An interesting account compiled from the letters, biographies (often unpublished), journals and other sources of people who visited Germany from just An interesting account compiled from the letters, biographies (often unpublished), journals and other sources of people who visited Germany from just after the First World War to the eve of the Second (so not just during the Third Reich as the main title implies). Many of the accounts were by people who made only brief visits for holidays or for fact-finding missions, the latter especially as tensions grew within Europe leading up to WWII. Some though were not travellers: instead they were people living in Germany, some working, some studying, and others in such roles as wives to ambassadors and attachés etc.
Germany was a popular destination for the wealthy, for the upper class British who often sent their children to 'finish off' their education, and for young Americans and even Chinese who came to study up to PhD level. Surprisingly, this included those who were not in political sympathy with the right-wing strand within the Weimar Republic and with the ascendancy of such views as soon as the Nazis took power. Germany was seen as a place of beautiful countryside, clean and welcoming hostels and hotels, friendly people and a good exchange rate. The cultural life, including music and theatre, and the educational establishments were an added draw. The people who contributed to the book therefore encompass a spectrum from the apolitical, who just went for a good holiday, to those with fond memories of the 'real' Germany which they thought still existed alongside the Nazi regime, to out-and-out Nazi sympathisers, plus people of left-wing views. Some professed themselves confused by the contrast of what they saw in person with the negative views in the press back home, while others - mainly those who lived in Germany - were aware of poverty and misery under the surface in some places. Most weren't bothered about the laws against the Jews or their removal from occupations etc., given the anti-Semitism common during the period, despite this being increasingly indefensible after Kristallnacht. One heart-warming exception to this were the two sisters who helped smuggle travel documents to Jews and smuggle jewellery out for them, though it wasn't explained whether any of the owners managed to follow their belongings to subsequently sell them and use the proceeds to fund a new life.
A few extracts mention ordinary people such as shop workers or boy scouts or members of choirs travelling in Germany rather than the politicians, officials, journalists, military men and socialites who make up the majority of the contributions despite 'everyday people' being in the subtitle, and I did wonder, despite the references to cheap food and a good rate of exchange how ordinary shop or factory workers afforded it.
A couple of aspects kept me from giving this a full rating. Personally I didn't have a problem, having read quite a few books about the period, but the lack of context of a lot of the extracts might be confusing to readers who hadn't. For example, there were a lot of quotes from letters one woman wrote to her soldier husband in Norway: I knew he was there because of the invasion and occupation of the country but as that wasn't alluded to, it might not have been clear to others. The issue that did give me a problem is that the book's structure was mainly chronological, probably to narrate the development of problems in Germany through time. However, because of this there were constant short references or extracts from particular people's documentation spread throughout this quite large volume. Mostly they were not reintroduced when they reappeared and there were sudden jumps from one to another, even within a paragraph. I often got confused between 'Biddy' and 'Bridget'. There was a list at the back of the people under surname order, and the surnames were often not given in the text, but in any case I didn't realise it was there until I'd finished the book so it was no help. The incessant jumping between participants made the text lack flow, and I didn't get to 'know' most of them. So I would rate this at 4 stars....more
An interesting study, translated from the German original, about a period of German history which I hadn't read much about. It follows the developmentAn interesting study, translated from the German original, about a period of German history which I hadn't read much about. It follows the development from a country in ruins to democracy and eventual reunification though it focuses on the period 1945-55. There is some coverage of East German and the Soviet approach, but the book focuses more on the Western allies, especially the Americans.
Each chapter deals with an aspect of the transformation, starting off with the literal ruins that had to be painstakingly cleared, mainly by women. Other chapters deal with the black market economy which thrived until the allies replaced the old currency with one people felt was reliable, and with the huge numbers of displaced persons - slave labourers brought to Germany when most men were conscripted into the army, Germanic people who had been settled by the Nazis in what was now Poland, and Germans rendered homeless by bombing, plus the inmates of concentration camps. All these people had to be fed, a gargantuan task for the Allies who set a daily ration which often couldn't be supplied by the shops, hence the growth of the black market and incessant stealing. Children were often co-opted into becoming thieves on behalf of their mothers, given the absence of husbands who had either died in the war or were still prisoners in Soviet camps. When released, the survivors were often zombie-like wrecks, too enfeebled to earn and resenting the independence of the mother-child unit formed in their absence.
I did know about the rapes inflicted mainly by Soviet soldiers as that has been publicised in recent years, but there was also a problem with Algerian troops of the French army. The writer doesn't dwell on the subject but acknowledges it. There are chapters on the 'fraternisation' between German women and American GIs which was discouraged, and the craze for dancing and jazz where young people lost inhibitions in a way frowned upon by their elders. The rebirth of industry is dealt mainly in the chapter about Volkswagen, which began with forced labourers and only took off when the British appointed a capable man to take charge, having less of a problem with utilising such people from the old regime than the Americans did.
