More powerful than any fictional thriller, these true stories from World War II are available to borrow from the Lititz Public Library.
Crossing the Borders of Time: A True Story of War, Exile and Love Reclaimed by Leslie Maitland
A former New York Times reporter sets out to find out what happened to her mother’s first love, a French Catholic she planned to marry when the impending Nazi invasion of France forced her to flee.
Letters from Berlin: A Story of War, Survival, and the Redeeming Power of Love and Friendship by Margarete Dos and Kerstin Lieff
The memoir of a girl coming of age in Hitler’s Germany, her subsequent imprisonment in a Russian Gulag and her posthumously discovered love letters to a mysterious soldier on the front written during the final siege of Berlin.
The End: The Defiance and Destruction of Hitler’s Germany, 1944-1945 by Ian Kershaw
Hitler biographer explores how Germany was able to hold out to the bitter end of the war.
Frozen in Time: An Epic Story of Survival and a Modern Quest for Lost Heroes of World War II by Mitchell Zuckoff
In 2012 the U.S. Coast Guard and the North South Polar mounted an expedition to solve the mystery of a cargo plane that crashed in 1942 and the rescue plane that flew into a storm and vanished.
The Liberator: One World War II Soldier’s 500-Day Odyssey from the Beaches of Sicily to the Gates of Dachau by Alex Kershaw
A maverick U.S. Army officer and his infantry unit fought over five hundred days to liberate Europe, from the invasion of Italy to the discovery of Dachau concentration camp.
Army of Evil: A History of the SS by Adrian Weale
A small squad of political thugs grew into the militarized Waffen-SS with more than eight hundred thousand loyal and ruthless men, rivaling Germany’s regular armed forces.
Hitlerland: American Eyewitnesses to the Nazi Rise to Power by Andrew Nagorski
Personal testimonies offer a fresh perspective by diplomats, military, expats, visiting authors, Olympic athletes and others who were present when Hitler rose to power.
The Blood of Free Men: The Liberation of Paris, 1944 by Michael Neiberg
Resistance fighters, Allied commanders and French citizens led the liberation of Paris in 1944 from German occupation and ultimately helped shape the outcome of World War II.
Neptune’s Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal by James D. Hornfischer
Interviews with veterans and primary sources present a narrative account of the pivotal campaign, chronicling the three-month effort to gain control of Guadalcanal, a battle that taught the Navy and Marines new approaches to warfare.
Pearl Harbor Christmas: A World at War, December 1941 by Stanley Weintraub
Americans tried to go about celebrating the holiday season as usual while facing the realities of the Pearl Harbor attack and American involvement in World War II.
Counting the Days: POWs, Internees and Stragglers of World War II in the Pacific by Craig B. Smith
The stories of six prisoners from both sides of World War II are recounted, including a pair of European expatriates who were released into the dangerous Philippine jungles, a U.S. citizen who was confined in a detention camp and a Japanese soldier who hid in the Guam jungles until 15 years after the war.
Helmet for My Pillow: From Parris Island to the Pacific, A Young Marine’s Stirring Account of Combat in World War II by Robert Leckie
Leckie provides a riveting account of his odyssey from basic training to the raging battles in the Pacific.
The Perfect Nazi: Uncovering My Grandfather’s Secret Past by Martin Davidson
Upon his grandfather’s death, the author’s mother revealed his hidden past as a Nazi SS officer.
Some Girls, Some Hats and Hitler: A True Love Story Rediscovered by Trudi Kanter
A Jewish Austrian hat designer and the businessman she loved sought safety amid the horrors of World War II Europe.
No Surrender: A World War II Memoir by James J. Sheeran
A World War II paratrooper describes landing in Normandy on D-Day, being captured by the Germans, escaping a POW train, traveling behind enemy lines in France and hooking up to fight with Patton’s army.
Originally published on October 11, 2013 in the Lititz Record Express.