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, New York University, Williams College and Columbia University. Others became founders, presidents, and members of associations such as the New York City Ballet, the American Museum Association, the American Association of Museum Directors, the Archaeological Institute of America, the Society of Architectural Historians, the American Society of Landscape Architects, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as respected architects, archivists, artists and musicians.
"Mr. Edsel's book is captivating in several respects, from the graphic, garish reminders of the faces of the great plunderers, to the singular beauty of the art they sought to steal. And it is a high and overdue memorial to the "Monuments Men," who did the herculean job of tracking down and repatriating the great art." -- William F. Buckley Jr.
Customer Reviews:
A wonderful book.......2007-10-09
This book shows and tells another side of war. It is the story told in picture of Hitler and his Nazi thugs pillaging Europe and stealing priceless art objects, painting, statures, books, even ancient scrolls then hiding them in caves and bunkers in Germany. What I loved about this book were the photos of US Army units rescuing those stolen art treasures then returned them to the towns, churches and cities. The author has done an exemplary job of finding photos and stories which has made this an important work. Photos I've never seen and story I have never heard about. I think this book needs to be in every high school library in the country. Students need to be shown how our American Army worked to recover all this lost art. His book made me proud to have serviced in the US army.
Thank you for writing this book
SPOILS OF WAR.......2007-09-21
This is one of the most fascinating books i have ever read. The period images are amazing, just the photo of italian masons bricking up Michaelangelo's iconic David is worth the purchase. After reading this book I was stunned that so few art treasures were destroyed. I had no idea that much of the treasures at the National Gallery of Art in D.C. was stored at Biltmore because of its remote setting. I was also blown away to see the images of workman removing winged victory from the Louvre, I just had no idea all of this went on leading up to the war and during the war. The German pillaging of the great European art treasures is disgusting of course, especially the art they looted from the weathy Jewry like the Rothchilds and others, some of which even to this day are trying to get back art work that is rightly theirs. I highly recommend this great book to anyone interested in art, history, art history, or frankly has an inquisive mind. I want to thank the authors for a job well done.
What were they thinking!!.......2007-08-10
This was a fascinating and disturbing account of the massive Nazi looting and subsequent recovery by the Allies. It is a story told mostly by pictures to the tune of about 20 pages of pictures for each page of print. It is promoted by the publisher as the biggest non-told story of WWII and he might be right; it diminished the German war effort and probably shortened the War. It was also about the massive and admirable effort by the so-called Allied `Monuments Men' to recover and redistribute the loot back to their rightful owners after the War.
Germany stole millions of art objects from occupied countries, and even from its own ally Italy, on the pretext of saving it from the `barbarian' invaders from the West. Monuments weighing tons, like the `Burghers of Calais' from France and the `Winged Lion' from atop the column in Florence's San Martin Square, were somehow lifted and hauled away. Also, 5000 church bells were stolen from Europe and 300 trolley cars were removed from Amsterdam. In short, they looted everything they could get their hands on, and they were good at it. There are good pictures of the bells and the trolley cars.
In Slavic countries such as Russia and Poland, the plundering was accompanied by an attempted systematic destruction of the culture itself; `inferior races' in Hitler's mind didn't deserve a history. The siege of Russia was particularly bad; 6000 hospitals were destroyed, and 86,000 elementary and secondary schools were destroyed. Decency had taken a long vacation in Germany.
Hitler was a master at destroying things. He destroyed a lot of Europe and Russia, and even extended his `scorched earth' policy to his own country when Germany was near defeat. Thankfully, that order was not faithfully carried out.
How could a country justify destroying the culture of another country? What were the people of Germany thinking when they elected this maniac as Chancellor in the 1930's? Why did they blindly follow him?
What were they thinking!!
I recommend this book.......2007-05-13
If you enjoy WWII history and art, this is a book that should be in your collection. It is full of wonderful photos that you will not find elsewhere. If you have ever wondered about what happened to the great masterpieces of art during WWII, this is the book to buy. Amazon also has a great price.
Great Book!.......2007-04-14
What a great story. Incredible photos too. Quality of the pages is very good. I'm actually surprised it's only $35 after getting it.
Book Description
Throughout the last nine months of the Third Reich, from July 23, 1944, to April 29, 1945, Captain Bernd Freytag von Loringhoven-aide-de-camp to Adolf Hitler's last two army chiefs of staff, the generals Heinz Guderian and Hans Krebs-daily attended Hitler's military briefings with his highest-ranking officers. Daily, too, he maintained contact by telephone or radio with commanders at the front, and often he himself transmitted to them Hitler's orders and the latest intelligence from the bunker. He also watched-while recording his experiences in his private logs-as the gap increasingly widened between the reality of the war outside the bunker and Hitler's willful illusions of imminent victory in the face of absolute ruin.
In the last catastrophic week of Hitler's regime, Loringhoven, now holed up night and day in the bunker, saw the final hopes of officers and staff dissolve into drink and fade into suicidal despair. He saw, too, his chance to survive: On April 29, when all communications in the bunker broke down, he could no longer do his work, and with Hitler's unexpected blessing, he left. On April 30, Hitler was dead.
Those wartime logs by a young army officer who found that his duty as a soldier lay at the behest of a criminal have sixty years later become this book.
Near the end of World War II, Bernd Freytag von Loringhoven was appointed aide-de-camp to Hitler's headquarters and finally to his bunker, where he experienced the last nine months of the Third Reich.
Book Description
In this ground-breaking book, acclaimed author Kati Marton brings to life an unknown chapter of World War II: the tale of nine men who grew up in Budapest's brief Golden Age, then, driven from Hungary by anti-Semitism, fled to the West, especially to the United States, and changed the world. These nine men, each celebrated for individual achievements, were actually part of a unique group who grew up in a time and place that will never come again. It is Marton's extraordinary achievement to trace what for a few dazzling years was common to all of them -- the magic air of Budapest -- and show how their separate lives and careers were, in fact, all shaped by Budapest's lively café life before the darkness closed in.
Marton follows the astonishing lives of four history-changing scientists, all just one step ahead of Hitler's terror state, who helped usher in the nuclear age and the computer (Edward Teller, John von Neumann, Leo Szilard, and Eugene Wigner); two major movie myth-makers (Michael Curtiz, who directed Casablanca, and Alexander Korda, who produced The Third Man); two immortal photographers (Robert Capa and Andre Kertesz); and one seminal writer (Arthur Koestler, Darkness at Noon).
Marton follows these brilliant products of Budapest's Golden Age as they flee fascism in the 1920s and 1930s en route to sanctuary -- and immortality. As the scientists labor in the secret city of Los Alamos in the race to build the atom bomb, Koestler, once a communist agent imprisoned by Franco, writes the most important anticommunist novel of the century. Capa, the first photographer to go ashore on D-Day, later romances Ingrid Bergman and is acknowledged as the world's greatest war photographer before his tragic death in Vietnam. Curtiz not only gives us Casablanca, consistently voted the greatest romantic movie ever made, but also discovers Doris Day and directs James Cagney in the quintessential patriotic film, Yankee Doodle Dandy.
