The Bastard Brigade by
The leaders of the Manhattan Project were alarmed to learn that Nazi Germany was far outpacing the Allies in nuclear weapons research. Hitler would soon have the capability to reverse the entire D-Day operation and conquer Europe. Kean tells the story of a rough and motley crew of geniuses-- dubbed the Alsos Mission-- sent into Axis territory to spy on, sabotage, and even assassinate members of Nazi Germany's feared Uranium Club. The Mission included Moe Berg, a major league catcher and multilingual international spy; Joe Kennedy Jr, whose need for adventure lead him to volunteer for the dangerous mission; and Irène and Frederic Joliot-Curie, a physics Nobel-Prize winning power couple who became active members of the resistance.
Code Girls by
Recruited by the U.S. Army and Navy from small towns and elite colleges, more than ten thousand women served as codebreakers during World War II. While their brothers and boyfriends took up arms, these women moved to Washington and learned the meticulous work of code-breaking. Their efforts shortened the war, saved countless lives, and gave them access to careers previously denied to them.
Diary of the Dark Years, 1940-1944 by
'Diary of the Dark Years' is a sharply observed record of day-to-day life in occupied Paris, but far more: it is 'a remarkable essay on courage and cowardice' (Wall Street Journal), expressing both shame at French collaboration with the Nazis and the stubborn resistance of an intellectual under great pressure.
If It's Not Impossible...: The Life of Sir Nicholas Winton by
There are around 6000 people in the world today who owe their lives to Nicholas Winton. They are the descendants of a group of refugee children rescued by him from the Nazi threat in 1939. Some of them know of his existence and the part he played in their history, many others do not. It was a short event in his life but a critical one for those whose lives were saved. For him that intervention was over in a flash and other adventures supplanted it. Only much later did this episode re-emerge in his life and ever since has brought him visitors from all over the world anxious to learn his story. This book lays out that story in detail, exploring the motivation and early experiences that led to him acting to save young lives, while others looked the other way. His motto "If something is not impossible, then there must be a way to do it" led him to follow his own convictions and undertake an operation others had dismissed as unnecessary or too difficult. His life thereafter was full of exploits stimulated by similar motivation which, though not so consequential, remain testimony to his character. But what was his motivation? How had his life and background led to him being ready, willing and able to conduct a successful rescue operation of 669 children from Czechoslovakia at the age of 29? His daughter has painstakingly sifted through her father's papers and talked to family and friends to construct a detailed account of his whole life. It explores the influences on his character as well as the historical events he was caught up in. Taken from his historical letters and writings, Winton's own words are introduced to convey the atmosphere of many of his diverse experiences.
Indianapolis by
Just after midnight on July 30, 1945, days after delivering the components of the atomic bomb from California to the Pacific Islands in the most highly classified naval mission of the war, the USS Indianapolis is sailing alone in the center of the Philippine Sea when she is struck by two Japanese torpedoes. The ship is instantly transformed into a fiery cauldron and sinks within minutes. Some 300 men go down with the ship. Nearly 900 make it into the water alive. For the next five nights and four days, almost three hundred miles from the nearest land, the men battle injuries, sharks, dehydration, insanity, and eventually each other. Only 316 will survive. For the better part of a century, the story of USS Indianapolis has been understood as a sinking tale. The reality, however, is far more complicated. Following a decade of original research and interviews with 107 survivors and eyewitnesses, Lynn Vincent and Sara Vladic tell the complete story of the ship, her crew, and their final mission to save one of their own. The survivors fight for fifty years on behalf of their skipper, Captain Charles McVay III, who is wrongly court-martialed for the sinking. The courtroom drama weaves through generations of American presidents, from Harry Truman to George W. Bush, and forever entwines the lives of three captains: McVay, whose life and career are never the same after the scandal; Mochitsura Hashimoto, the Japanese sub commander who sinks Indianapolis but later joins the battle to exonerate McVay; and William Toti, the captain of the modern-day submarine Indianapolis, who helps the survivors fight to vindicate their captain.