Interestingly, the Germans at the time did not deal with war guilt at all: instances are given which shows to the contrary that they considered themselves victims because of the privations they suffered after losing the war. Hannah Arendt, who was sent to Germany for a few months to try to find artworks plundered from the Jews, came face to face with this. Germans would chat to her quite happily until they realised she was Jewish: at that point, they then launched into a tirade about their unhappy lot. There was no remorse among the population as a whole, and no interest in the Nuremberg trials. It wasn't until the sixties that a younger generation confronted their parents about their complicity in the Nazi regime and its crimes.
Overall, this was an interesting book although the chapter on art and furniture design fell a bit flat. So I would award it 4 stars....more
A hefty tome this and one I wasn't sure I would bother to read in its entirety but after dipping in and out a bit, I did finally settle down to readinA hefty tome this and one I wasn't sure I would bother to read in its entirety but after dipping in and out a bit, I did finally settle down to reading through the rest of it. Despite the title, it isn't just about the origin of the English imagination. It does start with the Anglo Saxon period and goes on from there, but the author also has a tendency to swoop around through history in each chapter - which is based on a topic - so that he might be discussing Chaucer than zoom off to put in an aside about how Dickens or Shelly handled the topic. The book does stretch as far as the nineteenth century more or less with some tiny mentions of the twentieth - T S Eliot and I can't recall who else. So it's more about the development.
Mostly it concentrates on the literary aspects with some short chapters on architecture, portrait painting and gardens. Certain claims are made: alliteration is a key feature hanging over from the Anglo Saxon, the English are preoccupied with the past, tend to melancholia, have a keenness for blood and gore and ghost stories in drama and literature, are heavily influenced by geography, and that English culture absorbs influences from other cultures. Not all these are convincingly referenced when the examples are centuries apart.
Women get two short chapters, from recollection. Some important women writers, of the medieval period and later - Aphra Benn made it in, and I think Jane Austen and the Brontes, but I don't think there was any reference to George Elliot. There are some odd blanks: in a chapter on clowns, the physiognomy he describes as being the classic one instantly brought Punch to mind, but then when he eventually mentioned Punch and Judy in passing, he didn't connect it to the clown description a few pages beforehand.
There was such a breadth of topic and such a whistle-stop tour through it all that I'd already forgotten most of the earlier part by the time I reached the final third. Certain authors are mentioned a lot - Chaucer and Dickens for instance. I have read both and am slowly reading through Dickens' novels, so didn't find that irritating. There's quite a bit of Middle English which you are just expected to understand: I could work out most of it, but was baffled by the odd word.
There's a chapter on Chatterton from the eighteenth century, a poet of the Romantic era whom I knew nothing about. The author discusses him rather than saying much about Keats, Shelley and Byron which was rather an omission. After finishing the book, I discovered that he had written separate books on Dickens and Chatterton, so that must account for the emphasis on both, especially Dickens. Some aspects aren't really covered - the English tendency to anthropomorphise animals, for example, or the beliefs in the Fair Folk which eventually led to Victorian fairy stories. Overall, I would rate this as an OK 2 stars as it didn't really work for me....more
**spoiler alert** A moving memoir by the son of two survivors of appalling experiences in WWII. The author's mother, Mirjam (pronounced Miriam), was t**spoiler alert** A moving memoir by the son of two survivors of appalling experiences in WWII. The author's mother, Mirjam (pronounced Miriam), was the youngest of three sisters whose parents, Alfred and Grete Wiener, left Germany for the Netherlands in the 1930s due to the danger to Alfred from the Nazi regime. He was a lifelong writer and activist against fascism and had written a prescient pamphlet just after WWI warning of its dangers and how the Jews would be scapegoated. He set up a secret archive which many people contributed to, smuggling evidence of Nazi attitudes and outrages in the 1930s and eventually came under threat. Later, he moved to England, and during the war was based in New York, working for British intelligence and briefing the Allies. Unfortunately, he didn't relocate his family to England with him. The author reasons that neither parent wanted to disrupt the children's education and take them away from their friends. No one in their circle thought the Netherlands would be invaded, as it had managed to stay neutral in the First World War. When it was, the struggle of Grete and the three girls to stay alive began.
Less familiar to most readers is the story of the author's father, Ludwik, son of Adolf (always referred to as Dolu) and Luisa (pronounced Lusha) Finkelstein. Although Jewish also, their peril came from being in the part of Poland allocated to the Soviet Union under the pact between Hitler and Stalin. Their family was prosperous: Dolu and his brother Bernard had built up a steel-making business which employed many people, and they also owned property. This made them 'enemies of the state' along with shopkeepers, landowners, teachers and anyone else deemed to have done well under a capitalist system. Mother and son were deported to Siberia to endure appalling conditions as slave labourers, while Dolu, by then an officer in the Polish army, could have shared the fate of so many comrades who were shot by the Soviet authorities. By great good fortune, he avoided that, though the hard labour he was made to do undermined his health. Eventually, following the invasion of the Soviet Union by Hitler's forces, he became part of a Polish army that Stalin reluctantly agreed to set up in return for allied money and materiel. The family were eventually reunited, and Luisa later lived near Ludwik and his family in England, remembered by the author as a much-loved granny.
