The most recommended books on Nazism

I stumbled on this novel when I was looking for something else (a common writers’ problem). It was written in 1932 and banned the next year by the Nazis and is set amongst the gangs of young men struggling to survive in a harsh and desperately impoverished Berlin. The descriptions of the hard side of the city are brilliantly drawn and the characters are so real you long for their lives to improve even when you know there is almost no hope of it. Haffner was a social worker who clearly knew Berlin’s streets well. To add to the poignancy of his writing, nothing is known about his fate beyond a summons before a Nazi tribunal in the late 1930s. After that, he disappears. I really hope his book doesn’t.

Mimi Schwartz’s Jewish father grew up in a German town where Jews and gentiles got along – until the Nazi era put extraordinary strains on their ability to coexist peaceably.  Schwartz explores how people who were not unusually brave managed to perform small acts of kindness and defiance. Her book offers important lessons for our time.

The Twelfth Man by Norwegian-American writer Astrid Karlsen Scott is the dramatic story of Norwegian agent Jan Baalsrud’s survival after a SOE mission gone wrong. A first account of his ordeal was published in 1955, but this is a more accurate telling. I like her in-depth approach to uncovering the true facts. On one of her research trips to Norway, she teamed up with Dr. Tore Haug who was also investigating Baalsrud’s story of survival. They were able to meet and interview all the survivors who helped the agent or who were indirectly involved and had knowledge of his story. You not only see what is at stake for the hero of the story, but for the people who are helping him escape the Nazis’ search for him. 

This is, again, a different kind of book than the previous two. Namely, this is a deeply researched, historical account of how some of America’s best skiers of the 1930s ended up in the famed 10th Mountain Division, fighting the Nazis in Italy during World War II. No history of skiing is complete without mention of the 10th Mountain Division—many of whose members came back to the US after the war as pioneers in the early days of the US ski industry. Charles Sanders gives a heartfelt and detailed account of some of the key men in this saga—great athletes and soldiers. 

Also a book written by an insider. Langbein was an Austrian communist who was arrested by the Nazis in Vienna and got deported.

He became a Funktionshäftling in the camp (a prisoner who had to help the Nazis with daily tasks) and wrote this formidable book about Auschwitz right after the war. Langbein describes in great detail and with style about the daily life, including sports and music, in Auschwitz I.

Non-judgemental and seemingly without anger. That’s why this book is so impressive. 

I read fewer newly published books than I would want, partly because I am so busy reading potential texts for publication. But I was delighted to pick up a copy of this excellent first book by the historian Daniel Cowling. The author works at the National Army Museum, and this experience of a public-facing institution stands him in good stead, with an excellent writing style and an eye for the significant vignette.

In 1945, the Allied forces inherited a broken country, starving people, devastated cities, and a recognition that all the institutions that might provide leadership in Germany had been thoroughly Nazified over the previous 12 years. The horror of the concentration camps hung over all their relations, but the occupation administration gradually prepared Germany for re-introduction into the family of nations. It is a fine and fascinating book.

This long-out-of-print book that came out in the 1960s introduced me to Witez II, the subject of my new book. While And Miles to Go is also historical fiction, it uses the real details of the life of Witez from his birth in Poland to his capture by the Nazis during WWII.

When I am writing a new novel about a little-known horse or horse-related event, I buy all the nonfiction books on the subject that I can find.  Once the print copy arrives, I can highlight, write notes in margins, dogear corners, and so forth, to help me with my research. This was the case with my latest book.

I purchased several nonfiction books about the army's "Operation Cowboy" during WWII during which they rescued the horses stolen by the Nazis. This book was written in the 1960s, so the closest to the time of the actual event of… show more.

This book has appeared under various titles and guises since its first publication in 1972. It is now available as The Penguin History of the Second World War. It is a bit like three books in one, since each author tackles a different theatre of World War 2.

There is a wonderful and possibly apocryphal publishing story about the changes the book underwent over the years. Peter Calvocoressi was always a distinguished historian but at the time this book first appeared in 1972 ‘Calvo’ was CEO of Penguin Books, and they were the book’s publishers. At that time Penguin also boasted one of the most brilliant editors in British publishing, Dieter Pevsner. Dieter was (naturally) the right man to edit his boss’s book. Having read it through, Dieter had a question for the boss. “I just don’t understand,” Dieter told Calvo, “how we won the Atlantic submarine war.” Calvo… show more.

This is the improbable story of a true underdog who will stop at nothing to fight fascist evil, even when he has no idea what he’s doing and no one to help him. It’s also a true story. In WWII, Fritz Kolbe was a nondescript German official in the Berlin Foreign Office who made himself into a crucial spy against the Nazis yet for years remained an unknown and unsung hero. Kolbe’s dark drive and passion are fictionalized brilliantly by Andreas Kollender. I was so taken by this tale that I translated it myself from the original German. 

Delicious. And not only because of Brigitte's incredible cooking. This was a lovely book to savor, which is kind of odd since it deals with postwar trauma beautifully.

I loved how the author dealt with the lasting effects of violence and trauma--of all sorts--on the human psyche. Now I want to see that center window!