Dan Kurzman Livres

In October 1940 Nazis forced all the Jews in the Polish city of Warsaw to live in the cramped squalor of a small ghetto. Despite the starvation and disease that claimed 50,000 lives per year, the Jews were not dying swiftly enough to suit Heinrich Himmler, who ordered in 1942 that the Warsaw Ghetto be dismantled and the 450,000 inhabitants be deported to the gas chambers at Treblinka. On April 19, 1943, the first day of Passover, two thousand German troops, singing confidently, marched into the ghetto to round up the remnant of remaining Jews. Suddenly, a fifteen-year-old girl tossed a grenade in their midst. Within minutes the German army had been routed. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising had begin.This is the first full-scale, step-by-step account of the climatic twenty-eight-day struggle of the poorly armed Jews against their Nazi exterminators. The Bravest Battle took more than two years to write and involved interviewing more than 500 people, including most of the surviving fighters. This moving history cannot be matched for its authenticity and drama. The Bravest Battle is a testament to the Warsaw Jews, who fought for survival with dignity and courage.

Set against the backdrop of World War II, the narrative unfolds the harrowing fate of the USS Indianapolis after it is torpedoed, leaving hundreds of crewmen stranded in shark-infested waters. With the ship sinking rapidly and rescue efforts delayed due to a lack of communication, the survivors face a desperate struggle for survival over five agonizing days. This gripping account highlights themes of heroism, the chaos of war, and the dire consequences of oversight within military operations.

The story of how a desperate clandestine mission in Norway ended the Nazi dream of building the atomic bomb.

In 9/43, Adolf Hitler, furious at the ouster of Mussolini, sent German troops into Rome & ordered SS General Karl Wolff, who had been Heinrich Himmler’s chief aide, to occupy the Vatican & kidnap (perhaps, kill) Pope Pius XII. At the same time plans were being made to deport Rome’s Jews to Auschwitz, Wolff began playing a dangerous game: stalling Hitler’s plot against the pope, whom he hoped would save him from the noose in case Germany lost the war. To save Pius, Wolff & fellow conspirators blackmailed him into silence when the Jews were rounded up, hoping that Hitler would rescind his order. This tale of intrigue & betrayal is one of the most important untold stories of WWII. Dan Kurzman was the 1st journalist to have interviewed General Wolff following his release from prison after the war. This is the only book to tell the full behind-the-scenes story of the plot against the Vatican & its far-reaching consequences.

Toto je příběh odvahy, vytrvalosti a hrdinství – příběh jedné z nejsmělejších a nejvytrvalejších akcí druhé světové války. Nejtajnější snaha Spojenců zabránit Hitlerovi, jehož vědci v roce 1938 objevili štěpení jádra atomu, v získání atomové bomby. Tato poutavá sága odkrývá čtyři pokusy, které byly podniknuty pro zničení vodní elektrárny v nepřístupné horské oblasti jižního Norska, kterou zabrali Němci na jaře 1940. Norsk Hydro byla největší výrobce deuteria oxidu (těžké vody) na světě, životně důležité složky pro výrobu atomové bomby. Dan Kurzman vykresluje tyto náročné operace od prvního odvážného útoku ze vzduchu, při kterém bombardéry Halifax táhly kluzáky se 34 britskými commandos. Tato akce se ukázala být sebevražednou. Při druhém pokusu překazit Němcům sestrojení atomové bomby byli na padácích vysazeni commandos, kteří pronikli do továrny, rozmístili nálože a podařilo se jim i v pořádku Němcům zmizet. Způsobené škody byly nedostatečné, aby dokázaly vyřadit Norsk Hydro. Následovalo soustředěné bombardování, ale také s malým účinkem. V zimě 1944 unikla zpráva, že Němci plánují vyvézt zařízení továrny a kanystry s těžkou vodou z Norska. Spojenci ihned pověřili odboj, aby během cesty do Německa zničil zásilku na trajektu.