What are you reading at the moment?

[spidge]

Originally Posted by morse1001

Subtitled - Prisioners of the Japanese 1942 - 45.

This is a harrowing account of the captivity of allied soliders at the hands of the Japanese.

It contains many first hand accounts of survivors of the hellish conditions in the camps and the often brutal treatment handed out by the guards and on the railway, by the engineers.

As Rabbie Burns said, "Mans inhumanity to his fellow man"!

Any detail about the family breakdowns and the inability of many to assimilate back into society?

[morse1001]

Subtitled Religion and Politcs from the European Dictators to Al Qaeda.

This a book which I have still to read, it goes into my work bag for next week.

But even a cursory glange through the book shows it to be a well written and informative book.

[morse1001]

Subtitled - The Story of 732 Young Concentration Camp Survivors.

Gilbert is a well respect writer on the Holocaust and I have several of his books.

This particular book deals with one aspect of the Holocaust that is often missed by other books and that is life after the war.

For many of the survivor was the fact that they could not return to their homelands but were forced to seek new lifes else where. Some went tried to get to Palestine and many of those ended up in camps in Cyprus before moving on to their new homeland.

But in this case, Britian said that it would take 1000 jewish children but only 732 could be found and of these only eighty were girls.

Gilbert goes into details of the childrens pre war life, their times in the camps and subsequently in Britian.

A very interesting and informative book. A valuable addition to the growing library on the Holocuast. best of all, it records the personal memories of the now grown up children before they are lost for ever.

[morse1001]

Originally Posted by spidge

Any detail about the family breakdowns and the inability of many to assimilate back into society?

Not really, it just mentions the moment when the prisioners heard that the war was over and their breifly describses their jorney back home.

As a child, there was a system called the Provident Check, were familes could raise loans at cheap rates, it was always knows as a provi check. But the man who ran the local agency was Tom Smith and he had survived three years in a camp. He would speak of his time but hated the japs and would not allow any japanese made item into his house.

Also, when I joined Portobello British Legion, I had someone pointed out to me, his name was Harry and every night he would turn up buy a pint of heavy and sit in a corner playing patience.

I was told to try and look at his hands, because he had been cruxified by the japs in a camp and left up for about twenty four hours. His hands did bear the scars!

[morse1001]

Subtitled - The Defeat and Regeneration of Germany.

Annan spent his war time involved with Intelligence and provides an interesting insight to that side of the war.

He later, was posted to the British Occupation forces and was involved in the recovery of West Germany. Here to, he gives an insight to the events and some fascinating pen pictures of the various german politicans.

[morse1001]

It has an introduction by the late John Erickson, which goes into detail about the writing of the book.

Basically, it was the handbook issued to the troops for Operation Sealion. It contains a Nazi eyeview of the people, armed forces and government of the British Isles.

It covers many aspects of british life and culture, with details about the size of the countries, their topography and languages.

Mind you, it only uses two pages to cover the armed forces, and in its section onthe RAF, it gives wrong details!

As one would imagine, it does go into some detail about the Jewish community in Britian at the time, but mainly with details of the those living in England. it also lists the jewish organisations in the coutry at the time.

There is also, a list of "wanted" people who were to be arrested on sight, these included Churchill, Eden and other politicans but also Noel Coward and Vivene Westwood!


The book is a useful reference work because of the nature of the contents of the book

[morse1001]

Subtitled - Monty and Patton at War

The subtitle can be taken two ways! One being the activites of the allied forces as they made their way up the island. The other was the behind the scenes escapades of both generals in their attempts to further their national causes!

I would be the first to admit of my ignorance of the details of Operation Husky and so I was glad that the book was well written and researched.

i was surprised to read of the debacle surrounding the use of paratroopers during the campaign, And of the defence of the island by the germans. Also the well organised and caried out retreat of the germand back to the main land.

I now intend digging out both Montys and Pattons account of the invasion.

[morse1001]

Again, not a WW2 related book but one which involves one of my interests away from the forum!

It deals with the way that scientists over the years have been trying to seek out the age of the universe.

[sniper]

I've just started reading 'Surviving the Sword' by Brian MacArthur about the prisoners of war in the far east. Lots of first hand accoounts including some from Lt Col Philip Toosey, who was the officer in charge of the building of the Bridge over the river Kwai. Only on chapter 4 at the moment but its awesome reading. Will continue to read it on the flight to Canada so should have it finished by the time we get there. Also some very good photos which were quite rare.
Take care all
Mike (Sniper)

[morse1001]

There was a TV programme about Toosey a few years back. Quite an interesting chap and nothing like the character played by Alex Guinness.