Books like Their Darkest Hour by Laurence Rees


Laurence Rees presents 35 of his most electrifying encounters, from Estera Frenkiel, a young Jewish woman given the chance to save ten fellow Jews from deportation and death to Hiroo Onoda, a Japanese soldier, so fanatical that he refused to surrender for 29 years after the end of the war.
First publish date: 2007
Authors: Laurence Rees
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 3.0 (1 community ratings)

Their Darkest Hour by Laurence Rees

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Books similar to Their Darkest Hour (11 similar books)

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by 7121516|William L. Shirer book cover

πŸ“˜ The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

A comprehensive history of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, detailing the rise of Adolf Hitler and the collapse of the Third Reich during World War II.

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The comfort women by 6975668|George L. Hicks book cover

πŸ“˜ The comfort women

George L. Hicks exposes the organized system of Japanese β€˜comfort stations’ in World War II, detailing how women were coerced into prostitution and how the Japanese government concealed the atrocity.

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The Forgotten Victims of the Holocaust by 6577838|Linda Jacobs Altman book cover

πŸ“˜ The Forgotten Victims of the Holocaust

This is about a suffers of victims of Nazi invasion during World War 2 and Holocaust

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The Holocaust by 4250098|Laurence Rees book cover

πŸ“˜ The Holocaust

This landmark work answers two of the most fundamental questions in history - how, and why, did the Holocaust happen? Laurence Rees has spent twenty-five years meeting survivors and perpetrators of the Holocaust. Now, in his magnum opus, he combines their enthralling eyewitness testimony, a large amount of which has never been published before, with the latest academic research to create the first accessible and authoritative account of the Holocaust in more than three decades. This is a new history of the Holocaust in three ways. First, and most importantly, Rees has created a gripping narrative that contains a large amount of testimony that has never been published before. Second, he places this powerful interview material in the context of an examination of the decision making process of the Nazi state, and in the process reveals the series of escalations that cumulatively created the horror. Third, Rees covers all those across Europe who participated in the deaths, and he argues that whilst hatred of the Jews was always at the epicentre of Nazi thinking, what happened cannot be fully understood without considering the murder of the Jews alongside plans to kill millions of non-Jews, including homosexuals, "Gypsies" and the disabled. Through a chronological, intensely readable narrative, featuring enthralling eyewitness testimony and the latest academic research, this is a compelling new account of the worst crime in history.

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The Knights of Bushido by 1725749|Russell of Liverpool, Edward Frederick Langley Russell Baron book cover

