Prisoners of war Books

Book SynopsisNow a major motion picture called The Mauritanian 'A vision of hell, beyond Orwell, beyond Kafka' JOHN LE CARRÉThe first and only diary written by a Guantánamo detainee during his imprisonment, now with previous censored material restored.Mohamedou Ould Slahi was imprisoned in Guantánamo Bay in 2002.There he suffered the worst of what the prison had to offer, including months of sensory deprivation, torture and sexual assault.In October 2016 he was released without charge.This is his extraordinary story.Trade ReviewAn extraordinary account . . . the global war on terror has found in a Mauritanian captive its true and complete witness * * Guardian * *A vision of hell, beyond Orwell, beyond Kafka -- JOHN LE CARRÉUnnerving yet ultimately magnificent . . . there is something special about Guantánamo Diary that lifts it from human rights polemic to the realm of literary magic * * Sunday Times * *The work is a kind of dark masterpiece, a sometimes unbearable epic of pain, anguish and bitter humour * * New York Times * *Heartbreaking . . . there has never been a book quite like this . . . extraordinary and overwhelming * * New Statesman * *This Guantánamo detainee's harrowing memoir is a tremendous achievement - and a grave warning against ignoring the rule of law * * Observer * *This is a necessary book. It reminds us that the evil we're fighting can be found in ourselves as well as our enemies * * Daily Telegraph * *A sobering, often chilling, read. Slahi's story deserves to be widely read * * Independent * *Slahi's book offers a reminders that the struggles we face in these difficult times involve real individuals, not faceless creatures who are to be characterised as members as one or other hated group. That he has resorted to words, the mightiest of weapons, even as his incarceration continues, makes his experience all the more relevant today * * Financial Times * *A harrowing account of [Mohamedou Ould Slahi's] detention, interrogation, and abuse . . . One of the most stubborn, deliberate and cruel Guantánamo interrogations on record * * Slate * *

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Book SynopsisUgur Ümit Üngör is Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust, and Genocide Studies, Holland. He has won several academic awards and held visiting positions in Dublin, Vancouver, Budapest, Toronto, and Los Angeles. His most recent publication is Paramilitarism: Mass Violence in the Shadow of the State (2020).Jaber Baker is a documentary filmmaker, novelist and human rights activist. Between 2002 and 2004 he was held in a military prison in Syria. He has 16 years' experience of research and specialises in the Syrian prison system.Trade ReviewIn Syrian Gulag, Jaber Baker and Ugur Ümit Üngör present the first detailed overview of the prison system. They have carried out more than 100 interviews with surviving detainees, as well as former prisoner workers and many other eyewitnesses. They have also drawn upon a huge amount of archival material. The results are profoundly shocking. In more than 30 years of book reviewing, this is the most horrifying volume I have read. -- Peter Carty * The Spectator *Syrian Gulag … is the most comprehensive and systematic single-volume book on Syria’s imprisonment system of terror. -- Usman Butt * The New Arab *This book is an extraordinary achievement. Drawing on extensive primary source material, Baker and Üngör reveal in an unprecedented level of detail the sheer magnitude of Syria’s massive internal security agencies, the bureaucratization of torture on an industrial scale, and the extent to which fear is a constant presence in the lives of ordinary Syrians. The book is unsparing in its accounts of survivors of torture and techniques of torture, and all the more powerful for including them. It makes an unimpeachable case for brutality and violence as defining attributes of the Assad regime. It is also a sobering rebuttal to those seeking the regime’s “normalization.” It should be required reading for all who have an interest in Syria, human rights, and states as perpetrators of mass violence. * Steven Heydemann, Professor, Smith College, USA *This study is the first in any language to begin to map the Syrian prison archipelago. It is an urgently necessary and timely insight into the workings of Syria's Assad regime. * Anne-Marie McManus, Principle Investigator at the ERC Project SYRASP, Germany *As some European states have started forcing refugees back to Syria, this book is a grim reminder that for its unfortunate citizens, the violence preceded the use of rockets and barrel bombs, and the threat to their life remains undiminished. What makes this book invaluable is its panoramic picture of Syria’s vast repressive apparatus that the uprising failed to dislodge. What makes this book frightening is that unlike Dante, who had to use his prodigious imagination to describe hell, the hell described herein comes from the direct experience of survivors who lived through its various circles of torment. In painstaking detail, Jaber Baker and Ugur Ümit Üngör have mapped the hellish institutions, sites, and methods through which the Syrian regime has preserved its rule by extinguishing hope and humanity. And through meticulous documentation they’ve also created an instrument through which the perpetrators may one day be held to account. * Dr. Muhammad Idrees Ahmad, Director of Journalism, University of Essex, UK *Syria's dungeons have long kept its secrets; places so foreboding and cruel that few dared mention what happens inside them. The war has changed that. Once taboo topics are now being discussed far from the broken country, where former prisoners now in exile are detailing a killing and torture machine that rivals the Khmer Rouge for the scale of its savagery. In Syrian Gulag, Üngör and Baker open the gates of one of modern history's most infamous prison systems and empower a brutalised people to tell their stories. * Martin Chulov, Middle East Correspondent, The Guardian *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Mezze: Political Elites and Incarceration 2. Intelligence Bureaus 3. Tadmur 4. The First Military Prison: Saydnaya 5. Civil Prisons for Justice and Reconciliation 6. Conclusion Appendix 1 Some Main characters Appendix 2 Tortures and their tools Appendix 3 Kitchen and Eating Utensils Appendix 4 Diseases Appendix 5 Medicines Appendix 6 Prison Jargon Bibliography Notes

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Book SynopsisWINNER OF ENGLISH PEN AWARD 2023 LONG-LISTED FOR THE REPUBLIC OF CONSCIOUSNESS PRIZE 2024 ‘How did these stories get into your hands? They flew, as if painted by Marc Chagall, through prison walls, borders, and languages.’ - Valzhyna Mort ‘It’s a terse account of painful experience, prison, bewilderment; hugely atmospheric and extremely funny – full of dry wit and small biting observations.’ - Anna Vaught 100 stories written from prison in Belarus with 'echoes of early Chekhov, Zoshchenko and Samuel Beckett' (Michael Purs). Despite its bleak context, this is a fundamentally optimistic book, engaging comically, yet honestly, with what it means to be human. Translated from the Russian by Jim and Ella Dingley. With an introduction by ‘risen star of the international poetry world’ Valzhyna Mort.Trade ReviewMaxim Znak's message is that wry humour and humanity trump the cruel absurdities of the regime [...] These stories, one hundred of them, none longer than three pages, have echoes of early Chekhov, Zoshchenko and Samuel Beckett and, ultimately, of Giovanni Boccaccio and Vernon Kress, who used the punning title for his 1991 novel of the Gulag. - Michael Purs The fact that this book exists at all should be a miracle. Simply because the stories were smuggled out … The true sensation, however, is the mental achievement the prisoner Maxim Znak was capable of: that in his situation, which could really be called hopeless, he still possesses the internal freedom to create literature. - Cornelia Geissler, Berliner Zeitung [Znak] uses the weapons that dictators like Lukashenko detest most: humour, wit, publicity. - Jens Uthoff, taz.die tageszeitung It's a terse account of painful experience, prison, bewilderment; hugely atmospheric and extremely funny – full of dry wit and small biting observations. - Anna Vaught

