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The Wolf Children of the Eastern Front
by Sonya Winterberg Kerstin LieffIf this doesn’t move you, I suggest you check your pulse.' –John Kay, frontman of Steppenwolf (born in East Prussia in 1944) Told by the children who survived, these stories could well be the last eyewitness report of the aftermath of the Second World War. As the land where they once lived was integrated into the Eastern Bloc, their accounts remained hushed until after the Iron Curtain fell. Now, in The Wolf Children of the Eastern Front, they break their silence. During the bitter winter months of 1944-45, hundreds of thousands of Germans fled East Prussia from an advancing Red Army. With sometimes only minutes’ notice, families escaped in horse-drawn carriages, or they simply ran on foot. In desperation, mothers threw babies onto handcarts, pushing ahead through snowstorms and freezing temperatures. Exhausted, horses broke down, left to die in roadside ditches. Pounding artillery filled the air. In the ensuing chaos, 20,000 children lost their families – to the mayhem, to starvation, epidemics or gunfire. Even the youngest suddenly found themselves alone in the world, needing to forage for food and find shelter. They hid in bullet-riddled barns and wandered from house to house, begging for help. While many died, there are the few that managed to survive. Their experiences are unimaginable: toes frozen off, endless hunger, rape, physical abuse. Those considered lucky were eventually taken in, even lovingly cared for, primarily by Lithuanian farmers, but nearly to the last of them, they grew into adulthood illiterate and poverty-stricken. Yet a surprising truth lives within nearly every one of these victims – an overwhelming sense of hope and forgiveness. They are the Wolf Children.
Wolf Hustle: A Black Woman on Wall Street
by Cin FabréFrom the South Bronx projects to the boardroom at only nineteen years old, Cin Fabré ran with the wolves of Wall Street.Growing up, Cin Fabré didn't know anything about the stock market. But she learned how to hustle from her immigrant parents, saving money so that one day she could escape her abusive father and poverty in the Bronx.Through a tip from a friend, Cin pushed her way into brokerage firm VTR Capital?an offshoot of Stratton Oakmont, the company where the Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort, had reigned. She was shocked to find an army of young workers, mostly Black and Brown, with no real prospects for promotion sitting at phones doing the drudge work of finding investment leads for white male brokers. But she felt the pull of profit and knew she would do whatever she had to do to be successful.Pulling back the curtain on the inequities she and so many others faced, Wolf Hustle reveals how Cin worked gruelling hours, ascending from cold caller to stockbroker, becoming the only Black woman to do so at her firm. She also discloses the excesses she took part in on 1990s Wall Street?the strip clubs, the Hamptons parties, the Gucci shopping sprees?while revelling in the thrill of making money.From landing clients worth hundreds of millions to gaining, losing, then gaining back fortunes in seconds, Cin examines her years spent trading frantically and hustling successfully, grappling with what it takes to build a rich life, and, ultimately, beating Wall Street at its own game.(P) 2022 Macmillan Audio
Wolf Hustle: A Black Woman on Wall Street
by Cin FabréFrom the South Bronx projects to the boardroom?at only nineteen years old, Cin Fabré ran with the wolves of Wall Street.Growing up, Cin Fabré didn't know anything about the stock market. But she learned how to hustle from her immigrant parents, saving money so that one day she could escape her abusive father and poverty in the Bronx.Through a tip from a friend, Cin pushed her way into brokerage firm VTR Capital?an offshoot of Stratton Oakmont, the company where the Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort, had reigned. She was shocked to find an army of young workers, mostly Black and Brown, with no real prospects for promotion sitting at phones doing the drudge work of finding investment leads for white male brokers. But she felt the pull of profit and knew she would do whatever she had to do to be successful.Pulling back the curtain on the inequities she and so many others faced, Wolf Hustle reveals how Cin worked gruelling hours, ascending from cold caller to stockbroker, becoming the only Black woman to do so at her firm. She also discloses the excesses she took part in on 1990s Wall Street?the strip clubs, the Hamptons parties, the Gucci shopping sprees?while revelling in the thrill of making money.From landing clients worth hundreds of millions to gaining, losing, then gaining back fortunes in seconds, Cin examines her years spent trading frantically and hustling successfully, grappling with what it takes to build a rich life, and, ultimately, beating Wall Street at its own game.
