Caroline Moorehead Bücher

"On March 25, 1942, nearly a thousand young, unmarried Jewish women boarded a train in Poprad, Slovakia. Filled with a sense of adventure and national pride, they left their parents' homes wearing their best clothes and confidently waving good-bye. Believing they were going to work in a factory for a few months, they were eager to report for government service. Instead, the young women--many of them teenagers--were sent to Auschwitz. Their government paid 500 Reich Marks (about $200) apiece for the Nazis to take them as slave labor. Of those 999 innocent deportees, only a few would survive. The facts of the first official Jewish transport to Auschwitz are little known, yet profoundly relevant today. These were not resistance fighters or prisoners of war. There were no men among them. Sent to almost certain death, the young women were powerless and insignificant not only because they were Jewish--but also because they were female. Now acclaimed author Heather Dune Macadam reveals their poignant stories, drawing on extensive interviews with survivors, and consulting with historians, witnesses, and relatives of those first deportees to create an important addition to Holocaust literature and women's history."-- Provided by publisher

Set in the remote villages of the southern Massif Central in France, this narrative explores the remarkable history of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon during World War II. The local inhabitants courageously sheltered thousands from the Gestapo, including resisters, Freemasons, communists, and primarily Jewish orphans whose parents had been deported. Their collective bravery and moral conviction highlight a profound act of humanity amidst the horrors of war.

A diverse group of individuals, including teachers, students, and professionals, united in their courageous efforts against the Nazi regime. They engaged in activities such as distributing anti-Nazi leaflets, hiding Jews, and transporting weapons. This remarkable resistance network spanned ages and backgrounds, from a fifteen-year-old schoolgirl to a farmer's wife in her sixties, showcasing the extraordinary bravery and commitment of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.

A gripping tale of intrigue... I was enormously moved Observer

Set in early 20th-century Florence, the narrative follows the Rosselli family, particularly matriarch Amelia, as they confront the rise of fascism under Mussolini. With a strong commitment to antifascism, her sons, Carlo and Nello, boldly oppose the regime, risking their status among the elite. As Mussolini's oppressive police state takes hold, the family's resistance evolves into active defiance, highlighting the tension between cultural aristocracy and political conviction in a time of national turmoil.

This volume is the biography of a pioneer of field archeology, Heinrich Schliemann (1822-1890), retelling how Schliemann rose from grocer's apprentice in Germany to wealthy indigo merchant in St. Petersburg to his final re-creation as an archaeologist. Although Schliemann outraged scholars with his boastfulness, penchant for willful ambiguousness in his writings, and brutal methods of excavation, he amazed the world by discovering one of the most important and glorious sites in the history of mankind. The author emphasizes Schliemann's story to track the fate of Priam's Treasure. This cache of gold and other artifacts was discovered and stolen by Schliemann, later hidden by the Nazis, and then stolen and hidden by the Russians

In the late summer of 1943, when Italy changed sides in the War and the Germans - now their enemies - occupied the north of the country, an Italian Resistance was born. Ada, Frida, Silvia and Bianca were four young Piedmontese women who joined the Resistance, living clandestinely in the mountains surrounding Turin. They were not alone. Between 1943 and 1945, as the Allies battled their way north, thousands of men and women throughout occupied Italy rose up and fought to liberate their country from the German invaders and their Fascist collaborators. The bloody civil war that ensued across the country pitted neighbour against neighbour, and brought out the best and worst in Italian society. The courage shown by the partisans was exemplary, and eventually bound them together as a coherent fighting force. The women's contribution was invaluable - they fought, carried messages and weapons, provided safe houses, laid mines and took prisoners. Ada's house deep in the mountains became a meeting place and refuge for many of them

Edda Mussolini was Benito's favourite daughter- spoilt, venal, uneducated but clever, faithless but flamboyant, a brilliant diplomat, wild but brave, and ultimately strong and loyal. She was her father's confidante during the 20 years of Fascist rule, acting as envoy to both Germany and Britain, and playing a part in steering Italy to join forces with Hitler. From her early twenties she was effectively first lady of Italy. She married Galeazzo Ciano, who would become the youngest Foreign Secretary in Italian history, and they were the most celebrated and glamorous couple in elegant, vulgar Roman fascist society. Their fortunes turned in 1943, when Ciano voted against Mussolini in a plot to bring him down, and his father-in-law did not forgive him. In a dramatic story that takes in hidden diaries, her father's fall and her husband's execution, an escape into Switzerland and a period in exile, we come to know a complicated, bold and determined woman who emerges not just as a witness but as a key player in some of the twentieth century's defining moments. And we see Fascist Italy with all its glamour, decadence and political intrigue, and the turbulence before its violent end.

On an icy dawn morning in Paris in January 1943, a group of 230 French women resisters were rounded up from the Gestapo detention camps and sent on a train to Auschwitz - the only train, in the four years of German occupation, to take women of the resistance to a death camp.

From the author of the bestseller A Train in Winter comes the remarkable tale of a French village that saved thousands, including many Jewish children, from the Gestapo during World War II. Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, a small village nestled in the mountains of the Ardèche, became a sanctuary for those pursued by the Nazis. Isolated by snow for long stretches in winter, its residents sheltered resisters, freemasons, communists, downed Allied airmen, and primarily Jews, many of whom were children separated from their deported parents. After the war, Le Chambon was uniquely recognized in its entirety in Yad Vashem's Dictionary of the Just. The full story of how this village managed to protect so many remains largely untold. Acclaimed biographer and historian Caroline Moorehead recounts a narrative of exceptional bravery and collective action against German rule. In a country notorious for denouncing Jews and resisters, not a single inhabitant of Le Chambon ever revealed the identities of those they sheltered. The village, united by a code of honor stemming from centuries of religious oppression, exemplifies how a small group of heroic individuals—many of them women—prioritized saving lives over their own safety, creating a powerful legacy of resistance and compassion.