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Book SynopsisExtraordinary times. Extraordinary courage.Here, from the bestselling author of The Great Escape, are eight true and startling escape stories from the Second World War.The heroism of the servicemen who dared to defy their captors in this volume is matched only by that of the underground movements and ordinary civilians who helped the escapees in these stories of daring, invention and doggedness against the odds.From the account of the Spitfire pilot left for dead by an execution squad in Sicily to the story of the air gunner forced to blag his way across the Baltic, every one is an unputdownable classic.‘As long as there are prisons men will try to escape from them; and as long as there is an RAF it will bring to the problems of escape the qualities of high resource, pure cussedness and that indefinable, damnably annoying refusal to lie down when dead, of which all the stories in this book are such excellent - and, I think, such exciting - examples.’ H.E. Bates

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Book SynopsisRobert Kee's vivid account of his years in a German prisoner-of-war camp - and his flight across Europe when he escaped. A classic survival storyTrade ReviewArguably the best POW book ever written * THE TIMES *A wonderfully impartial, unjudging account of the way feelings and imagination are shrunk and benumbed in a cramped and crowded world * LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS *Certain pages of this book, especially those about being questioned while on the run, still make my blood run cold . . . Dozens of accurate and perceptive images stop one in one's tracks * OBSERVER *His depiction of frightened, desperate men grappling for hope is touching and thought-provokling * BIG ISSUE IN THE NORTH *Robert Kee went on to have a distinguished career as a writer and in television, but this marvellous memoir may well be his finest acheivement. * OLDIE *

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Book SynopsisIn Dangerous Guests, Ken Miller reveals how wartime pressures nurtured a budding patriotism in the ethnically diverse revolutionary community of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. During the War for Independence, American revolutionaries held more than thirteen thousand prisonersboth British regulars and their so-called Hessian auxiliariesin makeshift detention camps far from the fighting. As the Americans' principal site for incarcerating enemy prisoners of war, Lancaster stood at the nexus of two vastly different revolutionary worlds: one national, the other intensely local. Captives came under the control of local officials loosely supervised by state and national authorities. Concentrating the prisoners in the heart of their communities brought the revolutionaries' enemies to their doorstep, with residents now facing a daily war at home. Many prisoners openly defied their hosts, fleeing, plotting, and rebelling, often with the clandestine support of local loyalists. By earlyTrade ReviewKen Miller makes and original and important contribution to our understanding of the American Revolution.... Dangerous Guests is an original, engaging work that stands as an important community study as well as an examination of the rebel treatment of prisoners of war during the War of Independence. It deserves a wide readership. * Journal of Early American History *Dangerous Guests successfully navigates its way through a complex terrain of captors and captives, often fluid cultural identities, and the demands placed on both sides by the American Revolution.... Historians interested in the recent scholarly emphasis on the mid-Atlantic colonies in the colonial and revolutionary periods will find it a worthy addition to earlier titles on the same region. Military scholars will be intrigued by Miller's behind-the-scenes look at the logistical challenges posed by American victories during the Revolution. General readers will appreciate Miller’s narrative style, while history teachers will find the book an endless source of stories to be used in classes addressing identity politics during the American Revolution. * H-Net Reviews *In short, the author makes the point that language and identity counted for most of the triumphs and disasters in this central POW depot during the revolution. The research sparkles with primary sources and the writing flows extremely well, with only a few repetitions here and there, making this book an outstanding contribution to both POW and revolutionary war studies. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries. * Choice *Ken Miller's case study of interaction between prisoners and their reluctant Lancaster hosts is set within a thoroughly researched social history of the community and of the changes outside events—from the French and Indian War through the Revolution—brought to Lancaster.... In marshaling his extensive research to make a coherent argument about the impact of prisoners on their host communities, Miller has added an important chapter to the Pennsylvania story. * Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography *Ken Miller's very well-written and researched account focuses on one revolutionary American "community at war"—Lancaster, Pennsylvania—and its treatment of thousands of British and German prisoners of war between 1776 and 1783.... Miller's Dangerous Guests is one of the best recent studies on the treatment of prisoners of war during the American War of Independence. The book demonstrates that prisoners of war could be decisive agents of change in society. * The Journal of Military History *Miller's book is a well-researched and beautifully written community study that highlights the often-ignored logistical challenges of the war as well as the roiling but permeable communities that toughed it out for seven long years. * American Historical Review *Often overlooked in favor of the epic stories told by the likes of David Ramsay and Mercy Otis Warren, these local histories better represented the vantage point from which most early Americans experienced the conflict. When modern historians have paused to view the War for Independence from the same vantage point they have usually yielded important insights into the complicated process of mobilization, conflict, and revolution. Ken Miller's fine work on enemy captives in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, is no exception. Drawing on many of those early local histories along with a plethora of archival and printed sources, Miller paints a richly textured portrait of a community at war. * Journal of American History *There is no evidence of bias or agenda in the resulting story that includes an array of perspectives; the motives, faults and foibles of the various interacting individuals and organizations are given equal weight and merit. We see the complexities of a community composed of diverse groups, all trying to maintain their own identities while coexisting with each other; the onset of war and the sudden infusion of prisoners of war, themselves a diverse and multi-faceted community, put extraordinary pressures on this already challenged society. The way that Lancaster's community was redefined during this critical era is a fascinating story, exemplary of the American Revolution itself. Dangerous Guests is among the best treatments of this complex topic to come out in a long time, and deserves a place on the shelf of every serious scholar of America's transition from colonies to nation. * Journal of the American Revolution *Utilizing local archives, military and political records, and engaging with a growing historiography in frontier Pennsylvania and prisoners of war during the War for American Independence, Miller contributes to our understanding of the conflict in the American interior and in the everyday lives of the revolutionaries.... Dangerous Guests provides insight into the diverse communities in the interior of perhaps the most diverse state during the War for American Independence. It offers another lens through which to view the formation of an American identity, working through a topic that may appear more specialized but is garnering increased attention: prisoners of war. * Pennsylvania History *Miller skillfully reconstructs the contrasting American experiences with British and Hessian prisoners of war from a wide range of public sources, including records of the Continental Congress, Pennsylvania's revolutionary governments, Lancaster’s Committee of Correspondence and Observation, and Peter Force’s American Archives. * William and Mary Quarterly *Table of ContentsPrologue: A Community at War1. "A Colony of Aliens": Diversity, Politics, and War in Prerevolutionary Lancaster2. "Divided We Must Inevitably Fall": War Comes to Lancaster3. "A Dangerous Set of People": British Captives and the Sundering of Empire4. " 'Tis Britain Alone That Is Our Enemy": German Captives and the Promise of America5. "Enemies of Our Peace": Captives, the Disaffected, and the Refinement of American Patriotism6. "The Country Is Full of Prisoners of War": Nationalism, Resistance, and AssimilationEpilogue: The Empty BarracksNotes Index

