What are you reading now?

[Boris]

A Genius for War - A life of General George S Patton by Carlo D'Este.

Simply staggering biography.

[Jacker]

A Genius for War - A life of General George S Patton by Carlo D'Este.

Simply staggering biography.

Boris, my Dad owes his life to General Patton, and subsequently I owe him my very existence.
Dad was liberated from a Nazi concentration camp by Pattons advancing tank army. My Dad claimed he subsequently looked after Pattons little dog and took him for walkies as he recuperated in Pattons HQ from 4 years as a guest of the Krauts in one of their death camps.
If ever you get the chance, read "Voices from the Fortress", by Paul Rea, which documents how allied soldiers were kept inNazi Death Camps like Theresinstadt in C/slovakia, against the Geneva Convention. Heavy reading indeed.

[Boris]

A Genius for War - A life of General George S Patton by Carlo D'Este.

Simply staggering biography.

Boris, my Dad owes his life to General Patton, and subsequently I owe him my very existence.
Dad was liberated from a Nazi concentration camp by Pattons advancing tank army. My Dad claimed he subsequently looked after Pattons little dog and took him for walkies as he recuperated in Pattons HQ from 4 years as a guest of the Krauts in one of their death camps.
If ever you get the chance, read "Voices from the Fortress", by Paul Rea, which documents how allied soldiers were kept inNazi Death Camps like Theresinstadt in C/slovakia, against the Geneva Convention. Heavy reading indeed.

Wow. Small world indeed.

I will look for that book. Thanks.

My father was a prisoner in Bergen-Belsen. I can certainly understand how you feel, mate.

Theresienstadt (Terezin) wasn't actually a death camp, as such, but I know it well. From 1914 to 1918 it housed Gavrilo Princip, the Serb who shot Archduke Ferdinand and precipitated WW1. Terezin was kinda special, it was actually a kind of transit camp/ghetto for Jews being sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau for "Sonderbehandlung" (special treatement). ie.extermination

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005424

[Jacker]

Boris, I will be hunting down that book on general Patton, as he seems to have been a very interesting individual and a remarkable soldier, though he seems to have been an embarassment to the then US administration.
There were a handful of allied soldiers sent to Terezin by the Gestapo, as they were hard case escapees and Terezin, or the Little Fortress, was considered impossible to escape from. (like Colditz)
My Dad was lucky to survive at all, but he has passed away now. He absolutely insisted that he not be cremated, as his "job" at Terezin was to burn the bodies of those inmates murdered by the Nazis, and he could not bear to have the same fate.
It is difficult to confront some of the horrors from past generations, but it certainly puts life in perspective.
May all those poor souls rest in peace.

[Boris]

Boris, I will be hunting down that book on general Patton, as he seems to have been a very interesting individual and a remarkable soldier, though he seems to have been an embarassment to the then US administration.

Please don't look at Patton through the eyes of his enemy, General Omar Bradley, whose memoirs are the basis for the movie Patton that starred George C Scott. Patton was indeed a remarkable man and the more I read about him the more astounded I am. Good luck finding the book.It is considered the best biography of the man.


There were a handful of allied soldiers sent to Terezin by the Gestapo, as they were hard case escapees and Terezin, or the Little Fortress, was considered impossible to escape from. (like Colditz)
My Dad was lucky to survive at all, but he has passed away now. He absolutely insisted that he not be cremated, as his "job" at Terezin was to burn the bodies of those inmates murdered by the Nazis, and he could not bear to have the same fate.
It is difficult to confront some of the horrors from past generations, but it certainly puts life in perspective.
May all those poor souls rest in peace.

Yes, indeed. May they rest in peace.

[BIWOZ]

20th century ghosts

Collection of horror and dark fantasy by Joe Hill, aka Joseph Hillstrom King ... son of Stephen.

[wombat]

The History of Scotland by Neil Oliver.
Companion hardback to the tv series.
Just started it (Father's Day pressie)

Bob