The King's Most Loyal Enemy Aliens

The King's Most Loyal Enemy Aliens
Author: Helen Fry
Publisher: The History Press
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2007-07-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 0752496204

Most of the Germans and Austrians who fought with the British were Jews but a significant number were political opponents of the Nazi regime and so-called 'degenerate artists'. They arrived in Britain between 1933 and 1939, and at the outbreak of war on 3 September 1939 became enemy aliens. They volunteered to serve in the British forces, donned the King's uniform, swore allegiance to George VI and became affectionately known as the King's most loyal enemy aliens. This compelling story includes previously unpublished interviews with veterans and an impressive selection of archive photographs, many of which are reproduced for the first time.

How the Jews Defeated Hitler

How the Jews Defeated Hitler
Author: Benjamin Ginsberg
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 235
Release: 2013
Genre: History
ISBN: 1442222387

One of the most common assumptions about World War II is that the Jews did not actively or effectively resist their own extermination at the hands of the Nazis. In this powerful book, Benjamin Ginsberg convincingly argues that the Jews not only resisted the Germans but actually played a major role in the defeat of Nazi Germany. The question, he contends, is not whether the Jews fought but where and by what means. True, many Jews were poorly armed, outnumbered, and without resources, but Ginsberg shows persuasively that this myth of passivity is solely that--a myth. Instead, the Jews resisted strongly in four key ways: through their leadership role in organizing the defense of the Soviet Union, their influence and scientific research in the United States, their contribution to allied espionage and cryptanalysis, and their importance in European resistance movements. In this compelling, cogent history, we discover that Jews contributed powerfully to Hitler's defeat.

War and Displacement in the Twentieth Century

War and Displacement in the Twentieth Century
Author: Sandra Barkhof
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 286
Release: 2014-03-14
Genre: History
ISBN: 1317961862

Human displacement has always been a consequence of war, written into the myths and histories of centuries of warfare. However, the global conflicts of the twentieth century brought displacement to civilizations on an unprecedented scale, as the two World Wars shifted participants around the globe. Although driven by political disputes between European powers, the consequences of Empire ensured that Europe could not contain them. Soldiers traversed continents, and civilians often followed them, or found themselves living in territories ruled by unexpected invaders. Both wars saw fighting in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and the Far East, and few nations remained neutral. Both wars saw the mass upheaval of civilian populations as a consequence of the fighting. Displacements were geographical, cultural, and psychological; they were based on nationality, sex/gender or age. They produced an astonishing range of human experience, recorded by the participants in different ways. This book brings together a collection of inter-disciplinary works by scholars who are currently producing some of the most innovative and influential work on the subject of displacement in war, in order to share their knowledge and interpretations of historical and literary sources. The collection unites historians and literary scholars in addressing the issues of war and displacement from multiple angles. Contributors draw on a wealth of primary source materials and resources including archives from across the world, military records, medical records, films, memoirs, diaries and letters, both published and private, and fictional interpretations of experience.

Hitler's Will

Hitler's Will
Author: Herman Rothman
Publisher: The History Press
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2011-11-08
Genre: History
ISBN: 075247572X

Herman Rothman arrived in Britain from Germany as a Jewish refugee in 1939, on the eve of the Second World War. He volunteered for HM Forces, serving in the Intelligence Corps, and in 1945 was posted to Westertimke and Fallingbostel prisoner of war camps to interrogate high-ranking Nazi war criminals. When papers were discovered sewn into the shoulders of a jacket belonging to Heinz Lorenz, who had been Joseph Goebbels' press secretary, he and a team of four others were charged with translating them under conditions of the deepest secrecy. The documents turned out to be the originals of Hitler's personal and political wills, and Goebbels' addendum. Later, in Rotenburg hospital, Rothman interrogated Hermann Karnau, who had been a police guard in Hitler's bunker, to establish information about the Fuhrer's death. ' Hitler's Will' is the amazing true story of Herman Rothman's remarkable life, including how he managed to escape from Nazi Germany before the War began, and his role in bringing to light Hitler's personal and political testaments.

