Churchill's German Army
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| |||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Trade in Churchill's German Army for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Plus, get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
This is the compelling story of the 10,000 Germans and Austrians who fled Nazi persecution and joined the British forces in their fight against Hitler during the Second World War. Known affectionately as 'the King's most loyal enemy aliens', many were Jews, but a significant number were political opponent of the Nazi regime and so-called 'degenerate artists'. With one or two exceptions, these refugees in uniform did not receive British nationality until 1946-47. At the end of the War, they returned in their thousands to Germany and Austria to begin the reconstruction of their homelands and the hunt for Nazi war criminals. Helen Fry documents the stories of those who fought for King and adopted country, drawing on a rich vein of archive material and personal accounts to bring this little-known aspect of British wartime history to light.
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Helen Fry's book weaves together diaries, interviews and army records of German and Austrian nationals, mostly Jewish refugees who had fled Nazi Germany, who fought for the British in the European theatre of the second world war. As such it is an interesting and informative summary of those sources and a useful jumping off point for anyone who wishes to delve more deeply into those archives. It is also an important contribution to the summation and preservation of a genuine people's history of the second world war.
However, I did find the narrative a little linear and formulaic; the book is organised into chapters according to branch of service, i.e. there is a chapter on the non-combatant pioneer corps, another on the infantry, another on the navy etc and within each chapter a number of case studies chronologically narrate the experience of an individual solider from enlistment to discharge. In this liner focus on case studies, Fry's structure does not focus on issues or themes and thus interesting questions such as allegations of war crimes on the part of Jewish units in the Normandy campaign (see Anthony Beevor's D-Day: The Battle for Normandy) are not examined; these allegations may be of little substance, but I feel that they should have been addressed here.
In summary, I think Helen Fry has done some excellent archival research but that this book reads more like a refined set of notes than a fully developed analytical narrative. That said, I think that the material pulled together here will prove an excellent starting point from which to write that broader narrative.
However, I did find the narrative a little linear and formulaic; the book is organised into chapters according to branch of service, i.e. there is a chapter on the non-combatant pioneer corps, another on the infantry, another on the navy etc and within each chapter a number of case studies chronologically narrate the experience of an individual solider from enlistment to discharge. In this liner focus on case studies, Fry's structure does not focus on issues or themes and thus interesting questions such as allegations of war crimes on the part of Jewish units in the Normandy campaign (see Anthony Beevor's D-Day: The Battle for Normandy) are not examined; these allegations may be of little substance, but I feel that they should have been addressed here.
In summary, I think Helen Fry has done some excellent archival research but that this book reads more like a refined set of notes than a fully developed analytical narrative. That said, I think that the material pulled together here will prove an excellent starting point from which to write that broader narrative.
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
