The Boy from Boskovice
The Boy from Boskovice

Author: Vicky Unwin

Publisher: Unbound Publishing

Published: 2021-01-21

Total Pages: 316

ISBN-13: 1783529075

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Vicky Unwin had always known her father – an erstwhile intelligence officer and respected United Nations diplomat – was Czech, but it was not until a stranger turned up on her doorstep that she discovered he was also Jewish. So began a quest to discover the truth about his past – one that perhaps would help answer the niggling doubts she had always had about her ‘perfect’ father. Finally persuading him to allow her to open a closely guarded cache of family books and papers, Vicky discovered the identity of her grandfather: the tormented author and diplomat Hermann Ungar, hugely controversial in both life and in death, who was a protégé and possible lover of Thomas Mann, and a friend of Berthold Brecht and Stefan Zweig. How much of her father’s child was Vicky – and how much of his father’s child was he? As Vicky worked to uncover deeply buried family secrets, she would find herself slowly unpicking the lingering power of ‘survivors’ guilt’ on the generations that followed the Holocaust, and would learn, via a deathbed confession, of the existence of a previously unknown sister. Together, the sisters attempted to come to terms with what had made their father into the deeply flawed, complex, yet charismatic man he has always been, journeying together through grief and heartache towards forgiveness.

Love and War in the WRNS
Love and War in the WRNS

Author: Vicky Unwin

Publisher: The History Press

Published: 2015-06-01

Total Pages: 415

ISBN-13: 0750964677

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Sheila Mills's story is a unique perspective of the Second World War. She is a clever, middle-class Norfolk girl with a yen for adventure and joins the WRNS in 1940 to escape the shackles of secretarial work in London, her unhappy childhood and her social-climbing mother. From a first posting in Scotland in 1940, she progresses through the ranks, first to Egypt and later to a vanquished Germany. Extraordinary and fascinating encounters and personalities are seen through the eyes of a young Wren officer: Admiral Ramsay, the Invasion of Sicily and Operation Mincemeat that triggered it, The Flap, the sinking of the Medway, the surrender of the Italian fleet and the Belsen Trials. These observations are peppered with humorous insights into the humdrum preoccupations of a typical Wren – boys, appearance and having fun, while worrying about home and family. This treasure trove of hundreds of letters, along with scrapbooks and memorabilia, some of which are reproduced here, was discovered in bin liners shortly after Sheila died. Her daughter, Vicky, has pieced together a fascinating and unusual record of the Second World War from a woman's perspective.

Uncommon Courage
Uncommon Courage

Author: Julia Jones

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2022-03-17

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 147298708X

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'An extraordinary account of heroism and sacrifice. An unexpected and important story, rivetingly told. Rip roaring stuff. Get this into the paws of the sea dog in your life.' - Griff Rhys Jones 'A book that had to be written' - Let's Talk 'People ashore don't realise what a grim war we are waging at sea with the Germans. A cold-blooded war, in a way I think requiring the maximum of bravery from the men of both sides in the long run, as it is so ceaseless and intangible. You just don't know whether the next moment will be your last.' Robert Hichens, RNVSR Several years ago, Julia Jones was searching through long-forgotten items stored at her house and discovered some suitcases of old written material, which turned out to be accounts by her father of his experiences in the RNVSR (Royal Naval Volunteer Supplementary Reserve). She realised that as a child she'd met some of the people mentioned, and although she was too young to truly know them, these youthful impressions spurred her on to rediscovery and understanding. In this absorbing book Julia tells the compelling stories of the yachtsmen. Some were famous (such as Sir Peter Scott), others were wealthy (such as August Courtauld, who returned his pay to help with the war effort) but the majority were just 'ordinary' professionals such as publishers, lawyers and advertising agents, who signed up because they loved sailing. Few could ever have dreamed that they would end up acting in areas that were so far beyond their normal lives, as they found themselves commanding destroyers and submarines, and undertaking covert missions of sabotage. Some undertook the dangerous daily drudgery of minesweeping; others tackled unexploded bombs, engaged the enemy in high-speed attacks or played key roles in Ian Fleming's famous intelligence commandos. This varied crew of men were given tasks vital to the war effort, requiring endurance, extraordinary bravery, resourcefulness and quick thinking. Some died in the process, but for the ones who survived, Julia asks how their experiences changed them. Could their love of sailing and the sea survive the harsh realities of war?

The Nazi Séance
The Nazi Séance

Author: Arthur J. Magida

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2011-11-22

Total Pages: 287

ISBN-13: 0230620531

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"... A disturbing journey into a Germany as it descends into madness, aided by a "clairvoyant" Jew oblivious to the savagery of men who pursued a Reich that they fantasized would last a thousand years"--Jacket.