The Jersey Brothers by
Documents the extraordinary story of three brothers in World War II, describing the rescue mission launched by the elder two when their youngest brother was declared missing in action in the Philippines. "They are three brothers, all navy men, who end up coincidentally and extraordinarily at the epicenter of three of World War II's most crucial moments. Bill is tapped by Franklin D. Roosevelt to run the first Map Room in Washington. Benny is the gunnery and antiaircraft officer on the USS Enterprise, one of the only ships to escape Pearl Harbor and, by the end of 1942, the last aircraft carrier left in the Pacific to defend against the Japanese. Barton, the youngest, gets a plum commission in the Navy Supply Corps because his mother wants him out of harm's way. But this protection plan backfires when Barton is sent to the Philippines and listed as missing-in-action after a Japanese attack. Now it is up to Bill and Benny to rescue him. Based on ten years of research drawn from archives around the world, interviews with fellow shipmates and POWs, and letters half-forgotten in basements, The Jersey Brothers whisks readers from America's front porches to Roosevelt's White House, from Pearl Harbor to Midway and Bataan, and from the Pacific battlefronts to the stately home of a fierce New Jersey mother. At its heart The Jersey Brothers is a family story, written by one of its own in intimate, novelistic detail. It is a remarkable tale of agony and triumph; of an ordinary young man who shows extraordinary courage as the enemy does everything short of killing him; and of brotherly love tested under the tortures of war."
Patriots from the Barrio by
Based on extensive archival research and veteran and family accounts, Patriots from the Barrio: The Story of Company E, 141st Infantry: The Only All Mexican American Army Unit in World War II brings to life the soldiers whose service should never have gone unrecognized for so long. With its memorable personalities, stories of hope and immigration, and riveting battle scenes, this beautifully written book is a testament to the shared beliefs of all who have fought for the ideals of the American flag.
Reporting World War II by
This Library of America volume is the first of a unique two-volume anthology. Drawn from original newspaper and magazine reports, radio transcripts, and wartime books, Reporting World War II captures the intensity of the war's unfolding drama as recorded by the best of a remarkable generation of journalists, whose talents, sense of purpose, and physical courage remain unsurpassed in the annals of war reporting. Here in one collection, over eighty writers, famous and forgotten alike, confront the crucial events of those years in writing of exceptional skill and emotional force.
The first volume traces the buildup to war and the first years of fighting: the Munich crisis, Kristallnacht, the fall of Poland and France, Pearl Harbor and Bataan, Guadalcanal and Salerno. William L. Shirer, Sigrid Schulz, and Howard K. Smith observe Nazi Germany from the inside; Edward R. Murrow and Ernie Pyle report from London during the Blitz; A.J. Liebling chronicles the Tunisian campaign; Margaret Bourke-White casts her eye on the Russian and Italian fronts. In a time when public perceptions were shaped mainly by the written word, correspondents like these were often as influential as politicians and as celebrated as movie stars.
Writers who covered the home front are included as well: E.B. White at a bond rally in Maine, Brendan Gill on gas rationing, James Agee's caustic reviews of Hollywood war movies. And so are the famous literary figures who covered the war: Gertrude Stein in occupied France, John Steinbeck on a troopship bound for Italy. Here too are writers on aspects of the war still often neglected: George S. Schuyler and other African-American journalists attacking racism and segregation in the armed forces; Mary Heaton Vorse on the women working in the defense industries; a firsthand account of the internment of Japanese-Americans.
This volume contains a detailed chronology of the war, historical maps, biographical profiles of the journalists, explanatory notes, a glossary of military terms, and an index. Also included are thirty-two pages of photographs of the correspondents, many from private collections and never seen before. A companion volume covers 1944-1946.
The Things Our Fathers Saw: The Untold Stories of the World War II Generation by
World War II in the Pacific Theater, oral histories collected from over 30 U.S. veterans, told in their own words.
"At the height of World War II, Look Magazine profiled a small upstate New York community for a series of articles portraying it as the wholesome, patriotic model of life on the home front. Seventy years later, a high school history teacher and his students track down over two dozen veterans residing around "Hometown, USA
Those Angry Days: Roosevelt, Lindbergh, and America's fight over World War II, 1939-1941 by
Traces the crisis period leading up to America's entry into World War II, describing the nation's polarized interventionist and isolationist factions as represented by the government, in the press, and on the streets.
The Train to Crystal City: FDR's secret prisoner exchange program and America's only family internment camp during World War II by
Focusing on a little-known event in American history that has long been kept quiet, a dramatic account exposes a secret FDR-approved American internment camp in Texas during World War II where hundreds of prisoners were exchanged for other Americans behind enemy lines in Japan and Germany.
For more information on Japanese-American internment, please visit our LibGuide on this topic.
Frontline: The Last Survivors by
As young children, they lived through 'humanity's darkest hour'. Now, over 70 years after World War II, FRONTLINE speaks with some of the last remaining survivors of the Holocaust. The film paints a portrait of what is most troubling to many survivors as they contemplate reaching the end of their lives - specifically the rise in anti-Semitic sentiments around the world.