Ultimately, The Great Escape is an American story and an important, previously untold chapter of the tumultuous last century. Yet it is also a poignant story -- in the words of the great historian Fritz Stern, "an evocation of genius in exile . . . an instructive, moving delight." An epilogue relates the journey into exile of three members of the next generation of Budapest exiles: financier-philanthropist George Soros, Intel founder Andy Grove, and 2002 Nobel laureate in literature Imre Kertesz.
Customer Reviews:
Why immigration is good for America.......2007-09-06
Most of the nine Hungarian Jews discussed in this book emmigrated to America and made outstanding contributions to science, mathematics, information technology, and films. Hungary, during its short life of freedom, served as an incubator for intellecutual curiosity. The rise of Nazism forced these great minds to flee there native country and eventually wind up in the U.S.A. Their contributions to the U.S.A. resulted in the development of the atomic and hydrogen bombs, the computer and a branch of mathematics called game theory. The efforts of these immegrants contributed substantially to our victory over both Germany and Japan,
Budapest as the incubator of Greatness.......2007-05-31
The nine men biographied in this book all were born in pre-WWI Budapest when it was the capital of half the Austro-Hungarian Empire. They were "double" outsiders being both Jews and Hungarians, estranged from most of the rest of Central Europe and from their own homeland. After WWI and (thankfully) before the beginning of WW2, they all managed to escape. But they didn't escape from Hitler, most when they first left Budapest went to either Berlin or Vienna; they truly escaped from Admiral Horthy and his Arrow Cross, the first fascist government in Europe.
Of the nine, seven made their homes in america and two in england. In England would 'settle' Alexander Korda who was considered the 'only' British film mogul (producer of "The Third Man") who was later knighted. Also Arthur Koestler, ex-communist who would write the Stalin scathing novel "Darkness at Noon" which first brought to light the Gulag and the terror of Communism.
Four of the scientist who came to america ended up the major forces behind the 'Manhattan Project', the H-Bomb (and later design the 'Strategic Defense Initiative') and the first true computer "Eniac". Two others are responsible for many of the most famous photographs ever published (Robert Capa was known as 'the World's Greater War Photo- journalist') in Look, Life and Home & Gardens. The last man, Michael Curtiz, created the look and feel of three of the most famous american movies, "Mildred Pierce" "Yankee Doodle Dandy" and what many consider the greatest (romantic) movie ever made "Casablanca". It was Curtiz who fought with Jack Warner (and won) the battle to use Bogart and Bergman, instead of George Raft and Bette Davis.
At the end, Kati Marton (whose own family escaped from Hungary in 1956 following the abortive revolution), does a phenomenal job of bringing these nine mens lives to life. Her ending snippets about Andrew Grove (of Intel) and George Soros (who gives new meaning to the word Philanthropist) are worth the price of the book alone.
Hungarians love their salami and their Magyars.......2007-03-26
Every anti-semitic Hungarian needs to read this book.
OK, but..........2007-03-20
I found this book quite interesting although not very well written. I am also less than happy with some of choices made by the author - why these nine are featured when some of them (A. Korda, for example) are not in the same league of significance as others. Why were others ignored?
But that was all well until I read that E. Wigner never returned to Hungary late in his life and was never honored there officially. I met Wigner in Budapest in the late seventies on one of his several trips to Hungary and I know that he received numerous acknowledgments there. Among others, he was elected an Honorary Member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. So I wonder, what else is inaccurate in the book?
Budapest's loss is the world's gain..........2007-03-12
Ms Marton is a wonderful writer and her subject matter is close to her heart as she is a transplanted Hungarian, like the subjects of her fascinating tale: "The Great Escape". Marton has focused on nine Hungarians,scientists, film makers and photographers, who fled their homeland because of the country's intolerance to their religion. To a man they went on to make their mark in their respective fields the common thread besides their birthplace, was their everlasting affection for Budapest as one of the subjects stated "Everything I am is because of my experience growing up in Budapest". A very fine read, as a result of the book, I have been looking into travelling to this fabled city .
Amazon.com
As grippingly as any novelist, preeminent World War II historian Stephen Ambrose tells the horrifying, hallucinatory saga of Easy Company, whose 147 members he calls the nonpareil combat paratroopers on earth circa 1941-45. Ambrose takes us along on Easy Company's trip from grueling basic training to Utah Beach on D-day, where a dozen of them turned German cannons into dynamited ruins resembling "half-peeled bananas," on to the Battle of the Bulge, the liberation of part of the Dachau concentration camp, and a large party at Hitler's "Eagle's Nest," where they drank the madman's (surprisingly inferior) champagne. Of Ambrose's main sources, three soldiers became rich civilians; at least eight became teachers; one became Albert Speer's jailer; one prosecuted Bobby Kennedy's assassin; another became a mountain recluse; the despised, sadistic C.O. who first trained Easy Company (and to whose strictness many soldiers attributed their survival of the war) wound up a suicidal loner whose own sons skipped his funeral.
The Easy Company survivors describe the hell and confusion of any war: the senseless death of the nicest kid in the company when a souvenir Luger goes off in his pocket; the execution of a G.I. by his C.O. for disobeying an order not to get drunk. Despite the gratuitous horrors it relates, Band of Brothers illustrates what one of Ambrose's sources calls "the secret attractions of war ... the delight in comradeship, the delight in destruction ... war as spectacle." --Tim Appelo
Amazon.com Audibook Review
The men of E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne, volunteered for this elite fighting force because they wanted to be the best in the army--and avoid fighting alongside unmotivated, out-of-shape draftees. The price they paid for that desire was long, arduous, and sometimes sadistic training, followed by some of the most horrific battles of World War II. Actor Cotter Smith--a veteran of numerous TV movies and Broadway plays--spins Stephen Ambrose's tale with almost laconic ease. Anecdote by anecdote, he lets the power of the story build. By the time the company has gotten through D-day and seized Hitler's Eagle's Nest in Bavaria, we feel we know as much about the men and their missions as we do about our own brothers. (Running time: 5 hours, 4 cassettes) --Lou Schuler
Book Description
As good a rifle company as any in the world, Easy Company, 506th Airborne Division, U.S. Army, kept getting the tough assignments -- responsible for everything from parachuting into France early D-Day morning to the capture of Hitler's Eagle's Nest at Berchtesgaden. In Band of Brothers, Ambrose tells of the men in this brave unit who fought, went hungry, froze, and died, a company that took 150 percent casualties and considered the Purple Heart a badge of office. Drawing on hours of interviews with survivors as well as the soldiers' journals and letters, Stephen Ambrose recounts the stories, often in the men's own words, of these American heroes.
