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Hitler's Bastard: Through Hell and Back in Nazi Germany and Stalin's Russia (Ian Sayer and Douglas Botting)
 
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Hitler's Bastard: Through Hell and Back in Nazi Germany and Stalin's Russia (Ian Sayer and Douglas Botting) (Hardcover)

by Eric Pleasants (Author), Douglas Botting (Editor)
4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Hardcover: 234 pages
  • Publisher: Mainstream Publishing (18 Sep 2003)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1840187433
  • ISBN-13: 978-1840187434
  • Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.6 x 3.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 400,689 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #39 in  Books > History > World History > World War II 1939-1945 > Historical Figures > Joeseph Stalin

Product Description

Product Description
Of all the extraordinary individual accounts that have come out of World War II and its aftermath, few can compare with that of Eric Pleasants, a member of the "bastard" British wing of Hitler's SS. In this book, Pleasants writes of the bizarre and traumatic years he spent as a prisoner of the 20th century's most notorious dictators. A life-long pacifist, Eric Pleasants was forced to kill in order to survive. From a vagabond life alongside infamous Triple Cross agent Eddie Chapman on occupied Jersey, Pleasants was taken by the Nazis to a series of prison camps in France. The years that followed held a whirlwind of unexpected turns: he lived a life on the run in occupied Paris, was captured and recruited into the British Free Corps of the Waffen-SS, found love with a young German woman, witnessed the bombing of Dresden and attempted to hide from Soviet troops along the sewers of Berlin. When the war ended, Pleasants found himself on the Communist side of the Iron Curtain. By now a strong man in a travelling circus, he was arrested by the KGB on charges of espionage and sentenced to 25 years' slave labour in the notorious camps of Arctic Russia. Only with Stalin's death in 1953 was Pleasants finally released from his unique kind of purgatory, after nearly half a lifetime of peripatetic nightmare. Pleasants died in 1998 at the age of 87. "Hitler's Bastard" is a remarkable monument to his imperishable will to survive.

About the Author
The book's editors, Second World War authority Ian Sayer and biographer Douglas Botting, have previously coauthored three bestselling books covering the same period: Hitler's Last General, America's Secret Army and Nazi Gold.

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Hitler's Bastard: Through Hell and Back in Nazi Germany and Stalin's Russia (Ian Sayer and Douglas Botting)
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Hitler's Bastard: Through Hell and Back in Nazi Germany and Stalin's Russia (Ian Sayer and Douglas Botting) 4.0 out of 5 stars (2)
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Customer Reviews

2 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Semper Veritas (Northampton), 7 May 2007
This is the only book that I am aware of that describes in some detail the life of one of the British members of Hitler's SS.

The Nazi part is only one segment of an extremely interesting narrative of the life of Eric Pleasants, his post-war imprisonment in the Gulags of Russia, the luck of his release upon the death of Stalin and the remainder of his life in Norfolk.

In 2007, when communication and the media have developed beyond recognition from what they were in the 1950's -imagine the furore that would arise if it became generally known in the 1950's that 'Former British member of Hitler's SS is teaching Norfolk schoolchildren physical education'.

I imagine that Eric's experiences would have made a very interesting TV documentary. As with many subjects of World War II, reality may indeed be vastly different from how it may first appear.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Inspirational and compelling, 9 Nov 2007
By nigeyb "nigeyb" (Hove, England) - See all my reviews
I love history as told by the people that lived through extraordinary times. You won't read a more compelling story than Eric's. He was a pacifist and conscientious objector at the start of World War Two, who then ended up joining the SS! He then spent years as a slave labourer in the dreaded Gulag of Stalin's Russia. "But how?!" I hear you cry. Well, I'd urge you to read the book to find out for yourself. You couldn't make it up and- the way Eric tells it - it all makes perfect sense.

Eric was also variously a boxing star, champion wrestler, poacher, bodyguard to the Queen, circus strong man, black marketeer and more!

What shines through is Eric's opportunistic streak, unbelievable inner strength and implacable anti-establishment tendencies. He remained staunchly anti-war and he constantly adapted to the surreal environment he was forced to endure.

An interesting, inspirational and compelling book. Read it!
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