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Book SynopsisStalin''s Gulag at War places the Gulag within the story of the regional wartime mobilization of Western Siberia during the Second World War. Far from Moscow, Western Siberia was a key area for evacuated factories and for production in support of the war effort. Wilson T. Bell explores a diverse array of issues, including mass death, informal practices such as black markets, and the responses of prisoners and personnel to the war. The region''s camps were never prioritized, and faced a constant struggle to mobilize for the war. Prisoners in these camps, however, engaged in such activities as sewing Red Army uniforms, manufacturing artillery shells, and constructing and working in major defense factories. The myriad responses of prisoners and personnel to the war reveal the Gulag as a complex system, but one that was closely tied to the local, regional, and national war effort, to the point where prisoners and non-prisoners frequently interacted. At non-priority campTrade Review"...an excellently researched and thought-provoking study which will no doubt influence the direction of future research." -- Mark Vincent * History *"Although Bell touches on and evaluates various theories and arguments, his book is a close, source-based archival study of what happened in practice, on the ground. [This] is a good example of careful empirical research. He went where his sources took him and lets readers make up their own minds rather than prosecuting an a priori theoretical case." -- J. Arch Getty * Slavic Review *"As a careful empirical researcher, Bell eschews a single overarching argument, pointing repeatedly to paradoxes and contradictions in administrative intention and ground-level reality. While he insists on the primacy of economic motivations in running individual Gulag outposts, he reveals Gulag labor as costly and inefficient compared to alternative approaches to economic output. While he highlights the contribution that Gulag labor made to Soviet victory, he reminds us that those contributions were a tiny part of the total mobilization of the Soviet workforce outside the Gulag during the war." -- Steven A. Barnes, George Mason University * Russian Review *"Suffice it to say that our understanding of Gulag operations during World War II is significantly deeper thanks to Bell’s scrupulous attention to the intricacies of parsing documents from the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs, coupled with a close reading of memoir literature and supported by previous Gulag scholarship. Scholars, students, and World War II buffs will benefit from this engaging volume." -- Cynthia A. Ruder, University of Kentucky * University of Toronto Quarterly: Letters in Canada 2018 *"Wilson Bell’s excellent book, Stalin’s Gulag at War, is a detailed and dispassionate contribution to this growing body of research. Drawing on in-depth archival research and focused on camp operations and everyday camp life in Western Siberia during World War II, Bell reveals the extent to which the imperatives of Stalinist wartime mobilization molded the camps in these crucial years." -- Peter Whitewood, York St. John University * Europe-Asia Studies *"Bell has synthesized a huge amount of material to create a lasting contribution to the field, but this is a book that should also be read by historians beyond the Soviet field: environmental historians, historians of penal systems, or those of colonization too can find much to learn from Stalin’s Gulag at War." -- Victor Petrov, University of Tennessee Knoxville * H-Nationalism *Table of Contents1. Ready for Total War? 2. Total War, Total Mobilization 3. Patriotic Prisoners 4. Patriotic Personnel 5. The Gulag’s Victory

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Book SynopsisThis is the story of Operation Jericho, the spectacular prison break staged by an elite group of British, Australian and New Zealand bomber pilots, who flew a daring low-level mission to blow holes in the walls of Amiens jail and free French Resistance prisoners under the sentence of death during World War II. With D-Day looming, early 1944 was a time of massive intelligence activity across northern France, and many résistants were being captured and imprisoned by the Germans. Among the jails full of French agents was Amiens, where hundreds awaited likely execution for their activities. To repay their debt of honour, MI6 requested an air raid with a seemingly impossible brief: to simultaneously blow holes in the prison walls, free as many men and women as possible while minimizing casualties, and kill German guards in their quarters. The crews would have to fly their bomb-run at an altitude of just 20ft. Despite the huge difficulties, the RAF decided that the low-Trade Review...it includes some marvellous 3D diagrams clearly showing the flightpaths of the various aircraft over the prison site. -- Robin Buckland * Military Model Scene *The book is organised into four chapters with an introduction, the origins, the plan, and the raid along with an aftermath section, a bibliography, and a short index. The book is well illustrated throughout with a great selection of photographs along with superb artwork. There are three double page artworks that really leap off the pages. The diagrams showing the various attack axis is also noteworthy. And the abundance of first person accounts from the aircrew and prisoners alike is commendable. I did however find one editing error on the last page where a footnote says “VHS” instead of “VHF” for a frequency reference. This in no way detracts from the book and is a simple mistake to make. This is one of best and most affordable books out there on this somewhat controversial raid. RAMROD 564 as it was known then is one of the most famous low level bombing raids of World War Two and also one of the most controversial due to the mystery behind why it was actually ordered. I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in Mosquito operations, the French Resistance, or as a collector of the RAID Osprey series. -- Todd Shughart * Aviation News Magazine *Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Target for Today Origins: The Aircraft - No.2 (Lighter Bomber) Group The Plan: The Reason Why - Group Captain Percy Charles Pickard The Raid: Take-off - The Attack - Aftermath in Amiens - The Deaths of Pickard and Broadley Aftermath Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisIn late August of 2011, Shahbaz Taseer was driving to his office in Lahore, Pakistan when he was dragged from his car at gunpoint and kidnapped by members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), a Taliban-affiliated terrorist group.Just seven months earlier, his father, Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab Province, had been shot dead by his guard for speaking out against Pakistan''s blasphemy laws.For almost five years Shahbaz was held captive, moved ever-deeper into the lawless Hindu Kush, frequently tortured and forced to endure extreme cruelty, his fate resting on his kidnappers'' impossible demands and the uneasy alliances between his captors and the Taliban and ISIS.Lost to the World is the remarkable true story of Taseer''s time in captivity, and of his astonishing escape. It is a story of extraordinary faith, bravery and sorrow, with moments of kindness and humour offering a hopeful light in the dark years of his imprisonment. By Trade ReviewAstounding-an honest and fascinating account of something almost no other person has survived. * Jemima Khan *This memoir is a complete tour de force of emotions. * Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Academy Award-winning filmmaker and journalist *What a book. Lost to the World is a survival narrative unlike no other...Above all...a deeply moving testament to the triumph of human spirit. * Héctor Tobar, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Deep Down Dark *An astonishing story. A fascinating book. * Hugo Rifkind *

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Book SynopsisDutch photographer Jan Banning has interviewed and photographed 24 of the survivors of the Burma and Sumatra railways. The haunting images in this book show them as they worked, naked from the waist up. The words elicit, with a matter-of-fact disinterest, the misery of their constant understanding of death.

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Book Synopsis“When they heard the allies were coming, we were given extra rice to have the strength and energy to dig our own graves.“ In February 1942, ten-year old Olga Morris and her family were living in Singapore when the city fell to the Japanese Imperial Army in the biggest defeat in history of the British Forces. Turned back at an evacuation ship’s gangway as the bombs fell, Olga and her parents and siblings were forced to take their chances and hide out until, captured by Japanese soldiers, they were sent on a forced march to the notorious Changi Prison. There’s a certain stereotype of the British in Singapore in the ‘30s and early ‘40s, which Olga Morris – Henderson as she is now – definitely did not fit. Her family was not part of the privileged Raffles Hotel set, with their big houses and servants. Her father worked in construction, building roads, the city’s hospital and a mosque. Olga and her siblings grew up in Johor Bahru, a diverse part of Malaya just across the causeway from Singapore, amongst children of all faiths and cultures, who played together without a thought to race or class. It was a very happy upbringing. All that changed in 1942. Olga was playing with her guinea pigs when a British Army officer arrived to tell her mother that the family had just 20 minutes to pack what they could and get out. The Japanese were ten miles away. Olga’s mother grabbed the family photograph album and they ran... Three years of captivity followed. Three years of disease, malnutrition, deprivation and oppression. Olga and her friends bravely raided the vegetable plot; “dodging the searchlights” and sometimes enduring severe punishments. She stood alongside the other women and children through the ordeal of Tenko in the blazing sun. They were used as slave labour. Halfway through their captivity, Olga’s ten-year-old brother William was put into the men’s camp, where he suffered terribly cruelty that scarred him for life. February 2022 marked 80 years since the Fall of Singapore and at last Olga is ready to tell the story of her years as a child prisoner of war. It’s a story of great fear and deprivation; of a childhood utterly lost to conflict. It’s also a story of class prejudice and unkindness that didn’t end when Olga was freed from the camp and returned to England as an unwanted refugee. Yet moments of humour and camaraderie also live on in Olga’s memory. The camp’s girl guide group held clandestine meetings, where they worked on sewing a quilt. The ‘Changi Quilt’ is now held at the Imperial War Museum in London, as an emblem of the guides’ courage and faith. As Olga says, “We always felt the end of the war would come, we lived for it, from month to month and tried never to lose hope.”