They Called Us Enemy - Expanded Edition

They Called Us Enemy - Expanded Edition
Author: George Takei
Publisher: Top Shelf Productions
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2020-08-26
Genre: Comics & Graphic Novels
ISBN: 1684068827

The New York Times bestselling graphic memoir from actor/author/activist George Takei returns in a deluxe edition with 16 pages of bonus material! Experience the forces that shaped an American icon -- and America itself -- in this gripping tale of courage, country, loyalty, and love. George Takei has captured hearts and minds worldwide with his magnetic performances, sharp wit, and outspoken commitment to equal rights. But long before he braved new frontiers in STAR TREK, he woke up as a four-year-old boy to find his own birth country at war with his father's -- and their entire family forced from their home into an uncertain future. In 1942, at the order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, every person of Japanese descent on the west coast was rounded up and shipped to one of ten "relocation centers," hundreds or thousands of miles from home, where they would be held for years under armed guard. THEY CALLED US ENEMY is Takei's firsthand account of those years behind barbed wire, the terrors and small joys of childhood in the shadow of legalized racism, his mother's hard choices, his father's tested faith in democracy, and the way those experiences planted the seeds for his astonishing future. What does it mean to be American? Who gets to decide? George Takei joins cowriters Justin Eisinger & Steven Scott and artist Harmony Becker for the journey of a lifetime.

The King's Own Loyal Enemy Aliens

The King's Own Loyal Enemy Aliens
Author: Peter Leighton-Langer
Publisher:
Total Pages: 448
Release: 2006
Genre: Aliens
ISBN:

"To write the history of these eighteen companies is not difficult. The history of the men who in 1943 were dispersed throughout the services, however, is the history of the services as a whole. Peter Leighton-Langer, himself one of these volunteers, has resolved this by concentrating on the fate and the actions of individuals. He has been in direct or indirect contact with some 600 of his former colleagues, whose adventures he cites, often in their own words, to give a picture of the whole."--Jacket.

Why I Became an X Troop Commando

Why I Became an X Troop Commando
Author: Helen Fry
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 231
Release: 2025-01-14
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0300280343

A fascinating and moving biography of Colin Anson, the German refugee who became an elite British commando Born in Germany in 1922, Colin Anson’s (Claus Ascher) childhood was marked by the trials of Nazism. His father was arrested by the Gestapo in 1937 and transported to Dachau, where he died shortly after. Colin, aged just seventeen, escaped to Britain in the Kindertransport. As soon as he was old enough, Colin volunteered in the Pioneer Corps. Then, in 1942, he was recruited for the elite commando unit X-Troop. Colin took part in the invasions of Sicily and Italy in 1943, where he sustained a near-fatal injury. But just months later, he returned to duty. He fought in the Yugoslav islands, became the first Allied soldier to liberate Corfu, and was stationed in postwar Frankfurt. In this unique biography, Helen Fry traces the remarkable story of Colin’s life. Drawing on extensive interviews, Fry recounts his actions in X-Troop and beyond in his own words—and sheds new light on the experience of refugees in the British forces.

German Rabbis in British Exile

German Rabbis in British Exile
Author: Astrid Zajdband
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 357
Release: 2016-06-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 3110469723

The rich history of the German rabbinate came to an abrupt halt with the November Pogrom of 1938. The need to leave Germany became clear and many rabbis made use of the visas they had been offered. Their resettlement in Britain was hampered by additional obstacles such as internment, deportation, enlistment in the Pioneer Corps. But rabbis still attempted to support their fellow refugees with spiritual and pastoral care. The refugee rabbis replanted the seed of the once proud German Judaism into British soil. New synagogues were founded and institutions of Jewish learning sprung up, like rabbinic training and the continuation of “Wissenschaft des Judentums.” The arrival of Leo Baeck professionalized these efforts and resulted in the foundation of the Leo Baeck College in London. Refugee rabbis now settled and obtained pulpits in the many newly founded synagogues. Their arrival in Britain was the catalyst for much change in British Judaism, an influence that can still be felt today.

Churchill's German Special Forces

Churchill's German Special Forces
Author: Paul Moorcraft
Publisher: Pen and Sword Military
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2023-02-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 1399061305

The existence of German-speaking units fighting for the Allied cause during WW2 has remained largely a well-kept secret. But seventy-five years on these units’ contribution to victory needs to be fully acknowledged. Prime Minister Winston Churchill had no qualms about using native German speakers from Austria, Poland, Czechoslovakia and of course Germany itself. The majority were Jews who had fled persecution. Two examples of these secret units were X Troop Commandos and the Special Interrogation Group. The SIG men deserve their legendary status. They fought, and often died, wearing Wehmacht uniform. As this superbly researched book reveals that, after infiltrating Field Marshal Rommel’s Afrika Korps, one detachment even drew Nazi pay. Inevitably once the existence of SIG units became known, their immediate execution on capture was ordered, unless their temporary reprieve would reveal intelligence under torture. We learn how Churchill’s initiative was copied by both the Americans and the Russians. Post-war SIG and X Troop survivors joined British special forces or were used to hunt down Nazi war criminals. All this and more is covered in this ground-breaking book by a writer who is both a leading historian and foreign correspondent.