Category Archives: WWII

Mission Churchill – Alex Abella

(reviewed by JD Jung) 1933-Havana Cuba: Irishman Marcus Riley’s objective is to kidnap the visiting Winston Churchill and hold him hostage in exchange for IRA members serving time in London prisons. However former Detective Inspector Walter Thompson, now serving as … Continue reading

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The Uniform – G. Gruen

(Reviewed by Don Jung) #CommissionsEarned David Korda is close to getting his medical degree in Nazi Germany when it is discovered that he is Jewish. Instead of joining his graduation class, he is sent to a concentration camp to do … Continue reading

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Lilia: a true story of love, courage, and survival in the shadow of war – Linda Ganzini

(Reviewed by Heidi A. Swan) If you love historical fiction, WWII and a book that will make you cry, this book is for you. Lilia is a true story about a young girl’s impoverished life growing up in Italy in … Continue reading

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The German Client: A Bacci Pagano Investigation-Bruno Morchio

(Reviewed by JD Jung) “If Germans and fascists don’t shoot us, Americans bomb us.” Private Investigator Bacci Pagano doesn’t have an easy relationship with the past. He grew up poor as his mother worked in a cigar factory and his … Continue reading

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A Divided Life: A Personal Portrait of the Spy Donald Maclean – Robert Cecil

(Reviewed by Ila Bullinger) Who was Donald Mclean? The son of a parliament member born to class in Marylebone, London in 1913. He was privileged, educated, handsome and charismatic. So why did he become a spy? Could you be persuaded … Continue reading

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The Ghetto Swinger: A Berlin Jazz-Legend Remembers – Coco Schumann (Author), John Howard (Translator)

(Reviewed by JD Jung) “I am a musician, a musician who was imprisoned in a concentration camp, not a concentration camp inmate who also plays some music. The camps and the fear fundamentally changed my life, but it was shaped … Continue reading

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Verklempt – Peter Sichrovsky (Author), Ari Roth (Foreword), John Howard (Translator)

(Reviewed by JD Jung) “Thomas remained a man without a past, without memories, without old photographs and without stories from earlier years.” He is just one of the many Jews who chose to live in a land where their parents … Continue reading

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Five Days That Shocked the World: Eyewitness Accounts from Europe at the End of World War II – Nicholas Best

(Reviewed by  Glenda  W. Anderson) Another WWII book? Since this reviewer devours this period of history, before even opening the pages, I thought, “Ah, the last days in the bunker, the Russians getting the honor of performing the coup de … Continue reading

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The Hideout – Egon Hostovsky (Translated from the Czech by Fern Long)

(Reviewed by JD Jung) #CommissionsEarned “I keep having the feeling that a good half of the human race got drunk in a kind of gigantic space where the air is all breathed out. The born fighters and brawlers started to … Continue reading

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The Butcher’s Daughter: A Memoir – Florence Grende

(Reviewed by Judy Deutsch ) The Butcher’s Daughter is a personal story of a young girl in Poland during The Holocaust and how she and her family survived. The book reads like a diary and is filled with descriptions during … Continue reading

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