Wolf Hustle: A Black Woman on Wall Street
by Cin FabréFrom the South Bronx projects to the boardroom—at only nineteen years old, Cin Fabré ran with the wolves of Wall Street.Growing up, Cin Fabré didn’t know anything about the stock market. But she learned how to hustle from her immigrant parents, saving money so that one day she could escape her abusive father and poverty in the Bronx. Through a tip from a friend, Cin pushed her way into brokerage firm VTR Capital—an offshoot of Stratton Oakmont, the company where the Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort, had reigned. She was shocked to find an army of young workers, mostly Black and Brown, with no real prospects for promotion sitting at phones doing the drudge work of finding investment leads for white male brokers. But she felt the pull of profit and knew she would do whatever she had to do to be successful.Pulling back the curtain on the inequities she and so many others faced, Wolf Hustle reveals how Cin worked grueling hours, ascending from cold caller to stockbroker, becoming the only Black woman to do so at her firm. She also discloses the excesses she took part in on 1990s Wall Street—the strip clubs, the Hamptons parties, the Gucci shopping sprees—while reveling in the thrill of making money. From landing clients worth hundreds of millions to gaining, losing, then gaining back fortunes in seconds, Cin examines her years spent trading frantically and hustling successfully, grappling with what it takes to build a rich life, and, ultimately, beating Wall Street at its own game.
Wolf of the Deep: Raphael Semmes and the Notorious Confederate Raider CSS Alabama
by Stephen FoxThe electrifying story of Raphael Semmes and the CSS Alabama, the Confederate raider that destroyed Union ocean shipping and took more prizes than any other raider in naval history. In July, 1862, Semmes received orders to take command of a secret new British-built steam warship, the Alabama. At its helm, he would become the most hated and feared man in ports up and down the Union coast--and a Confederate legend. Now, with unparalleled authority and depth, and with a vivid sense of the excitement and danger of the time, Stephen Fox tells the story of Captain Semmes's remarkable wartime exploits. From vicious naval battles off the coast of France, to plundering the cargo of Union ships in the Caribbean, this is a thrilling tale of an often overlooked chapter of the Civil War.
The Wolf of Wall Street: More Incredible True Stories Of Fortunes, Schemes, Parties, And Prison
by Jordan BelfortStock market multimillionaire at 26. Federal convict at 36. The iconic true story of greed, power and excess.THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER AND MAJOR MOVIE SENSATION, DIRECTED BY MARTIN SCORSESE AND STARRING LEONARDO DICAPRIO'What separates Jordan's story from others like it, is the brutal honesty.' - Leonardo DiCaprioBy day he made thousands of dollars a minute. By night he spent it as fast as he could. From the binge that sunk a 170-foot motor yacht and ran up a $700,000 hotel tab, to the wife and kids who waited for him for at home, and the fast-talking, hard-partying young stockbrokers who called him king and did his bidding, here, in Jordan Belfort's own words, is the story of the ill-fated genius they called THE WOLF OF WALL STREET.In the 1990s Jordan Belfort became one of the most infamous names in American finance: a brilliant, conniving stock-chopper who led his merry mob on a wild ride out of the canyons of Wall Street and into a massive office on Long Island. It's an extraordinary story of greed, power and excess no one could invent - and then it all came crashing down.'The outrageous memoirs of the real Gordon Gekko' Daily Mail'Reads like a cross between Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities and Scorsese's Goodfellas' Sunday Times
The Wolf of Wall Street
by Jordan BelfortNOW AN AWARD-WINNING MOTION PICTURE DIRECTED BY MARTIN SCORSESE, STARRING LEONARDO DICAPRIO, MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY AND JONAH HILL.'What separates Jordan's story from others like it, is the brutal honesty.' - Leonardo DiCaprioBy day he made thousands of dollars a minute. By night he spent it as fast as he could, on drugs, sex, and international globe-trotting. From the binge that sunk a 170-foot motor yacht, crashed a Gulfstream jet, and ran up a $700,000 hotel tab, to the wife and kids who waited for him for at home, and the fast-talking, hard-partying young stockbrokers who called him king and did his bidding, here, in his own inimitable words, is the story of the ill-fated genius they called... THE WOLF OF WALL STREET In the 1990s Jordan Belfort, former kingpin of the notorious investment firm Stratton Oakmont, became one of the most infamous names in American finance: a brilliant, conniving stock-chopper who led his merry mob on a wild ride out of the canyons of Wall Street and into a massive office on Long Island. In this astounding and hilarious tell-all autobiography, Belfort narrates a story of greed, power, and excess no one could invent - the story of an ordinary guy who went from hustling Italian ices at sixteen to making hundreds of millions. Until it all came crashing down.(P)2013 John Murray Press
