5 comments about Witness to Jasenovac's Hell.

1. From the moment I purchased this book I could not put it down until I was finished it (a few hours later).

   Ivanovic's personal account of his "1000 days" in hell is so devastatingly truthful, so shocking and is a perfect example of why his story "had to be told". So brutal are his accounts of events from 1942-1945, that I was nearly brought to tears on several occasions.

   The sheer brutality of the Croatian Nazi masters (Ustashi) was unparralled in Europe during WWII. In fact, even Germans found the Ustashi methods of torture and liquidation beyond explanation. The methods of torture and murder at Jasenovac even exceeded the horrors of Auschwitz. While the main target of the murderous ISC were Serbs, they also liquidated tens of thousands of Jews, Gypsies and Partisan Croatians.

   It is amazing that the realities of Jasenovac have remained largely a "hidden shame" for the Croat government of the ISC and even the current Neo-Fascist regime in Croatia presently.

   The single most impressive part about this book pertains to points of factual or statistical reference (by way of footnotes). Most of the sources the editors used were either from Croat WWII sources or Catholic Church sources. Often the debate about Jasenovac has revolved around the false belief that Serbian historians falsified numbers, facts and statistics. By using sources from Croatia and the Vatican this book has legitimized the horrors that the sons and daughters of Serbia faced in WWII.

   Additionally this book puts into context the current climate in fascist Croatia and Fundamentalist Bosnia. Only through survivor accounts (such as this) and greater investigation into Croatian attrocities at Jasenovac can the Balkan's move forward into the 21st century.

   I highly recommend this book to all who seek the truth about a place called hell, a place called Jasenovac.




2. This is the first time I'm feeling compelled to write a review for Amazon's readers and here's why: this book is based on a short first hand account written by a Bosnian Serb inmate in Jasenovac and it's quite interesting. I mean: the guy's no Primo Levi but the account looks honest and heartfelt enough to haunt a feeble-gutted reader. It doesn't add much to what was already known about Jasenovac; indeed I expected a much more gruesome tale, but the author asserts he reported only what he saw directly and that's fine with me. What's not fine with me at all is the editor's job, that trasformed a honest book in sheer propaganda of the worst kind. I don't know if she was duped into this, but she should really shoulder the blame of having manipulated for shameless purposes (i.e. finding a pretext and a justification for the massacres perpetrated by Serbs in the 92-95 war) a honest effort by somebody who saw hell with his own eyes. The notes intermingled with the text are at best misleading when they're not completely spurious (e.g. the horrific account of the king of cut-throats, quoted by some other reviewer below is taken from Avro Manhattan and NOT from the author of the book. Manhattan is a source no serious researcher would quote with a ten foot pole). If anybody still has any doubt on what the purposes of the editor (Wanda Schindley, for the record) are, just check out the home page of the International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic and you will find the book in object quoted under the caption "Why did Serbian people *not* want to be ruled by Croatia in 1991?". I can sympathise with some of the editor's points, particularly about the role of the Vatican in the 92-95 war and the process of beatification of Stepinac, but from that to manipulation there's a long winding road. Finally I'd like to say a word curiously absent from the editor's epilogue: Srebrenica.



3. I would like to say one thing. This book is excelent. it is a first hand account from the eyes of child who lived through WW2. If one looks at other reviews we see people talking about how horrible this book is and how it is all lies. Now lets look at thsoe peoples names, all Croats. Jasenovac did happen and people who deny it are lying. Even the Croatian government said that 700,000 did die there. Come on now 700,000 Serbs in 4 years. That means 500 people per day. ohh i am so sorry 500 people per day is not a massacre. please stop, read the book, read history books, read academic records and you will see Jasenovac is true and this is a innocent first view on the camp.



4. In Romania we have been thought in school about Dachau, Auswitz, Sobibor etc but I don't think I ever heard about Jasenovac.My parents and grandparents told me about the Croatian atrocities against the Serbians in WWII but I had yet to find something on this theme in the west.It seems that the media demonization of the Serbs would've been somehow less complete if the story of Jasenovac was told.Great book,allows one to comprehend the fear the Serbs felt when they were forced to live again in an independent Croatia.A Croatia led by a holocaust denier who promised to rid the country of the Serbian "cancer".The Serbian ethic minority was cleansed indeed...with western support of course.
   If everyone in the West would've read the book perhaps the media's lies about the Yugoslav conflict would've been much easier to detect.
   At the Holocaust Museum in Washington there was no mention of Jasenovac and although there are numerous pictures depicting the carnage that befell the Serbs they are surprisingly missing from the museum.Wouldn't go well with the media and the government's script.
   It is surprising to find a book that describe a first hand account of that savagery committed by the Ustasha(Croatians) against the Serbs.I wonder if there will be a book about their atrocities committed nowadays against the Serbs?Maybe we'll have to wait another 50-60 years to read about them.Btw Croatia was declared the most ethnically clean country in the world.Reading this book one can understand why.