Download Description
Band of Brothers is the account of the men of the remarkable Easy Company, 506th Airborne Division, U.S. Army. Responsible for everything from parachuting into France early D-Day morning to the capture of Hitler's Eagle's Nest at Berchtesgaden, these men fought, went hungry, froze, and died, taking 150 percent casualties and considering the Purple Heart a badge of office. Stephen Ambrose tells the stories, often in the men's own words, of these American heroes, drawing on hours of interviews with survivors as well as the soldiers' journals and letters.
Customer Reviews:
Band of brothers.......2007-10-08
Stephen E. Ambrose tells the stories of Easy Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, US Army, from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's nest and up to now (for some members of Easy Company). The company was established in the summer of 1942. The men came from different backgrounds, different parts of the United States. By the last evening of 1944, the company became an elite unit of airborne infantry. They parachuted into France early D-Day morning, captured Carentan, fought in Holland, held the perimeter at Bastogne, fought in Rhineland campaigne, and took Hitler's Eagle's Nest at Berchtesgaden. The company took almost 150 percent casualties.
This is a terrific read for World War II buffs.
BAND OF BROTHERS.......2007-10-01
It is an awesome book! It makes me so proud of what every soldier does for our country and so thankful for what they give up for our freedom.
Review of BAND OF BROTHERS.......2007-07-23
The strength of this book is the knowledge and expertise of Stephen Ambrose regarding the history of WWII. Through countless interviews, vistits, letters, books and his travels, Ambrose writes the story of a close knit group of ordinary men who accomplished extraordinary things in the face of fear, cold, starvation and of course, death. By reading this book you will learn what an incredible group of men these guys were and it will make you proud to be an American. For me, this book really reinforced the fact that the freedoms that myself, along with my wife and kids enjoy did not come for free. It was paid for by the sacrifices of brave men like these.
I must say that I thought the effort involving the research in this book certainly deserved five stars. Unfortunatly the actual writing of the book was far less than that, perhaps three stars at most. I found myself having to reread things more than once trying to figure things out. I think this book may have been written for people with military experience, not the average citizen like myself. He uses a lot of abbreviations which were confusing, he never really explained the different companies, platoons, divisions, regiments,etc. so I never quite figured out who was where and why. Also the maps at the front of the book were far from adequate, which has been pointed out in previous reviews.
I still believe this is a definite four star book worth reading. It certainly could have been better if there had been more and better maps and if Ambrose would have taken his time and explained things better. He even admits in the acknowledgements at the end of the book that he had a deadline for when he wanted this book to be completed. I hope this helps you decide whether or not to read this book.
One final note: check the book for blank pages before you buy it especially the pages that come right after the pictures. I had three sections of four pages each that were left blank which resulted in missing about 12 pages of text.
Powerful.......2007-07-21
I have nothing negative to say about this book. It's very easy to read and I would recommend it to anyone who is just starting their journey to be a history buff as well as those already well read on the subject. I also own the mini series on DVD (probably the best WWII "film" that I have EVER seen) and have found that the two really work well together. I would read a chapter and then watch the corresponding episode. By the end you feel really close to these extraordinary men to sacrificed so much for the betterment of our country and the world. They are the definition of heroes and because they refuse to call themselves heroes makes them even more so. They, and all of our soliders, make me extrememly proud to be an American.
Salute to a great author!.......2007-07-09
Stephen E. Ambrose is probably the best history writer of our time. His documentation of Easy Company men and their extraordinary leader, Major Dick Winters is a fascinating read. Reading through the pages, is as reading ones diary. You believe you've come to know these men and a part of their experience and you become changed with the realization of what they lived through for the cause of freedom in WWII. Thank you, Mr. Ambrose for following your instincts on doing this remarkable story so that Easy and the 506th PIR, 101st Airborne will never be forgotten. Mr. Ambrose and his passion getting history down in books will be truly missed. This book is a must in any personal library collection.
Book Description
"I begin with the young. We older ones are used up . . . But my magnificent youngsters! Look at these men and boys! What material! With them, I can create a new world." --Adolf Hitler, Nuremberg 1933 By the time Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, 3.5 million children belonged to the Hitler Youth. It would become the largest youth group in history. Susan Campbell Bartoletti explores how Hitler gained the loyalty, trust, and passion of so many of Germany's young people. Her research includes telling interviews with surviving Hitler Youth members.
Customer Reviews:
Biased didacticism, not history. .......2007-04-16
Halfway through listening to this book on CD, I wondered why it seemed like the author was talking down to me. The writing was very simplistic and the extremely irritating narrator felt obligated to remind us that Nazism was bad by reading every race-related word with the utmost sarcasm possible, e.g. "Hitler wanted a 'puuuuure' (tee-hee) 'Aaaaaryan' (rotfl!) 'race' (hahahaha!)." This book also felt the need to explain even the most elemental German terms, the most hilarious being when the author told us that "Heil Hitler" means "Hail Hitler" in English. I was kind of offended at the condescension until I finally looked at the CD case and saw that the book was meant for grade-school kids. It contains some interesting accounts of time in the Hitler Youth, but nothing too revelatory. I guess the point of writing this book was to tell kids that racism is bad and not to be conformist. The author goes overboard though by declaring that "All scientists agree that race is only skin deep". (That quote may not be verbatim.) Even leaving aside questions of intelligence, that statement is a blatant lie, as widely varying racial susceptibility to heart disease, diabetes, cancer, etc. will attest. Does Ms. Campbell Bartoletti really want children to be independent thinkers, or does she merely want to indoctrinate them in her own egalitarian ideology?
Used in teaching about WWII.......2007-03-07
When pairing this book with books about World War II from the Allied perspective and the Jewish perspective, it really provides a completely different point of view. It allows students to see the historical event from more than one view, and this will encourage them to be open-minded and willing to see the points of view of others in life.
who was hitler?.......2007-02-13
this is a good book that tells the story of adolf hitler's little army the hitler youth.this book tells the story of many people tha died when hitler was a leader i relly like this book because i had heard of his little army and some of the people that were in his army. this is a very good book if you want to learn of hitler's power
The Children Loove Hitler.......2007-02-09
What do you think it would feel like if you lived during the time of World War II? The book Hitler Youth tells stories of children during this time period. There are many main characters telling the story of their lives during World War II.
The layout of this book is an easy read, but there are a lot of words and pictures on a page. There might also be a word in German that might be hard to read, but there aren't that many.
If you are interested in reading this book, then I think you should be at least in sixth grade or up. It is not a complicated book, but I think that Middle schoolers have more of an interest in World War II. I also think that this book would interest people who want to know what happened to the children during this particular time.
Susan Campbell Bartoletti has written other great books besides the Hitler Youth. She wrote Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine, and Dear America: A Coal Miner's Bride.