The Wolf of Wall Street (The Wolf of Wall Street #1)
by Jordan BelfortBy day he made thousands of dollars a minute. By night he spent it as fast as he could, on drugs, sex, and international globe-trotting. From the binge that sank a 170-foot motor yacht, crashed a Gulfstream jet, and ran up a $700,000 hotel tab, to the wife and kids who waited for him at home, and the fast-talking, hard-partying young stockbrokers who called him king and did his bidding, here, in his own inimitable words, is the story of the ill-fated genius they called... In the 1990s Jordan Belfort, former kingpin of the notorious investment firm Stratton Oakmont, became one of the most infamous names in American finance: a brilliant, conniving stock-chopper who led his merry mob on a wild ride out of the canyons of Wall Street and into a massive office on Long Island. Now, in this astounding and hilarious tell-all autobiography, Belfort narrates a story of greed, power, and excess no one could invent. Reputedly the prototype for the film Boiler Room, Stratton Oakmont turned microcap investing into a wickedly lucrative game as Belfort's hyped-up, coked-out brokers browbeat clients into stock buys that were guaranteed to earn obscene profits-for the house. But an insatiable appetite for debauchery, questionable tactics, and a fateful partnership with a breakout shoe designer named Steve Madden would land Belfort on both sides of the law and into a harrowing darkness all his own. From the stormy relationship Belfort shared with his model-wife as they ran a madcap household that included two young children, a full-time staff of twenty-two, a pair of bodyguards, and hidden cameras everywhere--even as the SEC and FBI zeroed in on them--to the unbridled hedonism of his office life, here is the extraordinary story of an ordinary guy who went from hustling Italian ices at sixteen to making hundreds of millions. Until it all came crashing down... From the Hardcover edition.
The Wolf of Wall Street Collection: The Wolf of Wall Street & Catching the Wolf of Wall Street
by Jordan BelfortTHE AMAZING TRUE STORY OF HOW JORDAN BELFORT BECAME THE WOLF OF WALL STREET......AND HOW HE CAME CRASHING DOWN.'What separates Jordan's story from others like it, is the brutal honesty' Leonardo DiCaprio'Raw and frequently hilarious' The New York Times'Reads like a cross between Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities and Scorsese's Goodfellas... Laugh-out funny' The Sunday Times1 - THE WOLF OF WALL STREETBy day he made thousands of dollars a minute. By night he spent it as fast as he could, on drugs, sex, and international globe-trotting. From the binge that sunk a 170-foot motor yacht, crashed a Gulfstream jet, and ran up a $700,000 hotel tab, to the wife and kids who waited for him for at home, and the fast-talking, hard-partying young stockbrokers who called him king and did his bidding, here, in his own inimitable words, is the story of the ill-fated genius they called... THE WOLF OF WALL STREET. In the 1990s Jordan Belfort, former kingpin of the notorious investment firm Stratton Oakmont, became one of the most infamous names in American finance: a brilliant, conniving stock-chopper who led his merry mob on a wild ride out of the canyons of Wall Street and into a massive office on Long Island. In this astounding and hilarious tell-all autobiography, Belfort narrates a story of greed, power, and excess no one could invent - the story of an ordinary guy who went from hustling Italian ices at sixteen to making hundreds of millions. Until it all came crashing down.2 - CATCHING THE WOLF OF WALL STREETIn the 1990s Jordan Belfort became one of the most infamous names in American finance: a brilliant, conniving stock-chopper. He was THE WOLF OF WALL STREET, whose life of greed, power and excess was so outrageous it could only be true; no one could make this up! But the day Jordan was arrested and taken away in handcuffs was not the end of the madness.Catching the Wolf of Wall Street tells of what happened next. After getting out of jail on $10 million bail he had to choose whether to plead guilty and act as a government witness or fight the charges and see his wife be charged as well. he cooperated.With his trademark brash, brazen and thoroughly unputdownable storytelling, Jordan details more incredible true tales of fortunes made and lost, money-making schemes, parties, sex, drugs, marriage, divorce and prison.