5. This work presents a true account of Vatican's "forbidden holocaust" and Croatian genocide of Serbs, in Second World War...The most evil concentration camp of all nazi camps, Jasenovac in Croatia, was the place of torture and extermination of close to 1 milion Serbs, Jews and other non-catholics in Balkans. This is a powerful book that will make you want to know more and after reading it, your understanding of present situation and wars in Yugoslavia will be quite clear...Do not miss it.

3 comments about A Soldier's Courage.

1. Both my husband and I read this book and felt it well worth reading. It's written from a complete journal his wife kept throughout his past 3 years with 19 surgeries, up to now, and his courageous struggle to recover. This reveals how important it is for the family of the wounded to actually live at Walter Reed to help in the day-to-day care, avoiding as many unfortunate episodes as possible that happen in such a large institution. It also touches on the problems the wounded face later when applying for their medical disability.
   
   This book is a "must" for everyone so they may follow the long ordeal of survival from horrendous wounds. It puts "just wounded" into an entirely different perspective as we hear of their painful struggles while healing.



2. This true story is written by a military wife, Janis Galatas, who journals from the time her husband, Sergeant First Class Norris Galatas, is critically wounded on April 19, 2005 (April 20 in Iraq) in "the start of a bad day" by his truck running over an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) while he is out a recovery mission for another vehicle hit by an IED, through November 2007. It chronicles his many year recovery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC), the care and love of his wife Janis, and the many people who have made a difference in their lives. This book contains valuable advice for the military and family members and provides insight into what happens to the soldiers and their family after they return home injured from the war.
   
   Janis is a down-to-earth, strong, and passionate wife whose love and dedication to her husband is inspirational as she stays by her husband's bedside during the critical months of his recovery and at times goes off to battle with the military system herself when she doesn't feel her husband is getting the quality of care he needs or to help get troops in Iraq the equipment and supplies they need. As one person wrote in an e-mail to Norris, "...if the Army ever were to issue a wife they would do their best to find women like your wife." Janis represents the strength, love, and dedication of the military wives whose sacrifices and love make it possible for their husbands to defend our country.
   
   Norris is one of the many wounded soldiers who have come back from a war. His courage, humor, strength, bravery and long road to recovery to a changed life based on his injuries is a look into one story of the many soldiers who risk their lives serving in their line of duty. I have known Norris for seven months after meeting him, August 2007 at a USO Hawaiian Luau event for wounded soldiers at the Mologne House. Several times a month, we meet for lunch and I do Reiki and Healing Touch energy healing therapy for him to reduce his pain and accelerate his healing. He is a wonderful, kind, humble, humorous man who is a great conversationalist and listener and has managed to never swear in front of me.
   
   For the many people who have given support to Janis and Norris and to the military, this book is a tribute to the love and generosity of the American people. You will be touched by the lady on the Delta plane who helped make sure Janis got special treatment to get her connection to Reagan International airport to see her husband when he was wounded or the kind man who gave up his first class seat to Norris since he was in uniform. This and other examples of the goodness of the American people, like those who give through www.webofsupport.com, who through their generosity, give hope for our country's future and tribute to the caring of our American spirit.
   
   This book is a "must read" for military and their families to give them valuable tips on the help available through the military and WRAMC as well as avoiding some of the pitfalls. On pages 73 and 248 are examples of a young wounded soldier who signed himself out as a patient to go home for rehabilitation but now was no longer receiving a paycheck or active duty pay and would need to depend on Medicare and the Veteran's Administration hospital for future medical care. If he was still an outpatient at WRAMC, he would still be receiving medical treatment, pay and could go home on leave. To make it easier for the families and soldiers who are recovering to find the valuable tidbits of information throughout the book, the following are some helpful references:
   p. 18 - 20 - Family Assistance Center (FAC) on 3rd floor of hospital- can give advance cash per diem to family caregivers; need to sign in every 10 days to assure the caregiver has a room at the Mologne or Fisher House; and at end of the caregiver's stay, file a final travel voucher for reimbursement. Computers with e-mail capability available.
   P. 124 - Walter Reed Society grant for travel and expense assistance. Chapel for meal vouchers.
   Hospital has Dunkin' Donuts and Subway. Burger King available at the Post Exchange (PX).
   p. 18 - Description of a Mologne House room and amenities
   p. 65 - Importance of having someone there to monitor the IVs and the wound vacuums that remove excess fluid. P. 97- no access to the call button. These are some of the examples of the need for a caregiver staying with or checking in as much as possible a patient who is recovering at a hospital, whether military or civilian. I have encountered similar situations at reputable civilian hospitals in Maryland.
   p. 116 - Baby food available on pediatrics floor pantry - useful for when patient has been unable to eat for weeks.
   p. 162 - Triangle trapeze to help a soldier sit up. Claim forms for lost or damaged personal property
   p. 165 - Important information about soldiers drawing combat pay for three months
   p. 268 - Claim form for reimbursement for troops who have purchased needed equipment out of their own pocket, like steel to armor a vehicle
   p. 287 - Wounded soldiers eligible for Supplemental Security payments from the Social Security Administration
   p. 205 - Wrapping a Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter (PICC) line with an ace bandage so it doesn't get caught on a hospital gown or bed linens
   p. 332 - 333 - Very important information about disability information, payments, and health benefits
   p. 336 - The importance of taking clear pictures of the injuries as documentation for disability claims
   
