Military Diaries

Anne Frank is one of the most famous individuals of the 20th century for the worst possible reason. Joseph Stalin is often quoted as saying one death is a tragedy and a million is a statistic, and while plenty of people might argue with the sentiment expressed, there's no question that Anne Frank in many ways became the face of the Holocaust.

In 1854, a quarter of a million British soldiers headed east to fight in the Crimean War. Together with their French and Turkish allies, the goal was to free the important port city of Sevastopol from the clutches of Russia, thus keeping them from the seizing control of the Red Sea and thence Mediterranean. This they did, but not without considerable hardship, suffering and loss of life - over 21,000 British men fell to enemy fire, accidents and disease.

World War II rises in its vastness and complexity over the rest of human history. A number of victims difficult to conceive, never surpassed by any other conflict; the masses of men, women and resources mobilized in a conflict that shook even the most remote ends of the planet; the ideological battle between totalitarianism and democracy, between fascism and communism, the passions and hatred that it aroused; the unimaginable horror and fanaticism of the Holocaust; geopolitical games; the repetition of World War I on an even more dire scale.

La Segunda Guerra Mundial se alza en su inmensidad y complejidad sobre el resto de la historia humana. Un número de víctimas difícil de concebir, jamás superado por ningún otro conflicto; las masas de hombres, mujeres y recursos movilizados en un conflicto que sacudió hasta los confines más remotos del planeta; la batalla ideológica entre el totalitarismo y la democracia, entre el fascismo y el comunismo, las pasiones y odios que despertó.

In 1918, Gerald Condon was a 20 year old American Private training as a Signalman before serving in France. By World War 2 he was a 20 year veteran of the Buffalo, NY Police Department when he re-enlisted to "finish what we started 25 years ago". When he shipped out for England in 1944 he was engaged to Ann Lyden the widowed Grandmother of Jerry Lyden. Excerpts from his letters home are included and are read in the voice of Ann Lyden. This role is voiced by Irene Dennis. The young Gerald is voiced by Padraic Harrison. Jerry Lyden reads the words of his grandfather, Gerald Condon.

Becketts Tagebuchaufzeichnungen über seine Deutschlandreise während des Aufstiegs des Nationalsozialismus, gelesen von Sabin Tambrea. Samuel Beckett hat nur einmal in seinem Leben über längere Zeit Tagebuch geführt, nämlich auf seiner großen Deutschlandreise von September 1936 bis April 1937, die ihn u. a. nach Hamburg, Berlin, Dresden und München führte. Die German Diaries sind die letzten bedeutenden Texte von Samuel Beckett, die noch unveröffentlicht sind. Sie geben Aufschluss über die Entwicklung von Becketts Ästhetik in dessen Auseinandersetzung mit Literatur und mit bildender Kunst.

World War II rises in its vastness and complexity over the rest of human history. A number of victims difficult to conceive, never surpassed by any other conflict - this is an insurmountable encyclopedia on war. This diary of the Second World War has been able to cover all facets of the conflict, and it is a fundamentally empirical work that narrates events as they occurred. This episode contains, day by day, the month of October 1941.

While Pilot Officer Geoffrey Myers was caught up in the Battle of Britain, his French wife and two half-Jewish children were trapped in increasingly dangerous circumstances in Nazi-occupied France. In intimate, frank, and powerful letters, Myers kept a record of his war, his deep love for his wife Margot and their children, and his heart-wrenching fear for their safety as they tried to escape. Secret Letters: A Battle of Britain Love Story is an incredibly rare personal account of some of the major turning points of WWII.

World War II rises in its vastness and complexity over the rest of human history. A number of victims difficult to conceive, never surpassed by any other conflict - this is an insurmountable encyclopedia on war. This diary of the Second World War has been able to cover all facets of the conflict, and it is a fundamentally empirical work that narrates events as they occurred. This episode contains, day by day, the month of October 1941.