Wolf Pack: The U-Boats at War (Hitler's War Machine)
by Bob Carruthers"Once you heard that pinging sound you knew they had got to you, then the depth charges came. Terrible, just terrible." Kurt Wehling, u-boat survivor The steel coffins was the name given to the U-boats of the Kriegsmarine by their own crews. Their fatalistic view of the war was certainly justified; it is estimated that seventy-five per cent of the 39,000 men who sailed in the U-boat fleet paid the ultimate price as the tide of war turned inexorably against Hitler's Germany. This is the illustrated history of the U-boat war from the perspective of the men who sailed into battle in the service of the Third Reich. Drawing heavily on the accounts of the last remaining survivors, 'The U-boat War' traces the grim story of the rise and fall of the grey wolves. The memories of the brief days of the "happy times" of superiority and success were soon replaced by the stark terror of the enfolding nightmare as the realisation dawned that the hunters had become the hunted. Written by Emmy award winning author Bob Carruthers, this powerful account of the U-boat war features extensive personal recollections, rare photographs and extracts from contemporary propaganda magazines producing a vivid picture of what it meant to fight beneath the waves.
The Wolf Pit
by Will CohuIn 1966 Will Cohu's grandparents moved to Bramble Carr, a remote cottage on the Yorkshire moors. The summers and winters he spent there were full of freedom and light; only after childhood ended was he aware of the price the adults had paid for life in this most romantic of settings.Navigating family tensions and the trials of growing up, Will describes the close-knit community of North Yorkshire and his family's place within it: the shepherd probing the head-high snowdrifts for his flock; the pub landlord obsessed with military uniforms; the village doctor lost in his love for the purple moorland; Will's glamorous RAF parents; and, at the centre of the story, his beloved but enigmatic grandparents.The Wolf Pit is an enquiring love letter from Will Cohu to his family, and to a changing rural England that is passionate, frightening and funny.
The Wolf Ritual of the Northwest Coast
by Alice Henson ErnstThis volume includes materials assembled from 1932-1942 along the Northwest Coast. The wolf ritual was isolated for study by the author as a major mask ritual deeply expressive of the region.
Wolf Willow: A History, a Story, and a Memory of the Last Plains Frontier
by Page Stegner Wallace StegnerWallace Stegner weaves together fiction and nonfiction, history and impressions, childhood remembrance and adult reflections in this unusual portrait of his boyhood. Set in Cypress Hills in southern Saskatchewan, where Stegner's family homesteaded from 1914 to 1920, Wolf Willow brings to life both the pioneer community and the magnificent landscape that surrounds it.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Wolfe and Montcalm
by H. R. CasgrainThe Abbé H.R. Casgrain (1831-1904) was an important French-Canadian historian, biographer, and literary figure. He edited the papers of Maréchal de Lévis, and was the biographer of Mère Marie de l'Incarnation. In addition, he was the author of verse and literary criticism. He was a charter member of the Royal Society of Canada, and President in 1889.Wolfe and Montcalm first appeared in the famous Makers of Canada Series in 1905, and was revised by A.G. Doughty in 1926 in the light of new documentary material which had become available. This is the first time this study has been published separately.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: World-Famous Composer
by Diane CookWolfgang Amadeus Mozart, one of the world's best-known composers, began playing music at a very early age and became a professional musician when he was only 17. He went on to compose hundreds of pieces of music--many of which are among the most famous in musical history--and influence composer Ludwig van Beethoven. More than 200 years after his death, Mozart's music is still among the most respected and beloved in the world. Learn the story of one of the most important composers of all time in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: World-Famous Composer.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: A Biography
by Piero Melograni Lydia G. CochraneAn engaging account of one of the most enduringly popular and celebrated composers to have ever lived, this book is both readable and scholarly, and grounded by a wealth of Mozart's correspondence. His substantial oeuvre contains works that are considered to be among the most exquisite pieces of symphonic, chamber, and choral music ever written. His operas too cast a long shadow over those staged in their wake. And since his untimely death in 1791, he remains an enigmatic figure -- the subject of fascination for aficionados and novices alike. Piero Melograni here offers a wholly readable account of Mozart's remarkable life and times. This masterful biography proceeds from the young Mozart's earliest years as a wunderkind -- the child prodigy who traveled with his family to perform concerts throughout Europe -- to his formative years in Vienna, where he fully absorbed the artistic and intellectual spirit of the Enlightenment, to his deathbed, his unfinished Requiem, and the mystery that still surrounds his burial. Melograni's deft use of Mozart's letters throughout confers authority and vitality to his recounting, and his expertise brings Mozart's eighteenth-century milieu evocatively to life. Written with a gifted historian's flair for narrative and unencumbered by specialized analyses of Mozart's music, Melograni's is the most vivid and enjoyable biography available. At a time when music lovers around the world are paying honor to Mozart and his legacy,Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart will be welcomed by his enthusiasts -- or anyone wishing to peer into the mind of one of the greatest composers ever known.
