Download or read book Panzer Soldiers for God Honor and Fatherland written by Hans-Joachim Jung and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book God Honor Fatherland written by Thomas McGuirl and published by Pen & Sword. This book was released on 1997 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Panzergrenadier Division Grossdeutschland was one of Germany's most celebrated military formations of the Second World War. Formed in 1942 by the expansion of Infantry Regiment (motorized) Grossdeutschland, the new division quickly earned its reputation on the Eastern Front of being the elite of the German Army. Twice the size of most other divisions, it was an immensely powerful and hard-hitting mechanized formation that cut a large swath through the Red Army, whether in the attack or on the defense. Its carefully selected officer and non-commissioned officer corps ensured that no matter what the odds, the division would always give a good account of itself in battle and would possess an esprit de corps enjoyed by few other comparable divisions, including those of the Waffen-SS. The thousands of volunteers from every land and province in Germany who fought and died while serving in the ranks of Panzergrenadier Division Grossdeutschland represented a cross-section of German society, a radical departure from the manner in which most German divisions of the era were created. Now for the first time, the faces of these men, at rest and in battle, can be seen through the images gleaned from hundreds of photographs taken by the division's war correspondents or Kriegsberichter. This outstanding selection of photographs, which until recently remained unseen for decades in a European archive, have been recovered and painstakingly researched by authors Remy Spezzano and Thomas McGuirl. Together with the assistance of the division's Veterans' association, they identified hundreds of men, living and dead, as well as dozens of combat vehicles, items of equipment, and specificengagements the division took part in from April 1942 to September 1944. Accompanied by a detailed narrative that ties each of the photos within the context of the war on the Eastern Front, God, Honor, Fatherland represents a milestone in the study of the war in the East and shows the face of the German soldier as he has never been shown before.

Download or read book Deathride written by John Mosier and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2010-06-15 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published as Deathride, this is the true story of the Eastern Front in World War II, emphasizing how close Germany came to winning and the USSR to losing; the severity of the Soviet losses, which have been minimized due to Soviet propaganda; and the importance of the Allied invasions of North Africa and Sicily, among other factors, in forcing Hitler to re-deploy troops, saving the Soviets from disaster. The German invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, began a war that lasted nearly four years and created by far the bloodiest theater in World War II. In the conventional narrative of this war, Hitler was defeated by Stalin because, like Napoleon, he underestimated the size and resources of his enemy. In fact, says historian John Mosier, Hitler came very close to winning and lost only because of the intervention of the western Allies. Stalin’s great triumph was not winning the war, but establishing the prevailing interpretation of the war. The Great Patriotic War, as it is known in Russia, would eventually prove fatal, setting in motion events that would culminate in the collapse of the Soviet Union. Mosier argues that the Soviet losses in World War II were unsustainable and would eventually have led to defeat. The Soviet Union had only twice the population of Germany at the time, but it was suffering a casualty rate more than two and a half times the German rate. Because Stalin had a notorious habit of imprisoning or killing anyone who brought him bad news (and often their families as well), Soviet battlefield reports were fantasies, and the battle plans Soviet generals developed seldom responded to actual circumstances. In this respect the Soviets waged war as they did everything else: through propaganda rather than actual achievement. What saved Stalin was the Allied decision to open the Mediterranean theater. Once the Allies threatened Italy, Hitler was forced to withdraw his best troops from the eastern front and redeploy them. In addition, the Allies provided heavy vehicles that the Soviets desperately needed and were unable to manufacture themselves. It was not the resources of the Soviet Union that defeated Hitler but the resources of the West. In this provocative revisionist analysis of the war between Hitler and Stalin, Mosier provides a dramatic, vigorous narrative of events as he shows how most previous histories accepted Stalin’s lies and distortions to produce a false sense of Soviet triumph. This is the real story of the Eastern Front, fresh and different from what we thought we knew.