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Book SynopsisShortly after the surprise bombing of Pearl Harbor in late 1941, over 70,000 American and Filipino servicemen were captured by the Japanese in the Philippines. What ensued for these young men is considered by many military historians to be one of the most barbaric sequences of war crimes in history, yet it remains an incredibly inspiring story of unmatched heroism and survival. According to the Japanese code of _Bushido_ a soldier captured alive had dishonoured himself and his country, so their new prisoners were often regarded with utter contempt. Then Second Lieutenant Patrick Rafferty and his fellow Battling Bastards of Bataan had just forfeited the right to be treated humanely, at least in the eyes of their captors. Forced to march shoeless over sixty-five miles northward in unbearable heat with no water or food, men were routinely executed if they showed any signs of slowing the forward progress towards their internment camp. Some estimates suggest that nearly 18,000 men perishe

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Book SynopsisThe book tells the story of a little known artillery regiment, the 155th (Lanarkshire Yeomanry) Field Regiment, RA which saw constant action during the ill-fated Malayan Campaign of 1941/42 and whose members later experienced the worst kind of hell as POWs of a cruel and bestial enemy. Following the Japanese invasion of Malaya, the Regiment fought a brave and resolute rearguard action all the way down the Malayan Peninsular and onto the so called impregnable fortress of Singapore. Held in the highest respect by comrades and foe alike, this former territorial cavalry regiment fully deserved its Royal Artillery moto - Ubigue - 'everywhere'. In the years that followed, the Gunners slaved, suffered an d died on the infamous Burma Railway, in copper mines of Formosa and camps throughout the Far East. More men of the Regiment died as POWs than fell in action. They should not be forgotten. Included is a full nominal roll which allows the reader to identify the camp/s where each individual Gunner was held. A Roll of Honour provides the date, place and cause of death and place of burial/commemoration of the Regiment's casualties.Trade ReviewIncluded is a full nominal roll which allows the reader to identify the camp/s where each individual Gunner was held. - Britain at War Death Was Our Bedmate is an inspiring read and an overdue tribute to the fallers and survivors during the regiment's horrific ordeal. COFEPOW

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Book SynopsisA genuinely new Second World War story, The 21 Escapes of Lt Alastair Cram by David M. Guss is a riveting account of the wartime exploits of the Scotsman. It is a tale of courage in the face of extraordinary odds and a testament to one man's dogged determination never to give up.‘The greatest serial escaper of the Second World War’ – The Times'Endlessly fascinating. Cram's story sizzles with adventure' – Giles Milton, Sunday Times In November 1941 Lt Alastair Cram was taken prisoner in North Africa as a devastating tank battle unfolded as Operation Crusader struggled to relieve Tobruk. His capture began a four year-long odyssey as he passed through twelve different POW camps, three Gestapo prisons and one asylum. Determined to regain his freedom, he became a serial escapee fleeing his captors no fewer than twenty-one times.The most dramatic of these attempts was from Gavi, the ‘Italian Colditz’. This maximum-security prison built inside a thousand year old stone fortress was for the pericolosi, those classified as the ‘most dangerous’ prisoners due to their unrelenting desire to escape. It was here that Alastair met David Stirling, the legendary founder of the SAS, and cooked up the plan for the ‘Cistern Tunnel’, one of the most audacious but little-known mass escape attempts of the entire war. ______________'Fascinating' – Daily Express'An enthralling portrait of true courage' Sunday Express S Magazine Trade ReviewEndlessly fascinating. Cram’s story sizzles with adventure and the author plays it for all it is worth. I found myself rooting for his hero at every scrape and turn. * Giles Milton, Sunday Times *The story of Alastair Cram is a remarkable one, perhaps richer for having remained untold for so long . . . a book that ranks among the best escape literature * The Times *Fascinating -- Dominic Midgley * Daily Express *An enthralling portrait of true courage * Sunday Express S Magazine *An extraordinary story, vividly told. * History Revealed *Reads like a John Buchan novel. * History of War *[A] masterful account . . . Harrowing and deeply touching 21 Escapes pays homage to an inspiring figure and the determination of the human spirit. * Scottish Field *

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Book SynopsisNOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING COLIN FIRTH, NICOLE KIDMAN AND JEREMY IRVINEDuring the second world war Eric Lomax was forced to work on the notorious Burma-Siam Railway and was tortured by the Japanese for making a crude radio.Left emotionally scarred and unable to form normal relationships Lomax suffered for years until, with the help of his wife Patti and the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, he came to terms with what had happened and, fifty years after the terrible events, was able to meet one of his tormentors.The Railway Man is an incredible story of innocence betrayed, and of survival and courage in the face of horror.Winner of the Waterstones Esquire Award for Non-Fiction, the JR Ackerley Prize and the NCR Book Award.Trade ReviewWhat a great book. What a great man -- Harry Ritchie * Daily Mail *Forget the grueling films, just read the brilliant books * Independent *This beautiful, awkward book tells the story of a fine and awkward man. Here, I think, is an account that rises above mere timeliness and comes near to being a classic of autobiography -- Ian Jack * Guardian *When I turned to the book, the complexity of Lomax's emotions came alive and burned off the page * Independent *Of all the billions of words that have been written about the Second World War, with the exception of Churchill's Nobel Prize winning history, it is not an exaggeration to say there is no account of it more worth reading that this. Wistfully romantic, historically important, startling, horrifying and ultimately electrifyingly uplifting, The Railway Man is as indispensable as any book can be. -- Tom Peck * Independent *

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Book SynopsisThis analysis of the general subject of WWI prisoners of war focuses on the role of a non-governmental association in confronting the increasingly chaotic conditions of East Europe.Trade ReviewExtremely interesting and impressively researched. -- Arnold Krammer Journal of American Hsitory

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Book SynopsisConstructs a portrait of the systematic abuse suffered by detainees caught in the net of America's "war on terror." This work argues that the endorsement of abuse at the highest levels of government presents a powerful test for American democracy and the rule of law.Trade ReviewIn gathering these truly telling documents Jaffer and Singh have distilled the essence of an evil that has shamed America. Exposing it can only help remove a terrible national stain. -- John W. Dean, Nixon White House counsel and author of Broken Government: How Republican Rule Destroyed the Legislative, Executive and Judicial Branches [An] extraordinarily important book -- Naomi Wolf The Huffington Post An immensely useful resource. -- David Cole New York Review of Books The definitive evidence of the Bush-Cheney war crimes. -- Nat Hentoff The Village VoiceTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Foreword Introduction: Administration of Torture Timeline of Key Events Description of the Documents The Documents