Hitler Youth is a great book for studying, or for a free read. I recommend this book to read to anyone interested in World War II. I think it is important for people to know what happened the late 1930's to the early 1940's, because it had such a big impact in the world.
PR7
Truth from the other point of view!!!.......2006-11-30
This book is really good! It tells the story of young people of Germany. Usually the books on WWII focus on the victims of the Holocaust and the Allies, but this book tells the point of view of the Hitler Youth. I think this shows how the young people of Germany were also targeted. Hitler manipulated his way to become the chancellor of Germany. This book has a lot of interviews with Hitler Youth boys and girls. They tell their story and how they felt about the war, school, and their life. I strongly recommend this book to adults and young people.
Book Description
A stunning account of the economic workings of the Third Reich—and the reasons ordinary Germans supported the Nazi state
In this groundbreaking book, historian Götz Aly addresses one of modern history’s greatest conundrums: How did Hitler win the allegiance of ordinary Germans? The answer is as shocking as it is persuasive: by engaging in a campaign of theft on an almost unimaginable scale—and by channeling the proceeds into generous social programs—Hitler literally “bought” his people’s consent.
Drawing on secret files and financial records, Aly shows that while Jews and citizens of occupied lands suffered crippling taxation, mass looting, enslavement, and destruction, most Germans enjoyed an improved standard of living. Buoyed by millions of packages soldiers sent from the front, Germans also benefited from the systematic plunder of conquered territory and the transfer of Jewish possessions into their homes and pockets. Any qualms were swept away by waves of government handouts, tax breaks, and preferential legislation.
Gripping and important, Hitler’s Beneficiaries makes a radically new contribution to our understanding of Nazi aggression, the Holocaust, and the complicity of a people.
Customer Reviews:
Hitler's Satisfied Thieves: Actually, the Case for Nazi German Larceny-and-Genocide Policies can be Made Stronger.......2007-08-19
German author Gotz (Goetz) Aly describes National Socialism as a form of populist wealth-redistribution welfare-state socialism. One-third of German taxpayers paid more than two-thirds of the tax burdens of war (p. 293), and businesses were heavily taxed (pp. 60-68). Hitler favored social equality for all Germans (p. 300), and worked to correct social inequities, notably in education (p. 322).
Pointedly, National Socialism massively transferred wealth from non-Germans to Germans: "In terms of wartime revenues, internal and external, low- and middle-income Germans, who together with their families numbered some 60 million, accounted for no more than 10 percent of the total sum. More affluent Germans bore 20 percent of the burden, while foreigners, forced laborers, and Jews were compelled to cover 70 percent of the funds consumed every day by Germany during the war." (p. 292). Consequently: "On average, the vast and not particularly affluent majority of Germans enjoyed more disposable income during the war that they had before it." (p. 293). Nazism also appealed to those opposed to traditional moral conventions, and to those inclined towards anticlericalism and anti-elitism (p. 319).
Not surprisingly, once voted into power by the German people, Hitler never needed draconian methods to maintain power until the end. Nearly 90% of the German dissenters executed lost their lives after 1941 (pp. 303-304). Unlike Communism, Nazism never demanded absolute devotion (pp. 23-24). In 1937, merely 7,000 Gestapo employees sufficed to handle 60 million Germans, while, in later East Germany, 190,000 surveillance experts controlled 17 million people (p. 29).
Jews weren't the only victims of larcenous Nazi policies--far from it: "This land of milk and honey in Eastern Europe was to be conquered not for the benefit of landed Prussian Junkers and powerful industrialists but to provide ordinary people with a real-world utopia." (p. 31).
Aly breaks new ground by showing that virtually ALL sectors of German society were involved in the expropriation of conquered peoples' wealth. German soldiers not only sent a considerable amount of looted goods back home (p. 178), but were encouraged to do so (p. 311). Later-writer Heinrich Boll (Boell) wrote much about this (p. 110, etc.). Not mentioned is the fact that, in German-occupied Poland, any German could enter a Polish or Jewish shop at any time and take anything at will without paying.
Poles targeted by the Germans for deportation, imprisonment, or execution immediately lost all their properties to the Reich (p. 197, 236). The 8-12 million forced laborers in the Reich, most of whom were Eastern Europeans, toiled under inhumane conditions. They were paid a wage in order to forestall resistance back home, but then the earnings were recouped by the Germans in various creative ways (pp. 156-157).
German-occupied Poland actually had to pay Germany for being occupied (pp. 76-77) "...with the result that the local population endured acute shortages of grain, potatoes, meat, and other necessities." (p. 77), leading to famine (p. 170). (This enables the reader understand why some Poles didn't aid fugitive Jews and why Poles sometimes betrayed or killed Jews known or suspected of stealing from them). Polish guerilla resistance eventually forced the Germans to slightly reduce the harshness of their exploitation of Poland (p. 160).
The Wehrmacht invaded Russia under orders to live off the land, placing 21.2 million Soviet citizens in starvation mode (p. 178). Additionally, millions of Soviet POWs were starved to death by the Germans (p. 175). Aly touches on the eventual Nazi extermination plans against Slavs: "...the most extreme proposal envisioned forcibly relocating 50 million Slavs to Siberia. (For years, the German Research Foundation also supported the development of technocratic plans for the slaughter of millions of people. Funds for research in this area were still allocated in the Nazis' final budget for the fiscal year 1945-46)." (p. 30). Yet the term "relocation" had itself already become a euphemism for extermination.
One Holocaust myth would have us believe that the destruction of Jews had been so uniquely irrational that the Germans would rather sacrifice themselves than leave Jews alive. In actuality, the deportation of the Jews from the island of Rhodes never did challenge the Wehrmacht's transport needs (p. 268), and there wasn't even talk of German retreat at the time of the Rhodes Jews' deportation (pp. 269-270). Once it did occur, the Rhodes Jews' deportation was itself governed by economic considerations (p. 273).
The case for Aly's premise that the Holocaust can't be properly understood without the larceny behind it (p. 285) can be strengthened (see: INTO THAT DARKNESS). Treblinka Kommandant Franz Stangl rejected the presumed Nazi obsession with killing all Jews, citing the creation of "honorary Aryans". Stangl asserted that the Holocaust was actually motivated by financial gain. When confronted with the obvious fact that most Jews weren't wealthy, Stangl retorted with the comment that almost every Jew had some worthy possession that could be confiscated--and that the booty added up.
How the Nazis Made All Germans Complicit in the Holocaust.......2007-07-30
Why is it that there never developed an underground resistance in Germany during WW2? According to this well researched book by Gotz Aly, it was because the Nazis spent like drunken sailors to keep the average German fat and happy during the war. The Nazis understood (from what happened in Germany during WW1) that as long as people were happy on the home front, their Armies wouldn't have to worry about their families and could concen- trate on fighting. They also mad sure that those soldiers who were not directly in battle would have ample resources with which to buy luxury goods that they could then send home.
