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 Joseph Bishop ∙ October 1, 2009
The Chief Culprit: Stalin’s Grand Design to Start World War II, by Viktor Suvorov Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, 2008, 328pp., illustrated, with notes, bibliography, indexed. The post-1945 war crimes trials in Nuremberg are underway and the international press excitedly covers the proceedings. The tribunal itself consists of justices not from victor powers but from wartime…
By Chip Smith ∙ August 1, 2009
Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization, by Nicholson Baker. Simon & Schuster Inc., New York, 2008. 576 pp. bibliography, indexed. Nested near the end of Nicholson Baker’s first book, The Mezzanine, is an oddly memorable scene. Set apart from the novel’s famously annotated escalator ascent, the scene finds Howie…
By Carlos Whitlock Porter ∙ September 20, 2012
Document 343-USSR, OKW Decree, 20 July 1942: All Soviet Prisoners of War Are to Be Tattooed for Identification Purposes. IMT Vol. 39, pp. 488-491 Document 343, OKW Decree, 20 July 1942: Photocopy of a mimeograph, certified by the Soviet prosecutors, in two parts. First page: 1 next to “Certified True Copy” at *; round stamp…
By Daniel W. Michaels ∙ July 31, 2012
Constantine Pleshakov. Stalin’s Folly: The Tragic First Ten Days of World War II on the Eastern Front. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston and New York, 2005, 312 pp. As the title of Constantine Pleshakov’s book implies, the author, a Russian historian,[1] holds Stalin personally responsible for the debacle that befell the Red Army at the outbreak…
By Daniel W. Michaels ∙ July 31, 2012
Yuri Rubtsov, Alter Ego Stalina (Based on declassified archival documents), Svonnitsa-MG, Moscow, 1999, 302 pp. Yuri Rubtsov, Iz-za spiny vozhdya: poli ticheskaya i voyennaya deyatel’nost L. Z. Mekhlisa (Behind the Leader’s Back; The Political and Military Activities of L. Z. Mekhlis), Kompaniya Ritm, Moscow, 2003, 253 pp. Until the appearance of two recent Russian political…
By Daniel W. Michaels ∙ July 31, 2012
Simon Sebag Montefiore, Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar, Knopf, New York, 2004, 785 pp. The British Book Awards’ History Book of the Year has been awarded to the distinguished Anglo-Jewish journalist/novelist Simon Sebag Montefiore for his Stalin: the Court of the Red Star.[1] Montefiore’s special writing interest is in matters Russian, especially in…
By Daniel W. Michaels ∙ September 1, 2005
Vladimir Beshanov, Tankovyy pogrom 1941 goda (Tank Debacle of 1941); Series: Military History Library, ACT Publisher, Moscow, 2000, 528 pp Vladimir Beshanov. God 1942 – “Uchebnyy” (1942 Year of Learning), Series: Military History Library, Harvest Publisher, 2002, 624 pp Vladimir Beshanov. Desyat’ stalinskikh udarov (Ten Stalinist Blows), Series: Military History Library, Harvest Publisher, 2004, 768…
By Paul Amner ∙ December 1, 2004
With British armored forces only hours away from finishing World War II, Heinrich Himmler ordered approximately 10,000 weak and sick prisoners from the concentration camp Neuengamme and its satellite camps to be transferred to three ships parked in the Bay of Lübeck. The three ships were the Deutschland, the Thielbek and the cruise liner Cap…
By Daniel W. Michaels ∙ August 1, 2004
Viktor Suworow, Marschall Schukow – Lebensweg über Leichen, Pour-le-Mérite, Selent, Germany, 2002, 350 pp., €25.80 Prologue Every war produces genuine military strategists and heroes, many of whom die on the battlefield or whose exploits go unrecognized. Decorated “Hero of the Soviet Union” four times, Marshal Georgi Zhukov was indisputably the most honored military figure in…
By Claus Nordbruch ∙ May 1, 2004
Long before the outbreak of the Second World War, and certainly long before the outcome of this European slaughter of brothers was foreseeable, the victors-to-be and their hangers-on had made plans for the disposition of Germany that contained fundamental violations of the Law of Nations. In addition to demilitarization and de-nazification projects there were plans…
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