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Book SynopsisHomecomings tells the story of late-returning Japanese soldiers and their struggle to adapt to a newly peaceful and prosperous society.Trade ReviewA bracing, riveting, and lucid retelling of postwar Japanese culture, Homecomings is the best kind of cultural history, capturing the mesh of experience, memory, history, and representation. The book reveals the psychic and ethical complexities of the lives of soldiers who returned to a defeated nation. It shows how postwar Japanese culture was created out of those experiences and how they were narrated and represented across culture in writing, photography, and film. -- Alan Tansman, director, Townsend Center of the Humanities, University of California, Berkeley Homecomings tells the stories of six repatriated Japanese soldiers. Yoshikuni Igarashi shows how Japan's mass media represented these men and how they grappled with their media images. By focusing on returnees from the immediate postwar years as well as those from the 1970s, Igarashi tells a rich story of the decades-long struggle of the Japanese people to come to terms with the awful experience of the war. -- Andrew Gordon, Harvard University As masterfully recounted by Yoshikuni Igarashi, these stories of Japanese soldiers who returned home years (and sometimes decades) after 1945 are revealing, sometimes heartbreaking and often confounding, and thoroughly fascinating. Homecomings details how servicemen belatedly repatriated from Soviet labor camps and Southeast Asian and Pacific Island jungles could become both painful reminders and powerful icons in a postwar Japan eager to distance itself from and mythologize a deeply troubled past. -- Bill Tsutsui, president and professor of history, Hendrix College Homecomings is a brilliant cultural history of mass-mediated negotiations of Japan's 'postwar' from the 1940s through the 1970s and beyond. Yoshikuni Igarashi brings close and sympathetic attention to the ironies, hypocrisies, and inconsistencies that colored the landscape of reintegration after Japan's disastrous empire and war. -- Franziska Seraphim, Boston College A remarkable, detailed study of life in Japan and all countries in Asia involved in WW II and its aftermath... Recommended. Choice The author deftly examines the conflict between the need for returnees to verbalize their experiences and the government's attempt to smother the past, burying the legacies of war and colonialism under a newer, brighter postwar narrative. Japan TimesTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Note on Personal Names and Names of War Introduction 1. Life After the War: Former Servicemen in Postwar Japanese Film 2. The Story of a Man Who Was Not Allowed to Come Home: Gomikawa Junpei and The Human Condition (Ningen no joken) 3. Longing for Home: Japanese POWs in Soviet Captivity and Their Repatriation 4. "No Denunciation": Ishihara Yoshiro's Soviet Internment Experiences 5. Lost and Found in the South Pacific: Postwar Japan's Mania Over Yokoi Shoichi's Return 6. Rescued from the Past: Onoda Hiro'o's Endless War 7. The Homecoming of the "Last Japanese Soldier": Nakamura Teruo/Shiniyuwu/Li Guanghui's Postwar Epilogue Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisHomecomings tells the story of late-returning Japanese soldiers and their struggle to adapt to a newly peaceful and prosperous society. Yoshikuni Igarashi explores what Japanese society accepted and rejected, complicating the definition of a postwar consensus and prolonging the experience of war for both Japanese soldiers and the nation.Trade ReviewA bracing, riveting, and lucid retelling of postwar Japanese culture, Homecomings is the best kind of cultural history, capturing the mesh of experience, memory, history, and representation. The book reveals the psychic and ethical complexities of the lives of soldiers who returned to a defeated nation. It shows how postwar Japanese culture was created out of those experiences and how they were narrated and represented across culture in writing, photography, and film. -- Alan Tansman, director, Townsend Center of the Humanities, University of California, BerkeleyHomecomings tells the stories of six repatriated Japanese soldiers. Yoshikuni Igarashi shows how Japan's mass media represented these men and how they grappled with their media images. By focusing on returnees from the immediate postwar years as well as those from the 1970s, Igarashi tells a rich story of the decades-long struggle of the Japanese people to come to terms with the awful experience of the war. -- Andrew Gordon, Harvard UniversityAs masterfully recounted by Yoshikuni Igarashi, these stories of Japanese soldiers who returned home years (and sometimes decades) after 1945 are revealing, sometimes heartbreaking and often confounding, and thoroughly fascinating. Homecomings details how servicemen belatedly repatriated from Soviet labor camps and Southeast Asian and Pacific Island jungles could become both painful reminders and powerful icons in a postwar Japan eager to distance itself from and mythologize a deeply troubled past. -- Bill Tsutsui, president and professor of history, Hendrix CollegeHomecomings is a brilliant cultural history of mass-mediated negotiations of Japan's 'postwar' from the 1940s through the 1970s and beyond. Yoshikuni Igarashi brings close and sympathetic attention to the ironies, hypocrisies, and inconsistencies that colored the landscape of reintegration after Japan's disastrous empire and war. -- Franziska Seraphim, Boston CollegeThe author deftly examines the conflict between the need for returnees to verbalize their experiences and the government's attempt to smother the past, burying the legacies of war and colonialism under a newer, brighter postwar narrative. * Japan Times *This eloquent volume will no doubt become a work to which diverse audiences— scholars, students, and general readers with an interest in the complex events of the past—will turn repeatedly to draw lessons about modern Japan’s pained relationship with the vestiges of its failed empire. * Pacific Affairs *Homecomings adds rich substance to history. * Asian Affairs *A remarkable, detailed study of life in Japan and all countries in Asia involved in WWII and its aftermath. . . . Recommended. * Choice *The great strength of Homecomings is its discerning analysis of how antiwar memories have been mediated in the postwar period. It is best suited for advanced undergraduates and graduate students with some grounding in the historiography of imperial Japan and postcolonial topics like repatriation. -- Kristine Dennehy, California State University–Fullerton * Michigan War Studies Review *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsNote on Personal Names and Names of WarIntroduction1. Life After the War: Former Servicemen in Postwar Japanese Film2. The Story of a Man Who Was Not Allowed to Come Home: Gomikawa Junpei and The Human Condition (Ningen no joken)3. Longing for Home: Japanese POWs in Soviet Captivity and Their Repatriation4. "No Denunciation": Ishihara Yoshiro's Soviet Internment Experiences5. Lost and Found in the South Pacific: Postwar Japan's Mania Over Yokoi Shoichi's Return6. Rescued from the Past: Onoda Hiro'o's Endless War7. The Homecoming of the "Last Japanese Soldier": Nakamura Teruo/Shiniyuwu/Li Guanghui's PostwarEpilogueNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisTHE #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER - AND PERFECT GIFT FOR HISTORY BUFFS!''A master at setting the pulse racing'' Daily Mail''A fine feat of storytelling . . . will surely become the last word on the subject'' Telegraph_____________________________FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF SAS: ROGUE HEROESColditz Castle: a forbidding Gothic tower on a hill in Nazi Germany. You may have heard about the prisoners and their daring and desperate attempts to escape, but that''s only part of the real story.In Colditz: Prisoners of the Castle, bestselling historian Ben Macintyre takes us inside the walls of the most infamous prison in history to meet the real men behind the legends. Heroes and bullies, lovers and spies, captors and prisoners living cheek-by-jowl for years in a thrilling game of cat and mouse - and all determined to escape by any means necessary.Deeply researched and full of incredible stories, this is a tale of ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances - and will change how you think about Colditz forever._____________________________''Like watching a black-and-white photograph being colourised'' Spectator''Every Ben Macintyre book is a treat'' The TabletSunday Times bestseller, November 2022Trade ReviewA fine feat of storytelling . . . will surely become the last word on the subject -- Patrick Bishop * Telegraph *Like watching a black-and-white photograph being colourised . . . rich in humour and quirky detail . . . another compelling narrative -- Clare Mulley * Spectator *Nuanced and gripping . . . told with sensitivity and insight, with an eye for telling detail -- Gerard DeGroot * The Times *Fascinating * The Sun *Every Ben Macintyre book is a treat -- Jane Thynne * The Tablet *Entertaining yet objective and often moving * Wall Street Journal *Macintyre's genius has long been to excavate the nuance, subtlety and ambiguity beneath the myths he explores . . . remarkable -- Matthew D'Ancona * Tortoise Media *Another fine history . . . His unerring eye for the telling detail that can illuminate a greater story is apparent in Colditz -- Ronan McGreevy * The Irish Times *Macintyre so seamlessly fuses so many different accounts that their compilation creates something more profound than a simple escape yarn: a biography of the prison itself and the world detainees built there -- Andrea Pitzer * Washington Post *Macintyre recreates the daring escape stories with punchy flair . . . a lively page-turner -- NJ McGarrigle * Independent.ie *My book of the year . . . a masterful history of Colditz. It's absurdly readable (and at times just absurd) as well as being informative, hilarious and deeply moving -- Geoff Dyer * LitHub *