After being captured in Singapore and transported to the infamous Burma railway, Colonel Owtram was appointed the British Camp Commandant at Chungkai, one of the largest POW camps. Many ex-prisoners testified to the mental and physical courage that he showed protecting POWs from the worst excesses of their captors. Of course his account does not admit to this, but what is clear is that in addition to the deprivation and hardship suffered by all POWs, the author bore heavy responsibility for those under his charge and the daily trauma of dealing with the unpredictable Japanese.

The men and women honored in Tom Brokaw's The Greatest Generation speak in this collection of letters from and about the Depression and World War II.

Eddy de Wind, a Dutch doctor and psychiatrist, was shipped to Auschwitz with his wife, Friedel, whom he had met and married at the Westerbork labour camp in the Netherlands. At Auschwitz, they made it through the brutal selection process and were put to work. Each day, each hour became a battle for survival. For Eddy, this meant negotiating with the volatile guards in the medical barracks. For Friedel, it meant avoiding the Nazis’ barbaric medical experiments.

Digging into one's family history can reveal unusual surprises. In my case, I recently discovered my great grandfather, Jesse C. Davisson's first-hand account of his 25-year military experience during an epic period in American history. Jesse was no angel when he first joined the Army in 1893, as an ordinary young man in Philadelphia. His diary follows his subsequent adventures - from learning to ride a horse with the 7th Cavalry, and befriending Indian Scouts, to surviving ambushes, and water-boarding prisoners - all while serving in the American Indian Wars.

Dear Mr Bigelow is an enchanting selection of weekly 'pen-pal' letters written between 1949 and 1961 from an unmarried woman working at the Pier Approach Baths in Bournemouth, to a wealthy American widower, living on Long Island, New York. Frances Woodsford and Commodore Paul Bigelow never met, and there was no romance - she was in her forties when he died aged ninety-seven - yet their epistolary friendship was her lifeline.

Nina Siegal, an accomplished journalist and novelist, weaves together excerpts from the daily journals of collaborators, resistors, and the persecuted—a Dutch Nazi police detective, a Jewish journalist imprisoned at Westerbork transit camp, a grocery store owner who saved dozens of lives—into a braided nonfictional narrative of the Nazi occupation and the Dutch Holocaust, as individuals experienced it day by day.

This was the American Civil War for many who lived it, overwhelming and ultimately tragic, viewed through the eyes of a courageous youth and an unforgettable young woman.

World War II rises in its vastness and complexity over the rest of human history. A number of victims difficult to conceive, never surpassed by any other conflict, the war was a gigantic melting pot of violence, power, and ideology that will leave an indelible scar on human history. This diary has been able to cover all facets of the conflict, and it is a fundamentally empirical work, which narrates events as they occurred, rejecting value judgments, and therein lies its value: it is an insurmountable encyclopedia on war. Here, the day by day of the month of: April 1940.

World War II rises in its vastness and complexity over the rest of human history. A number of victims difficult to conceive, never surpassed by any other conflict - this is an insurmountable encyclopedia on war. This diary of the Second World War has been able to cover all facets of the conflict, and it is a fundamentally empirical work that narrates events as they occurred. This episode contains, day by day, the month of October 1941.

World War II rises in its vastness and complexity over the rest of human history. A number of victims difficult to conceive, never surpassed by any other conflict - this is an insurmountable encyclopedia on war. This diary of the Second World War has been able to cover all facets of the conflict, and it is a fundamentally empirical work that narrates events as they occurred. This episode contains, day by day, the month of October 1941.

World War II rises in its vastness and complexity over the rest of human history. A number of victims difficult to conceive, never surpassed by any other conflict, the war was a gigantic melting pot of violence, power, and ideology that will leave an indelible scar on human history. This diary has been able to cover all facets of the conflict, and it is a fundamentally empirical work, which narrates events as they occurred, rejecting value judgments, and therein lies its value: it is an insurmountable encyclopedia on war. Here, the day by day of the month of: June 1940.