πŸ“˜ The Knights of Bushido

Bernie Weisz's Review of "The Knights of Bushido" by Lord Liverpool 10/15/09 Lord Russel of Liverpool, whose real name was Edward Frederick Langley Russell (1895 to 1981) published this book in 1958. After being queried to write a Japanese version as a companion to the book he wrote on the history of Nazi war crimes, he began this work. The Scourge of the Swastika: A History of Nazi War Crimes During World War II Lord Russell set out to meticulously chart the barbaric path of destruction the Japanese military perpetuated between 1931 to 1945. This book takes the reader on the rampage the Japanese troops took through China, S.E. Asia, Java, Sumatra, Borneo and other countries, executing citizens, raping innocent women, massacring prisoners of war on both land and out at sea, and finally, exploiting P.O.W's and native populations Lord Russell curiously names this book "The Knights of Bushido". The term "Bushido" means the "Way of the Warrior". This was a Japanese code of conduct which described the concept of bravery, courtesy, and especially of the "ideal knight". Personifying "Bushido", the Japanese soldier was supposed to embody the "seven virtues" of this code, which were "rectitude" (integrity and moral excellence), "courage", "benevolence" (kindness), "respect", "honesty" , "honor" and "loyalty". After reading this book, it is very hard for the reader to juxtapose the Japanese code of conduct with the atrocities the forces of the "Rising Sun" committed, which was everything from murder and rape, to torture and cannibalism. I initially tried to find this "Bushido" on exploring how the Japanese forced women to serve as "Comfort Women" (prostitutes used to serve and satisfy the sexual desires and burn off excess testosterone of the Japanese military machine. But in this endeavor, the Japanese pursuance of this theoretically honorable code was not to be found. Lord Russell starts off with a horrifying example of the plunder the Japanese wrought in China, starting with the fictitious Sept. 18, 1931 "Mukden, China Incident", an incident that simply never occurred. Please read the book:"Horror in the East: Japan and the Atrocities of World War II" by Laurence Rees. Falsely claiming that a Chinese Brigade had attacked a Japanese patrol on a railway in Mukden, the "Rising Sun" government used this as a spurious justification to invade and occupy Manchuria, and eventually land it's troops on Hong Kong, French Indo-China, Thailand, Malaya, the Netherland East Indies, the Philippines, New Guinea, all territory lying between Eastern India and Burma on the one hand, Australia and New Zealand on the other. The reader of this book will aghastly digest Lord Russell's description of the massacre of 200,000 Chinese civilians and P.O.W's in the first six weeks of the Japanese "Central China Expeditionary Force" occupation of Nanking. The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II As Lord Liverpool described: "The Japanese troops were then let loose like the hordes of Genghis Khan to ravish and murder (in Nanking). Many were crazed with drink, but no attempt was made by their commander or their officers to maintain discipline among the occupying forces. They looted, they burned, they raped and they murdered. Soldiers marched through the streets indiscriminately killing Chinese of both sexes, adults and children alike, without receiving any provocation and without any rhyme or reason. They went on killing until the gutters ran with blood and the streets were littered with bodies of their victims. Rape was the order of the day, and resistance by the victim, or by members of her family who tried to protect her, meant almost certain death". Lord Russell informs the reader that the Japanese commanders gave their troops full license to commit wholesale murder, arson, looting and rape, of which incredulously 20,000 occurred occurred in the first month of hostilities. Lord Russell followed the Japanese Armies swath thr

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Sexual violence against Jewish women during the Holocaust by 11567524|Sonja M. Hedgepeth book cover

πŸ“˜ Sexual violence against Jewish women during the Holocaust


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Crusade in Europe by 6024639|Dwight D. Eisenhower book cover

πŸ“˜ Crusade in Europe

A first‑hand account of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s ascent to Allied command during World War II, revealing the challenges and decisions that shaped the European campaign.

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Children of the flames by 13176255|Lucette Matalon Lagnado book cover

πŸ“˜ Children of the flames


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The Nazis by 4250098|Laurence Rees book cover

πŸ“˜ The Nazis

How could a political party as fundamentally evil as the Nazis come to power? The Nazis: A Warning From History exposes the popular myths surrounding the rise and fall of the Third Reich. The series explores how the Nazis gained influence, how they ruled, how they treated their occupied territories, and, above all, how a cultured nation could be a party to such acts of inhumanity. Contemporaries recall the true extent of Hitler's power; eyewitnesses describe the horrors perpetrated on the Eastern Front; specially shot film in Lithuania reveals the development of the "Final Solution"; and ordinary Germans shed new light on the relationship between the Party and the people. Was the Nazi rise to power simply the result of the hypnotic power of Hitler's rhetoric? Did the Gestapo really impose themselves by terror on an unwilling population? This six-part series, winner of eight international awards including the Peabody Award, unveils a more chilling reality. - Container.

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Horror in the East by 4250098|Laurence Rees book cover

πŸ“˜ Horror in the East


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Lolas' House by 9685487|M. Evelina Galang book cover

πŸ“˜ Lolas' House


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Some Other Similar Books

Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin by Timothy Snyder
Eichmann: A Diary by Eichmann, Moshe Pearlman (Editor)
Inside the Reich: The Unauthorized Diaries of Albert Speer 1939-1945 by Albert Speer
The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide by Robert Jay Lifton
Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland by Christopher R. Browning
Auschwitz: A History by Francescamediate
The Holocaust: A New History by Laurence Rees
The Path to Genocide by Gerhard Weinberg

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