The thing that stands out most is the courage, ingenuity and self-sacrifice of the mothers. Those qualities and a great deal of luck enabled them to keep their children alive to the point where the children could finally be got to safety. Mirjam's father comes across as a strange character: when reunited with his daughters after years apart and their having to endure terrible experiences, he soon left for England, and the girls were farmed out to other families for another couple of years. It's very clear that, for him, his work was the priority. I know it was very important, but it's still hard to read how this affected his family and how they meekly accepted it. One good that did come out of it though, was that, through contacts he made when working on a legal case in Switzerland, certain people there later created documentation which helped his family at a critical moment.
Another interesting aspect are the mentions of Ann Frank and her sister, as one of the girls attended the same school. I did know about the mass-murder of the Polish officers, but not about the deportations of their families and anyone else viewed as not being good socialist material. Stalin had already been responsible for the deaths of millions of Soviet citizens through the collectivisation of farms and other initiatives, something covered in documentaries I've seen. The same callous treatment was metered out to the Poles after they became Soviet citizens through a cynically managed ballot where the few brave enough to vote against it guaranteed their own murder or deportation. The failure of the farming project is partly explained in the book, with people feeling they had no incentive given that the produce from their labours did not belong to them.
I learned quite a lot from this book and it's a keeper for a future re-read so I am awarding it 5 stars....more
Quite an interesting book which demonstrates how the attitudes towards magic and related subjects - witchcraft, poltergeists, the second sight etc - cQuite an interesting book which demonstrates how the attitudes towards magic and related subjects - witchcraft, poltergeists, the second sight etc - changed from a total acceptance to a total rejection and scepticism, lead by the upper and 'educated' classes. The book explains how this change, usually attributed to the development of the scientific outlook, is due more to the strain of 'freethinking' championed in London coffee houses and at court. Certain apologists wrote books deploring such freethinking attitudes on the grounds that they veered too close towards atheism, on the grounds that those who didn't believe in witches, spirits etc were also rejecting God as the supreme spirit. Gradually though, the scepticism spread to the more orthodox in society.
I was aware that the subject wasn't "cut and dried" - Newton, for example, was a researcher into alchemy. The style of the book is accessible, rather than academic, but its origin as the compilation of several papers published previously by the author is a little too obvious. He also makes frequent references to the "Jane Wenham" case which I expected to be explained somewhere but wasn't. I has to look it up on Wikipedia to discover the details. The book does come across as a bit repetitive in places, probably because of the less than perfect splicing together of the essays. Altogether I would rate it at 3 stars....more
The title of this book is rather sensationalist - and since its publication in the 1990s - it has been overtaken by new research which demonstrates thThe title of this book is rather sensationalist - and since its publication in the 1990s - it has been overtaken by new research which demonstrates that Tutankhamun probably died of complications of malaria plus an infection from a broken leg. But that aside, it is an almost journalistically easy read about the background to Tutankhamun's reign and ancestry. A brief history of Egypt sets the scene and the writer conveys well the likely feelings of the various participants when Tutankhamun's father, Akhenaten, jettisoned about 3000 years of belief in the old gods in favour of a monotheistic religion based on the sun's disk known as the Aten.
The book provides a useful grounding in the political and economic as well as religious situation of Egypt throughout the period from the reign of Amenhoptep III, Tutankhamun's grandfather, through to his various successors on the throne. The only thing it lacks is a mention of Neferneferuaten, who is now thought to have succeeded Smenkhkare, originally thought to be Tutankhamun's immediate predecessor. This would have been of interest since this character is thought to be a female King - second in Egyptian history as far as I know (Hathshepsut being the first) - and possibly Akhenaten's widow, Nefertiti. So I can't quite award a five star rating, but it deserves a very respectable four stars....more
Finally made time to read this mammoth tome - 1217 pages on Kindle - which I had meant to read for some years. It has an easy reading style, unsurprisFinally made time to read this mammoth tome - 1217 pages on Kindle - which I had meant to read for some years. It has an easy reading style, unsurprisingly as it was the work of an experienced American journalist who was based in Europe in the 1930s and early 1940s, including Berlin, up to the point where Germany declared war on the USA and he and his family had to leave. Accordingly, he was present for several of the great events pre-WWII and during the early part of the war, knew many of the participants and had good contacts to learn at least part of what was going on behind the scenes.
After the war, he attended the Nuremberg trials and eventually ploughed through a massive amount of allied and German documentation and also documents from the French and British governments. It seems from what he writes that he was fairly proficient in German (and in a postscript it seems that his wife was also fluent in various languages). So the book is solidly based on documented evidence, including the war diaries of various German generals etc.
