Germany Books

I grew up in Aliceville, Alabama, and enjoyed almost idyllic childhood and teenage years there. I am a product of Camp Aliceville. My father was a native of Long Island, New York. He tried many times to enlist in the Army at the beginning of the war, but was turned down because he had a permanent limp from polio as an infant and a ruptured eardrum. Finally, he was allowed to enlist and was sent directly to Aliceville, Alabama, a GI at the prisoner of war camp.

There he met my mother, a member of an old family in the area, who was one of the many young women who left their jobs to work at the camp; it was an exciting time for them, a chance to do something completely unexpected, and a chance to serve their country. My Mom and Dad met, courted, and married on one of my Dad's three-day passes. They lived briefly in New York, where my brother and I were born, then moved back to Alabama, to stay. I grew up listening to stories about the camp.

Until recently, the history of Camp Aliceville has been largely unknown to the rest of the country. It is wonderful that more people will be made aware of the happenings there, thanks to Ms. Cook and her excellently researched and well-written book. Aliceville became richer because of the influx of GI's from all over the country, many who remained in Aliceville after the war. Aliceville became rich in culture and history, and its citizens developed a great appreciation for the arts and literature.

Above all, Aliceville did exhibit a great example of the Golden Rule. It is to our credit that POW's were treated humanely and with respect - things that did not always happen in countries where our veterans were held as prisoners.

I grew up in Aliceville in the 1950's and 60's; I also spent a lot of time in Germany in the 1980's. I swam in the POW pool, I played baseball and football on the fields at "the camp", I went to VFW meetings with my father in the old officer's club and I know almost every local person mentioned. I did not find a detail incorrect. It is an astonishing job of research.

The books tells a great story and is expertly written. It manages to keep the reader's attention from start to finish. There were so many interesting and enlightening details that I was never aware of until I read the book. It's only shortcoming is that it does not have enough photographs of the actual camp and even the town at that time. I wanted to see more muddy "streets", pullman cars, tarpaper baracks, jeeps, jazz bands, and violins made from popcicle sticks!

But I guess I will just have to wait for the movie which will be made. It's just too good a story and too relevant for our times not to be communicated more widely!

Thank you, Ruth. You really did a great job.

Thoroughly enjoyable and fascinating book! 'Guests Behind the Barbed Wire' is an important story not just for history's sake, but for it's ability to perfectly capture a unique snapshot in time when adversaries were able to co-exist with dignity during the violence and turmoil of WWII. Ruth Beaumont Cook meticulously details and reconstructs the story of Aliceville, taking the reader through the despair and confusion of the time, and ultimately arrives at a place of hope. A must-read for history buffs!

The artwork of the Moses family has always amazed me, and Will is quick to pick up the tradition. The illustrations to this classic story are bright, detailed, but as folksy as a cabin in the woods. I'm also glad that the original words of the Brothers Grimm were kept--kids don't get the full effect of the story anymore. My students were hooked and I was captivated as well by this timeless fairy tale.

Depressing and exciting this book is a masterpiece. The plot flowed sleekly along like molten glass, as my brain swam in wonder. The plot in this book was so intricate that it magnified everything, Hansel's and Gretel's step mother's felony, and the witch's sordid attitude towards kids, and of coarse the fathers innocence. The illustrations in this book were miraculously dazzling, and flowed with the words like how skis flow with the snow. The illustrations were so elaborately drawn that it exuded feeling. Will Moses, discriminating and abstract, knows how to write. My eyes throbbed, iris stretching, pupils engulfing. The book "Hansel and Gretel," a delectable accumulation of sugar, is superb. The two unfortunate kids are truly burdened. When the final page was turned my eyes were frozen on the words, ensnared in marvel. by Jacoby

Some of us have been fortunate enough to visit the Mount Nebo Gallery & Farm in Eagle Bridge, New York where artist Will Moses works. It is here in the 200 year old white farmhouse
where his great-grandmother, Anna Mary Robertson Moses, known as Grandma Moses, began her career that he continues the family tradition of creating warm, endearing folk art paintings that are recognized throughout the world.

