Blog
There has been alot of talk in the ether-world this week about the Third Reich tour “The Face of Evil: The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich” – see http://www.historicaltrips.com/ – that I am launching with two colleagues in the summer. It all kicked off with a fairly ludicrous and irresponsible piece in the […]
The second review is for Tim Snyder‘s excellent new book “Bloodlands” . This review was first published in the BBC History Magazine in October 2010. There are many studies available that document the most brutal chapters of 20th Century history. The Holocaust is well-covered in both scholarly and popular volumes, and even lesser-known subjects, such as […]
Been a while away from here – busy launching my new book “Berlin at War” – so a couple of reviews to catch up with… The first is for Adrian Weale’s “The SS – A New History”. This review was first published in the Financial Times. Every writer – and every publisher – cherishes novelty. We […]
“Trautmann’s Journey”by Catrine ClayYellow Jersey, £16.99, 340pp, index, notes, illustrations.In a year in which Anglo-German footballing rivalry might well be rekindled in South Africa, it is perhaps timely that a new book should recall the remarkable contribution made to the English game by “Traut the Kraut” – Bert Trautmann. One of the most iconic figures […]
Goebbels – propaganda minister of the Third Reich – still fascinates. The diminutive genius behind the Nazi manipulation of the German masses, he is recognised as a key player in the establishment and maintenance of Hitler’s power. As such, he has already been the subject of a number of biographies; most recently by Ralf Georg […]
I finally got around to seeing “Katyn”, Andrzej Wajda’s film about the infamous massacre of Polish POWs by the Soviets in 1940 and the battle for truth that followed. For those who know little about this subject, Katyn is perhaps the touchstone of modern Polish history. It is not so much the bare facts of the massacre […]
I spent a very enjoyable few days in Wroclaw, Poland, last week. I was there to give a couple of lectures, but I took time out to visit the Soviet Cemetery in the south of the city. I went there on a whim; I had been to Wroclaw many times and had already seen most […]
“The Retreat – Hitler’s First Defeat”Michael Jones After tackling the battles of Stalingrad and Leningrad, it is perhaps inevitable that Michael Jones should turn his attention to the third of that bloody trio, the battle for Moscow. The Retreat follows the pattern of the other two books, giving very much the view of the soldier […]
In the summer of 1725 a peculiar youth was found in the forest of Hertswold near Hameln in northern Germany. Aged about 12, he walked on all fours and fed on grass and leaves. ‘A naked, brownish, blackhaired creature’, he would run up trees when approached and could utter no intelligible sound. The latest in […]
An item in The Times today caught my eye. A commission of German historians has concluded that the death toll from the notorious bombing of Dresden on 13th February 1945 was no more than 25,000. This is significant in a number of respects. Firstly, it puts to bed the long-running argument about the ‘morality’ of […]
In 1995, fifty years after the demise of Hitler’s Third Reich, a long-standing research enterprise finally bore fruit. As early as the 1960s, the idea of a memorial book for the Jews of Berlin had been mooted. Finally, following the collapse of the GDR in 1989, and the granting of access to the archival materials […]
Today – 9th November – is a very important day. As you will have seen in your morning newspaper, it is the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall; perhaps the most important single event in our recent history. It was 20 years ago this evening, that East German border guards stood aside […]