Using all types of creative accounting, they never had to raise the tax rate that most Germans had to pay, even during the war. They were conspicuous in raising the tax rates on the wealthy and creating a war profit tax on businesses making enormous profits from the war. It's hard not to make money when your help practically works for free (force labor) and you never intend to pay for the raw materials that you purchase (steal).
So where did all this money come from? Well first of all it came via the Wehrmacht who shipped home multiple packages filled with stolen jewelry and other like items. The Wehrmacht paid it's soldiers with money extorted from the occupied nations as well as paying them in local currency that was converted at ridiculous rates. With all the extra money they had, the Wehrmacht was able to buy up anything that wasn't nailed down and strip most of the occupied nations of goods paid for with money that was inflated on the German side of the equation.
The Ministry of Finance took great pains to collect (with the help of the Wehrmacht and local collaborators) and occupation tax that was then used to pay their soldiers. In other words the occupied nations paid to be subjugated by the Nazis. They also looted the treasuries of not only the occupied nations but also those of their allies. They shipped home as much food stuffs as possible without worrying about starving the people of the occupied territories, since they were to be eventually eliminated. Goering said that, 'if some one has to starve, there's not reason that that person has to be a German'.
Lastly, not only did the Nazis (with the help of the Wehrmacht and German social agencies like the Red Cross) steal/confiscate/rob those Jews who were sent to the gas chambers; they also gave away their real estate, businesses, furniture and even clothing to the German public. You won't complain about your government if after you are bombed out, they give you a new place to live, furniture, clothing and even bed linens that might even be better than what you had before. It also costs the government nothing if these items have been stolen from people it plans to kill.
Aly estimates that overall, the money that was extorted from the occupied territories and allies, as well as the revenues collected from the liquidation of six million jews, half a million gypsies (Romi) not to mention 'other' enemies of the German people; covered almost 50 percent of the costs of the war. These costs included the manufacture and production of war material (much of it done by forced slave labor) and the salaries of the Wehrmacht and associated armed forces. Germany never saw bond drives like they had in Britain and the US because of this pool of money that they were able to extort. The saddest part of the story is that many of the financial people who helped the Nazis organize this shell game to pay for the war; ended up working for the Federal Republic after the war.
Fascist capitalism.......2007-06-22
Until recently, histories of the Third Reich have focused on Hitler and anti-Semitic ideology. The Holocaust and Hitler's military adventures have been granted an enormous number of pages. A few historians have placed some emphasis on his incompetent dabbling in military strategy. That picture is overfocussed, and misleading. Goetz Aly addresses a wider scope in this fascinating study of how the Reich was able to perservere in the face of what should have been sufficient cause for its early demise. With extensive research applied to the Reich's economic practices, he ably demonstrates what kept it functioning and accepted by the German population.
The term "Nazi" means National Socialist Workers' Party. That seeming innocuous phrase has been omitted from the consideration of its meaning, according to Aly. "National" and "Socialist" are the key terms. "National", meant just that - policies were aimed at benefitting Germany. "Socialist", of course, is a philosophy designed to benefit the most people - particularly those of the lower economic classes. Aly argues with detailed evidence that this is precisely what the Nazis achieved during the 1930s and through the war years. That it succeeded right up to the end of the Reich is testimony to the effectiveness of the Nazi economic methods. The average German began, and remained the "beneficiary" of a highly manipulated financial system.
It was a complex system. Aly begins by explaining how the Nazi leaders were a group of youthful, dynamic characters. They represented change, particularly in a restructering of the class system. The deprived were to be granted first priority in social benefits. While the 1930s witnessed a slow improvement, the onset of war allowed sweeping economic and social change. This was accomplished primarily by shifting the burden of war costs to the occupied nations. France was the testing ground for many new fiscal techniques designed to maintain a comfortable lifestyle in Germany, while bleeding the local populace of essential goods by imposing "occupation costs". One technique was simply to issue a military scrip to buy local goods. Soldiers were able to ship home foodstuffs and other goods not readily obtainable in Germany. The method worked less well in Russia where the "scorched-earth" policy reduced available foodstuffs and other goods. By the time the Wehrmacht entered the Balkans, however, it had numerous finacial tactics available to apply there.
Throughout the Reich's conquered territories, it was the Jews who bore the greatest of these burdens. A number of new laws allowed financial institutions and tax collectors to fill their coffers. Heavily taxed, then dispossessed of belongings, savings, homes and, of course ultimately their lives, the Jews "contributed" to the Reich's ongoing success in several ways. Their homes and belongings were taken and sold, often to the refugees from Allied bombing campaigns. Resettlement in real homes and apartments, sometimes fully furnished, instead of being sent to refugee camps, maintained German morale. The technique provided the gloss of "successful" government policies. Instead of being swayed by charismatic leadership or effective propaganda, Aly argues successfully that personal comfort bound the populace to an adventuresome regime. As he describes it, the Holocaust will never be properly understood until it is seen "as a campaign of murderous larceny". This book makes a major contribution to that understanding. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
Organized Theft from Occupied Lands and the Jews.......2007-03-29
Mr. Aly presents new and somewhat surprising view of the Nazi years and the effort that Hitler et al went through to keep the home crowds happy. His thesis is that Hitler provided 'guns and butter' through the systematic looting of the property of others including the jews and subsequently the occupied lands. He describes and documents that such looting was not just the looting of fine art from museums and factory equipment to the huge German companies but mundane, everyday items like hams and chairs. As Goring said in a speech on October 4, 1942, 'if someone has to go hungry, let it be someone other than a German.'
The book does not explain Hitler's support before 1933, and the book does not spend much time on happenings after February 2, 1943 (Stalingrad) and April 8, 1943 (Tunesia), nor of course on the last year of the war when the British and American bomber forces were finally getting it together.
The Nazi Robbers.......2007-03-16
Nobody will be surprised to learn that the Nazis robbed the Jews and other nations in Europe. But some of the detail will be new even to those who are well read in the voluminous literature on the Nazi period, and for that we must be grateful to the author. But it must also be said that he relied on the published work of others for some of the most interesting detail even in this narrow area.
Where the author is original is in his reading of the data of Nazi robbery. He argues that the German people benefited from the Nazi thievery, and, he says, for that reason (among others) they gave their enthusiastic support to the regime. He is careful not to dismiss other factors altogether, such as anti-Semitism, but he stresses the importance of the economic benefit to the population.
There are a number of problems with this thesis.
First, the evidence for happiness with economic conditions during the Hitler regime is totally anecdotal. The author has talked with members of his own family and other acquaintances, but there is no assurance that such haphazard interviewing has resulted in a representative picture. The same goes for his unsystematic reading of published memoirs by famous writers.
