| | |
|---|
Sell Book |
Walking Since Daybreak A Story of Eastern Europe World War Ii and the Heart of Our Century
Author: Modris Eksteins
ISBN-10: 0333766210
ISBN-13: 9780333766217
Published: 2000
Publisher: Mariner Book
|
|
|
Sell Book |
The Mascot: Unraveling the Mystery of My Jewish Father's Nazi Boyhood
Author: Mark Kurzem
ISBN-10: 0452289947
ISBN-13: 9780452289949
Published: 2008-08-26
Publisher: Plume
|
Book Description:
The ?spellbinding? (The New York Times) true story of a Jewish boy who became the darling of the Nazis When a Nazi death squad massacred his mother and fellow villagers, five-year-old Alex Kurzem escaped, hiding in the freezing Russian forest until he was picked up by a group of Latvian SS soldiers. Alex was able to hide his Jewish identity and win over the soldiers, becoming their mascot and an honorary ?corporal? in the SS with his own uniform. But what began as a desperate bid for survival became a performance that delighted the highest ranks of the Nazi elite. And so a young Jewish boy ended up starring in a Nazi propaganda film. After sixty-three years of silence, Alex revealed his terrible secret to his son Mark. With his son?s help, Alex retraced his past in search of answers and vindication. His story is at once a terrifying account of survival and its psychological cost as well as a brutally honest examination of identity, complicity, and memory.
|
|
Sell Book |
A Woman in Amber: Healing the Trauma of War and Exile
Author: Agate Nesaule
ISBN-10: 0140261907
ISBN-13: 9780140261905
Published: 1997-01-01
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
|
Book Description:
"Shows us, in disturbing but illuminating detail, how violence and cruelty register on the psyche. This beautifully written book makes us reckon anew with the deep costs of war."—Eva Hoffman.
|
|
Sell Book |
The Latvians: A Short History (HOOVER INST PRESS PUBLICATION)
Author: Andrejs Plakans
ISBN-10: 0817993029
ISBN-13: 9780817993023
Published: 1995-07-17
Publisher: Hoover Institution Press
|
Book Description:
This is the first English-language volume that brings the history of Latvia to the threshold of the twenty-first century. Until the reestablishment of Latvian independence in 1991, Soviet dominance served for nearly fifty years to hinder publication of any complete and objective historical record of the region. Plakans now places the evolution and formation of the Latvian nation in a balanced, historical framework that stretches from the early medieval period to the present. Particular emphasis is given to the period between the Latvian "national awakening" of 1816–1819 and the emergence of an independent Latvia in 1918. From this point forward, the book extensively chronicles an evolving Latvian state structure, provides an appendix that summarizes all changes and important officeholders, and explains the current systems of political parties. This post perestroika historical narrative should contribute significantly to assessing the likely hood of Latvia's survival as an independent republic.
|
|
Sell Book |
The Testimony of Lives: Narrative and memory in post-Soviet Latvia
Author: Vieda Skultans
ISBN-10: 0415162890
ISBN-13: 9780415162890
Published: 1997-12-22
Publisher: Routledge
|
Book Description:
Vieda Skultans left Latvia as a refugee at the age of six months. In 1990, she returned for the first time. This text is both a personal account of a homecoming and an anthropology of a people trying to come to terms with its past and to face an uncertain future. Based on more than 100 interviews carried out in the wake of Latvian independence, it gives voice to stories of dispossession and exile and of ambiguous returns. At the same time it unpicks the process of memory itself, showing how personal memory is shaped by the traditional narratives of national history and culture.