   Overall, the book was a "good read" and gives a riveting first hand account with humor, frank honesty, and at a good pace. Even though I knew how the story "ends" and have heard some of the stories from Janis and Norris, I had a hard time putting the book down because I wanted to see what happened to Norris in the book. Norris and Janis are truly some of the finest people you could hope to meet, the kind of people who would like as a neighbor. I hope you enjoy meeting them in the book.



3. Bought the book months ago and couldn't find the time to read it. Once I picked it up, I literally could not put it down. I read it from front cover to back in just a few hours.
   Norris is an incredible HERO. And Janis, well, I'm not sure how to categorize her. An Angel, (possibly part demon when it came to the medical supervision of her husband and hero's treatment).
   I made it through the first 12 pages without incident, but from page 13 forward, it became difficult to read through misty eyes.
   Norris and Janis, two HEROES in my book.

No comments about Arms and the Self: War, the Military, and Autobiographical Writing.

1 comments about Brigadier General Tyree H. Bell, C.S.A: Forrest's Fighting Lieutenant.

1. The solid military biography follows Bell's advance in the Confederate Army from captain of a company of Tennessee Volunteers to brigadier general who was regarded as Nathan Forrest's "right arm." Bell's own exceptional military capabilities and leadership have been largely overshadowed by being a part of the exploits of the better-known and more colorful Forrest. But Hughes, author of previous books on lesser-known aspects and figures of the Confederate military, demonstrates these qualities of Bell by detailing activities such a troop placements, probing maneuvers, assaults and defenses, terrain, and the involvement of key officers of the opposing sides in numerous engagements of all sizes Bell was involved in. Bell was active mostly in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Mississippi. The biography has a personal touch concerning Bell with the participation of Moretti and Browne, descendants of his. The journeyman military biography not only establishes the place of Bell in the military activities of the Confederacy in an area of its western theater, but is also an account of the conflict in this area.

2 comments about The Stars Bear Witness.

1. Goldstein follows Polish-Jewish relations, beginning with slaughterhouse workers around 1919: "Jews and Poles worked side by side and the relations between them were good, despite the fact that both were strongly nationalistic, unruly, and impulsive." (p. 8). As for the 1930 anti-Jewish excesses (Goldstein's words) at Minsk-Mazovietsky, he points out that a mentally deranged Jew had killed a Polish Army Sergeant, and certain Polish nationalists retaliated collectively against Jews (pp. 13-14). The later schmaltzovniks (szmalcowniki; blackmailers) were recognized by Goldstein as "...these dregs of Polish morality..." (p. 208). Finally, unlike Jan Thomas Gross and his fantastic property-guilt-complex notion, Goldstein has a much more prosaic explanation for the intensity of postwar Polish anti-Semitism: "After so many years of bloodletting and terror, the morale of the liberated people of Poland was at a low ebb. And the conduct of the liberators, the rank-and-file soldiers of the Red Army, who did not shrink from robbery and rape, further demoralized the population. The chaos and anarchy of Polish economic life and the dissatisfaction and disappointment of the Polish population were increased by the economic policies of the new rulers." (p. 278).
   
   Some Polonophobes have equated Bereza Kartuska, an interwar internment camp, with the Nazi and Soviet concentration camps. This is utter nonsense: "In his quiet, deliberate way he [Leon Feiner] told me the story of his experiences during the long months in the Soviet prison at Lida. `I was in the Polish Punishment Camp of Kartuz Berez a long time, but that cannot even be compared to what I lived through under our "comrades"...It is hard for me to say it, but what saved us is that the Nazis drew close to Lida.'" (p. 99).
   
   The Polish Underground refused to support the eventual Warsaw Ghetto Uprising more substantively owing to fears of its expansion to numerous Polish victims (p. 194). Interestingly, in the first stage of the deportations of Warsaw's Jews to Treblinka (July 1942; 60,000 initially-slated deportees), many Jews exhibited a comparable attitude:" But we knew that armed resistance would doom the whole ghetto instead of only sixty thousand. And who, no matter how convinced that the whole ghetto was doomed in any case, could take upon himself the responsibility for precipitating such a catastrophe?...The ghetto had no right to sacrifice sixty thousand human beings so that the survivors might continue their slave existence a little longer...But how would the hundreds of thousands who were not immediately threatened with deportation react to such a proposal? Would they consent to mass suicide?" (p. 111).
   
