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Their Darkest Hour: People Tested to the Extreme in WWII [Illustrated] [Paperback]

Laurence Rees
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
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Book Description

5 Jun 2008

How could Nazi killers shoot Jewish women and children at close range? Why did Japanese soldiers rape and murder on such a horrendous scale? How was it possible to endure the torment of a Nazi concentration camp?

Award-winning documentary maker and historian Laurence Rees has spent nearly 20 years wrestling with these questions in the course of filming hundreds of interviews with people tested to the extreme during World War II. He has come face-to-face with rapists, mass murderers, even cannibals, but he has also met courageous individuals who are an inspiration to us all.

In Their Darkest Hour he presents 35 of his most electrifying encounters.


Frequently Bought Together

Their Darkest Hour: People Tested to the Extreme in WWII + The Nazis: A Warning From History + Auschwitz : The Nazis & The 'Final Solution'
Price For All Three: £19.47

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Product details

  • Paperback: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Ebury Press (5 Jun 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 009191759X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0091917593
  • Product Dimensions: 12.8 x 2.5 x 19.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 162,811 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Product Description

Review

"A remarkably powerful collection" (Antony Beevor Daily Telegraph )

"Powerful and unsettling" (Sunday Times )

"A lasting contribution to our understanding of the Second World War and a powerful insight into the behaviour of human beings in crisis" (Independent )

"Fascinating but disturbing" (Daily Mail )

"Chilling collection of eye-witness testimonies ... bringing nuance to our understanding of the horrific experience of war" (Financial Times )

Book Description

A collection of chilling first-hand accounts that throws new light on our understanding of World War II


Inside This Book (Learn More)
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 24 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Background to terror 22 Oct 2007
By A Common Reader TOP 50 REVIEWER VINE™ VOICE
Format:Hardcover
Lawrence Rees has produced two excellent books on Nazism and the Holocaust and it is interesting to read these accounts of interviews which he conducted during his researches. The people involved in these cataclysmic events are fast declining in numbers and it is important that their personal accounts are preserved and published.

What is good about this book is the very wide range of categories of people interviewed, from resistance fighters, to concentration camp workers, from Americans fighting the Japanese, to Russians surviving service in penal batallions.

The book is easy to read as most of the chapters are very short. Lawrence Rees write a certain amount of connecting passages, and sometimes these seem a little trite, containing homilies about mans inhumanity to man etc, but on the whole he adds interesting background material.

In one sense this book gives its readers access to the historian's source material, and it is interesting from this perspective. I suspect on the whole it it better to read the final product of his researches in the other two books but this is an interesting book for those who have read those and want more, or for those who are not used to reading history and need a less demanding way in.
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22 of 23 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Rees at his best 30 Sep 2007
By Demi
Format:Hardcover
I have been a fan of Rees' work for some time, and I picked up this book with a great deal of anticipation. It is immediately obvious that this book has allowed Rees for the first time to talk about his personal insights into the people who commited terrible acts in the war. This new dimension really fascinated me, and I hope Rees contines to evolve his writing style.
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41 of 44 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Not my lightest one either 13 July 2008
Format:Paperback
The trouble with reading too many books about our dark periods of history is the lowering effect it can have on the rest of ones life. Loved ones become accustomed to lectures over breakfast on the iniquities of Nazi Germany. Squabbling children are reminded about the consequences of unbridled human aggression. Family shopping trips are punctuated by laments on the consumerist nature of today's culture. After a literary diet of "Auschwitz" and "Their Darkest Hour", it's back to the Moomintrolls and Clive James for me. That or I'll find myself banished to the Sunnydays asylum for over-serious wives and mothers.

But I digress. "Their Darkest Hour" is a fine piece of work and a very necessary read for anyone trying to understand the lessons that a conflict like WWII might teach us. Rees has used the source material from his other historical works to construct a readable, thoughtful and intelligent assessment of what war can teach us about ourselves as humans. The lessons might seem simplistic, but if they were, we wouldn't be inclined to make the same mistakes over and over again. Obviously. And in a clever piece of journalism, Rees juxtaposes material from the various "sides" in the conflicts to demonstrate neatly and quietly, that no one culture can lay claim to evil or the capacity to commit it. We may vary in the way we express our basest instincts, but there's no blue print for producing bad behaviour, or for that matter, altruism. Shattering the smug assumptions about "goodies" and "baddies", which are almost universally fostered in WWII reporting, is one of the most important effects of this book.

So impressed am I, that I plan to read Rees' two other works: "Nazis: A Warning from History" and "Nightmare in the East" in due course. Meantime, in the interests of domestic harmony - "One grey morning the first snow began to fall in the Valley of the Moomins. It fell softly and quietly and in a few hours everything was white."
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars excellent researched book
As expected by such an excellent author, the book came up to expectations & reveals some unknown aspects of war
Published 2 months ago by ann sugden
5.0 out of 5 stars Their Darkest Hour: By Laurence Rees.
This is an extraordinary book that should be widely read. Warfare is often unrealistically presented as glamorous and its destructive side, completely ignored. Read more
Published 17 months ago by ShiDaDao Ph.D
3.0 out of 5 stars Questions with unknowable answers...
This is a disturbing book, compiled from interviews Rees conducted for television over a long period of time with WWII participants from various countries and of varying political... Read more
Published on 16 Jan 2011 by Dr. G. SPORTON
2.0 out of 5 stars My book was shot
the back cover looked as if it was struck, firmly, with a ball-peen hammer.
Other than that, all was good and expectably quick.
Published on 6 July 2010 by Thomas Williamson
4.0 out of 5 stars Thought provoking
It really is intriguing how people behave or respond in extreme circumstances. I'm not sure that Laurence Rees has answers to the questions but he does explore the issues as far... Read more
Published on 23 Feb 2010 by Eric
3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, but rather lightweight
This was an interesting read, but unfortunately the chapters were rather on the short side, meaning the reader rarely got any more than a cursory glance at the subjects (each... Read more
Published on 31 July 2009 by Glasgow Dreamer
5.0 out of 5 stars seriously impressed
I first came across Mr Rees work in 'The Nazis, a warning from history' and also 'Auschwitz' both on DVD. Read more
Published on 17 May 2009 by small and covered in hair
5.0 out of 5 stars Thought provoking trip to the dark side.
This is a simply superb read. Mr Rees really gets into the minds of the people he has interviewed for this book. Read more
Published on 19 Dec 2008 by Bobby Smith
4.0 out of 5 stars Definately Thought Provoking
This book was not what i expected, it is a series of essay with an introduction of each essay, the essays are based on the authors meetings with the people discussed. Read more
Published on 22 Jun 2008 by Mr. B. P. Le Poidevin
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliance in simplicity
I purchased this book to work on my major A level assignment and i have to say, after years and years of analyzing books, this has to be the most simple, accesible and concise book... Read more
Published on 8 April 2008 by Mr. T. J. Van Mourik
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