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Book SynopsisBrought to you by Penguin.In a forbidding Gothic castle on a hilltop in the heart of Nazi Germany, an unlikely band of British officers spent the Second World War plotting daring escapes from their Nazi captors. Or so the story of Colditz has gone, unchallenged for 70 years. But that tale contains only part of the truth.The astonishing inside story, revealed for the first time by bestselling historian Ben Macintyre, is a tale of the indomitable human spirit, but also one of class conflict, homosexuality, espionage, insanity and farce. Through an astonishing range of material, Macintyre reveals a remarkable cast of characters, wider than previously seen and hitherto hidden from history, taking in prisoners and captors who were living cheek-by-jowl in a thrilling game of cat and mouse.From the Indian doctor whose hunger strike and eventual escape reads like a thriller, to America''s oldest paratrooper and least successful secret agent, the soldier-prisoners of Colditz were astonishingly imaginative in their escape attempts; but there were many other ways to survive while awaiting their unknown fate. Deeply researched and full of incredible colour, this is the definitive book on one of the greatest war stories ever told. Ben MacIntyre 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022Trade ReviewA fine feat of storytelling . . . will surely become the last word on the subject -- Patrick Bishop * Telegraph *Like watching a black-and-white photograph being colourised . . . rich in humour and quirky detail . . . another compelling narrative -- Clare Mulley * Spectator *Nuanced and gripping . . . told with sensitivity and insight, with an eye for telling detail -- Gerard DeGroot * The Times *Fascinating * The Sun *Every Ben Macintyre book is a treat -- Jane Thynne * The Tablet *Entertaining yet objective and often moving * Wall Street Journal *Macintyre's genius has long been to excavate the nuance, subtlety and ambiguity beneath the myths he explores . . . remarkable -- Matthew D'Ancona * Tortoise Media *Another fine history . . . His unerring eye for the telling detail that can illuminate a greater story is apparent in Colditz -- Ronan McGreevy * The Irish Times *Macintyre so seamlessly fuses so many different accounts that their compilation creates something more profound than a simple escape yarn: a biography of the prison itself and the world detainees built there -- Andrea Pitzer * Washington Post *Macintyre recreates the daring escape stories with punchy flair . . . a lively page-turner -- NJ McGarrigle * Independent.ie *My book of the year . . . a masterful history of Colditz. It's absurdly readable (and at times just absurd) as well as being informative, hilarious and deeply moving -- Geoff Dyer * LitHub *

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Book SynopsisMoving seamlessly between family and communal history, Setsuko's Secret offers a clear window into a ""camp life"" that was rarely revealed to the children of the incarcerated. This volume powerfully insists that we reckon with the pain in our collective American past.Trade ReviewA rich and original story. Shirley Higuchi captures the sweeping narrative of incarceration through the lens of a single camp and ties it to our present reality. Her resolve as a daughter of the camps is Setsuko's real legacy." - Frank Abe, director of Conscience and the Constitution"Shirley Higuchi takes us on a journey, the more she searches for pieces of the puzzle, the deeper readers will be drawn in and search with her." - Noriko Sanefuji, Smithsonian's National Museum of American History

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Book SynopsisThe famous story of mass escape from a WWII German PoW camp that inspired the classic film.Trade ReviewOne of the great true stories of the war, and one of the great escape narratives of all time * SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE *A tense, thrilling, fabulous tale * PHILADELPHIA ENQUIRER *

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Book SynopsisTakes the reader behind the North Korean curtain and reveals the inner workings of its isolated society while offering a powerful testament to the human spirit.Trade Review"One of the most important and devastating accounts of life inside a totalitarian society." CommentaryTable of ContentsForeword Acknowledgments Prelude 1. Super Jenkins 2. In the Army, and across the DMZ 3. Housemates 4. Cooks, Cadets, and Wives 5. Soga-san 6. Friends and Strangers 7. Domestic Life 8. Hitomi's Escape 9. My Escape 10. Homecomings

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Book Synopsis''Marvellous.'' A.S. Byatt''Astonishing.'' John Gray''Luminous.'' Rose TremainI could take whichever I would of these paths.Sammy Mountjoy is an artist who has risen from poverty to see his pictures hung in the Tate Gallery. Swept into World War II, he is captured as a German prisoner of war, threatened with torture and locked in a cell of total darkness. He emerges transfigured by his ordeal, realising how his choices have made him the author of his life, interrogating religion and rationality, early loves and formative beliefs and questioning freedom itself.