   The Polish suspicion of the leadership of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising being tainted by Communism finds implicit corroboration in Goldstein's following revealing comments: "On May Day, the ghetto fighters undertook a one-day `offensive'. In the evening they held a roll call of their decimated ranks and sang the `Internationale'." (p. 198). Elsewhere, Goldstein himself has no difficulty referring to Communists as his "good friends" (p. 277).
   
   The surviving Polish Jews constantly complained about American Jews not helping them (p. 272). And, in common with many other authors, Goldstein portrays the Jewish ghetto police as Nazi collaborators (pp. 70-71), faulting them for such things as the forcible roundups (including the uncovering of Jews in hiding) for the death trains (p. 106, 116).
   
   Goldstein paints a complex picture of Polish reactions to Jewish deaths (p. 194) and concludes that Poles had, in effect, been numbed by constant German cruelties: "The four years of Nazi terror, persecution, and anti-Semitic propaganda had poisoned their souls and completely destroyed in many of them any feeling that the Jews were human." (p. 194).
   
   Commonly-voiced complaints about Poles not hiding more Jews ignore the draconian scale of German terror used against Poles, as elaborated by Goldstein: "Each day the terror on the Aryan side increased. There were constant raids, arrests, and executions for the slightest hint of contact with Jews." (p. 183). Also: "The renewed terror on the Aryan side has frightened many Poles whose attitude toward the Jews was friendly. The intensive activity of the Gestapo made hiding a Jew more dangerous each day. Schmaltzovniks were everywhere. Every decent instinct was choked off in the atmosphere of terror, executions, extortion, lawlessness, and complete human demoralization." (p. 201). Also: "The wave of raids and kidnapping, the great manhunt in the city streets, began all over again. Entire blocks of houses were closed off. Bloodhounds sniffed and snooped everywhere. Nazi gangs dragged people from their homes, from attics and basements, beating the killing them. In the tense atmosphere that descended on the entire city, the few Jews who had escaped from the ghetto experienced the most terrible fears." (p. 208). Finally, "The raids in and around Warsaw increased the fright not only of Jews but also the handful of non-Jews who were disposed to help them. It became increasingly difficult to find new hiding places and to retain the old ones..." (p. 228). Apart from the obvious ones, there were countless other daunting challenges facing Polish rescuers of Jews, as elaborated by Goldstein (pp. 213-221).
   
   Goldstein credits Poles for smuggling food into the ghetto (p. 750), for playing the leading role in unmasking Treblinka as a death camp (p. 118), and for warning Jews about the fraudulence of Hotel Polski (p. 203). He points out that the Polish Underground provided several men who, being familiar with Warsaw's sewer system, mapped movement routes within the ghetto and escape routes out of the ghetto (p. 198).
   
   The oft-mentioned looting of Jewish valuables by Poles has another side. After the German-forced evacuation of Warsaw following the doomed Warsaw Uprising, Jews hiding from the Germans amidst the ruins of Warsaw spent time looting the valuables that had been previously buried by the Polish Varsovians (p. 270). Eventually, a theft-and-barter ring developed between the Warsaw-Jewish and the outside-Polish shabrovniks (looters) (p. 271).



2. "The Stars Bear Witness" is not only a devastating record of the annihilation of Polish Jewry, but also the story of a singularly fearless and principled man who had dedicated his life to the Jewish workers of Warsaw -- and, often, to all Polish Jews who required aid and protection. The book's introduction tells us that Goldstein, later known respectfully and affectionately as Comrade Bernard, joined the newly-created General Jewish Socialist Labor Union party--"Bund"--as early as age 16. By 17 he was helping to organize fur workers outside of Warsaw. Arrested and imprisoned numerous times for his political activity, he was exiled by the Tsarist authorities to Siberia when he was still in his early 20s. After the Russian revolution, he returned to Warsaw and became one of the most prominent figures in the Bund and in the trade-union movement. From the 1920s onward he functioned as the head of the Bund's self-defense and militia groups. These were employed first to defend against attacks by Communists, and later to defend against Polish ultra-nationalists and fascists (the Endeks and Falanga). When anti-Semitic sentiments escalated in Poland in the 1930s, Jews became the targets of discriminatory practices and violent attacks. "The Bund was the only organization to carry out an active fight against the anti-Semites" (p. 11). Sometimes they were assisted in these efforts by Polish Socialists, though most of the time "the Bund fought alone." In 1936, after a confrontation in the Warsaw streets, Goldstein was arrested by the Chief of the Security Police, Captain Runge. Called to account for himself, and threatened with incarceration in "the notorious Polish concentration camp, Kartuz Bereza," Goldstein is reported to have declared: "As long as you refuse to protect the Jewish people, I will do it. If I am to get Kartuz Bereza for that, go ahead and send me there." (p. 15)
   
   In "The Stars Bear Witness," Goldstein relates, in extraordinary detail, the destruction of the Jews of Warsaw, a community that numbered some 500,000 people. Much like Wladyslaw Szpilman in his Warsaw ghetto memoir, "The Pianist", Goldstein presents an unvarnished account of Jewish life during the war. He does not gloss over the unseemly and deplorable actions of particular members of the Jewish community, but he reserves his greatest opprobrium for the Nazis, their Ukrainian and "Lettish" accomplices, and for the considerable portion of the Polish population who, either actively or passively, abetted in the extermination of their Jewish fellow-citizens.
   