Those who have not made the pilgrimage to the tiny town of Eagle Bridge are fortunate that he illustrates children's books so that we and our young ones can enjoy his unique works of art.

While some may think of the classic fairy tale of Hansel & Gretel as a rather dark story, it is not in the hands of Will Moses. It is rather a coming of age tale, and a reminder that good does win out over evil. It is also a story of courage, survival and love as Hansel leaves a trail of pebbles so that they may find their way out of the dark forest to their home.

Of course, as we know their cruel stepmother, would again try to abandon the children in the forest but this time Hansel had no pebbles to mark their trail. Their trials, tribulations eventual happy ending are known to all, but not to the next generation. Thanks to Will Moses the story of Hansel & Gretel has been given new life.

Highly recommended.

- Gail Cooke

G.W.F. Hegel is surely one of the most notable figures in German Philosophy. His 'Philosophy of Mind' (also known as 'The Philosophy of Spirit') is the third part of an encyclopaedia work showing, in essence, the dialectical 'nature' of the world as a Notion. In his earlier works in this triad (The 'Logic' and 'The Philosophy of Nature') Hegel dealt with, first, the logically necessary principle of explanation for the world and then, secondly, the essence of nature as prior to the development of the Mind. This work deals with the nature of Mind as it goes from subjectivity to objectivity through the stages Anthropological, Phenomenological and Psychological, producing Absolute Spirit, a notion that is then used by Hegel to explain the moral and legal. This is not an easier book to read; the language is convoluted and it may take several readings to gleam anything useful from it. This is partially due to the difficulty of translating German terms to the English and also partially due to the writing style of Hegel himself. However I do recommend that the reader persevere, as it is a very rewarding book to read. You need not agree entirely with what Hegel says to appreciate his philosophy and see the import of what he is trying to do; explain everything from a position of logical necessity. The accompanying Zusatz is also of great use, as it gives more concrete examples used in the actual lectures Hegel based this work upon. All in all, a momentuous book in the history of Philosophy itself and worth reading for the depth and breadth of ideas contained within it.

An advanced course in Hegel is probably the course which shuttled me forward toward a career in philosophy (and, eventually, theology). It is partly the responsibility of Hegel's thought and part my teacher (look up books by DG Leahy if you are interested in the first real new philosophy of the 21st century). Anyway, back to Hegel's "Mind." In this work, Hegel has created a tour-de-force in systematic philosophy following Kant.

though Kant has adopted the dualism of Plato, Hegel's synthesizing of Kant's ideas has resulted in an amazingly complex but understandable and brilliant work. Hegel proposes that the Mind is the second moment in a three-fold syllogism, following Nature but preceeding Logic (Reason). Here, Hegel explores the nuances of the Mind. Though the other two volumes of the three volume set are important, it seems Mind contains all the ideas of the other two.

If you enjoy hard German philosophy and have a penchant for the absolute idea, read Hegel as soon as possible!

This work is seminal. Every philosophy after Hegel is either a reaction to him or a footnote. His method has achieved scientific verification in the past century in the areas of developmental psychology (Margaret Mahler), in historicism, in embryological development, and theology (Tillich). It shows that wisdom is timeless and although written 200 years ago, Hegel's truth is valid and not subject to fashions as they so often are in philosophy.

This said, I have to say it is not rewarding to read this book unless you have familiarity with German idealism through Kant. Also, a thorough reading of Hegel's Logic is a prerequiste. Few people will understand this book without reading it in the original German as Hegel himself reframes the German language into a new way of thinking. I think all great philosophies shape the language they speak in profound ways. That is why it is so difficult to understand Hegel in English translation. You would have to create a whole new philosophy along Hegelian lines made for the English thinker. This is the daunting task of all translators. There obviously are concepts in Western thought that are portable across "platforms" and this is why translating Hegel happens at all in English. However the way concepts are used, the "process" of the concepts -- the "syntagms" -- is not entirely the same in both languages.