Janacek: Years of a Life Volume 1 (1854-1914)
Janacek: Years of a Life Volume 1 (1854-1914)

Author: John Tyrrell

Publisher: Faber & Faber

Published: 2011-03-03

Total Pages: 919

ISBN-13: 0571261132

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John Tyrrell's biography of the Leos Janácek is the culmination of a life's work in the field. It stands upon his existing documentary studies of Janácek's operas and translations of other key sources and his examination of thousands of still unpublished letters and other documents in the Janácek archive in Brno. Altogether it provides the most detailed account of Janácek's life in any language and offers new views of Janácek as composer, writer, thinker and human being. Volume 1, which goes up to the outbreak of the First World War and Janácek's sixtieth birthday in the summer of 1914, consists of chronological chapters providing a straightforward account of Janácek's life year by year and another forty contextual chapters. Topics include on-going sequences ('Music as autobiography I', etc.; 'Janácek's knowledge of opera I', etc.) and individual chapters on Janácek as a teacher, as a theorist, as an music ethnographer, on his speech-melody theory, his relationship to particularly influential operas (Tchaikovsky's Queen of Spades, Charpentier's Louise), on his mentors (such as Antonín Dvorák) and his bêtes noires (such as Karel Kovarovic). A particular feature are the specially commissioned chapters on Janácek's health by Dr Stephen Lock (one of the editors of the Oxford Illustrated Companion to Medicine, OUP 1994 and 2001, editor of the British Medical Journal, 1975-91, and a Janácek enthusiast since the early postwar broadasts on the Third Programme), and on Janácek's earnings and finances by Dr Jirí Zahrádka (curator of the Janácek archive in Brno, and editor of authentic editions of Sárka and The Excursions of Mr Broucek).

Tini's People
Tini's People

Author: Edith M. Kozdon

Publisher: Xlibris Corporation

Published: 2005-07-18

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 1413488536

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Tini's People is a true story about real people, her memories of Jews, Poles, Czechs, Germans and Austrians all of whom she thought of as " her people " form the backbone of this book. The book provides a historical, cultural and social perspective on the life of a Central European Jewish family from the 1820's to end of the Holocaust in 1945. Tini was the youngest daughter of a traditional Jewish family. After her arranged Jewish marriage failed she married Willi, a Roman Catholic, the first mixed marriage in her family as well as the first such in the town where they lived. In the 1930s growing anti-Semitism emanating from Germany culminated in the occupation of the Czech lands. Under the Nazi Race Laws Tini's mixed marriage initially provided her with immunity from persecution, however, her name was eventually placed on a deportation list. Willi foolishly talks about his Jewish wife with a total stranger, Bernhard Asmus, only to discover that he was confiding in a high-ranking member of the Gestapo. Asmus unexpectedly promises to help and issues them travel passes to the small country village where he had found them a safe place to stay. Nicknamed " The Jewish Father " by the local populous, Bernhard Asmus risked not only his own life but also the lives of his wife and son by helping Protestants, Catholics and Jews alike. Tini survives the war - a woman left behind to mourn the deaths of those she loved, including her beloved daughter, Hedy. All of them were innocent victims, first incarcerated and then exterminated in Nazi death camps. While reminiscing about her people only once did Tini say of those Germans who complained of their treatment in the post-war years " Perhaps they brought it upon themselves when they chose Adolf Hitler to be their leader! "

Darkness Falling
Darkness Falling

Author: Peter Walther

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2021-08-05

Total Pages: 380

ISBN-13: 180024228X

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'Gripping and all too timely' James Hawes 'A brilliant mix of detailed research and vivid storytelling' Julia Boyd 'History at its very best – and a fabulous translation, too' Graham Hurley In March 1930, after the collapse of the coalition that had ruled Germany since 1928, President Hindenburg asked Heinrich Bruning, bespectacled and scholarly leader of the Catholic Centre Party, to form a government. Some three years later, in January 1933, Hindenburg appointed as chancellor the demagogic, virulently anti-Semitic leader of the National Socialist party. Within weeks, Adolf Hitler has begun the process of dismantling the flawed democracy of the Weimar Republic and replacing it with a one-party totalitarian state. Darkness Falling depicts in compelling fashion the serial crises and mounting violence of a febrile era. Peter Walther examines the slow death of Weimar through the prism of nine colourful protagonists, including leading German politicians of right, left and centre, the clairvoyant and occultist, Erik Jan Hanussen and the formidable American journalist Dorothy Thompson. He profiles these heterogeneous characters in intriguing detail, pulling together the threads of their lives to chart the demise of German parliamentary democracy and the rise of National Socialist tyranny. Along the way we gain fascinating insights into the machinations in the corridors of power to keep the 'Bohemian corporal' from the chancellorship, and the venality of the Nazi elite and its fellow travellers from the demi-monde of early 1930s Berlin. Walther evokes the louche nightlife of the German capital – 'a playground for charlatans and prophets, madmen and crooks' – memorably and atmospherically. A masterly fusion of meticulously researched historical writing and vividly propulsive storytelling, Darkness Falling is a distinctive and enthralling account of Germany's slide from democracy to dictatorship. Translated by Dr Peter Lewis.

The Day the War Ended
The Day the War Ended

Author: Martin Gilbert

Publisher: Holt Paperbacks

Published: 2007-04-01

Total Pages: 527

ISBN-13: 1429900377

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One of Britain's most acclaimed historians presents the experiences and ramifications of the last day of World War II in Europe May 8, 1945, 23:30 hours: With war still raging in the Pacific, peace comes at last to Europe as the German High Command in Berlin signs the final instrument of surrender. After five years and eight months, the war in Europe is officially over. This is the story of that single day and of the days leading up to it. Hour by hour, place by place, this masterly history recounts the final spasms of a continent in turmoil. Here are the stories of combat soldiers and ordinary civilians, collaborators and resistance fighters, statesmen and war criminals, all recounted in vivid, dramatic detail. But this is more than a moment-by-moment account, for Sir Martin Gilbert uses every event as a point of departure, linking each to its long-term consequences over the following half century. In our attempts to understand the world we inherited in 1945, there is no better starting point than The Day the War Ended.