Rees world war 2 behind closed doors download pdf

In a matter of hours, 1, Londoners were killed, 11, houses were destroyed, and millions of lives were changed for ever. As they had done throughout Europe, the Nazis could now plunder the masterpieces of the Renaissance, the treasures of the Vatican, and the antiquities of the Roman Empire.

On the eve of the Allied invasion, General Dwight Eisenhower empowered a new kind of soldier to protect these historic riches.

In May two unlikely American heroes—artist Deane Keller and scholar Fred Hartt—embarked from Naples on the treasure hunt of a lifetime, tracking billions of dollars of missing art, including works by Michelangelo, Donatello, Titian, Caravaggio, and Botticelli.

With the German army retreating up the Italian peninsula, orders came from the highest levels of the Nazi government to transport truckloads of art north across the border into the Reich. Standing in the way was General Karl Wolff, a top-level Nazi officer. As German forces blew up the magnificent bridges of Florence, General Wolff commandeered the great collections of the Uffizi Gallery and Pitti Palace, later risking his life to negotiate a secret Nazi surrender with American spymaster Allen Dulles.

An unforgettable story of epic thievery and political intrigue, Saving Italy is a testament to heroism on behalf of art, culture, and history. A horrifying account of the effects of an Allied air raid on a German city during World War Two - a classic of anti-war literature. This is the true story of the men who hunted them down.

Not long after the escape, fifty of the recaptured airmen were taken to desolate killing fields throughout Germany and shot on the direct orders of Hitler.

A revolving team of military police, led by squadron leader Francis P. McKenna, was dispatched to Germany seventeen months after the killings to pick up a trail long gone cold.

Amid the chaos of postwar Germany, divided between American, British, French, and Russian occupiers, McKenna and his men brought twenty-one Gestapo killers to justice in a hunt that spanned three years and took them into the darkest realms of Nazi fanaticism.

In Human Game, Simon Read tells this harrowing story as never before. Beginning inside Stalag Luft III and the Nazi High Command, through the grueling three-year manhunt, and into the final close of the case more than two decades later, Read delivers a clear-eyed and meticulously researched account of this often-overlooked saga of hard-won justice.

The question is as searing as it is fundamental to the continuing debate over Japanese culpability in World War II and the period leading up to it: "How could Japanese soldiers have committed such acts of violence against Allied prisoners of war and Chinese civilians?

In the years that followed, under Emperor Hirohito, conformity was the norm and the Japanese psyche became one of selfless devotion to country and emperor; soon Japanese soldiers were to engage in mass murder, rape, and even cannibalization of their enemies.

We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method. Pay using card ending in. Taxes where applicable. Publisher's Summary Brought to you by Penguin. When do you think the Second World War ended?

World War II World. Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews. Amazon Reviews. No Reviews are Available. Sort by:. Most Helpful Most Recent. The one aspect of the book that doesn't quite work is the mix of witness statements and high politics and military commentary that Rees uses throughout the book, but that is a minor criticism indeed.

It is very readable, as Rees's stuff usually is. Highly recommended. May 27, Michael Flanagan rated it it was amazing Shelves: ww Laurence Rees has delivered yet again. Behind closed doors is a look at the Big Three Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt and their dealings with each other. The book is full of intrigue and insights into diplomacy of the era as well as a study of these three big personalities.

As Usual Rees threads his narrative with eye witness accounts of the behind the scene going on's as well as from those who where effected by their decisions. I would like to think myself well read in the World War 2 era, bu Laurence Rees has delivered yet again.

I would like to think myself well read in the World War 2 era, but this book introduced me to key historical event's which are barely mentioned in other text. The author's ability to be able to put these in context and compare with other more well known events left me awe struck. This book easily matches the high standards already set by this author in his other books of the period; I can't wait till his next offering.

Apr 15, iain meek rated it really liked it Recommends it for: historians, communists. A well written but very sad history of the alliance between the West and Stalin culminating in the loss of Poland as a free country and the descent of the iron curtain.

A pity Roosevelt and Churchill did not agree. A big thank you to my stepdaughter, Nicky, who gave me this as a present. I hope that history does not repeat itself! Impressive and totally tragic 'back-channel' history of the WWII Sep 05, Alex Robinson rated it it was amazing Shelves: history. A fascinating overview of how political necessity made the Western powers overlook what a monster Stalin was they could not have beat the Nazis without the USSR.

