World War II

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).

  • My Role in Berlin on July 20, 1944

    My assignment to the guard regiment “Großdeutschland” in Berlin was actually a form of rest and recreation – my first leave from the front – after my many wounds and in recognition of my combat decorations, including the Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves and the Close Combat Badge in Silver (forty-eight days of close combat)….

  • On the Treadmill to Pearl Harbor

    On the Treadmill to Pearl Harbor: The Memoirs of Admiral James O. Richardson (USN Retired), As Told to Vice Admiral George C. Dyer (USN Retired). Washington DC: Naval Historical Division, Deparhnent of the Navy, 1973, 471 pages. On the Treadmill to Pearl Harbor: The Memoirs of Admiral James O. Richardson (USN Retired), As Told to…

  • Heckling Hitler: Caricatures of the Third Reich

    Heckling Hitler: Caricatures of the Third Reich, by Zbynek Zeman. Hanover, New Hampshire: University Press of New England, 1987, Pb., 128 pp., illustrated, $14.95, ISBN 0-87451-403-7. Heckling Hitler, a recent selection of the Jewish Book Club, is a collection of 178 anti-Hitler, anti-National Socialist and anti-German political cartoons of the Weimar Republic and Nazi eras….

  • Stalin’s War

    Stalin's War: A Radical New Theory of the Origins of the Second World War, by Ernst Topitsch. Translated by A. and B.E. Taylor. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1987, 160 pages, $19.95, ISBN: 0-312-0989-5. Can there be any real doubt who was the prime mover in the tumultuous events of 1933-1945? From the vast majority…

  • Hollywood Goes to War

    Hollywood Goes to War: How Politics, Profits and Propaganda Shaped World War II Movies by Clayton R. Koppes and Gregory D. Black. New York: Free Press/Macmillan, 1987, x + 374 pages, illustrated, $22.50, ISBN 0-02-903550-3. Propaganda may be defined as the attempt to manipulate public opinion for the purpose of helping or injuring a particular…

  • The Persecution of P. G. Wodehouse

    The noted Anglo-American humorist Pelham Grenville Wodehouse (1881-1975) led, up to 1940, a life which was professionally very active and successful, but devoid of striking or soul-shaking experiences.[1] In that year, however, there occurred an event which changed the course of his life very drastically for the next six years, and cast a lasting, though…

  • Conspiracy and Betrayal around Hitler

    Verschwörung und Verrat um Hitler: Urteil des Frontsoldaten. [Conspiracy and Betrayal around Hitler: A Combat Soldier’s Verdict] by Otto Ernst Remer, Brigadier General Retired [Generalmajor a.D.]. Preussisch Oldendorf, Federal Republic of Germany: Verlag K.W. Schlütz, KG, Third Printing, 1984, 336 pages, illustrated, 42.00 DM (about $20 U.S.), ISBN 3-87725-102/1. A few exciting hours after the…

  • Keeper of Concentration Camps

    Keeper of Concentration Camps: Dillon S. Meyer and American Racism, by Richard Drinnon. Berkeley: U. of California Press, 1987, 339 pp., $24.95. ISBN 0-520-05793-7. With the exception of the few months in which Milton Eisenhower ran the program, Dillon S. Meyer, a typical New Deal bureaucrat, was the chief administrator of the WRA, the “War…

  • The War Between The Generals / Overlord: D-Day and the Battle for Normandy

    The War Between The Generals, by David Irving. New York: Congdon and Weed (distributed by St. Martin’s Press), 1981, 446pp, $9.95 Pb, ISBN 0-312-92921-8. Overlord: D-Day and the Battle for Normandy, by Max Hastings. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1984, 368pp, $17.95, ISBN 0-671-46029-3. David Irving first gained the attention of serious students of history…

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