Is it simply common sense to assume that people are happy when they reap economic benefits? Not in the absence of other considerations. The German people, after all, underwent great hardship under the Nazi regime, especially in wartime. Aly does not mention that, from the point of view of material comfort, they had as many reasons to be unhappy with the Nazis as to be happy. Their taxes were low during the war, says Aly, because the Nazis robbed the Jews and the occupied countries to pay for the war. And low taxes make people happy. Even if your cities get bombed and your sons and husbands die on the battlefield? If, as Aly suggests, it is material benefits that motivate people above all else, the Germans might have been expected to oppose Hitler.
In my view, writers who have assigned greater weight to non-material motivating factors, such as the Nazi theology of anti-Semitism, have given more satisfactory answers to the puzzle of the Germans' wartime approbation of Hitler.
The Germans' happiness with the Nazis, moreover, began long before Jewish properties were expropriated. Why were the Nazis so popular in 1933, 1934, 1935 - before the program of looting was put into effect? On this point, Aly is totally ahistorical. His thesis is one of cause and effect - Nazi robberies having the effect of Nazi popularity. But what if the effect began before the putative cause?
To this reader at least, Aly's thesis lacks logic.
Amazon.com
A former infantryman, Adolf Hitler had little use for the German navy, which he considered inept and politically suspect. Still, through the skillful maneuverings of a young, up-and-coming naval officer named Karl Dönitz, Hitler eventually endorsed a costly program of shipbuilding. As a result, Dönitz was able to field a vast fleet of U-boats when Germany went to war against France and England in 1939. Although his enemies were initially better equipped, Dönitz was the craftier fighter, launching daring raids on shipping convoys and Allied harbors, and for a time, controlling the chief Atlantic sealanes.
In this monumental history, Clay Blair analyzes the German U-boat campaigns from 1939 to 1942 (a companion volume continues his narrative to 1945), which, he writes, fall into three phases: one against England alone, another against the newly arrived American navy, and a furious third against the combined Allied forces. Blair argues, against other historians, that the "U-boat peril" has been overestimated. He holds that the American submarine campaign against Japan in the Pacific was far more effective, and observes that 99 percent of Allied merchant ships on transatlantic convoys reached their destinations. Even so, the U-boats introduced a powerful element of terror into an already horrific war, diverting Allied effort into antisubmarine campaigns and delaying the transport of much-needed materiel.
Blair's outstanding work adds much to the naval history of World War II. Packed with detail, it is sure to become a standard work on the Battle of the Atlantic. --Gregory McNamee
Book Description
Clay Blair's best-selling naval classic Silent Victory: The U.S. Submarine War Against Japan, is regarded as the definitive account of that decisive phase of the war in the Pacific. Nine years in the making, Hitler's U-boat War is destined to become the definitive account of the German submarine war against the Allies, or "The Battle of the Atlantic."
It is an epic sea story, the most arduous and prolonged naval battle in all history. For a period of nearly six years, the German U-boat force attempted to blockade and isolate the British Isles, in hopes of forcing the British out of the war, thereby thwarting the Allied strategic air assault on German cities as well as Overlord, the Allied invasion of Occupied France. Fortunately for the Allies, the U-boat force failed to achieve either of these objectives, but in the attempt they sank 2,800 Allied merchant ships, while the Allies sank nearly 800 U-boats. On both sides, tens of thousands of sailors perished.
The top secret Allied penetration of German naval codes, and, conversely, the top secret German penetration of Allied naval codes played important roles in the Atlantic naval battle. In order to safeguard the secrets of codebreaking in the postwar years, London and Washington agreed to withhold all official codebreaking and U-boat records. Thus for decade upon decade an authoritative and definitive history of the Battle of the Atlantic could not be attempted. The accounts that did appear were incomplete and full of errors of fact and false interpretations and conclusions, often leaving the entirely wrong impression that the German U-boats came within a whisker of defeating the Allies, a myth that persists.
When London and Washington finally began to release the official records in the 1980s, Clay Blair and his wife, Joan, commenced work on this history in Washington, London, and Germany. They relied on the official records as well as the work of German, British, American, and Canadian naval scholars who published studies of bits and pieces of the story. The end result is this magnificent and monumental work, crammed with vivid and dramatic scenes of naval actions and dispassionate but startling new revelations and interpretations and conclusions about all aspects of the Battle of the Atlantic.
The Blair history will be published in two volumes. This first volume, The Hunters, covers the first three years of the war, August 1939 to August 1942. Told chronologically, it is subdivided into two major sections, the War Against the British Empire, and the War Against the Americas. Volume II, The Hunted, to follow a year later, will cover the last years of the naval war in Europe, August 1942 to May 1945, when the Allies finally overcame the U-boat threat.
Never before has Hitler's U-boat war been chronicled with such authority, fidelity, objectivity, and detail. Nothing is omitted. Even those who fought the Battle of the Atlantic will find no end of surprises. Later generations will benefit by having at hand an account of this important phase of World War II, free of bias and mythology.
Customer Reviews:
Very good book!.......2007-05-13
This a very good book about the U-Boat history in the Second World War!
I recomend!
Best regards,
Excellent research but a little too biased.......2006-11-18
I've always enjoyed Clay Blair's writing style. Probably because he was a journalist instead of an historian. However, as with his book Silent Victory, he can't help injecting his personal biases in the narrative. Blairs interest in U boats came about when his boat the USS Guardfish was docked next to Erich Topp's U 2513. That was later used as a target by the U.S. Navy. The U 2513 was a type XXI boat that was ahead of its time technologically. The torpedo tubes were designed to operate like a revolver shooting bullets! Blair tends to down play the achievements of the Kreigsmarine in the early years of the war, and the technological advancements put forth by Doenitz and his staff. A fact Mr. Blair conviently omits.
Reference Text.......2005-08-23
This is definitely a must-have for anyone seriously interested in the U-boat war of the Atlantic. Actually, this is the first book I've read on U-boats but I can imagine that this may well be the all-encompassing reference text. The book is well written and gives an excellent account of what happened. For a novice wanting to get the general idea it's perhaps a little too detailed. The accounts of the exact amount of tonnage sunk by each and every U-boat gets a little tiresome after a couple of hundred pages, but what can you do? You don't have to memorize them. Nonetheless, it's interesting to see how most U-boat commanders overstated their kills.
I got to this book after reading SHADOW DIVERS which is absolutely the best book on diving written so far. (You do not have to be a diver to dig this)
There are two parts to Hitler's U-boat War, The Hunters 1939-1942, and The Hunted 1942-1945 and I have no idea why both volumes aren't available by the same publisher. The second volume is only available used at approx. three times the price of a new edition of the first volume(?) It took me a while to figure this out so I got the second volume from Weidenfeld & Nicholson military who sell only the second volume. Here at Amazon the title of this second volume is merely given as Hitler's U-Boat War which is confusing because from that you don't initially know that there are two volumes and which one this one is. Only when you see the actual photo of the bookcover you see that it says The Hunted 1942-1945. Why make life easy?