Not a comfy read, but it cures one of the false view that Allied leaders in WWII were the moral guardians of the world. Jun 21, Paul W rated it liked it Shelves: military-history , world-war-2 , war , european-history , churchill , russian-history. On 1 September German troops crossed into Poland. Despite the Anglo-Polish treaty, there was no response from Britain and its allies to this invasion. No declaration of war against the Soviet Union. The British cabinet debated whether the guarantee to Poland covered any aggressor or only Germany.

Chamberlain was much relieved, and Churchill did not demur. In the lead up to the outbreak of war the Soviet Union was uncertain about British attitudes. This is not surprising because, as Rees highlights, Britain seemed to prefer a policy of appeasement to the Germans, rather than alliance with the Soviets. British foreign policy had been predicated for years on the basis that a friendly relationship with Germany was of more value than an accommodation with the Soviet Union.

Britain had not even bothered to consult with the Soviet Union before reaching the Munich Agreement with Germany in September In the Soviet Union sought an agreement with Britain, but Britain responded by sending a low level bureaucrat with limited powers of negotiation.

In addition, a Soviet alliance with Britain would require Poland to allow Soviet troops to enter its territory to fight the Germans, something Poland was not willing to allow. Rees reminds us that Stalin was just as ideologically opposed to Britain and France as he was to Nazi Germany. So Stalin continued the discussions with Germany. As a result an economic treaty between Germany and the Soviet Union was signed on 19 August , followed by a Non-Aggression Pact five days later.

The Soviet Union and Poland had fought a war in the early s which resulted in the Poles gaining western Ukraine and western Belarus. These borders were ratified in the Treaty of Riga in Having resolved in what it saw as an anomaly, the Soviet Union was unlikely to return territory it saw as rightly its.

Despite the British government being well briefed on events on Poland, it was anxious to say nothing about the Soviet atrocities, while at the same time openly condemning the Nazis in western Poland for committing similar crimes. So German preparations for its attack in the East were finalised. And so on 22 June , Operation Barbarossa began, and changed the course of the war. Many British politicians and leading figures in the military felt that the Soviets could not hold out for long. History encountered a turning point in August when Stalin and Churchill first met.

The representative of the most powerful empire the world has ever seen? Neither Churchill nor Roosevelt uttered a word in defence of the Polish government in exile. Both were wrong. The Russians will sweep through your country and you people will be liquidated. Once again, when powerful governments negotiated, the freedom of small nations was somehow expendable.

But then allowed exactly this to occur. For vast numbers of them it meant certain hardship, torture and death in Soviet gulags. Other authors, such as Nikolai Tolstoy in Victims of Yalta, expound on this harrowing episode in history.

Oct 22, Ruthie rated it really liked it Shelves: non-fiction , russia-obsession. Challenges lots of perceptions such as: 'Russia entered the war in when Germany invaded. L Likewise, when did the war end? If you lived in Estonia or indeed Poland , your country was occupied until Startling details that hit home such as the number of Soviet dead at Stalingrad was more th Brilliantly written history of Stalin and his relationships with Churchill and Roosevelt during WW2.

Startling details that hit home such as the number of Soviet dead at Stalingrad was more than Britain or US lost in the whole war. Some interesting themes emerge about integrity in relation to politics and foreign policy - which today's governments would be wise to remember.

An extraordinary civil servant called Sir Owen O'Malley wrote a report when Germany first revealed the Katyn massacres when the Soviet's murdered thousands of Polish officers and intellectuals and the UK was faced with whether to speak out against their allies Soviets or go along with what was clearly a cover-up.

He included the dictum 'what in the international sphere is morally indefensible generally turns out in the long run to have been politically inept. Oct 12, Jose M. Very educational and eye-opening book. I think I now understand better what happened back then, and also learnt about key battles that I didn't know of, as the American movies wouldn't promote them as much as others in which they took part. I found the book very easy to read and enjoyed it a lot.

Some of the stories are quite epic, others very dramatic and unfair that would make your blood boil. I was surprised by the astonishing difference in the number of Soviet Union casualties, compared to t Very educational and eye-opening book. I was surprised by the astonishing difference in the number of Soviet Union casualties, compared to the rest of the Allies. There is a lot they don't tell us in history class and in the movies. Stalin was as bad as Hitler or even worse, but he was tolerated and supported by democratic leaders such as Roosevelt and Churchill.