Hitler's Defeat
Why Hitler lost WWII Rise and fall of Adolph Hitler Hitler conspiracies Hitler stole my ideas Hitler's religion
Hitler: The Untold Story
Adolf Hitler has left an incomparable mark of evil on the pages of history and a horrifying legacy that still haunts millions of people around the world. Chronicled are his early years, his life as a corporal in the army, his dark rise to power, and all the way through the downfall of the Third Reich.
Holocaust Escape Tunnel (NOVA) by
In the heart of Lithuania, a Holocaust secret lies buried. A team of archaeologists probes the ruins of a Nazi death camp to find the truth behind tales of a tunnel dug by desperate Jewish prisoners and their daring escape.
Memory of the Camps by
"When allied troops invaded Germany and liberated Nazi death camps at the end of World War II, they found unspeakable horrors that still haunt the world's conscience. In 1945, British and American film crews accompanying the troops liberating the camps captured these atrocities firsthand. The resulting film directed in part by Alfred Hitchcock but never finished, was discovered by Frontline in 1984 in the archives of the Imperial War Museum. Sixty years after the war ended, Frontline now re-broadcasts this powerful memorial in its entirety"
The Nazi Games by
Featuring never-before-seen archival footage and new research, it reveals how the modern Olympics were shaped by the collaboration of interests between Hitler and ambitious Olympic planners. The grand themes and controversial issues from the 1936 Berlin Games have continued to this day: monumentality, budget overruns, and collusion with authoritarian regimes, corruption, and sometimes even bribery.
Nazi Hunters by
Part I tells of the search for Nazi officials and concentration camp officials and guards immediately after the end of World War II. Tells of the arrest and subsequent trials of major Nazi officials and their subordinates. Describes the vengeance wreaked on collaborators by people in occupied countries, particularly France, and shows the executions of collaborators and convicted Nazi war criminals. Tells how some Nazis evaded capture by mingling with refugees or by escaping to other countries. Part II describes the efforts of Simon Wiesenthal to bring Adolf Eichmann and other Nazi war criminals to justice. Tells of the work of Beate and Serge Klarsfeld to bring former Nazis to justice, paying particular attention to Beate's use of the media to unmask those living in Germany.
Nicky's Family by
Nicholas Winton, an Englishman who organized the rescue of 669 children from Prague just before the outbreak of World War II. As a result of his heroic efforts, today there are over 6,000 descendants of "Winton's Children" all over the world. Winton, now 104 years old, did not speak about these events with anyone for more than half a century. His exploits would have probably been forgotten if his wife, fifty years later, hadn't found a suitcase in the attic, full of documents and transport plans. The children that he saved, their descendants and countless others around the world continue to follow his example to do good, as chronicled in the award-winning film Nicky's Family.
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by
Traces the collapse of the Hitler regime from the invasion of Russia in 1941 to Hitler's suicide in Berlin in 1945. Shows the concentration camp system and examines the reasons for the collapse of the Nazi army.
The Third Reich by
A fascinating program that uncovers familiar anecdotes and fascinating details about the people who comprised the Nazi Party, and raids the treasure trove of archives the Nazis left behind. Includes rarely-seen German newsreel recordings along with other unique footage carried home by Russian troops.
War between the Central European Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and allies) on one side and the Triple Entente (Britain and the British Empire, France, and Russia) and their allies, including the USA (which entered in 1917), on the other side.
When World War I ended in 1918, the victorious Allies, led by the UK, France, and the USA, held discussions at the palace of Versailles in 1919 on Germany and how to reorder Europe.
Broadly, the extension of rule or influence by one government, nation, or society over another.
The United States used an atomic bomb against the Japanese city of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945. Three days later, on August 9, it dropped a bomb on Nagasaki.
After World War II, the trials of the 24 chief Nazi war criminals November 1945-October 1946 by an international military tribunal consisting of four judges and four prosecutors.
US Pacific naval base on Oahu island, Hawaii, USA, the scene of a Japanese aerial attack on 7 December 1941, which brought the USA into World War II.
The wartime effort to design and build the first nuclear weapons (atomic bombs).
Or A-bomb, weapon deriving its explosive force from the release of atomic energy through the fission (splitting) of heavy nuclei.
A detention site outside the normal prison system created for military or political purposes to confine, terrorize, and, in some cases, kill civilians.