Long book but an exhaustive and exceptional one........2005-08-07
Clay Blair has done an outstanding work on his first volume: "Hitler's U-boat war, The Hunters". The appendix alone contains a large sum of information about the first half of the U-Boat war. No one book should ever be considered as "the definite volume", but these works are about as close as it is possible to get. While Clay Blair describes on every U-boat operation, he also sets on destroying several myths about the U-boat war (such as the unnecessary criticisms on Admiral King).
His style of writing can sometimes be "dry" as he tends to repeat the same words over and over but that would be the only negative part about this otherwise wonderful book.
This book is highly recommended for anyone seeking for an exhaustive book on the evolution of the U-boat war and of the people involved.
I would give this book 4.5/5 but since it's limited to either 4 or 5, I'l go with the 5 stars.
Sadly, the 2nd volume of Hitler's U-boat war doesn't seem to be available on Amazon.ca... I guess I must go look elsewhere to purchase it.
~Shc~
The best U-boat book available........2005-07-12
This has to be one of the best presented and historically researched books of the German U-boat war ever made. It has a great mix of technical information with many anecdotal stories taken from eye witness accounts and from the personal diaries and logs of the men who fought the battles.
I have read other military history books covering such events as D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge, but this has to be the first book that didn't bore me with endless streams of impersonal statistics and facts but still delivered enough of the information to please any grognard.
I have read some reviews that claim Blair was biased, and anti-German, and I have to say I don't understand at all how anyone could come to this conclusion. Blair criticizes and praises both sides for their mistakes and triumphs during the U-boat war. And his conclusion that the German U-boat war was doomed from the start of the war is more than supported for the sheer statistical and historical facts presented.
Book Description
Far more than a conflict of imperial aggression, World War II was about "blood and soil," a fight to determine who would control the earth's resources and which races would be exterminated because they were deemed inferior or undesirable. This collection of essays, many never before published in English, illuminates the nature of the Nazi system and its impact on Germany and the world. Included are careful examinations of the Holocaust, the connections between the European and Pacific theaters of war, a comparative analysis of the leadership styles of Hitler, Stalin, Tojo, and Roosevelt and a look back at postwar Germany.
Customer Reviews:
Not Good.......2007-01-04
Oh yay; more on Germany compiled from the German hater. Much to like here if you hate Germans. As objective as anything from Moscow in the 50's.
Rubbish from a cheap trash crackpot!.......2005-07-21
I have read most of Weinberg's so called works on German history and find them to be highly subjective and of dubious value to any serious understanding of the NS era, or German foreign policy in those years.
Belittling all German sources as aplogias or fakes, Weinberg has time and again proves himself to be a most unrelaible author, with axes to grind and who is prepared to go to the extreme of falsifying sources and translations to get his hate propaganda across.
This work is not worth the paper it's printed on.
Great insight and understanding will be gained........2001-02-12
Weinberg's short interpretations and insights make this a great book. If you are looking for a large quantity of in-depth information on the entire war then this is not the book for you. However, if you are seeking a broad overveiw of the German attitude before and during the war with regards to specific information of broad topics; this book is for you. Weinberg deals with issues such as;the European balance of power in 1918, the German generals' reaction to the planning of a war against Poland, what Germany was planning to do with their victory, the German perspective on Pearl Harbor, and many more topics. Overall this book provides great insight to areas that are not traditionally covered in other books.
Average customer rating:
- Concerns about pre-teens
- NO MENTION OF 3 MILLION POLISH CATHOLICS KILLED
- Surviving Hitler
- I'm a Holocaust freak and I loved this book
- Surviving Hitler
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Surviving Hitler: A Boy in the Nazi Death Camps
Andrea Warren
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ASIN: 0060007672
Release Date: 2002-09-17 |
Book Description
"Think of it as a game, Jack.
Play the game right and you might outlast the Nazis."
Caught up in Hitler's Final Solution to annihilate Europe's Jews, fifteen-year-old Jack Mandelbaum is torn from his family and thrown into the nightmarish world of the concentration camps. Here, simple existence is a constant struggle, and Jack must learn to live hour to hour, day to day. Despite intolerable conditions, he resolves not to hate his captors and vows to see his family again. But even with his strong will to survive, how long can Jack continue to play this life-and-death game?
Award-winning author Andrea Warren has crafted an unforgettable true story of a boy becoming a man in the shadow of the Third Reich.
Customer Reviews:
Concerns about pre-teens.......2007-09-13
I haven't read the book, but my 11 year old checked it out at school. He was hooked on the story from the beginning.
However, I was surprised when he asked me "Mom, what is a homosexual?" He said that homosexuals were singled out to be victimized. He also
was upset about how children, especially those with disabilities were tortured and murdered.
I appreciate all the positive reviews here, but it really opened up a lot of issues for my son. Might be better suited to older children.
NO MENTION OF 3 MILLION POLISH CATHOLICS KILLED .......2007-06-28
The author makes a good effort to be objective, but drops the ball here and there. The biggest blunder seems to be in the summary of holocaust casualties. The author left out the fact that 3 Million Polish-Catholics were butchered by Hitler. This fact is often forgotten, and very hurtful, especially to the Poles who lost someone in the Polish holocaust or "Forgotten Holocaust.". A great book to read is Richard Lukas' "The Forgotten Holocaust: The Poles Under nazi Occupation."
Surviving Hitler.......2007-01-31
I recently read the book Surviving Hitler by Andrea Warren. I not only thought it was one of the most fascinating books I thought it was very well written. I had been to the holocaust museum in Washing DC and I was mortified looking at everything, but this book really put me in the perspective of the boy who was close to my age. The book got better and better as it went on, and I am usually not very fond of non-fiction books. This book really makes you realize how you can survive anything that comes at you as long as you believe in yourself. You are automatically hooked and as soon as the book is over you wish there was still more to read. I would definitely recommend this book to any person, young or old, it's truly unbelievable.
I'm a Holocaust freak and I loved this book.......2006-12-19
This book is an awsome book i read the first chapter and i was hooked it is awsome.It is about a boy named jack who gets sent to a concetration camp and gets his arm tattoed witha number on it and he still has it on this arm he and his got seperatered at the train station and they died it is a very sad book but the ending makes up for the sadness. I was 9 when i read this book and loved it. THIS BOOK IS AWSOME !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Surviving Hitler.......2006-12-14
Imagine urinating in the same cup you eat in. Imagine feeling fleas crawling all over you and sick people coughing on you. It doesn't exactly sound pleasant but that is the lifestyle the concentration camp prisoners had to go through. The book, Surviving Hitler, is a memorable and sad memoir that focuses on The Holocaust during World War 2. The book has a moving story, and a powerful message that has truly put a different perspective in my eyes on how crule people can be and how understanding people have to be.