I wrote my master's thesis in philosophy on this work. At that time I could think Hegelian with the best of them but have lost the skill. Now I can't even understand what I wrote 20 years after the fact without going back to school. I have not been speaking Hegelian since then. A pity.

So, to get the most out of it, read this book in a structured environment where one has easy access to help. It will change your life as it has mine.

I bought this book back in 2003; it is a special limited edition with signatures of Lents' officers from which he served with. They are all hand- written in pen, with the author's signature as well.
I paid $100.for it and it was money well spent. Mr Hinchcliff was very thorough and made this piece of history intriguing, as well, as exciting; and I will keep this book with all of my other collectables.

There haven't been many biographies of Luftwaffe experten published that can hold a candle to Peter Hinchliffe's book on Helmut Lent. Hinchliffe's research and insights make this book a must read.

By any standard, Helmut Lent was an exceptional young man. One of the Luftwaffe's top nightfighter aces, he was a wing commander at age 25 with decorations galore. Hinchliffe recounts with much detail the exploits that led to Lent's fame.

Yet Lent was also a devout Lutheran and it's fascinating to read of the run-ins Lent had with the Gestapo over his family's beliefs. Most biographies of experten relate that particular pilot's exploits but few venture into the areas Hinchliffe does. The result is a multi-dimensional portrait of what seemed like a decent, god-fearing man who, unfortunately, fought for the most evil empire ever to exist.

Hichliffe's text benefits from access to Lent family archival material and many first-person accounts from those who served with Lent. The text is complemented by dozens of rare photographs of Lent, his aircraft, comrades and opponents.

A fascinating read!

Peter Hinchliffe is one of my favorite authors. There are too few who have done the hard work necessary to present a fair and balanced view of selected members of the German armed forces of WW2, de-politicized. THE LENT PAPERS is typical of Peter's work, it gives you an "in the cockpit" assessment of the man who was, at the time, the top night-fighter pilot of the Nachtjagd. There is no long-winded, scholarly dissertation, just a straighforward biography. Great job Peter, great pilot, great book. Carter

This compact little book is an excellent primer to the history of the small kingdom which would over the course of 200 years (from the crowning of Frederick William, the Great Elector,in 1640 until the crowning of William I as Emperor of all Germany in 1871) would rise to the position of dominate power in Central Europe and a world power with aspirations toward a foreign empire on the order of the British Empire.

Dense with information, the book serves as a reference book rather than a book which is merely read once and place on the shelf. It provides an excellent companion book to have on hand while reading any other book on German/Prussian History. The very denseness ot the factual material may make reading the book for the first time somewhat difficult. Yet the book does have a good index by which information can be retrieved at a later point in time.

All in all it is a necessary addition to the German History section of any private library.

Although the book is clearly written from a (very) German and very Protestant perspective, and the author never lets the reader forget where his, the author's, sympathies and loyalties lie, K.W. Koch's A History of Prussia is a small masterpiece. From the origins of the Teutonic Knights through the medieval Order's politics, and then forward on to the Thirty Years War, unstoppable advancement of Sweden, the Great Elector Frederick William's statesmanship and his coronation as the king of Prussia, Prussia's own 18 century expansion, liquidation of Poland, trauma of Napoleonic experience, bitter Austro-Prussian rivalry, wars against the Danes, the Austrians and the French and finally on to creation of the unified German State, the modestly named A History of Prussia (that is one of many possible histories) - is an absolutely breathtaking journey documenting the meteoric rise of Prussia and, indirectly, the emergence of modern Germany. For a casual reader who is interested in German and in European history, K.W. Koch's work is an invaluable resource.

This book written by H.W Kock, I would say and I don't know if anyone can argue with this statement; that it is the definitive or top three books on Prussia. What is Prussia? What did it stand for? Why is it so important that because of Prussia, there is now a Germany? Read this book and you will surely find the answers to these questions and know a lot more about the History of Europe which was dominated by this small country in the 18th century. Is that too much to say? Read and see yourself.