   As a memoirist, Goldstein possesses a humble style. He says little about himself and his own situation for the first quarter of the book. Instead, he focuses upon the events that affect the Warsaw Jews as a whole. When he distinguishes individuals, they are typically members of the community, many of them Bundists, who tried to ease the plights of their fellow-sufferers. Only after a great proportion of the ghetto Jews have been sent to their deaths in Treblinka, does Goldstein begin to reveal more about his own story. By this time, he is a hunted man. He finds himself, like every other Warsaw Jew, under a death sentence. For a period lasting several years, he is sheltered by a number of courageous Poles. And, remarkably, while in hiding, he somehow continues his organizational work for the Bund--communicating with other Jewish fugitives, the Polish underground, and doing whatever possible to help Warsaw's last surviving Jews. His is a tragic, moving, and astounding story.
   
   What it is not, I regret to say, is an absolution of the Polish populace, as suggested by the review on this site by Mr. Peczkis. Mr. Peczkis's review misrepresents Goldstein's book in a way that is truly shameful. Mr. Peczkis quotes selectively and insidiously from the book so as to deflect all reasonable blame away from the Poles--and, shockingly, he appears even to suggest that the Jews somehow deserved their gruesome fate. I quote from his review:
   
   The Polish suspicion of the leadership of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising being tainted by Communism finds implicit corroboration in Goldstein's following revealing comments: "On May Day, the ghetto fighters undertook a one-day `offensive'. In the evening they held a roll call of their decimated ranks and sang the `Internationale'." (p. 198). Elsewhere, Goldstein himself has no difficulty referring to Communists as his "good friends" (p. 277).
   
   What Mr. Peczkis attempts to do amounts to a desecration of the memory of the murdered Jews of Poland and also to that of Bernard Goldstein, whose heartbreaking book he perverts for his vile purpose. Goldstein wrote his book hewing to no partisan agenda, and it should be read in the same spirit.
   
   In the book, Goldstein makes it clear that no Jew could have survived in Warsaw without the help of a sympathetic and heroic Pole, but he also makes it clear that many other Jews would have survived if not for the actions of other Poles who--either for reasons of personal gain or atavistic hatred--betrayed and killed any number of desperate Jews who had managed to secure for themselves some precarious refuge outside the ghetto. Many of these predators were known as schmaltzovniks, Poles who extorted money from Jews in hiding--and denounced them once their money was exhausted. Mr. Peczkis refers glancingly to them in his review. About them, he says: "The later schmaltzovniks (szmalcowniki; blackmailers) were recognized by Goldstein as '...these dregs of Polish morality...' (p. 208)."
   
   For a fuller and more accurate impression, I will quote Goldstein at greater length:
   
   "Many times we asked the Polish underground to handle the schmaltzovniks as German collaborators, whom the underground used to condemn to death. We could not take any action ourselves. It was dangerous for a Jewish face to be seen on the street. Far more dangerous was the possibility that a Jew might be discovered in the act of killing a Gentile. Such an action might enflame the entire Polish community against us.
   
   The illegal press often carried notices of persons who collaborated with the Germans. They usually received a sentence of death which was carried out by the underground. Several times it printed warnings against the schmaltzovniks, but I did not hear of a single trial or of any punishment being meted out to them. Despite our appeals, the Polish underground refused to consider a serious campaign against these allies of the Germans ...
   
   Such scoundrels as the schmaltzovniks operated freely and openly, without hindrance, without any signs of popular disapproval. How this was possible remains a psychological mystery." (p. 180-181)

5 comments about Agent 146: The True Story of a Nazi Spy in America.

1. Erich Gimpel narrates Walter Mitty-like escapad-es, with absolutely no corroboration Characters are imply initials or phoney names. Some incidentsreported simply did not happen, such as a "JoanKenneth" knocking at the Military Commissionhearing room, asking to testify in favor of Gimpel. The record of trial and witness list show no such appearance. Also, it would have been impossible tobreach the security at Governors Island. So beware! There are many more fictions presented as fact. Hisaccount of his escape attempt at Leavenworth doesnot jive with the Bureau of Prisons account, whichled to his transfer to Alcatraz.The "true" story of a spy in America? Not in my book. There is no record that he sent a single message (transmitter was never assembled---FBI found the parts in a box after his capture).His performance for the Abwehr was consistent with the failure of German intelligence throughout WW II.



2. Sure there are things in this book that question the credibility of the author, but isn't all history written looking back when memories, sometimes are not the best? Rose colored glasses are used when recalling impossible situations? I don't know. But what I am sure about is Agent 146 was impossible to put down. From start to finish I was captivated in the life of danger, the inside look at Nazi Germany and the hair raising cat and mouse chase through New York City. Maybe some of it is hyped up, maybe not, but I couldn't put this book down and I encourage anyone with any interest in World War II to read it!



