Auschwitz and the Allies

Auschwitz and the Allies
Author: Martin Gilbert
Publisher: Rosetta Books
Total Pages: 639
Release: 2015-08-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 0795346719

A thorough analysis of Allied actions after learning about the horrors of Nazi concentration camps—includes survivors’ firsthand accounts. Why did they wait so long? Among the myriad questions of what the Allies could have done differently in World War II, understanding why it took them so long to respond to the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps—specifically Auschwitz—remains vital today. In Auschwitz and the Allies, Martin Gilbert presents a comprehensive look into the series of decisions that helped shape this particular course of the war, and the fate of millions of people, through his eminent blend of exhaustive devotion to the facts and accessible, graceful writing. Featuring twenty maps prepared specifically for this history and thirty-four photographs, along with firsthand accounts by escaped Auschwitz prisoners, Gilbert reconstructs the span of time between Allied awareness and definitive action in the face of overwhelming evidence of Nazi atrocities. “An unforgettable contribution to the history of the last war.” —Jewish Chronicle

Auschwitz and the Allies

Auschwitz and the Allies
Author: Martin Gilbert
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2001
Genre: Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
ISBN: 0712668063

When Hitler announced that the result of the war in Europe would be the complete annihilation of the Jews, he did so in public. The Allies heard but did nothing. In 1944 Allied reconnaissance pilots repeatedly photographed Auschwitz: the pictures were filed away. The testimonies of escapees were also ignored. Why?

Auschwitz, the Allies and Censorship of the Holocaust

Auschwitz, the Allies and Censorship of the Holocaust
Author: Michael Fleming
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 417
Release: 2014-04-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 1107062799

An important contribution to the ongoing debate about what the Allies knew about the concentration camps during the Second World War.

Allies in Auschwitz

Allies in Auschwitz
Author: Duncan Little
Publisher: CLAIRVIEW BOOKS
Total Pages: 97
Release: 2012-07-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 1905570406

The huge Auschwitz camp in Poland, the Third Reich’s most gruesome death camp, contained not only the infamous concentration camp - whose horrors are well-documented - but also a prisoner-of-war facility that housed British inmates. Situated close enough to the Jewish quarters to smell the stench of burning bodies from the crematoria, the POWs were forced to work alongside concentration camp inmates in a Nazi factory. Witnesses to daily violence, the men survived beatings, hard labour and the extreme cold of Polish winters, whilst subsisting on meagre rations. Their final ordeal was to march hundreds of miles, in the depths of winter, to secure freedom in the spring of 1945. Based on interviews with some of the few surviving members of E715 Auschwitz, this book charts the British captives’ true story: from arriving on cattle trucks through to their eventual departure on foot. Haunted by what they had witnessed as young men, Brian Bishop, Doug Bond and Arthur Gifford-England were only able to speak about their experiences decades later, when approached during research for this book. Few people were interested in these remarkable men in post-war Britain, and they were left to cope with the trauma of their experiences with little support. Allies in Auschwitz records an important and forgotten episode of modern history. As corroboration of the men’s testimony, the final chapter includes post-war accounts from other British POWs held in E715 Auschwitz, based on documents compiled by war crimes’ investigators for the Nuremburg Trials.

Never Again

Never Again
Author: Martin Gilbert
Publisher: Rosetta Books
Total Pages: 596
Release: 2015-08-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 0795346743

A work forty years in the making—Sir Martin Gilbert’s illustrated survey of the pre- and post-war history of the Jewish people in Europe. Masterfully covering such topics as pre-war Jewish life, the Warsaw Ghetto revolt, and the reflections of Holocaust survivors, Gilbert interweaves firsthand accounts with unforgettable photographs and documents, which come together to form a three-dimensional portrait of the lives of the Jewish people during one of Europe’s darkest times. “This volume introduces the crime to a new generation, so that it knows of the atrocities and the seemingly futile acts of defiance taken, in the words of Judah Tenenbaum, ‘for three lines in the history books.’” —Booklist

The Holocaust

The Holocaust
Author: Martin Gilbert
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 980
Release: 1987-05-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780805003482

Sets the scene with a brief history of anti-Semitism prior to Hitler, and documents the horrors of the Holocaust from 1933 onward, in an incisive, interpretive account of the genocide of World War II.

