On 8 May 1995, the British prime minister, John Major, referred to the end of World War II as the end of a thirty years’ war; in this, he was correct: both sides saw this war as an attempt to complete a task left undone at the close of the First World War – the show-down which ended European global domination. The Second World War was, however, the ultimate catastrophe of modern history, laying waste the heart and soul of Europe. Here you will find contributions about this conflict, its prelude, conduct, and personalities – excluding non-military Nazi personalities, which are covered under the entry “Third Reich Era.” Also covered are contributions dealing with war crimes (and lies about alleged war crimes) committed in the course of the conflict. This does not include the “Holocaust,” which has a separate entry (and is not a war crime in the strict sense).
By Theodore J. O'Keefe ∙ December 1, 2001
Day of Deceit: The Truth about FDR and Pearl Harbor by Robert B. Stinnett. New York: Simon and Schuster, Touchstone, 2000. Paperback. 399 pages. Index, illustrations, maps. Pearl Harbor Betrayed: The True Story of a Man and a Nation under Attack by Michael Gannon. New York: Henry Holt, 2001. Hardcover. 340 pages. Index, illustrations, maps….
By Don Heddesheimer ∙ March 1, 2002
Don Heddesheimer’s study of American Jewish reactions to the Bolshevik revolution and the Communist consolidation of power in Russia, “Der erste Holocaust anno 1914-1927,” appeared in the Vierteljahreshefte für freie Geschichtsforschung (3, no. 2 [June 1999]) and may be read at the VffG page of the website: www.vho.org Krushinsky and I had been the first…
By Theodore J. O'Keefe ∙ November 1, 2001
Among the many tart insights in Robert Novick’s Holocaust in American Life (reviewed in JHR 20, no. 1 [January-February, 2001]) is his brief consideration of the part that Haj Amin al Husseini, the mufti of Jerusalem, has played in Zionist and Holocaust propaganda. As Novick notes, Husseini, the leading Palestinian nationalist leader from the 1920s…
By Mark Weber ∙ November 1, 2001
Churchill’s War: Triumph in Adversity (Vol. II), by David Irving. London: Focal Point, 2001. Hardcover. 1060 pages. Photographs. Appendices. Source references. Index. (Available from the IHR for $50, plus shipping.) It has been fourteen years since the publication of the first volume of David Irving’s three-part biography of Britain’s legendary wartime leader. This second volume,…
By Scott L. Smith ∙ September 1, 2001
Pearl Harbor. (2001) Genre: film (war, drama). Length: 183 minutes. MPAA rating: PG-13. Starring: Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett, Kate Beckinsale, Alec Baldwin, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Mako, Jon Voight. Director: Michael Bay. Producer: Jerry Bruckheimer. Screenplay: Randall Wallace. Released by: Buena Vista. Grade: D. Scott L. Smith holds a B.A. in history from Idaho State University….
By Scott L. Smith ∙ July 1, 2001
Enemy at the Gates. (2001) Genre: film (war, drama). Length: 131 minutes. MPAA rating: R. Starring: Jude Law, Joseph Fiennes, Ed Harris, Rachel Weisz, Ron Perlman, Gabriel Marshall-Thomson, Matthias Habich. Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud. Producers: Jean-Jacques Annaud, John D. Schofield. Released by: Paramount. Grade: B+. Scott Smith holds a B.A. in history from Idaho State University….
By Samuel Crowell ∙ July 1, 2001
The Bombing of Auschwitz: Should the Allies Have Attempted It? edited by Michael J. Neufeld and Michael Berenbaum. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000. Hardcover. 350 pp. Bibliography, index, illustrations. Given the belief that Auschwitz was a unique slaughterhouse in which a million, or several millions, were gassed and burned, the question of whether the…
By Daniel W. Michaels ∙ July 1, 2001
Between the Alps and a Hard Place: Switzerland in World War II and Moral Blackmail Today by Angelo Codevilla. Washington, DC: Regnery, 2000. Hardcover. $27. 263pp. Index. Daniel W. Michaels is a Columbia University graduate (Phi Beta Kappa, 1954), and a former Fulbright exchange student to Germany (1957). He is retired from the US Department…
By Daniel W. Michaels ∙ March 1, 2001
Unternehmen Barbarossa und der russische Historikerstreit (“Operation Barbarossa and the Russian Historians’ Dispute”), by Wolfgang Strauss. Munich: Herbig, 1998. Hardcover. 199 pages. Illustrations. Source references. Bibliography. Index. No two peoples suffered more during the Second World War than the Russians and the Germans. In the carnage of that great global conflict, nothing matched the massive…
By Adolf Hitler ∙ June 22, 1941
On the morning of June 22, 1941, Reich Minister Joseph Goebbels announced to the world the startling news that German forces, together with Finnish and Romanian troops, had struck against the vast Soviet Union. On German radio he read Adolf Hitler’s historic proclamation justifying the attack. Among other things, he said that Stalin had massed…
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