3. I "read" this book as a book on tape. I found this book enjoyable to "read". If you want to read something interesting about clandestine spying in The US during WWII, read this! I think reading this book was "time well spent". Email:boland7214@aol.



4. Erich Gimpel did not die in 1956 in Germany as the official review at top states. He was living in South America as of 2002, with photographic proof if one simply searches the web carefully enough. I don't know where that death date comes from, but as far as I know he was still living in his '90's even as of 2004.



5. A casual read of this book reveals its many inconsistencies. A careful read and a knowledge of US history reveals that this text is full of lies.
   
   Gimpel states that he has been referred to as The World's Most Dangerous Spy. A spy who appears to have never fired a shot at anyone and who claims to have never killed anyone is the world's most dangerous spy? Ha! Gimpel is merely trying to convince readers (and perhaps himself as well?)that he was an excellent spy, a lady's man, a master of several languages, and on and on. At the same time, his book details how he told his girlfriend in Berlin that he was leaving with an American to travel to the US. (The three of them go out drinking the night before his departure, and his girlfriend begs him to stay in Berlin with her, instead of going to America.) Why would a professional spy (and the world's most dangerous one at that) tell his girlfriend details of his upcoming trip to spy on a foreign nation? [Answer: either he didn't really tell her and is just lying to readers, or he did, indicating that he wasn't a very good spy.]
   
   The author reports that he spent several years in Alcatraz. He speaks highly of the dining hall, stating that "you could easily imagine yourself in a hotel." Ha! I have visited Alcatraz as a tourist, and can hardly imagine the dining hall being mistaken for a dining room in hotel. He mentions that Al Capone spent the last years of his life in Alcatraz. On the next page, he quotes someone on a tour boat traveling the waters off of The Rock as saying (over the loudspeaker) that Al Capone died of a brain tumor in Alcatraz. News flash: Capone was released from prison in 1939, spent some time in a hospital, then lived his last years at his estate in Florida, where he died in 1947. Even if Gimpel himself was unaware of this, his editor(s) should have caught this error.
   
   Alcatraz visitors could only be family members, and they were not allowed physical contact with prisoners. At one point (pp. 256-7) Gimpel says that he was visited by two men (neither of whom was related to him), and that they spoke to him in German. All visits in Alcatraz were monitored, and the prisoners instructed concerning topics which were not allowed to be discussed. Would the guards at the prison allow a prisoner and two visitors to carry on a conversation in a foreign language? Gimpel then goes on to say that during a second visit with these non-family members, he was allowed to visit with them in an ordinary room (no glass between them, no phones used for communication, etc.).
   
   The author talks about his former partner at one point being alone in New York and without money. A couple of pages later he speculates that the former partner "still had some money" (from the $5,000 that Gimpel gave him). Later in the text, he talks about how, after the two of them separated, his former partner went on a two-day drinking binge (difficult to do without money). So which is it: did he or did he not have money?
   
   I could go on and on detailing the problems and inconsistencies in Agent 146. In the end, once you start to see that the author is contradicting himself and in some cases outright lying to the reader, it is very difficult to believe anything that he has to say. Even the book jacket--printed in 2003--contains lies. To wit: that Gimpel was given a last-minute pardon, that he returned to Germany in 1947, and that he and his partner were the only Nazi spies to reach American soil.
   
   Save your time and money, and read one of the other books on WWII espionage such as Between Silk and Cyanide by Leo Marks or Behind the Lines by Russell Miller.

2 comments about The Last Soldiers of the King: Wartime Italy, 1943-1945.

1. "The Last Soldiers of the King" is a continuation of an Italian soldier's memoirs of World War II, which he first related in "Few Returned".
   
   The first work, "Few Returned", was the author's reminiscences of fighting as a young lieutenant in the Italian Army side by side with the Germans against a common foe, the Soviets on the Eastern Front as the Germans and Italians retreated during December 1942 - January 1943. That work was suffused with philosophical musings about the state of man juxtaposed with the state of war, interspersed with misgivings about having Nazis as allies and recollections from his diary about this time in his life.
   
   The second work, "The Last Soldiers of the King", provides additional insight into life as an Italian soldier in World War II after King Victor Emmanuel gave Mussolini his walking papers in July 1943 and, in effect, placed Mussolini under house arrest. (Nazi commando Otto Skorzeny subsequently famously rescued Mussolini and brought him to Germany.) When Italy capitulated to the Allies shortly thereafter the few German forces in Italy became occupation troops as the Germans invaded the northern portion of the country. In the meantime, the Italian Army had essentially disbanded, some joining the Nazis in the north and some fleeing to the south (along with the King, who had left no instructions for the defense of Rome upon his departure).
   