The book was originally published in 1960: this Kindle is a 1990 anniversary edition with an additional note by him at that time on the unexpected - by his publishers - success of the work. Being so long, it was thought that people would find it too challenging. The book is a good grounding in the deceit and double-think that was routine in the Nazi regime, with the continual breaking of treaties/promises and treachery that was then blamed on the other party concerned. It is very detailed on the political and military aspects of the Third Reich and the build-up to, and conduct of, the war, but is much lighter on the Final Solution and other atrocities although they are covered. However, discussion of those aspects is brief by comparison and quite far on into the book. There is no mention of the 'Euthanasia' programme which was carried out on the mentally and physically disabled, to perfect the use of gas vans (which were used extensively at some extermination sites), but possibly this didn't receive publicity until after 1960. But it does cover the concentration camps, extermination camps and the Einsatzgruppen (killing squads), though I don't think the killing of Roma/Romani people (who were called 'gypsies' at the time) or gay people is mentioned.
One aspect of the book covers the various conspiracies against Hitler, which became more serious as time progressed. I was aware from other books that there were a few attempts on Hitler's life, but not to the extent and with the detail of who was involved that this book provides. It gives a detailed account of exactly what went wrong in each case, especially in the final attempt where a bomb was exploded at Hitler's eastern HQ, and the tragic culmination of errors on the part of the plotters. For the final section in the Berlin bunker it is heavily indebted to Hugh Trevor-Roper's 'The Last Days of Hitler' as the author acknowledges.
There are a few pointers to bear in mind due to the 1960 publication: the worst of those to modern sensibilities is the description of homosexuality as a perversion etc, which arises mainly in the discussion of the excuse used for the purge against Hitler's paramilitary organisation, the SA and its leaders. There are also views on German gullibility and a general stereotype of the Germans as following leaders blindly, especially tyrannical ones. These views are of their time. And there are a number of typing errors, such as repeated use of 'me' when 'the' was meant, or misspellings of some surnames, in certain linked footnotes, though not in the main text thankfully. In fact, considering the size of the book, there are comparatively few typographical errors.
The main issue I found was with the notes at the end of each chapter, which are meant to be linked in the text, as well as the numbered footnotes which appear at the end of the book. I could never detect these unnumbered ones when reading, and when I reached the end of a chapter, wasn't able to tell where each note referred back to. Sometimes, due to lack of context, it wasn't possible to understand what the note meant. Reading on a Kindle, it wasn't as easy to page back and find out where they originated as it would have been in a printed book. But these issues are quite minor and I would deduct only half a point for that and the outmoded views in places, so overall I would still rate the book at 5 stars....more
I spotted this book in a charity shop and decided to give it a try although I'm not a huge royalist and haven't seen the film from which the cover illI spotted this book in a charity shop and decided to give it a try although I'm not a huge royalist and haven't seen the film from which the cover illustration comes. I learned after finishing the book, from friends who have seen it, that the film concentrates more on the build-up to George VI's first Christmas radio broadcast. The book, which I think appeared after the film came out, covers the many years during which Lionel Logue helped him with public speaking. It is written by a descendant of Logue's who got together voluminous papers, photographs and newspaper cuttings etc kept by the family to piece together the on-going treatment, and engaged a ghost-writer who has a joint credit, to actually produce the narrative.
Logue was an Australian speech therapist who made a home in Britain and who began helping the Duke of York, as he then was, to overcome his stutter. The Duke had to perform various duties, including speech-making, in support of his elder brother, the heir to the throne, as their father's health declined. For these sessions, Bertie, as he was known in the royal family, attended Logue's clinic, though everything was kept low key. As he improved, their sessions became fewer, and Logue wasn't much called upon.
In due course, George V died, and Edward VIII became King, but he abdicated in December 1936, leaving his younger brother to take on a burden he'd never expected to shoulder. This included a lot more speech-making, and Logue was in great demand again. The new King particularly disliked having to do radio broadcasts and continued to be somewhat phobic about those for many years. Logue became a regular attendee at Buckingham Palace, vetting the speeches beforehand and occasionally substituting words or phrases that would be less likely to trip the King up. In return, he received the grateful thanks of George VI and Queen Elizabeth (known to most of us as the Queen Mum, which she became on the death of her husband). After the Second World War, both men's health declined, problems that led to their premature deaths, a year or so apart.
The book is quite interesting although there are a few irritating mistakes, such as naming Logue's mother-in-law as the same name as his wife, and then a page or two further on giving her correct name. In another place, it says the King would have to leave the Queen and their baby, Princess Elizabeth, behind while on a foreign tour but on the next page or so, they go off together leaving the baby at home. These are presumably the fault of the ghost-writer whose job it was to organise the raw material. Overall, I would rate it at 3 stars....more
Having recently obtained the DVDs of the series this describes, when I saw this in a charity shop I decided to pick it up - I then read it alongside tHaving recently obtained the DVDs of the series this describes, when I saw this in a charity shop I decided to pick it up - I then read it alongside the series, so that after watching each episode I read the corresponding chapter. It was interesting to see just how drastically the history had been changed to introduce dramatic conflict - for example, in the moon landing episode a big thread is a midlife crisis undergone by Prince Philip who berates some clerics for 'navel gazing' instead of being action men - but in real life, according to the book, he actually fundraised for them and organised the refurbishment of the buildings given over to their use, plus played a big part in the ongoing spiritual centre, gave lectures there (published in 3 books) and was totally supportive. There are quite a few things like that which do make you have serious doubts about the series and took away a bit from my enjoyment though I still enjoy some aspects.