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Book SynopsisMany Allied POWs in the Pacific theater of World War II suffered terribly. But abuse wasn’t a matter of Japanese policy, as is commonly assumed. Sarah Kovner shows poorly trained guards and rogue commanders inflicted the most horrific damage. Camps close to centers of imperial power tended to be less violent, and many POWs died from friendly fire.Trade ReviewPrisoners of the Empire forces readers to rethink the morality-tale version of cruel Japanese treatment of Allied POWs. Kovner is unflinching in presenting harsh treatment by Japanese prison commanders or guards and unsparing in her attention to racism on all sides. Above all, she is clear-eyed in explaining how confusion and ignorance, more than consistent policy, shaped this tragic episode in the fog of war. -- Andrew Gordon, author of A Modern History of JapanThis innovative study of Japanese prisoner-of-war (POW) camps in Japan, Korea, the Philippines, and Singapore during World War II explores how they were administered and what the prisoners experienced…Kovner’s vivid, detailed inquiry throws light on a host of subjects, including the racial and gender attitudes of the many cultures that encountered one another in wartime Asia. -- Andrew J. Nathan * Foreign Affairs *A rigorous and wide-ranging study of Japan’s treatment of POWs during WWII…This revisionist history adds essential nuance and depth to an emotionally charged subject. * Publishers Weekly *[An] excellent and unemotional account…She is not unsympathetic to the former POWs but provides a nuanced and dispassionate interpretation of what happened to those who became Japanese prisoners between 1942 and 1945. -- J. E. Hoare * Asian Affairs *The main thesis of this book holds true across Asia: simplistic notions of culturally determined cruelty do not fully explain the maltreatment of POWs, even though the conduct of the Pacific war was clearly infused with racism on both sides. The chaos of war, and the plea of ‘military necessity’—alas, so often the trump card during warfare—played a major role in this woeful erosion of humanity. -- Joan Beaumont * Australian Book Review *A ground-breaking survey of selected Japanese POW camps during the Asia–Pacific War that will be the starting point for all future studies of this topic. -- Samuel H. Yamashita * Journal of Japanese Studies *A much-needed corrective to our understanding of Japanese treatment of Allied prisoners. The book is well researched, and the author’s ability to work with Japanese-language sources makes this an extremely valuable contribution to the field of POW scholarship. Kovner’s careful consideration of the source material, her clear and fluid prose, and her critical eye provide a nuanced analysis that is long overdue. -- Derek R. Mallett * Journal of Military History *This is a significant contribution to the history of the Pacific War and the continuing discourse on prisoners of war more generally…Kovner successfully blends military, social, administrative, and diplomatic history into a highly readable study. -- Michael Sturma * Pacific Affairs *Kovner argues that there was nothing inherent in the Japanese character or culture that led to the inhumane treatment of POWs by Japan during the Pacific War…Makes an important contribution to our understanding of internment practices throughout the twentieth century. -- Mahon Murphy * Monumenta Nipponica *Standing on impressive transnational research in government and nongovernmental archives, Kovner complicates the popular consensus that Japan’s treatment of Allied prisoners of war (POWs) during World War II was singularly cruel and a systematic effort. By meticulously tracing the steps and missteps of Japan’s management of POW camps across its vast wartime empire, Kovner adjudicates from official records that there is no evidence of any top-down directive or an inherent quality of Japanese culture that explains why prisoners suffered. Instead, Kovner cogently argues that maltreatment resulted from the absence of planning and indifference among senior Japanese officials. -- Sandra H. Park * Journal of Asian Studies *Kovner reformats the complex ‘morality play’ depicted in Western history of prisoner of war suffering during World War II. Looking at the entirety of the Japanese empire at war, and focusing on the camps as locales within a cascade of battles for power, she challenges preconceptions that abuse stemmed solely from bushido ideals gone wrong or specific policies of cruelty. By comparatively investigating a vast range of experiences and geographic sites, Kovner overturns our stereotyped perceptions and challenges our understanding of POW history. -- Barak Kushner, author of Men to Devils, Devils to Men: Japanese War Crimes and Chinese JusticeIn a major work of original scholarship, Kovner reveals that who lived and who died often resulted not from policy but incompetence—poor training, lack of planning, disregard for anything but military priorities. With impressive daring, she situates camp lives within the larger context of occupation policies, diplomacy, and international law, and describes the multiethnic world of hundreds of thousands of POWs, civilian internees including women and children, and guards in the Philippines, Singapore, Japan, and Korea. Prisoners of the Empire is a signal critical accomplishment. -- Sabine Frühstück, author of Playing War: Children and the Paradoxes of Modern Militarism in JapanIn this ambitious study, Kovner moves beyond threadbare tropes of bushido and surrender-as-shameful to persuasively argue that Japanese treatment of POWs during World War II varied greatly across time and space—and cannot be fully understood without the broader context of Japanese diplomacy with the West, propaganda and strategic considerations, and the breakdown of discipline and logistics as Japan’s empire collapsed. Elegantly written and compulsively readable, this accessible narrative history will be of great interest to scholars and general readers alike. -- Nick Kapur, author of Japan at the Crossroads: Conflict and Compromise after Anpo

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Book SynopsisMany aspects of Britain's involvement in World War Two only slowly emerged from beneath the barrage of official secrets and popular misconception. One of the most controversial issues, the internment of 'enemy aliens' (and also British subjects) on the Isle of Man.

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Book SynopsisA wonderful introduction to an Irish landmark.

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Book SynopsisThe extraordinary revelations in Traitors detail the ugly side of war and power and the many betrayals of our ANZACs.In October 1943 Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Josef Stalin signed a solemn pact that once their enemies were defeated the Allied powers would ''pursue them to the uttermost ends of the earth and will deliver them to their accusers in order that justice may be done''. Nowhere did they say that justice would be selective. But it would prove to be.Traitors outlines the treachery of the British, American and Australian governments, who turned a blind eye to those who experimented on Australian prisoners of war. Journalist and bestselling author Frank Walker details how Nazis hired by ASIO were encouraged to settle in Australia and how the Catholic Church, CIA and MI6 helped the worst Nazi war criminals escape justice. While our soldiers were asked to risk their lives for King and country, Allied corporations traded withTrade ReviewTo come * Revielle (RSL magazine) *To come * The Weekend Australian *To come * Mother & Baby *To come * YOURS *To come * Sky Radio *