Wolford's Cavalry: The Colonel, the War in the West, and the Emancipation Question in Kentucky
by Dan LeeColonel Frank Wolford, the acclaimed Civil War colonel of the First Kentucky Volunteer Cavalry, is remembered today primarily for his unenviable reputation. Despite his stellar service record and widespread fame, Wolford ruined his reputation and his career over the question of emancipation and the enlistment of African Americans in the army. Unhappy with Abraham Lincoln’s public stance on slavery, Wolford rebelled and made a series of treasonous speeches against the president. Dishonorably discharged and arrested three times, Wolford, on the brink of being exiled beyond federal lines into the Confederacy, was taken in irons to Washington DC to meet with Lincoln. Lincoln spared Wolford, however, and the disgraced colonel returned to Kentucky, where he was admired for his war record and rewarded politically for his racially based rebellion against Lincoln. Although his military record established him as one of the most vigorous, courageous, and original commanders in the cavalry, Wolford’s later reputation suffered. Dan Lee restores balance to the story of a crude, complicated, but talented man and the unconventional regiment he led in the fight to save the Union. Placing Wolford in the context of the political and cultural crosscurrents that tore at Kentucky during the war, Lee fills out the historical picture of “Old Roman Nose.”
The Wolfpack: The Millennial Mobsters Who Brought Chaos and the Cartels to the Canadian Underworld
by Peter Edwards Luis NajeraJoined by award-winning Mexican journalist Luis Nájera, leading organized-crime author Peter Edwards introduces a motley assortment of millennial bikers, gangsters and Mafia whose bloody trail of murders and schemes gone wrong led to the arrival in Canada of the world's most dangerous criminal organizations: the drug cartels of Mexico.A man watching the Euro Cup on a restaurant patio is shot dead on a busy Sunday afternoon in Toronto. Another dies in a sidewalk ambush just outside a bus-tling college campus. Two men in a Vancouver hotel lobby are gunned down in an attack that sends an American soccer star scrambling for cover. In Mexico, a Canadian is killed at a Nuevo Vallarta coffee shop, his death barely registering amidst the terrifying death tolls of President Calderón&’s war on drugs and the cartels&’ response; while a Montreal cop is beaten within an inch of his life in a Playa del Carmen nightclub. An infamous heckler from an NBA Toronto Raptors game turns up dead in a bullet-riddled car in a midtown lane-way. Throughout the 2010s, these and other disparate acts of violence entered the public awareness like iso-lated tragedies—but there was nothing isolated about them.In this masterly investigation, veteran journalists Peter Edwards and Luis Nájera introduce readers to the common cause of a near-decade of chaos. Meet the Wolfpack, millennial-aged gangsters from across the spectrum of Canada&’s underworld. Vying to fast-track their way into the criminal void left by the death of Montreal godfather Vito Rizzuto, the Wolfpack sought advantage in a steady supply of cocaine from El Chapo Guzmán&’s Sinaloa cartel, among the deadliest and most far-reaching of criminal organizations. The juniors had just stepped into the big leagues.This is the roiling landscape of The Wolfpack, a brilliant examination of a time of criminal disruption and rapid adaptation, when one gang&’s unchecked ambition unwittingly gave away the most hotly contested corner of the Canadian underworld without a fight. Brazen criminal disruptors or entitled upstarts looking to get rich without paying their dues--whatever you think of them, you will never forget the Wolfpack.