The book itself is uneven as in some chapters it doesn't tackle major parts of the story - for example, there's really nothing about Kennedy and whether Jackie Kennedy was really so scathing about the Queen - it focuses on the Queen's diplomatic triumph in Africa which was another thread in the episode. I rate it at a workmanlike 3 stars....more
Having an interest in WWII and having read various books before and seen documentaries, I was interested to learn more about the run up to the outbreaHaving an interest in WWII and having read various books before and seen documentaries, I was interested to learn more about the run up to the outbreak of war and then the 'phony' war which went on for a number of months until part way into 1940.
The title implies more of a focus on Winston Churchill than the book actually featured, and brings in a few journal entries of various people in the country including crime novelist Margery Allingham. It deals at a high level with the reasons behind German aggression: the resentment over punitive treatment in the Treaty of Versailles. For some reason though, it never seemed to make the period as interesting as it actually was. It might be a good introduction for someone who doesn't have knowledge of the era, but I found it a bit dry in tone. So I can't really rate it as more than a 2-star OK read....more
Although I enjoy history books, I wouldn't have bought this myself: I got it as a Christmas present. I've been dipping in and out of it since Boxing DAlthough I enjoy history books, I wouldn't have bought this myself: I got it as a Christmas present. I've been dipping in and out of it since Boxing Day and finally finished it. I haven't seen much of this author's comedy as it didn't really appeal, and I found this book a mixed bag. The author doesn't like monarchs very much: the first were thugs and later ones idiots. He has some respect for one or two who were competent at their job. There are some insights into how Magna Carta and the development of Parliament was due to weak kings rather than strong ones.
Some bits were mildly amusing, whereas some was puerile schoolboy humour - he gets loads of mileage out of King Canute's/Cnut's name - and there's a lot of f* bomb as well. Plus various personal fixations about current day political issues etc. are aired, sometimes at length. Luckily, I've read or seen documentaries on a lot of it before or I think I would have got lost, especially since he often jumps about between periods of history or an individual monarch's reign and discusses things out of order.
There was some material I knew little about - the Anglo Saxon and Danish kings before Alfred the Great for example. And I have gaps in the Plantagenet dynasty. I did know about the war between King Stephen and Empress Matilda from reading/watching the Cadfael series since that is set against that background. The trouble is, the style doesn't really lend itself to helping me remember any of the bits I didn't already know about.
The book finishes with brief coverage of Elizabeth I, a fascinating person who deserves better coverage, but there won't be a second volume as the author explains that later monarchs are figureheads and that politicians do everything instead. This isn't really true until Charles II, but having spent so much time on pet obsessions there's no time to cover something as complex as the English Civil War. The book isn't a keeper but it finishes with praise of Shakespeare so it gains a star for that and overall I would judge it an OK 2 stars....more
Although I'm not sympathetic to the politics of this member of Parliament and junior Minister in Thatcher's government, I enjoyed the series of six shAlthough I'm not sympathetic to the politics of this member of Parliament and junior Minister in Thatcher's government, I enjoyed the series of six short episodes adapted from them by the BBC, so picked up this volume in a charity shop some years ago. I've finally got round to reading it and it's an interesting and gloriously non-PC extract from his daily diary from 1983 to early in 1991, warts and all, of what he thought of his various colleagues and the mistakes he committed in office.
Coming from a privileged background - he had inherited a dilapidated half-rebuilt castle and some other properties - he had a patronising attitude to the 'lower classes'. Other faults included lusting after women though claiming to treasure his long-suffering wife, 'darling Jane', and being downright rude about all and sundry. He was regarded as a toff and yearned for a knighthood, which I don't think he ever received. Ironic, considering he was the son of Kenneth Clark, the celebrated art historian, who was knighted at the age of thirty-five. Alan's parents were wealthy, but they didn't actually descend from the aristocracy as far as I can make out. In this volume, his father is heading towards the end of his life, something Alan considers is being hastened by his second wife.
The main interest in the book is the inside look at the dysfunctional Thatcher government and the build up to her downfall. The names of some of the many politicians who feature are familiar, though I can't always put a face to the name. However, the main players certainly have stayed in my memory. He couldn't stand Michael Heseltine and some of the other major Conservative stars of the day.
On the credit side, he was passionate about animal welfare, banned hunting on his lands, and tried to get an Order through Parliament to force fur manufacturers to declare on their products that they had used cruel foot traps to catch the animals. Unfortunately, Thatcher, who cared nothing for animals but was concerned about relations with Canada, which she was about to visit, squashed it. There is one sequence where he is devastated at shooting a heron to save the fish in the moat around the castle: I did wonder if he could perhaps have somehow netted it and taken it away to a more suitable fishing ground.