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Book SynopsisDrawing on oral history of female Palestinian political detainees, this book analyses their anti-colonial struggles in this overlooked subject.Trade Review'Reveals just how much of the history of anti-imperialist struggles is absent when women - especially Palestinian women freedom fighters - are overlooked' -- Angela Davis, Distinguished Professor Emerita, History of Consciousness and Feminist Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz'By interviewing Palestinian women political detainees and by situating their experiences both historically and globally, Abdo fills an important gap in both feminist and non-feminist scholarship on gender and resistance' -- Simona Sharoni, Ph.D, Professor, Gender & Women’s Studies, State University of New York, Plattsburgh'Nahla Abdo's groundbreaking, highly personal anti-imperialist analysis of Palestinian women political detainees makes a vital contribution to feminist studies of struggle and resistance, moving the reader from rage to hope' -- Ronit Lentin, Associate professor of Sociology, Trinity College Dublin'A landmark contribution. Avoiding the simplicity of merely adding the narratives of women to existing accounts of prison struggles, Abdo indicts the colonial violence, gynophobia, orientalism and cultural erasure that define the carceral regimes which Palestinian women encounter, and resist' -- Dr Mary Corcoran, Keele University, UK.'A powerful and informative book, whose historical, cultural and political framing distinguishes it within an expanding literature on women political prisoners in the Middle East' -- Rosemary Sayigh, Journal of Holy Land and Palestine StudiesTable of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction 1. Forgotten History, Lost Voices and Silent Souls: Women Political Detainees 2. Anti-Colonial Resistance in Context 3. Colonialism, Imperialism and the Culture of Resistance 4. Political Detainees and the Israeli Prison System 5. Prison as a Site of Resistance Conclusion Afterword Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisDrawing on oral history of female Palestinian political detainees, this book analyses their anti-colonial struggles in this overlooked subject.Trade Review'Reveals just how much of the history of anti-imperialist struggles is absent when women - especially Palestinian women freedom fighters - are overlooked' -- Angela Davis, Distinguished Professor Emerita, History of Consciousness and Feminist Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz'By interviewing Palestinian women political detainees and by situating their experiences both historically and globally, Abdo fills an important gap in both feminist and non-feminist scholarship on gender and resistance' -- Simona Sharoni, Ph.D, Professor, Gender & Women’s Studies, State University of New York, Plattsburgh'Nahla Abdo's groundbreaking, highly personal anti-imperialist analysis of Palestinian women political detainees makes a vital contribution to feminist studies of struggle and resistance, moving the reader from rage to hope' -- Ronit Lentin, Associate professor of Sociology, Trinity College Dublin'A landmark contribution. Avoiding the simplicity of merely adding the narratives of women to existing accounts of prison struggles, Abdo indicts the colonial violence, gynophobia, orientalism and cultural erasure that define the carceral regimes which Palestinian women encounter, and resist' -- Dr Mary Corcoran, Keele University, UK.'A powerful and informative book, whose historical, cultural and political framing distinguishes it within an expanding literature on women political prisoners in the Middle East' -- Rosemary Sayigh, Journal of Holy Land and Palestine StudiesTable of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction 1. Forgotten History, Lost Voices and Silent Souls: Women Political Detainees 2. Anti-Colonial Resistance in Context 3. Colonialism, Imperialism and the Culture of Resistance 4. Political Detainees and the Israeli Prison System 5. Prison as a Site of Resistance Conclusion Afterword Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThe second instalment of the iconic memoirs of one of the first female fighters of the PKKTrade Review'This memoir advances our knowledge of human endurance and allows the reader a closer look into the world of state violence. This is a compelling story of fear, hope, tensions, despair, joy, but mostly a dream of liberation' -- Shahrzad Mojab, co-author of 'Revolutionary Learning: Marxism, Feminism and Knowledge''Diyarbakir Military Prison was the main site of Kurdish resistance during the early 1980s and as a senior member of the PKK, Sakine Cansiz played a leading role in it. This book is an excellent resource for understanding this historic period in Kurdish politics' -- Cengiz Gunes, author of 'The Kurdish National Movement in Turkey: From Protest to Resistance' (Routledge, 2012).'This second volume of memoirs covers the 11 years Sakine Cansiz spent in Turkish prisons from 1979 until 1990. With tremendous lucidity and power Cansiz tells a story of struggle against dehumanisation and an unshakeable belief in freedom. This is a deeply moving documentation of the origins of the Kurdish women's movement. A most important book - beautifully written and urgent' -- Estella Schmid, Peace in Kurdistan Campaign'Sakine shows not only Kurdish women, but all women that the most beautiful way to live is to embrace life with more strength. Sakine never gave up her love for freedom, despite the heavy sacrifices she had to bear. In a country where it is forbidden to live in freedom as human beings, she knew that the only way to survive was to fight. Every woman who longs for freedom will find a voice in Sakine's struggle' -- Gönül Tepe, Kurdish Women's Liberation MovementTable of ContentsTranslator-editor's Preface Sara Notes List of People List of Political Names and Acronyms Timeline Index

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Book SynopsisThe second instalment of the iconic memoirs of one of the first female fighters of the PKKTrade Review'This memoir advances our knowledge of human endurance and allows the reader a closer look into the world of state violence. This is a compelling story of fear, hope, tensions, despair, joy, but mostly a dream of liberation' -- Shahrzad Mojab, co-author of 'Revolutionary Learning: Marxism, Feminism and Knowledge''Diyarbakir Military Prison was the main site of Kurdish resistance during the early 1980s and as a senior member of the PKK, Sakine Cansiz played a leading role in it. This book is an excellent resource for understanding this historic period in Kurdish politics' -- Cengiz Gunes, author of 'The Kurdish National Movement in Turkey: From Protest to Resistance' (Routledge, 2012).'This second volume of memoirs covers the 11 years Sakine Cansiz spent in Turkish prisons from 1979 until 1990. With tremendous lucidity and power Cansiz tells a story of struggle against dehumanisation and an unshakeable belief in freedom. This is a deeply moving documentation of the origins of the Kurdish women's movement. A most important book - beautifully written and urgent' -- Estella Schmid, Peace in Kurdistan Campaign'Sakine shows not only Kurdish women, but all women that the most beautiful way to live is to embrace life with more strength. Sakine never gave up her love for freedom, despite the heavy sacrifices she had to bear. In a country where it is forbidden to live in freedom as human beings, she knew that the only way to survive was to fight. Every woman who longs for freedom will find a voice in Sakine's struggle' -- Gönül Tepe, Kurdish Women's Liberation MovementTable of ContentsTranslator-editor's Preface Sara Notes List of People List of Political Names and Acronyms Timeline Index

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Book SynopsisStalag VIII-B, Colditz, these names are synonymous with POWs in the Second World War. Gloucestershire was home to a wealth of prisoner-of-war camps and hostels, and many Italian and German prisoners spent the war years here. It also features the compelling first-hand account of Joachim Schulze, a German POW who spent the war near Tewkesbury.

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Book SynopsisThe human story of Cambridgeshire’s Napoleonic War prison

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Book SynopsisA true first person account of Taliban captivity in Waziristan.

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Book SynopsisWhy are prisoners horribly abused in some wars but humanely cared for in others? In Life and Death in Captivity, Geoffrey P. R. Wallace explores the profound differences in the ways captives are treated during armed conflict. Wallace focuses on the dual role played by regime type and the nature of the conflict in determining whether captor states opt for brutality or mercy. Integrating original data on prisoner treatment during the last century of interstate warfare with in-depth historical cases, Wallace demonstrates how domestic constraints and external incentives shape the fate of captured enemy combatants. Both Russia and Japan, for example, treated prisoners very differently in the Russo-Japanese War of 19045 and in World War II; the behavior of any given country is liable to vary from conflict to conflict and even within the same war.Democracies may be more likely to treat their captives humanely, yet this benevolence is rooted less in liberal norms of nonviolencTrade ReviewGeoffrey Wallace suggests a new theoretical framework to examine wartime conduct and political violence in armed conflicts. * Canadian Military History *Table of ContentsIntroduction1. Repertoires of Violence against Prisoners2. The Captor's Dilemma3. Prisoners by the Numbers4. World War II, Democracies, and the (Mis)Treatment of Prisoners5. Territorial Conquest and the Katyn Massacre in PerspectiveConclusion: Explaining the Treatment of Prisoners during WarAppendix Notes References Index

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Book SynopsisMartin Sandler breaks new ground with an in depth look at Japanese internment during WWIITrade ReviewPRAISE FOR IMPRISONED : YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults finalist : Beautifully illustrated with well-chosen photographs and other documents, this handsome book offers a clear view of an episode in American history that still receives too little focus. Booklist, starred review PRAISE FOR LINCOLN THROUGH THE LENS : *"Although it's the pictures that provide the 'wow factor,' Sandler's perceptive words have their own elegance." Booklist, starred review *"This appealing, accessible title will be savored from beginning to end." School Library Journal, starred review PRAISE FOR THE DUST BOWL THROUGH THE LENS : *"Seldom has the connection between the arts and the general quality of life been made so clear." School Library Journal, starred review Inspiring and involving. VOYA PRAISE FOR KENNEDY THROUGH THE LENS : An accessible, insightful perspective on one of America's most famous presidents. Kirkus Reviews

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