   The new government formed a new army: the "Corpo Italiano di Liberazione" (Italian Liberation Army). Author Eugenio Corti, who had fled south with other Italian Army soldiers, became a member of artillery and anti-aircraft units in the Italian Liberation Army. He infuses his accounts of his experiences in this new army with his Christian faith and the sometimes nettlesome demands that faith put on him, e.g., he struggled, albeit successfully, against the sexual promiscuity, and prostitution, that were the hallmarks of the experiences of other soldiers.
   
   He never seems to lose his faith in God, arguing that belief in God acts as a temporizing force on the conduct and nature of warfare. He also never seems to lose his patriotism or faith in Italy, despairing at the defeatism evident in many of his fellow soldiers and countrymen. (He discovers, much to his dismay, that many, if not most, Italians are not even aware that there are any regular Italian forces fighting the Germans after Italy surrenderd to the Allies in September 1943.)
   
   As a Christian he believes that fascism in any form, including Nazism (which he argues was a misguided racial offshoot of socialism), and communism (which he especially decries as evil) are wrong. He also appears to be conflicted in his feelings toward Jews, on the one hand blaming them for Marxism (and hence communism) and on the other hand stating compassion for them as victims of World War II.
   
   The book is an interesting look at the last two years of World War II in Italy, through the faith-based perspective of an Italian patriot and soldier.



2. I really enjoyed Corti's book about the Italian retreat from the Russian Front and I wanted to know more of what became of him after it.
   Last Soldiers of the King, gave me more of the same and tied up loose ends for me.
   Being interested in the history and actions of the Italian Army in WW2, this book sheds light on the Italian contribution to the Allies cause from 1943 on and the whole situation for Italy as a country at that time.
   Like his first book, there is not a lot of combat depicted here, but what he does detail, shows the reader what it was like to fight in Italy.
   Corti again, does a very good job of showing national differences in military and attitudes of the combatants.
   He does play a fair hand to all involved and while the first book had many instances of the German disdain/mistreatmment of the Italians and the hard feelings of Italians towards the Germans, this book does show Cortis respect to the German soldier.
   You also get a glimpse of the relationships between the British, Americans and Italians.
   To me, the one drawback of this last book are the long passages related to religion.
   Corti seems to be a very religious person and occasionally that comes through like a lecture in this book.
   But through it all, you can feel what a long hard struggle the battle for Italy was and the post-war strife looming on the horizon.

2 comments about Hitler: The Man and the Military Leader.

1. Adolf Hilter, a fascinating yet despised man of his times would be a hero to many, but a murderer to some. He has had the courage to lead thousands upon thousands of women, men, and children. He has changed my way of thinking and probably others who thing of Hitler as their hero.



2. Wow, I never knew the human side of Hitler. He was a wiz with names and always took the time to pick out special presents for people's birthday. I think he is probably one of the most evil men who ever walked the planet. But he had some great leadership qualites, how else could this man rise from nothing to a man who lead a nation to unspeakable evil. Worth the read.

5 comments about Lee's Tarnished Lieutenant: James Longstreet and His Place in Southern History.

1. "Longstreet is the one Rebel general who's memory hasn't been romanticized." Yikes. That "who's" deserves grammatical capital punishment.



2. Piston's book is the first modern account of the first soldier of the Confederacy. Controversial both during and after the war, James Longstreet is one of the most fascinating and forgotten figures in American history. Second in command of the Army of Northern Virginia, Longstreet was the only senior officer who was with that army from the first battle at Manassas to the surrender at Appomattox. He was in command of the most famous attack in American history, Pickett's Charge. His most notable victories included Second Manassas, Fredericksburg, Chickamauga, and the Wilderness. After the war, he did several things considered unpardonable sins by most Southerners, some of whom still cannot forgive him to this day. First, he dared to criticize Robert E. Lee and his conduct of the battle of Gettysburg. Second, he reconciled with his conquerors, became a Republican, and accepted appointive federal offices from four out of the next six presidents of the United States, including President Grant, to whom he was related by marriage. Even worse, he became a Catholic in a staunchly Protestant South. Most important of all, he promoted a doctrine of racial reconciliation that is as relevant today as it was 135 years ago.