Furthermore, he leaded the Soviet Union to the liberation of Europe from the Nazis. A very good, frank and deep look at the people we hailed as heroes and icons for most of our lives and their behavior towards each other and the people of several countries.

I did learn some of this during my high school years as the shine of covering up unpleasant things was fading only to be in full force today sadly but there was a lot I found should be taught that isn't.

This is quite the eye opener that people should read. Some of this pertains to today's political climate and it's a litt A very good, frank and deep look at the people we hailed as heroes and icons for most of our lives and their behavior towards each other and the people of several countries.

Some of this pertains to today's political climate and it's a little disturbing and possibly frightening that history is almost repeating itself on a lot of levels. The only downside to this book is that it's dry very interesting and relevant and it set up text book style without any breaks in the text.

It's a long book but I wouldn't mind it being longer if it had actual paragraph breaks. Had to read in small chunks so my eyes didn't cross. Adapted from a documentary series, this is a fast-paced, very readable mix of diplomatic and personal history, dealing with the realpolitik core of the Second World War in Europe.

Rees digs up some interesting archival detail, and the stories of the people caught up in the machinations of the Big Three are compelling and well-presented. My problems with this book are mostly my fault for not reading the dust jacket more closely. Just going on the front and back my edition isn't titled 'Pact with Adapted from a documentary series, this is a fast-paced, very readable mix of diplomatic and personal history, dealing with the realpolitik core of the Second World War in Europe.

Just going on the front and back my edition isn't titled 'Pact with the Devil' either I was expecting a more in-depth diplomatic history when this is much more of an exercise in 'good war' myth busting.

One area where the book does lose its way is that Rees' focus on the allied pretense that the war was one to defend Poland's territorial boundaries from east as well as west something he notes the March guarantee doesn't actually do persistently and to my mind perversely leads him to give the boundaries of post-Versailles Poland almost the same weight as the suffering of the people suddenly caught up in the Soviet and German empires.

This ignores the extent to which the post-WW1 settlement in Eastern Europe was a far from clear-cut or satisfactory arrangement for Poles, Belarusians, Ukrainians and others groups alike, and the way in which imperatives of nation-statehood were leading all of the independent governments of the region into dictatorship and attempts to homogenise or otherwise deal with the minorities within their borders.

Rees, in his commitment to a simple story of Poland betrayed leaves untouched the extent to which the various cleansing policies of the two tyrants had their own admirers and assistants in these newly conquered territories. A not-terrible retelling of the diplomatic conferences of the Allies and the consequences thereof. But ultimately the book never answers the question: What were the Allies supposed to do to protect Poland? Location is everything and with respect to Poland, the Russians had it.

If I myself had it to do over again, I would not have hewed to principle and alienated a major ally. I continue to think that Stalin got off easy in terms of being called to account for the Polish invasion, which nobo A not-terrible retelling of the diplomatic conferences of the Allies and the consequences thereof. I continue to think that Stalin got off easy in terms of being called to account for the Polish invasion, which nobody ever mentions to him because it's a real conversation ender.

Oct 19, Mohan Krishnan rated it really liked it. Laurence Rees narrates world war II, his main focus on this book is about Stalin, its no surprise that all leaders are same as Hitler, every one did atrocities on their level, mass killings of poles in Katyn, British ignorance of Indian freedom. Good read. Feb 08, George Ruddell rated it it was amazing.

Great book. This is the third Laurence Rees book which I have read. All have been excellent. This book examines the relationship initially between Hitler and Stalin and then between the Western Allies and Stalin. Jun 29, Theodore Vasilic rated it it was amazing. I have always been interested in diplomatic history, especially when it comes to dictatorships. Combined with my general interest in WW2, this book was the perfect match.

Rees has a very clear and understandable writing style, interspersed with a lot of personal accounts which give it a more human touch. Very good. Five stars. Aug 12, Scottnshana rated it it was amazing. I thoroughly enjoyed this look at the alliance we made to take down the Axis, and I think it's the kind of history we should be looking at these days as things heat up again in the zone along Russia's western periphery.

It is certainly the sort of history that Mr. Putin has labeled revisionist and slander, but to me that argues it's worth reading for its objectivity and journalist author's drive to get at the ugly truth. I would label Mr. Rees as one of those UK historians that went into the for I thoroughly enjoyed this look at the alliance we made to take down the Axis, and I think it's the kind of history we should be looking at these days as things heat up again in the zone along Russia's western periphery.