Download or read book The Devil s General written by Raymond Bagdonas and published by Casemate. This book was released on 2014-01-19 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A detailed military biography of the most highly decorated Nazi regimental commander in WWII. The most highly decorated German regimental commander of World War II, Hyazinth Graf Strachwitz first won the Iron Cross in the Great War. He was serving with the 1st Panzer Division when the Polish campaign inaugurated World War II. Strachwitz’s exploits as commander of a panzer battalion during the French campaign earned him further decorations before he transferred to the newly formed 16th Panzer Division. There, he participated in the invasion of Yugoslavia and then Operation Barbarossa, where he earned the Knight’s Cross. At Stalingrad, he reached the Volga and fought on the northern rim of Sixth Army’s perimeter. Severely wounded during battle, he was flown out of the Stalingrad pocket and was thus spared the fate of the rest of Sixth Army. Upon recuperation, he was named commander of the Grossdeutschland Division’s panzer regiment and won the Swords to the Knight’s Cross during Manstein’s counteroffensive at Kharkov. Wounded twelve times during the war, and barely surviving a lethal car crash, Strachwitz finally surrendered to the Americans in May 1945. Historian Raymond Bagdonas, though impaired by the disappearance of 16th Panzer Division’s official records at Stalingrad, and the fact that many of the Panzer Graf’s later battlegroups never kept them, has written a vividly detailed account of this combat leader’s life, as well as ferocious armored warfare in World War II.

Download or read book The Complete Guide to National Symbols and Emblems 2 volumes written by James B. Minahan and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2009-12-23 with total page 1097 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: These two volumes offer an unprecedented collection of flags, seals, and symbols used every day around the world. In today's global society it is necessary to recognize and identify not only our own symbols, but symbols from nations and territories far removed from home. Empowering readers to identify symbols in daily use all over the world, The Complete Guide to National Symbols and Emblems features an extensive collection of international symbols and cultural emblems never before compiled in such a concise and easy-to-use work. It is inclusive of all the UN member states and some of the most prominent stateless nations. This refreshing alternative to other commonly used sites blends both the political and cultural, including not only flags, national seals, and national anthems, but also foods and recipes, national heroes, sports teams, festivals, and pivotal events that figure in the formation of national identity. This versatile source will prove valuable to a wide audience, benefiting not only high school and undergraduate student researchers, but international businesses, journalists, and government offices.

Download or read book The Didache written by Aaron Milavec and published by Paulist Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 1062 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In this study, Aaron Milavec comprehensively examines how the first-century pastoral manual known as the Didache enumerated the step-by-step training of converts for the full, active participation in the earliest Jewish-Christian communities. Milavec shows how the Didache can, in turn, illuminate our understanding of how these first Christian men and women organized their community life socially, religiously, and politically in order to safeguard its members from the challenges of the surrounding Roman, pagan society of the first-century Mediterranean basin. He argues not only that the Didache's textual and contextual clues demonstrate the document's organic unity from beginning to end, but also that it dates from a period before the gospels were written and had gained acceptance."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Download or read book Traitors and True Poles written by Karen Majewski and published by Ohio University Press. This book was released on 2003-04-15 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During Poland’s century-long partition and in the interwar period of Poland’s reemergence as a state, Polish writers on both sides of the ocean shared a preoccupation with national identity. Polish-American immigrant writers revealed their persistent, passionate engagement with these issues, as they used their work to define and consolidate an essentially transnational ethnic identity that was both tied to Poland and independent of it. By introducing these varied and forgotten works into the scholarly discussion, Traitors and True Poles recasts the literary landscape to include the immigrant community’s own competing visions of itself. The conversation between Polonia’s creative voices illustrates how immigrants manipulated often difficult economic, social, and political realities to provide a place for and a sense of themselves. What emerges is a fuller picture of American literature, one vital to the creation of an ethnic consciousness. This is the first extended look at Polish-language fiction written by turn-of-the-century immigrants, a forgotten body of American ethnic literature. Addressing a blind spot in our understanding of immigrant and ethnic identity and culture, Traitors and True Poles challenges perceptions of a silent and passive Polish immigration by giving back its literary voice.

Download or read book Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity written by Roy A. Rappaport and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1999-03-25 with total page 566 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Roy Rappaport argues that religion is central to the continuing evolution of life, although it has been been displaced from its original position of intellectual authority by the rise of modern science. His book, which could be construed as in some degree religious as well as about religion, insists that religion can and must be reconciled with science. Combining adaptive and cognitive approaches to the study of humankind, he mounts a comprehensive analysis of religion's evolutionary significance, seeing it as co-extensive with the invention of language and hence of culture as we know it. At the same time he assembles the fullest study yet of religion's main component, ritual, which constructs the conceptions which we take to be religious and has been central in the making of humanity's adaptation. The text amounts to a manual for effective ritual, illustrated by examples drawn from anthropology, history, philosophy, comparative religion, and elsewhere.