Mr. Kock takes us back to the very begining, to the Teutonic Knights and ends it with the Unification of what is now Germany. In between he finds topics to fill this very luminous book from Frederick the Great, the Napoleonic Wars, the Enlightement and finally to the end of the French Second Republic and the begining of Germany. You will find that Prussia was involved in every facet of History in Europe since The wars of Revolution, not just France and Britain as it is believed today. The only part of this book that could add a little more would be more involment with the Bismark but I believe the author had a dislike of him so he is not touched very much. But let's not forget that the Iron chancelor was Prussian and worked hard to make his country the best it could be and succeded in doing so.

A very long read but very worth it. After you are done you will want to learn more of the facts that led to the Great War. Why was Prussia so aggresive? Simple, if you feel you are always surrounded and have no choice but to push back, at times, you push too hard and believe that you will always be victorious. In the end, that feeling of claustrophobia that Prussia had, led to it's demise by a king that "Was more German than Prussian and half English". That was the very sad truth about Prussia, a country whose name no one evokes and when one does many different feelings come to ones mind. Let's not remember the goose stepping but what it gave to Germany. It's greatest gift, it's unity.

This book teaches us that "Heil Hitler" was the official, expected, even demanded greeting of choice in Germany for over a decade. Even the washroom attendants greeted people with it and some churches replaced "Gruss Gott" with the new deity: Hitler. Gone were the Ei Ei Dufe Wie, Gruss Gott, Servus, Moin Moin, and Guten Tag. Heil Hitler was the replacement. It was a simple, daily-repeated gesture of communication, an offer-acceptance and response between people which book-ended interpersonal communications. Everyday, with each interaction, Hitler was explicitly reinforced and social conformity occurred. The author's simple insights tells the reader how this simple greeting included the nation, advertised one's social affiliation, bonded the people, and excluded all the recalcitrant, obstructionist, non-believers and set them up for terror and punishment. For 12 years, all communications became politicized. In this book, the author explores the history of the gesture and words and investigates its power as an unconditional pledge that united the nation. (He also includes a few Heil Hitler jokes that were told, believe it or not, in Germany). I found it to be a creative analysis on the power of a simple but frightening gesture. What I found enlightening is the Wehrmacht's early rejection of the salute, since it had its own military salutes, loyalties, and traditions. Not until the Summer of 1944, after some Wehrmacht officers tried to assassinate Hitler, did the Wehrmacht accept the Hitler salute.

Tilman Allert's The Hitler Salute proves to be a highly informative book on the usage and meaning behind the most obvious symbol of Nazi Germany next to the swastika. In a relatively short book, the author clearly explained the meaning, symbolism and social ramifications of this salute that not only was used among Nazi Party members but in all aspects of German life. From what the author appears to be saying, any German living during this period who lived a normal life, used this form of greeting.

The author make it clear that this Hitler salute was mandatory form of greetings that become quite habit forming among the German people. It certainly was a clever way to insert Nazi loyalty among the people by its very day usage. The author (who is German himself), explained how a greeting "Heil Hitler" can be used in both personal, religious and formal aspects of German life. The author explained to the reader what exactly the words "Heil Hitler" actually means in actual German context and meaning. It replaces most other forms of greeting. The author clearly stated that as the Hitler salute became more and more prevalent throughout the everyday life of all Germans, the decay of German society as a whole set down. This indirectly helped pave the way for World War II, holocaust and other horrors that the Germany imposed on Europe during the time that German people were heiling each other with gusto. Interestingly, until 1944, German military (unless you were generals or in presences of higher authority) avoided the Hitler Salute as much as possible.

This form of greeting also helped in determining who was with or against the Nazi regime as the salute helped the Nazis conformed Germany into a their image. The odd nail definitely got hammered down. The author also goes through the basic history of this salute, its possible origins from Fascist Italy and personal experiences of many Germans who lived during that period.