Confusingly, when recording which version of the diaries I'd read, there were several different editions, some covering different time periods. Readers should be warned that some language and attitudes would not be acceptable today. Despite that, for the overall insights and wit, it receives a 4 star rating....more
An interesting tome published in the 1990s and a very heavy hardback given that it is printed on high quality photographic paper. The chief interest iAn interesting tome published in the 1990s and a very heavy hardback given that it is printed on high quality photographic paper. The chief interest is in the illustrations which include a lot from medieval manuscripts and the like.
The first part of the book traces the development of the Grail legend from the original Celtic stories which came from Ireland and then Wales, to the stories documented by monks principally the Cistercians, and the final flowering in the troubadour culture. Once the stories became European artefacts they were blended with elements from Moorish Spain and the Holy Land via the Knights Templar among others. The summary of the stories are a bit repetitive and dry but there is also some interesting commentary on the subversive content derived from Gnostic ideas, probably via the Cathars and Albigensians who were eventually brutally suppressed by the Catholic church.
Part Two deals with the relevance of the legends in modern times especially their 'restoration of paradise' aspect, and also discusses the anti-women aspect of the Christian Church. It is very clear that the author has an axe to grind on this subject, as in his view Christianity is more women-hating/anti female than various other religions - personally, I don't think it has a monopoly on that. Anyway, there is an assumption that Europe was once a paradise of women-led agriculturalists and pastoralists who knew no weapons and were subsequently crushed by an invasion of male chauvinist warriors who imposed a culture that the world has been stuck with ever since for the last five millennia. This is put across as a matter of proven fact.
So given the lack of balance in places, but the more useful information in part one and the plentiful illustrations I would rate this at 3 stars overall....more
As with all books about the Holocaust this is a harrowing read. Brasse was a Pole with an Austrian father and grandfather who refused to serve in the As with all books about the Holocaust this is a harrowing read. Brasse was a Pole with an Austrian father and grandfather who refused to serve in the German army - he was expected to assimilate because of his 'Aryan' blood - and was sent to Auschwitz as a political prisoner. At first, his chances of survival didn't look good, but he managed a transfer to the kitchens and then was co-opted into a unit to produce photographs - identity ones of the prisoners and photos for the Germans to send home to their families. After a while, he was ordered to take photos for the 'doctors' such as Mengele, to document their horrible experiments.
He gradually made contact with the resistance within the camp and helped in various ways, sometimes just to ensure that people who needed it got food but at other times to produce false papers for people. Always he had misgivings and qualms about his enforced collaboration, though he resisted the pressure from his captors to be classified as a German and go to fight for Germany.
I do note that certain people mentioned in the book as being part of the resistance were not part of Primo Levi's first person account of his survival in another of the subcamps of Auschwitz. The present book doesn't really explain that the camp was huge, like a city, and there were lots of enclaves and areas where the prisoners were working for particular German firms, for example. So a particular individual who somehow manages to be married in the camp but later comes to grief was not universally known there for his heroism: things seem to have been more 'local' than comes across in this book.
I do have an issue regarding the information provided which shows the book was not based on interviews with Brasse himself, but on talking to his children and also taking information from a BBC documentary. So the assumptions about his feelings are actually second-hand. The other problem is that it mentions that some events have been switched around to fit the narrative. That means it's not possible to rely on this as a totally factual account, because as a reader I don't know what liberties have been taken with the timeline and why. For these reasons, I can only give this three stars....more
A sobering read. I had come across most of the information in various forms before, including television documentaries, at least some produced by the A sobering read. I had come across most of the information in various forms before, including television documentaries, at least some produced by the author, who I think was responsible for "The Nazis: A Warning from History". However, this book adds a valuable view.
Apart from the previously unpublished eyewitness testimony it contains, it sets out to answer the "why" question. It traces Hitler's first documented anti Semitic views in 1919 through his rise to power and then each step along the way towards mass murder and the building of extermination camps, demonstrating that there was not one big decision but a lot of steps and escalations along the way.
I knew about the extermination of the disabled that paved the way by trialing methods of gassing, but hadn't realised quite how involved medical practitioners were in actually running death camps like Treblinka, having transferred from the disabled murder programme following protests from the German public who had finally heard about what was going on. The author contrasts that with the general lack of protest when the rumours spread about the mass murder of Jews. And given previous material about anti Semitic attitudes in Poland, it was interesting that a surprising number of non Jewish Poles saved the lives of Jews in Warsaw by hiding them. Far more than in Berlin.
The narrative continues right through the period when the Nazis were losing the war but still pursuing the extermination policy to the bitter end. It also acknowledges some of the other groups of people murdered, including Sinti and Roma, Polish political prisoners, and Soviet POWs. The Jehovah's Witnesses and gay men are briefly mentioned. There is, however, no mention of the Resistance fighters and the women of SOE who were also killed.