Wolfram: The Boy Who Went to War
by Giles MiltonWolfram Aïchele was nine years old when Hitler came to power: his formative years were spent in the shadow of the Third Reich. He and his parents - free-thinking artists - were to have first hand experience of living under one of the most brutal regimes in history. Wolfram: The Boy Who Went to War overturns all the clichés about life under Hitler. It is a powerful story of warfare and human survival and a reminder that civilians on all sides suffered the consequences of Hitler's war. It is also an eloquent testimony to the fact that even in times of exceptional darkness there remains a brilliant spark of humanity that can never be totally extinguished.
Wolfram: The Boy Who Went to War
by Giles MiltonWolfram Aïchele was nine years old when Hitler came to power: his formative years were spent in the shadow of the Third Reich. He and his parents - free-thinking artists - were to have first hand experience of living under one of the most brutal regimes in history. Wolfram: The Boy Who Went to War overturns all the clichés about life under Hitler. It is a powerful story of warfare and human survival and a reminder that civilians on all sides suffered the consequences of Hitler's war. It is also an eloquent testimony to the fact that even in times of exceptional darkness there remains a brilliant spark of humanity that can never be totally extinguished.
Wollstonecraft: Philosophy, Passion, and Politics (Cambridge Texts In The History Of Political Thought Ser.)
by Sylvana TomaselliA compelling portrait of Mary Wollstonecraft that shows the intimate connections between her life and workMary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, first published in 1792, is a work of enduring relevance in women's rights advocacy. However, as Sylvana Tomaselli shows, a full understanding of Wollstonecraft’s thought is possible only through a more comprehensive appreciation of Wollstonecraft herself, as a philosopher and moralist who deftly tackled major social and political issues and the arguments of such figures as Edmund Burke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Adam Smith. Reading Wollstonecraft through the lens of the politics and culture of her own time, this book restores her to her rightful place as a major eighteenth-century thinker, reminding us why her work still resonates today.The book’s format echoes one that Wollstonecraft favored in Thoughts on the Education of Daughters: short essays paired with concise headings. Under titles such as “Painting,” “Music,” “Memory,” “Property and Appearance,” and “Rank and Luxury,” Tomaselli explores not only what Wollstonecraft enjoyed and valued, but also her views on society, knowledge and the mind, human nature, and the problem of evil—and how a society based on mutual respect could fight it. The resulting picture of Wollstonecraft reveals her as a particularly engaging author and an eloquent participant in enduring social and political concerns.Drawing us into Wollstonecraft’s approach to the human condition and the debates of her day, Wollstonecraft ultimately invites us to consider timeless issues with her, so that we can become better attuned to the world as she saw it then, and as we might wish to see it now.
The Wolves at My Shadow: The Story of Ingelore Rothschild
by Darilyn Stahl Listort Dennis ListortIngelore Rothschild was twelve years old when she was whisked out of her home in 1936. It was her first step on a cross-continent journey to Japan, where she and her parents sought refuge from rising anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany. A decade later, as she sails away from what has become her home in Kobe, Japan, Ingelore records her memories of life in Berlin, the long train journey through Russia, and her time in Japan during World War II. Each leg of the journey presents its own nightmare: passports are stolen, identities are uncovered, a mudslide tears through the Rothschild’s home, and the atomic bombs are dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Ingelore’s bright, observant nature and remarkable capacity for befriending those along her way fills her narrative with unique details about the people she meets and the places she travels to. The story of Ingelore and her prominent German Jewish family’s escape is an invaluable account that contributes to Holocaust witness and memoir literature. Although she was forever marked by her traumatic past, Ingelore’s survival story is a painful reminder that only European Jews with significant financial means were able to carefully orchestrate an escape from Nazi Germany.