Overall, a pretty good coverage of a subject matter that you see all the time in photos and movies but never really explained in detail until this book came out. The book come highly recommended to anyone who have an interest in Nazi Germany or World War II in general.

"Good morning." "How do you do?" "Hello." We issue this sort of greeting dozens of times every day, and probably don't even think about how greetings work, what function they perform, or what things would be like without them. We certainly don't consider them something we have to do, or something compulsory, but we all do them anyway, so they must be important. What if a specific greeting became compulsory, though? This experiment has been tried, and the results are examined in _The Hitler Salute: On the Meaning of a Gesture_ (Metropolitan Books) by Tilman Allert, with translation from the German by Jefferson Chase. Allert, a professor of sociology and social psychology at the University of Frankfort, shows that there has been a great deal of research on greetings in general. His scholarly, reserved approach to his specific subject has produced a small volume that considers a small gesture that had big consequences, not as a product of the evils of Nazism, but as one of the promoters of those evils. It is remarkable that this subject has not been evaluated before, but here is a clear and scary examination of how the salute came to be and what influence it had.

"Salute" not only means the physical, often military movement of a hand in greeting, but also the words that accompanied the greeting, and both are examined here, as are the meanings of greetings as they are more naturally used. A greeting provides an initial structure for human interaction, an initial gift to another person to get things going. "Heil Hitler" injected a third party into greetings, and did so under the force of law. It was on 13 July 1933 that the edict was issued to make the greeting mandatory. Every greeting would thereupon not just be a greeting, but would be a statement of the relationship of the greeters to the Fuhrer. Students, by order, would say it to their teachers, and to each other. Department store attendants would greet shoppers with, "Heil Hitler, how may I help you?" Samuel Beckett wrote in his travel diary in 1937, "Even bathroom attendants greet you with `Heil Hitler.'" The words were accompanied by the right hand salute. The Reich invented legends about the gesture to differentiate it from the similar Italian fascist salute, or from that of the Socialist International. The gesture was everywhere, and within the book is a reproduction of an illustration of the Sleeping Beauty story; the heroine has been kissed by her Prince, and is just awakening, so he gives the Hitler salute to her. Shaking hands brings people closer together, but Allert says that giving the hand salute "makes it necessary for the greeter to stand back from the other person and thus intensifies the estrangement and sense of uncertainty that is usually overcome or bridged during an act of greeting."

This is the sort of insight that makes this a more thoughtful book than would be just a history of the gesture. Allert reminds us that greeting words or gestures are supposed to help decrease physical and relational distances between two individuals, to build trust. "But when the greeting is externally imposed and mechanically performed, when it hides rather than reveals, uncertainty in the face of the unknown gives way to mistrust in the face of the unknowable." It is hard to blame the salute for the evils of the Third Reich, but it was a tool. It solidified group membership at the same time that it reverenced the Fuhrer, thus hijacking the individual and personal functions a greeting is supposed to perform. It was a little loyalty oath, with the implicit message that the user was ready to sacrifice self-interest for the benefit of the regime, and Allert argues that the compulsory salute furthered the abnegation of the self and the disregard for the regime's lack of morality. It was a lot for a simple gesture to bear, but Allert has pulled from an amazing range of written documents and photographs, and reasons in a convincing and understated way. It is a keen explanation of a tiny slice of the Nazi evil.

Well worth the read,A must for anyone interested in finding out about how Nazi Germany affected more than the Jewish population.

Excellant book. Most people don't know that there were blacks in the holocaust, this book tells a lot.

As there is a lack of information regarding blacks duing the Holocaust, this book is a great resource. It is frustrating to find few eye-witness accounts, but Lusane does provide names of those in camps from which one can perform their own research. A must for anyone interested in finding out about how Nazi Germany affected more than the Jewish population.