Download or read book Mortar Gunner on the Eastern Front Volume I written by Hans Heinz Rehfeldt and published by Greenhill Books. This book was released on 2019-09-30 with total page 521 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first volume of the World War II diaries of Nazi mortar gunner constantly pushed to the brink of death while fighting against Russia. Following his Abitur (A-levels) in 1940, Hans Heinz Rehfeldt volunteered for Germany’s Panzer Arm but was trained on the heavy mortar and heavy MG with Grossdeutschland Division. In 1941, he was on the Front fighting for the city of Tula, south of Moscow. Battling in freezing conditions without winter clothes, they resorted to using those taken from Soviet corpses. In 1942, his battalion fought near Oriel, suffered heavy losses, and disbanded. Ill with frostbitten legs, Rehfeldt was treated in hospital, and once recovered, was dispatched back to the Front. Following various battles (Werch, Bolchov) his battalion again suffered heavy losses and it merged. In agony from severe frostbite to his legs, Rehfeldt defied the odds and astonished his surgeon when he walked again. He was promoted from Gunner to Trained Private Soldier in 1942, and to Corporal for bravery in the field in 1943. He was also awarded numerous honors, including the Wound Badge and the Infantry Assault Badge. On 3 May 1945, he was captured by U.S. Forces and held as a POW for one month in a camp at Waschow before internment in Holstein where he was released in July 1945, after agreeing to work on the land. Then, in December 1945, he put his past behind him and began studying for his future career: veterinary medicine.

Download or read book Embattled Europe written by Konrad H. Jarausch and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2024-10-29 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A bracing corrective to predictions of the European Union’s decline, by a leading historian of modern Europe Is the European Union in decline? Recent history, from the debt and migration crises to Brexit, has led many observers to argue that the EU’s best days are behind it. Over the past decade, right-wing populists have come to power in Poland, Hungary, and beyond—many of them winning elections using strident anti-EU rhetoric. At the same time, Russia poses a continuing military threat, and the rise of Asia has challenged the EU's economic power. But in Embattled Europe, renowned European historian Konrad Jarausch counters the prevailing pessimistic narrative of European obsolescence with a rousing yet realistic defense of the continent—one grounded in a fresh account of its post–1989 history and an intimate understanding of its twentieth-century horrors. An engaging narrative and probing analysis, Embattled Europe tells the story of how the EU emerged as a model of democratic governance and balanced economic growth, adapting to changing times while retaining its value system. The book describes the EU’s admirable approach to the environment, social welfare, immigration, and global competitiveness. And it presents underappreciated European success stories—including Denmark’s transition to a green economy, Sweden’s restructuring of its welfare state, and Poland’s economic miracle. Embattled Europe makes a powerful case that Europe—with its peaceful foreign policy, social welfare solidarity, and environmental protection—offers the best progressive alternative to the military adventurism and rampant inequality of plutocratic capitalism and right-wing authoritarianism.

Download or read book Armor and Blood The Battle of Kursk written by Dennis E. Showalter and published by Random House. This book was released on 2013-08-27 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of America’s most distinguished military historians offers the definitive account of the greatest tank battle of World War II—an epic clash of machines and men that matched the indomitable will of the Soviet Red Army against the awesome might of the Nazi Wehrmacht. While the Battle of Kursk has long captivated World War II aficionados, it has been unjustly overlooked by historians. Drawing on the masses of new information made available by the opening of the Russian military archives, Dennis Showalter at last corrects that error. This battle was the critical turning point on World War II’s Eastern Front. In the aftermath of the Red Army’s brutal repulse of the Germans at Stalingrad, the stakes could not have been higher. More than three million men and eight thousand tanks met in the heart of the Soviet Union, some four hundred miles south of Moscow, in an encounter that both sides knew would reshape the war. The adversaries were at the peak of their respective powers. On both sides, the generals and the dictators they served were in agreement on where, why, and how to fight. The result was a furious death grapple between two of history’s most formidable fighting forces—a battle that might possibly have been the greatest of all time. In Armor and Blood, Showalter re-creates every aspect of this dramatic struggle. He offers expert perspective on strategy and tactics at the highest levels, from the halls of power in Moscow and Berlin to the battlefield command posts on both sides. But it is the author’s exploration of the human dimension of armored combat that truly distinguishes this book. In the classic tradition of John Keegan’s The Face of Battle, Showalter’s narrative crackles with insight into the unique dynamics of tank warfare—its effect on men’s minds as well as their bodies. Scrupulously researched, exhaustively documented, and vividly illustrated, this book is a chilling testament to man’s ability to build and to destroy. When the dust settled, the field at Kursk was nothing more than a wasteland of steel carcasses, dead soldiers, and smoking debris. The Soviet victory ended German hopes of restoring their position on the Eastern Front, and put the Red Army on the road to Berlin. Armor and Blood presents readers with what will likely be the authoritative study of Kursk for decades to come. Advance praise for Armor and Blood “The size and the brutality of the vast tank battle at Kursk appalls, this struggle that gives an especially dark meaning to that shopworn phrase ‘last full measure.’ Prepare yourself for a wild and feverish ride over the steppes of Russia. You can have no better guide than Dennis E. Showalter, who speaks with an authority equaled by few military historians.”—Robert Cowley, founding editor of MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History “A fresh, skillful, and complete synthesis of recent revelations about this famous battle . . . As a myth buster, Armor and Blood is a must-read for those interested in general and military history.”—David M. Glantz, editor of The Journal of Slavic Military Studies “Refreshingly crisp, pointed prose . . . Throughout, [Showalter] demonstrates his adeptness at interweaving discussions of big-picture strategy with interesting revelations and anecdotes. . . . Showalter does his best work by keeping his sights set firmly on the battle at hand, while also parsing the conflict for developments that would have far-reaching consequences for the war.”—Publishers Weekly

