Their Darkest Hour: People Tested to the Extreme in WWII

Laurence Rees

ISBN 10: 0091917573 / ISBN 13: 9780091917579

Published by Ebury Press, 2007

About this Item

New Book complete with DJ. These true stories are superb - gripping and often chilling. pictorial DJ. There are several black and white plates in the centre of the book. Seller Inventory # 006930

Bibliographic Details

Title: Their Darkest Hour: People Tested to the ...

Publisher: Ebury Press

Publication Date: 2007

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: New Book

Dust Jacket Condition: New Book

Edition: 1st Edition

About this title

Synopsis:

Award-winning writer and filmmaker Laurence Rees has spent nearly 20 years meeting people who were tested to the extreme during World War II. He has come face-to-face with rapists, mass murderers, even cannibals, but he has also met courageous individuals who are an inspiration to us all. His quest has taken him from the Baltic States to Japan, from Poland to America, and from Germany to China. Here he presents 35 of his most electrifying encounters.Meet Estera Frenkiel, a young Jewish woman given the chance to save ten fellow Jews from deportation and death; Peter Lee, a British officer brutally treated by his Japanese captors; Zinaida Pytkina, a female member of the Soviet Union's infamous SMERSH organisation, who took pleasure in killing a German Prisoner; Hiroo Onoda, a Japanese soldier so fanatical that he refused to surrender until 29 years after the end of the war; and Petras Zelionka, a Lithuanian who shot Jewish men, women and children for the Nazis. The devastating first-hand testimony in "Their Darkest Hour" is both a lasting contribution to our understanding of the war and a powerful insight into the behaviour of human beings in crisis.

Review:

"Laurence Rees has devoted much of his life to trying to understand how the atrocities of the Second World War were possible. Nobody else has penetrated as far into the motivation and psyche of such a varied group of people from the war. We should be grateful to him for his work - and we should all read this book" -- Andrew Roberts

"Rees has made an important contribution to our understanding of the Second World War. His great urge to comprehend the mentalities of those who took part in the conflict is fired by a passionate curiosity, and his wide body of work is distinguished by a fierce intellectual honesty" -- Anthony Beevor

"This book is both a lasting contribution to our understanding of the Second World War and a powerful insight into the behaviour of human beings in crisis" -- The Independent

"powerful and unsettling" -- The Sunday Times