Books like The Harlem Hellfighters by Max Brooks

During World War II, a foster girl in Nazi Germany steals books to share with neighbors and a hidden Jewish man, proving literature’s power to nourish the soul amid darkness.

A 1930s wartime tale of a blind French girl and a German boy whose lives intersect in occupied France, weaving themes of survival, friendship, and the moral choices people make amid World War II.

Sisters Vianne and Isabelle are pulled into the turmoil of World War II, each forging a path of courage and resistance against the Nazi occupation of France.

In World War II, four refugees—descendants of a Royalist, a German Jesuit, a Jewish family, and a Polish munitions factory worker—board the doomed MV Wilhelm Gustloff in a desperate bid for survival.

A 1943 British fighter pilot crash-lands in Nazi‑occupied France and recounts her daring escape, espionage, and friendship to a young French woman while concealing her true mission.

Louis Zamperini’s extraordinary journey from Olympic gold‑medalist to a World War II bombardier, through a Pacific plane crash, 47 days adrift, and harrowing imprisonment by the Japanese, is a gripping tale of survival and resilience.

During World War II in Warsaw, the Zabinskis run the city’s zoo while secretly aiding the resistance to rescue Jews from the ghetto.

447 pages : 24 cm

The night broke open in a storm of explosions and fire. The sound of shells whizzing overhead, screeching through the night like wounded pheasants, was terrifying. When the shells exploded prematurely overhead, a rain of shrapnel fell on the men below-better than when the shells exploded in the trenches...In A More Unbending Battle, journalist and author Pete Nelson chronicles the little-known story of the 369th Infantry Regiment-the first African-American regiment mustered to fight in WW I. Recruited from all walks of Harlem life, the regiment had to fight alongside the French because America's segregation policy prohibited them from fighting with white U. S. soldiers. Despite extraordinary odds and racism, the 369th became one of the most successful—and infamous—regiments of the war. The Harlem Hellfighters, as their enemies named them, spent longer than any other American unit in combat, were the first Allied unit to reach the Rhine, and showed extraordinary valor on the battlefield, with many soldiers winning the Croix de Guerre and the Legion of Honor. Replete with vivid accounts of battlefield heroics, A More Unbending Battle is the thrilling story of the dauntless Harlem Hellfighters.

In Citizens of London, Lynne Olson has written a work of World War II history even more relevant and revealing than her acclaimed Troublesome Young Men. Here is the behind-the-scenes story of how the United States forged its wartime alliance with Britain, told from the perspective of three key American players in London: Edward R. Murrow, Averell Harriman, and John Gilbert Winant. Drawing from a variety of primary sources, Olson skillfully depicts the dramatic personal journeys of these men who, determined to save Britain from Hitler, helped convince a cautious Franklin Roosevelt and a reluctant American public to support the British at a critical time. The three--Murrow, the handsome, chain-smoking head of CBS News in Europe; Harriman, the hard-driving millionaire who ran FDR's Lend-Lease program in London; and Winant, the shy, idealistic U.S. ambassador to Britain--formed close ties with Winston Churchill and were drawn into Churchill's official and personal circles. So intense were their relationships with the Churchills that they all became romantically involved with members of the prime minister's family: Harriman and Murrow with Churchill's daughter-in-law, Pamela, and Winant with his favorite daughter, Sarah. Others were honorary "citizens of London" as well, including the gregarious, fiercely ambitious Dwight D. Eisenhower, an obscure general who, as the first commander of American forces in Britain, was determined to do everything in his power to make the alliance a success, and Tommy Hitchcock, a world-famous polo player and World War I fighter pilot who helped save the Allies' bombing campaign against Germany.Citizens of London, however, is more than just the story of these Americans and the world leaders they aided and influenced. It's an engrossing account of the transformative power of personal diplomacy and, above all, a rich, panoramic tale of two cities: Washington, D.C., a lazy Southern town slowly growing into a hub of international power, and London, a class-conscious capital transformed by the Blitz into a model of stoic grace under violent pressure and deprivation. Deeply human, brilliantly researched, and beautifully written, Citizens of London is a new triumph from an author swiftly becoming one of the finest in her field.From the Hardcover edition.

Constructed as a military history of two American army regiments of World War I, Slotkin's narrative functions as an inquiry into the soldiers'racial and ethnic backgrounds. Both units were raised in New York City: one consisted of black soldiers, the other of recent immigrants. That description only begins the contextual social spectrum Slotkin covers in arguing his thesis: that white racial conceptions of Americanism after the war thwarted the expectations of blacks and Jews. Slotkin defines those hopes as a "social bargain" implicit in the support given to black recruitment by leaders such as W. E. B. DuBois: if we enlist, then after victory, you will abolish Jim Crow. The bargain's fate unfolds as Slotkin recounts the racial relations with the two regiments (often relating tension between named individuals) in the course of training and ferocious combat in France. The bargain's unraveling in the race riots of 1919, followed by the melancholy fates of some returning veterans, concludes Slotkin's scholarly analytic history.

"The Germans called them 'the Black Devils.' The Allies ultimately credited them with turning their fortunes around in the toughest year of World War II. They were the men of the First Special Service Force. Europe, 1942. Something drastic needed to be done to defeat Hitler. A secret meeting led to the creation of an unprecedented unit made up of men from the United States and Canada, nearly two thousand soldiers superbly skilled in the ways of the wilderness - mountain climbing, skiing, and arctic survival. From the Black Devils' arduous training in the harsh terrain of Helena, Montana, to their bold assault on a prime German position high in the Italian alps, A Perfect Hell features unforgettable portraits of men who achieved the impossible, including Colonel Robert T. Frederick, whom Churchill called the greatest fighting general in history; New Mexico-born Mark Radcliffe, the first Allied soldier to enter Rome; and Joe Glass and Lorin Waling, legendary scouts and best friends, who were interviewed exclusively for this book. A Perfect Hell is the story of inspired leadership, victory in the face of insurmountable odds, and unquestioning camaraderie."-- from the publisher.