Download or read book As If God Existed written by Maurizio Viroli and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2012-09-09 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Religion and liberty are often thought to be mutual enemies: if religion has a natural ally, it is authoritarianism--not republicanism or democracy. But in this book, Maurizio Viroli, a leading historian of republican political thought, challenges this conventional wisdom. He argues that political emancipation and the defense of political liberty have always required the self-sacrifice of people with religious sentiments and a religious devotion to liberty. This is particularly the case when liberty is threatened by authoritarianism: the staunchest defenders of liberty are those who feel a deeply religious commitment to it. Viroli makes his case by reconstructing, for the first time, the history of the Italian "religion of liberty," covering its entire span but focusing on three key examples of political emancipation: the free republics of the late Middle Ages, the Risorgimento of the nineteenth century, and the antifascist Resistenza of the twentieth century. In each example, Viroli shows, a religious spirit that regarded moral and political liberty as the highest goods of human life was fundamental to establishing and preserving liberty. He also shows that when this religious sentiment has been corrupted or suffocated, Italians have lost their liberty. This book makes a powerful and provocative contribution to today's debates about the compatibility of religion and republicanism.

Download or read book The Personal of the Political written by Marek Wojtaszek and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2015-10-05 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In an era of the radicalization of political ideologies in Europe, long-lasting societal remnants of the economic breakdown, and the neoliberalist consolidation of capitalist values, it is ethically relevant to critically reconceptualise the meaning and role of European feminisms and the challenges they have to confront today, both locally and transnationally. In the face of ubiquitous beliefs about feminism having exhausted itself, such a rethinking of the place and priorities of feminist politics within and outside academia is urgently needed. The popularization of the so-called faux-feminisms, assuming attained emancipation in the present-day neoliberal environment of advanced capitalism, calls for close examination and creative counter-strategies. Bearing in mind that the patterns of oppression still prevail, becoming even more and more insidious and complex, it is all the more necessary to identify, scrutinize, and contest the vicissitudes of the dominant apparatus of control and subjugation, and to demystify the purportedly gender-inclusive operations of the regime. As such, the book seeks to renew an academic and political interest in the epistemological tradition of context-created knowledge. Bringing together authors from diverse geopolitical locations, this volume constitutes a forum for fruitful encounters across generations and national and cultural differences, contributing to a better understanding of the complexities of patriarchal ideologies and to the creation of a more sustainable communal future. The book offers a collection of chapters introducing situated perspectives which adopt intersectional optics in order to analyze the transformations of the contemporary socio-political realm and reflect research priorities within present-day feminist scholarship.