The Holocaust

The Holocaust
Author: Martin Gilbert
Publisher: Rosetta Books
Total Pages: 848
Release: 2014-06-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 0795337191

The renowned historian weaves a definitive account of the Holocaust—from Hitler’s rise to power to the final defeat of the Nazis in 1945. Rich with eyewitness accounts, incisive interviews, and first-hand source materials—including documentation from the Eichmann and Nuremberg war crime trials—this sweeping narrative begins with an in-depth historical analysis of the origins of anti-Semitism in Europe, and tracks the systematic brutality of Hitler’s “Final Solution” in unflinching detail. It brings to light new source materials documenting Mengele’s diabolical concentration camp experiments and documents the activities of Himmler, Eichmann, and other Nazi leaders. It also demonstrates comprehensive evidence of Jewish resistance and the heroic efforts of Gentiles to aid and shelter Jews and others targeted for extermination, even at the risk of their own lives. Combining survivor testimonies, deft historical analysis, and painstaking research, The Holocaust is without doubt a masterwork of World War II history. “A fascinating work that overwhelms us with its truth . . . This book must be read and reread.” —Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prizing–winning author of Night

The Myth of Rescue

The Myth of Rescue
Author: W.D. Rubinstein
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 298
Release: 2002-01-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 1134615698

It has long been argued that the Allies did little or nothing to rescue Europe's Jews. Arguing that this has been consistently misinterpreted, The Myth of Rescue states that few Jews who perished could have been saved by any action of the Allies. In his new introduction to the paperback edition, Willliam Rubinstein responds to the controversy caused by his challenging views, and considers further the question of bombing Auschwitz, which remains perhaps the most widely discussed alleged lost opportunity for saving Jews available to the Allies.

Holocaust Journey

Holocaust Journey
Author: Martin Gilbert
Publisher: Rosetta Books
Total Pages: 580
Release: 2015-08-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 0795346778

“A travelogue, spanning two weeks, of the essential sites of the Holocaust, by the venerable historian and author . . . [A] soul-searching trip” (Kirkus Reviews). In 1996, prominent Holocaust historian Sir Martin Gilbert embarked on a fourteen-day journey into the past with a group of his graduate students from University College, London. Their destination? Places where the terrible events of the Holocaust had left their mark in Europe. From the railway lines near Auschwitz to the site of Oskar Schindler’s heroic efforts in Cracow, Poland, Holocaust Journey features intimate personal meditations from one of our greatest modern historians, and is supported by wartime documents, letters, and diaries—as well as over fifty photographs and maps by the author—all of which help interweave Gilbert’s trip with his students with the surrounding history of the towns, camps, and other locations visited. The result is a narrative of the Holocaust that ties the past to the present with poignancy and power. “Gilbert . . . is a dedicated guide to this difficult material. We can be grateful for his thoroughness, courage and guidance.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review

The Volunteer

The Volunteer
Author: Jack Fairweather
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 630
Release: 2019-06-25
Genre: History
ISBN: 0062561421

COSTA BOOK AWARD WINNER: BOOK OF THE YEAR • #1 SUNDAY TIMES (UK) BESTSELLER “Superbly written and breathtakingly researched, The Volunteer smuggles us into Auschwitz and shows us—as if watching a movie—the story of a Polish agent who infiltrated the infamous camp, organized a rebellion, and then snuck back out. ... Fairweather has dug up a story of incalculable value and delivered it to us in the most compelling prose I have read in a long time.” —Sebastian Junger, author of The Perfect Storm and Tribe The incredible true story of a Polish resistance fighter’s infiltration of Auschwitz to sabotage the camp from within, and his death-defying attempt to warn the Allies about the Nazis’ plans for a “Final Solution” before it was too late. To uncover the fate of the thousands being interred at a mysterious Nazi camp on the border of the Reich, a thirty-nine-year-old Polish resistance fighter named Witold Pilecki volunteered for an audacious mission: assume a fake identity, intentionally get captured and sent to the new camp, and then report back to the underground on what had happened to his compatriots there. But gathering information was not his only task: he was to execute an attack from inside—where the Germans would least expect it. The name of the camp was Auschwitz. Over the next two and half years, Pilecki forged an underground army within Auschwitz that sabotaged facilities, assassinated Nazi informants and officers, and gathered evidence of terrifying abuse and mass murder. But as he pieced together the horrifying truth that the camp was to become the epicenter of Nazi plans to exterminate Europe’s Jews, Pilecki realized he would have to risk his men, his life, and his family to warn the West before all was lost. To do so, meant attempting the impossible—an escape from Auschwitz itself. Completely erased from the historical record by Poland’s post-war Communist government, Pilecki remains almost unknown to the world. Now, with exclusive access to previously hidden diaries, family and camp survivor accounts, and recently declassified files, Jack Fairweather offers an unflinching portrayal of survival, revenge and betrayal in mankind’s darkest hour. And in uncovering the tragic outcome of Pilecki’s mission, he reveals that its ultimate defeat originated not in Auschwitz or Berlin, but in London and Washington.