The only reason I have dropped a star is that there is quite a lot of repetition where the author, for example, gives a date two or three times in as many paragraphs which makes the style a bit clunky in places. So overall I rate this as 4 stars....more
An account of a community's stresses and strains in the early years of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, specifically the town of Springfield in the ConneAn account of a community's stresses and strains in the early years of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, specifically the town of Springfield in the Connecticut valley. A particular man, Hugh Parsons, was a difficult person to get on with and gradually his neighbours came to believe he was a witch and had cursed them in various ways. He had a troubled relationship with his wife Mary who probably suffered mental health issues. Eventually both were accused and arrested. The book doesn't focus totally on this however as it also deals with the religious beliefs of the town's founder and his clash with the authorities in Boston because his beliefs - which sound harmless from a modern day perspective - were perceived as heresy.
Unfortunately for what was potentially an interesting subject, came across to me as rather dry and I found it not a very engaging read. For that reason, I rate it as an OK 2 stars....more
An interesting alternative take on Nazi Germany, seen through the microcosm of a small alpine village, the southernmost in the country, on the border An interesting alternative take on Nazi Germany, seen through the microcosm of a small alpine village, the southernmost in the country, on the border with Austria and near beautiful mountain ranges. The scene is set, starting just after the First World War, progressing through the rise to power of Hitler, the take over of all aspects of daily life by the Nazi state and the eventual build up and waging of war and its aftermath A few people were opposed to the Nazis but kept their heads down, aware of the grim fate of those who spoke out, about ten percent were members of the party and the rest weren't bothered about what the Nazis did to certain groups, such as the Jews, as long as they provided full employment and gave Germany back its self respect and prestige after the humiliation of the defeat in WWI and the treaty of Vienna. Some of those gradually experienced doubts once the Nazis dragged the country into a second world war.
The book is meticulously researched, helped by very good records kept in the village itself and some unpublished diaries including a couple of soldiers' diaries from the regiments in which villagers served. The chapters are organised thematically which is a help, as it would probably be too bitty with a chronological approach. As it is, there are a huge number of people mentioned and I referred to the index and the list of people at the back quite frequently to remind myself who was who. Some were mentioned only once and possibly some of those could be dropped.
The most harrowing chapter is a case study of a young man blind from birth who was one of the victims of the "euthanasia" programme which was designed to get rid of the disabled, seen by the Nazis as a burden and a blot on the perfect master race. I had read about this programme before, in the context of its being the forerunner of the Final Solution, whereby the Nazis practiced the methods they eventually used on the Jews, and other "racial undesirables" such as Gypsies. The book possibly does fall down in not making that connection especially as the chapter on how village Jews were affected doesn't convey the full horror - some were helped to commit suicide before deportation, some managed to leave the country, and some were hidden, or shielded by the mayor, a "good Nazi". As far as I recall, only a couple of people were actually deported to camps and they managed to survive and return to the village after the war. The Jews always formed a tiny minority in the village so that part of the book isn't really representative of a lot of other, often more urban, communities.
The book is very detailed and in some cases, such as the account of infighting among the local Nazis, becomes a bit too much so and drags a bit. I found the postwar section also does this and so many people are mentioned in the book that it would be nice to have a bit more depth on some and fewer sketchy mentions in passing, but I suppose the material just doesn't exist. Overall, I rate the book as 4 stars....more
I found this book a mixed bag in that it doesn't appear at first to have much to do with the sisters, focusing as it does on a potted history of theirI found this book a mixed bag in that it doesn't appear at first to have much to do with the sisters, focusing as it does on a potted history of their mother, Alexandra, her marriage to future father Nicholas, heir to the Russian throne, and her general unpopularity with the Russian people. When the four successive daughters are born, the emphasis is more on the disappointment of the people and especially the aristocracy regarding the lack of a male heir. (It seems that the law which had allowed the eldest - and hence Catherine the Great - to come to the throne had been changed by Catherine's son so that girls were excluded from the succession.)
When the longed-for tsarevich arrived, he turned out to be haemophiliac, affected by a faulty gene passed on by Queen Victoria to some of her daughters - boys born to other descendants of hers were also affected. It was interesting that his parents knew very early on that he was afflicted (a close relative diagnosed the problem which remained as secret as possible, but leaked out some years later).
Eventually, the book starts to develop a picture of the sisters, including the teenage crushes of the two eldest. The children were sheltered from the court and aristocratic circles in which they should normally have moved because their mother hated that environment, believing it corrupt. Her refusal to let them mix earned her more dislike. Denied social interaction, they formed a close unit and were viewed as one entity by their parents who referred to them as 'the Big Pair' and the 'Little Pair' and among themselves OTMA. In development, they remained like younger children, playing on swings etc or romping with guards - something their mother seems to have had a curious blind spot about - when in their later teens. They were brought up more like middle-class children of the period, wearing simple clothes except on state occasions, and having hobbies such as needlework, country walks and reading. Their mother's constant illnesses meant that the girls often had to nurse her or their little brother, since he was often bedridden due to injuries he sustained.
