Here at Lemuria we all have sections in the store that we adopt as our own, hopefully so that any time you have a question about a particular subject, one of us can go right to what you need. I’m your girl in charge of most of our history books (American history, world history, Civil rights, the Civil War, World War II, World War I, or any other war ever in the history of the world) which means that I have a little trouble reading every single thing that comes through my section because, well, the world is old and a lot has happened in it. In an effort to at least be familiar with what I’m putting on the shelves I’ve become quite the expert skimmer–so here is my list of books-I’ve-skimmed-through that merit a longer, more thorough read. These picks all hail from our WWII section and I’m excited to one day actually sit down and read them all the way through.
They Shall Not Have Me, Jean Helion
This is the autobiographical account of French modernist painter Jean Helion and his harrowing life in and escape from a prisoner of war camp during World War II. I think the reason this book has piqued my interest so much is because of a customer I encountered who bought himself a copy. I expressed to him my enjoyment that he was buying a book that I thought looked like such a good read and he simply said, “This happened to me”. He then proceeded to tell me about the time he was captured during the second world war, placed in a POW camp, and then successfully escaped, hiding out in the woods for several days before being picked up by a passing group of Allied soldiers. I was dumbstruck, to say the least, and could only find the words to thank him for his service. He came back in the store a few weeks later and assured me that this books was indeed an excellent read, one that he would recommend to his friends.
The Star of Africa, Colin D. Heaton & Anne-Marie Lewis
This book is about the life of Hans Marseille, a Luftwaffe Ace who had quite the track record with his commanding officers. This guy refused to join the Nazi party, broke rules constantly, infuriating his superiors who passed him around like a hot potato, and was an amazingly skilled pilot who was known to show mercy to his enemies. According to the book “He followed his own chivalrous code and frequently went out of his way to avoid killing the Allied pilots he fought against. He was known to guide damaged Allied planes to the ground and fly through Allied anti aircraft fire to drop written messages to inform his enemies about pilots he had shot down”. Y’all, I know this sounds like something made up by Hollywood, but this story is true- the book was put together from accounts of people who knew him personally and from his commanding officers. Crazy.
Hitler’s Charisma, Laurence Rees
I know, I know. Another Hitler book? Seriously, haven’t we examined this guy’s psyche enough already? The conclusive answer to that is: nope, we haven’t. Truth is, we’re still baffled by the idea that one human being could throw the entire world into absolute chaos by deciding that Poland belonged to him, that the Jews shouldn’t belong to anyone including themselves, and that yeah, duh, he could invade the Soviet Union. Even though he had no friends, no ability to listen to others, and was fueled by hate, he somehow managed to become a powerful leader with masses of followers. Laurence Rees, a prominent BBC documentarian and author of two other WWII books (Auschwitz and World War II Behind Closed Doors), tears into the idea of what made Hitler so powerful– his supposed charisma, and takes a long, hard look at the man and the power that he amassed by becoming an attractive figure to millions of people.
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