This book is about a boy named Jack, who is a very fortunate Jewish boy living in Europe. Jack and his family move in with his uncle who lives in a nearby town. Jack's father stayed behind to get organized and then he would meet up with them after. He had to close up his shop, sell his place, and pack up the big furniture. Unfortunately, before he could meet his family he was put into a concentration camp. Three years later Jack is working and supporting his mom and little brother while his sister, Jadiza, goes to their Aunt and Uncles house to help them with aetheir new baby. Hitler's soldiers invade the town they are living in and later group all the Jewish families into the town square to send them to concentration camps. Jack gets separated from his family and starts a whole different life in the concentration camps. He learns to survive on his own and take what he can get. It is a very rough experience for him, and you have to read the book to see the outcome.
I really enjoyed how the author put black and white photographs in this sad but true story because it really helps you imaging the living conditions back then. The structure of the book is not terribly long, making it an easy read. What I truly love about this book is that the author is always keeping you on your toes and never drags on about one topic. This book sends out a powerful message that I never truly understood until I finished he novel. It taught me to never take anything for granted and to enjoy every moment possible. Of course I forget this message a lot and I do take a lot for granted but when in doubt I always try to remember this book. Jack also gets a message out of his experience in the concentration camps. He learns to live life to its fullest and try to help as many people as he can but still be cautious of his own well being. "Three years as a teenager in the death camps he survived through courage, luck, help from others, and sheer will. Like all survivors, he has much to teach us about bravery and self reliance, and about history and the lessons of the Holocaust." Surviving Hitler is a very moving book that can really make people change some of their views of the world.
In my opinion Surviving Hitler is one of the best books I've ever read. Not only has it intrigued me to know more about the Holocaust, it has actually interested me a little more in history in general. I would defiantly recommend this book and hope that the next person who reads it loves it as much as I have.
Book Description
This gripping and richly illustrated account of wartime Greece explores the impact of the Nazi Occupation upon the lives and values of ordinary people. The first full account of the experience of occupation, it offers a vividly human picture of resistance fighters and black marketeers, teenage German conscripts and Gestapo officers, Jews and starving villagers.
Customer Reviews:
Hitler's Greece.......2003-01-16
Overall this is a good book. It is not the most organized book nor the most enthralling in terms of colorful language and storytelling, but informs the reader in a way that makes it hard to quit reading. This book isn't a collection of eyewitness stories, though it has many clips here and there from eyewitnesses. Instead, it tells the story of what the average Greek went through (famine, massacres, deportation, plundering, torture, etc). It deals mainly with the guerilla warfare that took over the whole country. Mazower explains how the different groups (communist, Nazi, Greek royalist, British, etc) dealt with each other. What is surprising is that their was no "good" or "bad" group; all of them made mistakes and did unspeakable things. Mazower seems to write completely unbiasedly and informatively. The only reason this book didn't get five stars is because it is somewhat disorganzed and can be confusing. Those who want to read about Germans and Nazism in Greece may be disappointed. But those who want to learn how the war changed Greece and her people forever will not be let down.
Idiosyncratic narrative.......2002-03-08
It has long been traditional amongst certain kinds of disconnected intellectual to maintain that the Greek communists were romantic heroes. Much as it is pleasant to create illusions and myths that accord with one's own political prejudices, the slenderest acquaintance with the primary sources makes it completely impossible to believe in this one. We have been unable to conclude otherwise than that, when they were not totally useless, perfidious, and parasitic they were unspeakably barbaric. Now that the cold war is over, there is no longer any vested interest in pretending otherwise. Mr. Mazower's narrative is idiosyncratic and biased.
EAM/ELAS was nothing but a carnivorous plant. EAM/ELAS was planted on Greek soil by the Communist party of Greece (KKE) and the Oxbridge types of SOE. EAM/ELAS was fertilized with British gold sovereigns, and was fed with the corpses of the Greek people who systematically, and very often in a barbarous way, its thugs murdered.
Hitler and Greece.......2001-05-22
If you like reading about Hitler, and if you're interested in Greece, then have I got the book for you.
A valuable contribution to modern historical understanding.......2001-05-11
Meticulously researched and thoughtfully written, Mazower's Book is a valuable contribution to our understanding of European history in the first half of the twentieth century, especially during the decade of the 1940s. As the title suggests, this is a work about the German occupation of Greece. The unique character of Greece's political, social and economic structures make the story especially complicated. The suffering of the Greeks during the occupation was particularly intense. The famine that caused many thousands of deaths is a part of the suffering. So were the occupiers' reprisals at resistance activity. The author offers insightful analyses of the work and organization of the resistance, including various Communist groups, to show how and why the communists were able to carry on a civil war against the Athens government once the war was over. In an excellent chapter on the suffering of Jewish Greeks, he details how about fifty thousand Jews -- mostly from Salonika -- were deported to death camps in Poland and elsewhere. Personally, I take some comfort in Mazower's statement on page 159 that, in general, most Orthodox Christian Greeks made a determined effort to save their Jewish compatriots from the invaders by hiding them and providing them with food.
Mazower has recently edited a book of fourteen essays titiled After the War Was Over, exploring the question of how collaborators were dealt with in the years following the occupation. ...
An Historian who Cares........2001-04-15
This book is a favorite in our family as it Describes with a Heart, not only "cold" History, The Occupation of Greece and the Tragedy of Greek Jewry in WW2. There are many books in Israel to be found with personal accounts that have no scientific perspective. They can be boring. On the other hand there are Historians who write about WW2 as a military campaign, ignoring the Human Perspective. Mark Mazower is intelligent enough also to see thru the Political Background. Greece was divided like many countries by "Right-Left". This distorted many peoples views about what was happening. Some people (including some jews) who hated the British or the Communists, Co-operated with the Nazi's. Mark's Book is Historically Scientific, Not Politically Biased, and has enough Personal stories too make this a winner. I would like to read Mark's other books.
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- The Color of Cities: An International Perspective
- The End of the Line: How Overfishing Is Changing the World and What We Eat
- American Cinema/American Culture
- Vineyard Deceit: A Martha's Vineyard Mystery
- Sean Godsell: Works and Projects
- SuperDutch : New Architecture in the Netherlands
- Caring for Your Plants
The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War
Museum of the Missing: A History of Art Theft
The Medici Conspiracy: The Illicit Journey of Looted Antiquities--From Italy's Tomb Raiders to the World's Greatest Museums
The Rescue Artist : A True Story of Art, Thieves, and the Hunt for a Missing Masterpiece
I Was Vermeer: The Rise and Fall of the Twentieth Century's Greatest Forger