The book makes it clear that Nicholas was totally unsuited to rule. As he said at one point, he would have liked to be a famer, and once he and his family were imprisoned he found solace in wood chopping and other physical outdoor activities. There are hints earlier that he could have named Olga as future regent following his death, which might have calmed fears among the aristocracy since she would have been expected to marry a foreign prince or one of their own rank, firming up the shaky throne. As it was, the heir was a young boy frequently ill and with a fairly short life expectancy given the lack of effective treatment for his condition. Alexandra, however, was single-minded about preserving her son's inheritance and opposed any move towards a constitutional monarchy. Nicholas passively went along with this as with so much else, but his failure to meet the people's desire for more say in how they were governed spelled the death knell of the Romanov dynasty and, eventually, its literal existence.
It was interesting that the eldest two became nurses in WWI and that second sister Titania had a real vocation whereas Olga was too nauseated to face the horrifying injuries of the men. The structure of the book suffers a bit pacing-wise and drags a bit from then on. There is perhaps too much detailed information about nursing at the annex hospital etc. This becomes especially noticeable once the Romanovs were put under house arrest, their accommodation and treatment worsening with each relocation, though does, I suppose, effectively convey the boredom they experienced in being able to do less and less.
Despite this, the book is well-written and manages to interweave quotes and facts from a lot of historical sources. As indicated above, though, it doesn't quite live up to the bill of being about the sisters, given the large amount about their parents and the fact that only the two eldest sisters are dealt with in any depth. Third sister Marie is a cheerful plump girl who remains stoic as their situation worsens, and Anastasia is the class clown and naughty prankster. Part of the problem is that the family burned many of their private papers from fear of what the increasingly hostile forces imprisoning them would do with such material, so documentation on the inner thoughts of the youngest two sisters is scarce. Given the book's focus on family life, the context of the political situation, war and influence of Rasputin is fairly sketchy and doesn't serve to really explain why things deteriorated so rapidly.
As the book progressed I found the dark cloud of foreboding about the terrible fate of the family and many of their retainers to be more oppressive until the final chapters were depressing to read. The book skates over their deaths - to be fair, it states at the beginning that there is no intention of covering that, given that the author has already published a detailed study - but it is quite abrupt. An epilogue gives a brief account of the fate of those taken to Siberia with them, or in some cases friends and pen friends who, due to the paranoia of the Soviet state, were, sooner or later, shot or otherwise finished off for serving the family or even just for having contact with them. It's sad that none of the Romanov children, the eldest two at least, weren't able to marry and leave the country although Olga was so devoted to Russia and to the young man who was the object of her unrequited love that she probably would have refused to go anyway.
There were a few technical issues with the Kindle version I read. The photos were at the back of the book and some were tiny with no way to expand them. The captions were often divorced onto the next screen and tricky to tie up with the pictures they referred to. Some of the footnotes during the book itself had been corrupted into four figures instead of one or two, so those links didn't work, and when I attempted to use the links in the index itself, they went to the wrong pages, so the index was useless.
I am rating the book at 3 stars since it wasn't quite the in-depth account I was hoping for. Sadly that probably isn't possible given the lack of historical documentation, but I can only take away the idea that the sisters were more or less ordinary girls forced into an extraordinary situation....more
Despite the subtitle on my copy - James I and the English Witch Hunts - which lead me to expect more of a focus on the detail of James I of England/VIDespite the subtitle on my copy - James I and the English Witch Hunts - which lead me to expect more of a focus on the detail of James I of England/VI of Scotland's involvement in witch trials, this is more a general study of the witchcraft persecutions in both England, Scotland and the Continent, with an acknowledgement of the later outbreak in Salem. As such it is a good grounding in the subject with an examination of the way the persecutions focused on women and used women's supposed inferiorities as an explanation of their predilection to direct malice against others, form pacts with the devil, etc.
The author also mentions various men who were sceptics - I knew of the most famous, Reginald Scot, whose 'The Discoverie of Witchcraft' drew the ire of King James because of its massive debunking of the witch craze - but not of the others.
The book does give the impression at the beginning of being an in-depth examination of the case of the Flower women who were accused of bewitching the sons of the Duke of Rutland, with tragic consequences. In practice not a great deal of the book is devoted to this case, partly due to the fact that, despite its being unusual in involving a favoured nobleman and his wife as accusers rather than village compatriots, the court papers were destroyed in the early 19th century by a clerk who decided everything prior to 60 years previous could be junked as useless and the only source is a sensationalist pamphlet which went into several editions as a best seller.
That was probably the biggest lesson taken away from the book for me, that our understanding of history is fragile and fragmentary, given the existence of vandals such as this - so many records have been lost and we don't know what really happened. That is the case with the Flowers also - it isn't known, for example, if the mother, Joan, really called for bread in an attempt to prove her innocence and choked or if her death was due to mistreatment by her captors. So I found this an interesting book, but a little disjointed in terms of where its focus lay and accordingly a 3 star read....more