Download or read book Machiavelli s God written by Maurizio Viroli and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2012-08-05 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How Machiavelli's Christianity shaped his political thought To many readers of The Prince, Machiavelli appears to be deeply un-Christian or even anti-Christian, a cynic who thinks rulers should use religion only to keep their subjects in check. But in Machiavelli's God, Maurizio Viroli, one of the world's leading authorities on Machiavelli, argues that Machiavelli, far from opposing Christianity, thought it was crucial to republican social and political renewal—but that first it needed to be renewed itself. And without understanding this, Viroli contends, it is impossible to comprehend Machiavelli's thought. Viroli places Machiavelli in the context of Florence's republican Christianity, which was founded on the idea that the true Christian is a citizen who serves the common good. In this tradition, God participates in human affairs, supports and rewards those who govern justly, and desires men to make the earthly city similar to the divine one. Building on this tradition, Machiavelli advocated a religion of virtue, and he believed that, without this faith, free republics could not be established, defend themselves against corruption, or survive. Viroli makes a powerful case that Machiavelli, far from being a pagan or atheist, was a prophet of a true religion of liberty, a way of moral and political living that would rediscover and pursue charity and justice. The translation of this work has been funded by SEPS—Segretariato Europeo per le Pubblicazioni Scientifiche.

Download or read book Letters from the Box in the Attic written by Barbara Serbinski Sipe and published by Balboa Press. This book was released on 2018-02-15 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Eleven years of events can have a profound effect on an entire lifetime. The story of Stanisawa Emilia (Emma) Krasowska Serbinski is told by her daughter, Barbara, tracing her mother's courageous and terrifying journey from the Soviet invasion of Poland, through Soviet prisons and her eventual release from a Siberian labor camp. The perilous journey continues through the deserts of the Middle East, Italy, and then eventually landing on the shores of Great Britain only to receive tragic information. The project, Letters from the Box in the Attic, a Story of Courage, Survival and Love is factually based on letters, documents and photographs discovered in her mother's attic. These letters represented the fabric and soul of a life well lived. Historical perspective is preserved when placing her mother's letters and experiences into this narrative. Barbara Serbinski Sipe is a first generation Polish American from a refugee resettlement in Great Britain. Hearing stories growing up in an immigrant family ignited Barbara's love for history. Her personal memories are recounted throughout the book sharing images of love, sacrifice, conflict and gratitude. Understanding why things happen and how they affect life are just as important as the events themselves. It is through historical accuracy and personal introspection that enable the stories to be told in this book. Survival is the human spirit which came out of some of the most tragic events of World War II. What tragedies and suffering life brings profoundly affects a life forever.

Download or read book Imaginary Neighbors written by Dorota Glowacka and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2007-01-01 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Imaginary Neighbors offers a unique and significant contribution to the contemporary debate concerning Holocaust memory by exploring the most important current political topic in Poland: Jewish-Polish relations during and after World War II.

Download or read book Commentary on the New Testament written by Robert H. Gundry and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2010-07-01 with total page 2399 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Verse-by-verse explanations with a literal translation Shouldn't a Bible commentary clarify what God's Word actually says? Going beyond questions of authorship, date, sources, and historicity, respected linguist and teacher Gundry offers a one-volume exposition of the New Testament that focuses on what is most useful for preaching, teaching, and individual study--what the biblical text really means. Providing interpretive observations in a "breezy" style that's easy to read and adaptable for oral use in pulpit or classroom presentations, Gundry directs his book to an evangelical audience. His crisp translation of the New Testament inserts various phrasings of passages in brackets, allowing for smooth transition from original text to alternative and contemporary readings. SAMPLE TEXT OF TRANSLATION JOHN'S PREDICTING A MORE POWERFUL BAPTIZER THAN HE (Mark 1:1-8) 1:1-3: The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, God's Son, according as it's written in Isaiah the prophet, "Behold, I'm sending my messenger before your face [= ahead of you], who'll pave your way [= the road you'll travel], [the messenger who is] the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, 'Prepare the way of the Lord. Make his paths straight.'" Pastors, Sunday school teachers, small-group leaders, and laypeople will welcome Gundry's non-technical explanations and clarifications. And Bible students at all levels will appreciate his sparkling interpretations of the NT Scriptures. A trustworthy guide for anybody wanting to delve deeper into God's Word. SAMPLE TEXT OF COMMENTS "Gospel" means "good news." Jews would associate this good news with Isaiah 52:7. Non-Jews would think of the good news of an emperor's accession to power, birthday, visit to a city, military victory, or bringing of prosperity to the empire. But Mark's good news has to do with the salvation and victory brought by Jesus over evil in all its demonic and physical forms. "The gospel of Jesus Christ" therefore means "the gospel about Jesus Christ" and refers to a proclaimed message ("the voice of one crying out"), not a book (though because books like Mark's contain that proclaimed message, the term came to refer to those books in the capitalized form of "Gospels" to distinguish them from the message, kept uncapitalized as "gospel").