3. This is a very objective and informative book on General Longstreet who, had he died at the battle of the Wilderness instead of surviving his very severe wounds, may have had a monument on Monument Ave. in Richmond in spite of not being a Virginian. Longstreet fought all the major campaigns of the Army of Northern Virginia from Manasas up to the Wilderness returning after a recovering from severe wounds to command the Richmond theater during the siege and the final stages of the war. Piston points out well that Longstreet was a steady hand for Lee as he called him my "Old War Horse". Enlightened in that he thought of the war in broad strategic fashion suggesting using the railroad and interior lines to reinforce the west with eastern soldiers and he even offered to go himself which he did in time for the battle of Chickamaugua. Longstreet's role in Gettysburg is well discussed particularly the Lost Cause syndrome led by Jubal Early who pins the entire war on Longstreet at Gettysburg. Ironically, Early's original memoirs make no mention of any criticisms of Longstreet until after Lee's death when Early finds a niche to match his abrasive leadership style. Often critics suggest that Longstreet failed in Suffolk, Knoxville and East Tennessee; however, Piston notes that in Suffolk and Knoxville he was laying siege to forces equal or larger than his own that stayed within their works. The attack at Fort Sanders was a severe failure and in the East Tennessee campaign Longstreet performs well but the low point was Longstreet's dealing with personnel in difficult circumstances. Piston demonstrates how Davis micromanaged when he writes of Davis' interference with Longstreet personnel issues. Impressive that after his wounding Longstreet returns for any command that Lee will give him. Piston quickly covers Longstreet's post war career as a businessman, a republican who enters Louisiana's controversial political scene, leads the Police on horseback against a mob only to be attacked himself, his Republican connections and maneuvering for political plum jobs and his final days as a hotel owner and vineyard grower in lovely Gainesville, Georgia. Longstreet's post war writings are covered which had Longstreet been more accurate in his views or memories, his legacy may have stood taller and less challenged.
   His criticisms of some of Lee's decisions and turning Republican cost him dearly in the south but he steadfastly refused to change to suit others. The most endearing part of the book is Piston's telling of Longstreet and Dan Sickles after a joyous round of spirits, they walk each other repeatedly back to each others door refusing to end the night of the two most controversial generals who were at Gettysburg.



4. William Piston has written a fine, highly readable, and fair-minded but sympathetic biography of one of the most controversial leaders of the Civil War. While Lee himself held Longstreet in the highest regard and made the dependable Longstreet his senior subordinate and commander of his First Corps in the Army of Northern Virginia, the stubborn South Carolinian found his reputation tarnished after the war by jealous military rivals who disliked Longstreet's politics and resented his criticisms of some of Lee's command decisions.

   As a military biography, this work offers a fairly comprehensive and balanced treatment of Longstreet's career that effectively demolishes some of the more unfair criticisms of Longstreet as a commander, and in particular takes apart the myth (that emerged in post-war controversy) that Jackson, not Longstreet, had been the senior commander in whom Lee had placed his most reliance and trust (although for a more critical, but still balanced and highly useful analysis of Longstreet's military record, see Jeffrey Wert's biography of Longstreet).

   Reading Piston's book will demonstrate why Lee described Longstreet as "my Old War Horse," and why Longstreet was widely regarded on both sides as one of the very finest -- if not THE finest -- corps commanders of the war. Piston also does a nice job of disentangling the post-war Gettysburg controversy, which emerged out of polemics over Reconstruction politics and the bickering among former Confederate generals anxious to rescue their own reputations while putting Robert E. Lee above any criticism.

   Lee, of course, was a great commander, but he never pretended to be perfect, and Longstreet, in daring to criticize certain aspects of Lee's tactical operations, became a threat to a post-war mythology, the cult of Lee, that became so important in building a post-war, Solid Democratic South and white supremacist post-Confederate Southern identity. As Piston demonstrates, the post-war Lost Cause mythology, in deifying the defeated Lee, required a scapegoat, a "Judas", upon whom the blame for defeat and humiliation could be heaped. As both Jackson and Stuart had been killed during the war, and as most western Confederate commanders lacked the prominence to serve this function, Longstreet emerged for unreconstructed Confederates as the bete noir of Southern military history, both for his post-war Republican politics and his criticisms of Lee, his actual war record and relationship with Lee notwithstanding.

   And in this post-war Lost Cause narrative, Gettysburg became the critical key or turning point upon which all else hinged, as though the outcome of a thousand campaigns mobilizing millions of men, fought over five years across a vast continent, could be reduced to one afternoon on one bloody field in Pennsylvania, or as though (even if that had been true) Longstreet alone could be blamed for Lee's failure at Gettysburg. It is the politics of Reconstruction and Longstreet's place in that political struggle, that largely shaped what became the dominant Southern narrative about the battle of Gettysburg, and the meaning of that defeat in the larger destruction and humiliation of the Confederacy. Piston's treatment of this issue, and his discussion of the evolution of Lost Cause historiography, is brilliant, and deserves attention not only from those interested in the Civil War and Reconstruction, but from those interested in the relationship between politics, historical memory, the historical record, and the writing of history.




5. This biography and the one by Jeffrey Wert must be considered as one of the two best works on the life of General James Longstreet. William Piston's work came first so he get the credit for turning the tide for James Longstreet who have long been a goat and villain of the Lost Cause of Confederacy. Piston proves to be a good writer, fair and honest about Longstreet. The controversy that surround this general are treated with a sympathic outlook, realizing that perhaps, Longstreet was too honest and blunt for his own good during the time and period he was alive. Longstreet made many errors during the war and he did many great things as well. His major mistake was telling the south after the war that Lee did the same thing. I think if the reader read both Piston and Wert's biographies, he got Longstreet pretty well covered.

No comments about Black Eagle: General Daniel "Chappie" James Jr..