Krigsfanger

Uomgængeligt vidnesbyrd og gribende læseoplevelse. Eddy de Winds ‘Endestation Auschwitz’ er den eneste bog, der faktisk blev skrevet i lejren, og sammen med Anne Franks dagbøger det vigtigste hollandske vidnesbyrd om Anden Verdenskrig – de Winds bog blev aldrig oversat til andre sprog, men i forbindelse med 75-året for befrielsen af Auschwitz i januar 2020 udkommer den på udvalgte forlag igennem Europa. Efter overstået eksamen meldte den unge jødiske læge Eddy de Wind sig straks til frivillig tjeneste i den hollandske transitlejr Westerbork. Han var nemlig blevet lovet, at hans mor så ikke ville blive sendt videre til Auschwitz. Det løfte blev ikke holdt. I stedet blev også han selv og han nyfundne hustru (hun var sygeplejerske med kloge øjne og smukt hår, og de blev gift i lejren) sendt til den mest berygtede af alle koncentrationslejrene. Og alene Eddys psykologiske iagttagelsesevne i den visuelle beskrivelse af ankomsten til Auschwitz løfter denne bog til noget unikt. I Auschwitz bliver Eddy skilt fra sin unge hustru – han bliver ført til hospitalet, hvor han både skal lindre smerte og udføre dødstjeneste, hun bliver ført til kvindehuset, hvor hun udsættes for fysiske og medicinske forsøg. Det bliver en vej igennem mørke og tab. Senere, da tyskerne forlader Auschwitz, fordi russerne nærmer sig, gemmer Eddy sig i en barak – og her begynder han at skrive. I ‘Endestation Auschwitz’ benytter de Wind sig af en let romanhinde – kalder sig selv for Hans, hans kone for Friedel, og den forfærdende Mengele ved pseudonym – og skriver med stor indsigt og lyrisk pen om de næsten uudsigelige oplevelser, mens teksten dirrer af erfaringen og tabenes kraft. En meget vigtig bog.

I de sidste uger af 2. Verdenskrig blev en ungarsk bataljon, der var tvangsudskrevet til tysk krigstjeneste, indkvarteret i det vestjyske sogn Lønborg-Vostrup.I de dramatiske uger, der fulgte, gik det op for lokalbefolkningen, at ungarerne ikke var de frygtede ”besættere”, men nødstedte, der søgte beskyttelse. Takket være et hemmeligt netværk og et dristigt spil bag tyskernes ryg opstod en usædvanlig alliance, der fortsatte, da ungarerne vendte hjem til et kommunistisk diktatur og til undertrykkelse.”Den skjulte alliance” er en dokumentarisk bog, der afdækker en upåagtet lokalhistorie. Den trækker tråde til danmarkshistorien og til den ungarske, da Europa efter 1945 blev delt af et jerntæppe. Den fortæller om mennesker, der på tragisk vis kom i klemme mellem nazismen og kommunismen.Søren Peder Sørensen (f. 1955) er journalist og forfatter, blandt andet til bogen ”De ungarske soldater – en glemt tragedie fra den tyske besættelse af Danmark under 2. Verdenskrig”.

”Sorttjærede ligkister” fortæller den barske historie om de 7.000 danske og norske søfolk, der blev krigsfanger i England fra 1807-14 under krigen mellem Danmark og England. De blev placeret på de uhumske, flydende fangeskibe – ”Prisonen” - under kummerlige forhold, der betød sult, sygdom og død for mange. Prisonskibene, der var udrangerede krigsskibe, lå for anker ud for de engelske flådebyer, bl.a. Plymouth, Portsmouth og Chatham. Årsagen til krigen var, at englænderne krævede at få udleveret den danske flåde. Danmark sagde nej. Men efter et terrorbombardement af København i september 1807 kunne englænderne drage hjem med deres krigsbytte – den stolte danske flåde. Den engelske flåde erobrede under krigen 1381 fredelige danske handelsskibe og søfolkene ombord blev krigsfanger. Orlogsgaster fra den danske flådes kanonbåde og kapere – en slags statsautoriserede sørøvere – endte også i ”Prisonen”, hvis de blev fanget. Ved Chatham, hvor de fleste danskere og nordmænd var placeret, blev fangerne udsat for lidt af en ydmygelse. De blev en lokal turistattraktion, og dagligt blev der sejlet utallige turister ud i robåde for at se fangerne på nærmeste hold. Det var næsten ligesom en tur i zoologisk have. En skibsdreng ombord på et af skibene kaldte de flydende fængsler for ”Sorttjærede ligkister, der lugter ligesådan”. Bogen rummer mange andre beretninger fra fanger, der fortæller om kampen for overlevelse på de udrangerede krigsskibe. Søfolkenes officerer kunne i modsætning til matroserne leve et ganske frit liv i land i byen Reading. De skulle blot afgive deres æresord på ikke at flygte. Derfor deltog de i egnens sociale liv med baller og fine middage med engelske søofficerer. Det var en krig for gentlemen.