Not for the academic alone, Hitler's Face lays out not only post-WWI Germany's obsession with physiognomy but also its maniacal drive to construct a physiognomic system which could redeem the fatherland after its disgrace at Versailles; the drive to construct, as Schmýlders puts it, a national portrait gallery which would not only illustrate but prove the superiority of the German people.

The book is translated into clear and concise prose. The cover sucks, but can be easily removed.

In a world where the US government evaluates your penchant for atrocity based on how many people named Mohammed you've texted in the last two years, it's good to be reminded of, shall we say, certain pitfalls in this approach.

The premise of tracing images of Hitler is intriguing, and the book lives up to it.

"Hitler's Face - the Biography of an Image" comes in English at the right time in American history, at exactly the time when we (once again) need to learn to interpret the images projected by the media of those who hold power over our nation. From this point of view, "Hitler's Face" is an absolutely essential book; its analysis of physiognomic studies linked with the propagandist aspect of political portrayals is very current.

In general, the English translation reads very smoothly. Some citations from secondary texts were at times difficult to follow, but I imagine they were the best published translations available. And besides, the rest of the text makes up for these sections; a good read.

This book provides the reader insight into the men, organization and equipment of Hitler's fanatical SS who were undoubtedly not as fanatical as advertized.

Plenty of pictures. Informative reading.

Bruce Quarrie's "Hitler's Samurai" (rev. 3d ed.) is an outstanding description of the formation, uniforms, equipment, and battles of the Waffen-SS. The writing is clear, precise, and objective. One wishes that he had been commissioned to write a full-fledged general history of these units instead of writing about them piecemeal in a series of separate works (e.g., Hitler's Teutonic Knights, Lightning Death).



Three things, however, almost prevented a five-star rating:



First, the text repeatedly refers to a bibliography but the book does not include a bibliography (at least not in the third edition).



Second, the author repeatedly (and somewhat annoyingly) refers the reader to other works of his on related topics, which disrupts the flow of the text.



Third, the pictures often lack clarity, even for photographic reproductive abilities at the time this edition was first published, over 20 years ago. (The pictures are well chosen and representative but if the point of a work is to provide a pictorial history of a topic then the pictures need to be well-reproduced not just well selected. This edition would have been better served by being printed originally in hardcover with separate picture sections on glossy paper rather than the cheap stock paper used. A hardcover reprint was later done but as reprints are often of lesser quality than the original I purchased the original paperback edition, which, in retrospect, may have been a mistake.)



Despite its flaws, the book is an excellent reference work. There is a reason this book on the Waffen-SS, unlike so many others, sold out when first printed and revised and expanded second and third editions published: It is one of the best general introductions to the Waffen-SS ever written.

Bruce Quarrie has done a fine piece of work, with this book. An objective look at the history of the Waffen SS. It shows the armed SS in all its shades. Good selection of photographs help showcase the short, but eventful, history of this group of fighting men, as it should be told. I would, also, reccommend his companion to this title. "Hitler's Teutonic Knights" focuses more on the armored divisions and is another wonderful description of the Waffen SS. Both are a must for WWII fans.

For years scholars have documented what happened at the hands of Hitler... however, few have taken the time to fully place a historical foundation beneath the these events. Mann's encompassing perspective on western history challenges the reader to look beyond cursory scholarship directly into the heart of Hitler's psychological, cultural and religious struggles. A ground breaking work from this veteran writer!

Hitler's Three Struggles opens up a whole new area of the study of this diabolical leader as well as the real origin of Nazism that is patterned in a distorted way ( as all fascisms are) on the ancient Romans. No other writer dealing with Nazism has shown the link between Nazism and the cultural-psychological presented by the Greek, Roman and Jewish elements in the Western mentality. In reading this work, it opened my mind to completely new ways of viewing Hitler and Nazism, but also to a new understanding of Western history and how it continues to influence the world. A must read for those wanting to understanding our continuing historical journey.

For the first time, hitler's three struggles: the neo-pagan revenge, clearly explains what hitler was all about and why he diabolically selected the Jews as priority victims.