The Wolves At The Door: The True Story Of America's Greatest Female Spy (Lyons Press Series)
by Judith PearsonVirginia Hall left her comfortable Baltimore roots in 1931 to follow a dream of becoming a Foreign Service Officer. After watching Hitler roll over Poland and France, she enlisted to work for the British Special Operations Executive (SOE), a secret espionage and sabotage organization. She was soon deployed to occupied France where, if captured, imprisonment and torture at the hands of the Gestapo was all but assured. Against such an ominous backdrop, Hall managed to locate drop zones for money and weapons, helped escaped POWs and downed Allied airmen flee to England, and secured safe houses for agents. And she did it all on one leg: Virginia Hall had lost her left leg before the war in a hunting accident. Soon, wanted posters appeared throughout France, offering a reward for her capture. By winter of 1942, Hall had to flee France via the only route possible: a hike on foot through the frozen Pyrénées Mountains into neutral Spain. Upon her return to England, the American espionage organization, the Office of Special Services, recruited her and sent her back to France disguised as an old peasant woman. While there, she was responsible for killing 150 German soldiers and capturing 500 others. Sabotaging communications and transportation links and directing resistance activities, her work helped change the course of the war. This is the true story of Virginia Hall.
The Wolves of Helmand: A View from Inside the Den of Modern War
by Frank "Gus" BiggioAt turns poignant, funny, philosophical, and raw—but always real—The Wolves of Helmand is both a heartfelt homage to the Marine brotherhood with whom Biggio served and an expression of respect and love for the people of Afghanistan who ultimately trusted, shared, and appreciated their purpose.Ten years after serving his country as a U.S. Marine, Captain Frank &“Gus&” Biggio signed up once again because he missed the brotherhood of the military. Leaving behind his budding law career, his young wife, and newborn son, he was deployed to Helmand Province—the most violent region in war-torn Afghanistan—for reasons few would likely understand before reading this book. Riven by conflict and occupation for centuries because of its strategic location, the region he landed in was, at that time, a hotbed of Taliban insurgency. As a participant in the landmark U.S.-led Operation Khanjar, Biggio and his fellow Marines were executing a new-era military strategy. Focused largely on empowerment of the local population, the offensive began with a troop surge designed to thwart the Taliban, but was more importantly followed by the restoration of the local government and real-time capacity building among the withdrawn and destitute Afghan people. The Wolves of Helmand is unlike other war memoirs. It takes us less into the action—though there is that too—and more into the quiet places of today&’s war zones. Yes, you&’ll read of our Marines&’ stealth arrival in a single night, our advanced weaponry, and our pop-up industrial village command centers. You&’ll read, as well, about the ambushed patrols and the carnage of IEDs. But you will also read of the persistence, humility, ruggedness, loneliness, tedium, diplomacy, and humanity of our Marines&’ jobs there, which more than anything else reveals the magnitude of even the smallest victories. Completed years after the author&’s return from his mission, The Wolves of Helmand is most of all a decade-long self-examination of a warrior&’s heart, conscience, and memory. Whether intended or not, Biggio&’s deep reflections and innate honesty answer every question you&’ve ever wanted to ask about life and death in war—and even questions you probably never thought to ask. What calls a warrior to duty? What makes, sustains, plagues, and even breaks a warrior? These are bigger questions than the ones impolite society pokes around when a veteran returns home—Did you kill anyone? Did you have to go? Why would you fight for another country? Why were we even there? Yet the answers to those queries are here, too, in this thoughtful memoir that will make you think about war, family, love, and loss.
The Woman All Spies Fear: Code Breaker Elizebeth Smith Friedman and Her Hidden Life
by Amy Butler GreenfieldAn inspiring true story, perfect for fans of Hidden Figures, about an American woman who pioneered codebreaking in WWI and WWII but was only recently recognized for her extraordinary contributions.Elizebeth Smith Friedman had a rare talent for spotting patterns and solving puzzles. These skills led her to become one of the top cryptanalysts in America during both World War I and World War II. She originally came to code breaking through her love for Shakespeare when she was hired by an eccentric millionaire to prove that Shakespeare's plays had secret messages in them. Within a year, she had learned so much about code breaking that she was a star in the making. She went on to play a major role decoding messages during WWI and WWII and also for the Coast Guard's war against smugglers. Elizebeth and her husband, William, became the top code-breaking team in the US, and she did it all at a time when most women weren't welcome in the workforce. Amy Butler Greenfield is an award-winning historian and novelist who aims to shed light on this female pioneer of the STEM community.