|
|
Sell Book |
One Who Came Back: The Diary of a Jewish Survivor
Author: Josef Katz
ISBN-10: 1928755070
ISBN-13: 9781928755074
Published: 2006-03-31
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
|
Book Description:
In December 1941, the SS deported twenty-three-year old Josef Katz from his home in Lübeck, Germany, to the Riga ghetto. Over the next four years, he and thousands of other Jews were subjected to unrelenting brutality in internment ghettos and concentration camps. One Who Came Back is an unflinching account of Katz’s coming through each day’s terror and its constant threat of death. Liberated in 1945, and surviving a death march back to Germany, he began this diary in 1946, finishing it a year later in New York where he arrived with his wife Irene, also a survivor of Riga. One Who Came Back has been acknowledged by historians, including Martin Gilbert and Leni Yahil, as a significant contribution to our understanding of what slave laborers endured in Nazi camps during the war. 1973 Herzl Press1976 German-language editionPublished by Dryad Press in association with University of Wisconsin Press
|
|
Sell Book |
Crusader Castles of the Teutonic Knights, Vol. 2: The Stone Castles of Latvia and Estonia, 1185-1560 (Fortress 19)
Author: Stephen Turnbull
ISBN-10: 1841767123
ISBN-13: 9781841767123
Published: 2004-05-25
Publisher: Osprey Publishing
|
Book Description:
The original forced conversion of pagan Livonia, what is now the Baltic states of Latvia and Estonia, was carried out by a military order known as the Brethren of the Sword. In 1236 this order was incorporated into the Teutonic Knights following a catastrophic military defeat. The knights had always consolidated their conquests through networks of castles and fortified places, and the Livonian Chapter of the Teutonic Order built castles of stone. This title covers the developmental and operational history of these fortresses over the length of the Middle Ages. It details how the Baltic fortifications of the Teutonic Knights evolved to reflect the changing nature of siege warfare and the increasing dominance of gunpowder in warfare.
|
|
Sell Book |
Alfred Valdmanis and the Politics of Survival
Author: Gerhard P. Bassler
ISBN-10: 0802044131
ISBN-13: 9780802044136
Published: 2000-03-04
Publisher: University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division
|
Book Description:
Alfred Valdmanis is best known in Canada for his infamous role in Premier Joey Smallwood's scheme to industrialize Newfoundland. A Latvian immigrant, he was appointed Director General of Economic Development in 1950 with the understanding that through his connections to Europe he could entice German and Baltic industrialists to the isolated, rural island. His influence was brought to an abrupt end when, in 1954, he was charged with defrauding the government. The media, latching on to his murky past and his possible affiliation with war criminals, made him the scapegoat of Newfoundland's problems, painting him as part comedian, part sinister villain.This was not the first time his name was connected with controversial issues. Valdmanis's wily political manoeuvring is more the stuff of fiction than history. Between 1938, at age 29, and his ironic downfall in the safe haven of Canada, he was a finance minister of pre-war Latvia, a government official during the Soviet invasion, a shrewd collaborator under the Nazi occupation, then, a friend to the Allies, a spokesman for Latvian POW and displaced persons, and an adviser to the government of Canada. In this first serious biography of Alfred Valdamis historian Gerhard Bassler casts the story of this political manipulator and chameleon in new terms: the often tragic consequences of the will to survive.
|
|
Sell Book |
Exile From Latvia: My WWII Childhood - From Survival to Opportunity
Author: Harry G. Kapeikis
ISBN-10: 1425134009
ISBN-13: 9781425134006
Published: 2007-11-15
Publisher: Trafford Publishing
|
Book Description:
Exile from Latvia is the story of a young boy's experiences before, during and after World War II, told endearingly, to touch the heart. Driven from his beloved Latvia by the Soviet Army, Harijs' family flees to Germany in the hope of being captured by the advancing American forces. The family experiences hardships of all kinds - hunger, homelessness and air raids. They brush with death many times in many ways and their life is often punctuated with misunderstandings, both humorous and tragic. Presumed guilty they must prove their innocence. The continuous migration causes Harijs to lose friends constantly. These experiences shape Harijs' life, surprisingly, in a positive way, especially in the Displaced Persons' camp under dedicated teachers and scoutmasters. There are lighter moments as young Harijs discovers girls, often handling the developing attraction in awkward though humorous ways, eventually touching the heartstrings of a girl tenderly. There is laughter, love, grief, tears and longings of the heart. Finally the anticipation of an unexpected future replaces the memories of cruelty, atrocity, hate, betrayal, misunderstandings, ignorance and fear with commitment to meet the future with confidence. During the war years Harijs made friends only to lose them. He will not lose you. You'll move alongside him through the first-person escapades of a pre-teen boy looking for answers in a senseless world.
|
|
Sell Book |
Fire Burn: World War II Diaries
Author: Irene Zarina White
ISBN-10: 1599263483
ISBN-13: 9781599263489
Published: 2006-03-06
Publisher: Xlibris
|
Book Description:
Fire Burn is based on diaries kept during World War II by a single, young professional woman, Irene Zarina White. From September 1939 through May 1946 Irene lived under four different governments: the Republic of Latvia, the Soviet Union, Nazi Ger
|
|