Stefan R. Rasser was born in March 1945 near Chemnitz (Saxony) and grew up in Hannover - at that time part of the British Zone of post-war Germany. After successful completion of his commercial education he decided to gain international experience in direct sales and relocated to Great Britain and later on to Switzerland. From 1972 on he worked for a reputable subsidiary of Tyco Corporation close to Munich. In 2010 he retired and moved with his wife to her hometown Biberach/Riss - unsuspectingly how far he would be drawn into the history of this small Swabian town. Fascinated by the audacious escape of British officers from a local POW camp in September 1941 through a self-dug tunnel, in 2011 Stefan R. Rasser began researching the circumstances of this stunning endeavour focusing on the participating officers' lives during World War 2. After years of meticulous investigation, he discovered parts of the tunnel, including its exit. The exciting story of this discovery, intertwined with some biographies of the protagonists, was published in German in 2020 with the title "Wir sind durch!".

Brought to you by Penguin.Aiden Aslin joined the Ukrainian marines in 2018, compelled to defend his adopted homeland from the growing threat of Russian invasion. In February 2022, as Russia mounted a full-scale offensive, Aiden and his unit were stationed at the frontline at Mariupol.Pinned down at a Mariupol steelworks, after a month-long siege and running out of supplies, Aiden was part of the mass surrender of over a thousand Ukrainian troops, in April 2022. Then his real ordeal began.Singled out for his British passport, Aiden was interrogated, tortured, stabbed, turned into a propaganda zombie, tried by a kangaroo court and then sentenced to death. A victim of a catalogue of abuses of international law, Aiden struggled to cling on to any hope of survival. Certain that he was going to be executed, he was eventually freed in a prisoner exchange and permitted to return home.In Putin's Prisoner, Aiden will tell the full, harrowing story of his time fighting in Putin's war, of his six months in Russian captivity, and of his hardened resolve to defend the freedoms of the people of Ukraine.(c)2023 Aiden Aslin & John Sweeney (P)2023 Penguin Audio

A remarkable collection of accounts of intrepid American aircrew shot down over enemy lines during World War II and how they got away. To be an airman in the Eighth Air Force flying over the war-torn skies of Europe required skill, tenacity, and luck. Those who were shot down and evaded capture needed all of that and more if they were to make it back to friendly lines. These are their stories. Each is compiled from the original intelligence debrief written by the pilots or aircrew themselves. Bill Yenne details how a spider web of escape routes sprang up, created by the local Résistance. Downed airmen were clothed, given false papers, and hidden so they could be smuggled back to England. These efforts were then supplemented by Allied intelligence agents. But the risks remained the same. Capture could mean death. Their accounts are sometimes funny, often heartbreaking. P-47 pilot Joel McPherson feigned appendicitis and was able to escape from the local German military hospital - after he had his appendix removed. He spent weeks operating as a getaway driver for a Maquis bank robber gang before making it into neutral Spain. Bomber crewmen Fred Hartung and Norman Therrien found refuge at a French château, but later nearly froze to death crossing the icy Pyrenees with the Gestapo on their trail. The accounts of these men and others from the Mighty Eighth make this a story of defiance, foolhardiness, and bravery against the odds.

A Uyghur poet's piercing memoir of life under the most coercive surveillance regime in history***LITHUB'S #1 BEST-REVIEWED NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023*****A FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023****AN ECONOMIST BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023**'Essential reading' AI WEIWEI, author of 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows'Deserves to be read widely... Beautiful' FINANCIAL TIMESIf you took an Uber in Washington DC a few years ago, there's a chance your driver was one of the greatest living Uyghur poets, and one of only a handful from his minority Muslim community to escape the genocide being visited upon his homeland in western China.A successful filmmaker, innovative poet and prominent intellectual, Tahir Hamut Izgil had long been acquainted with state surveillance and violence, having spent three years in a labour camp on fabricated charges.But in 2017, the Chinese government's repression of its Uyghur citizens assumed a terrifying new intensity: critics were silenced; conversations became hushed; passports were confiscated; and Uyghurs were forced to provide DNA samples and biometric data.As Izgil's friends disappeared one by one, it became clear that fleeing the country was his family's only hope.Escape to America spared Izgil's family the internment camps that have swallowed over a million Uyghurs. It also allowed this rare personal testimony of the Xinjiang genocide to reach the wider world.Waiting to Be Arrested at Night charts the ongoing destruction of a community and a way of life. It is a call for the world to awaken to a humanitarian catastrophe, an unforgettable story of courage, escape and survival, and a moving tribute to Izgil's friends and fellow Uyghurs whose voices have been silenced.

Trapped under Mussolini's reign and Hitler's occupation, this riveting true story is propelled by a brave girl's courage and a family's bond as they struggle to survive the battle between evil and the power of love.

A collection of writings from one of the anti-Apartheid struggle's major revolutionary public intellectuals

Ukrainian communist Oleksandr Shumskyi's case offers unique insight into a survival strategy in Stalin's terror machine. Shumskyi endured his tortures; his refusal to confess to false charges denied his interrogators a key piece to demonstrate the "legality" of their investigations. Stalin's Liquidation Game examines resistance and survival.

Sammy Mountjoy, artist, rises from poverty and an obscure birth to see his pictures hung in the Tate Gallery. Swept into World War Two, he is taken as a prisoner-of-war, threatened with torture, then locked in a cell of total darkness to wait. He emerges from his cell transfigured from his ordeal, and begins to realise what man can be and what he has gradually made of himself through his own choices. But did those accumulated choices also begin to deprive him of his free will.

Through the words of the Medical Officers themselves, some of the detail of what really happened on the Death Railway, for good or ill, is revealed here.