The new evidence presented here makes this a must-read for students of World War II.
The story of how Brisard and Parshina were allowed into Russian archives is as compelling as the evidence of Hitler’s death they were shown.
Admittance to the hallowed State Archives of the Russian Federation was primarily achieved by the fame of the Russian-American Parshina. Her major achievement—the last interview with Stalin’s favorite daughter, Svetlana, who was hiding out in a hospice in the United States—made her a household name in Russia. Parshina’s understanding of the complex wheels of the bureaucratic Russian machine helped the authors gain access to the secret, sensitive, and complex files. Throughout their adventure in the bowels of Russian secrecy, Brisard’s French identity elicited hesitation, but Parshina’s quick thinking and wit always seemed to alleviate the situation. Meetings were postponed, delayed, and cancelled during their quest, which ran from early 2016 to late 2017. Their first meeting was with the director of the archives. During that meeting, they were shown the skull remains said to be Hitler’s. Along with that, there were some blood-stained table legs, photos, and documents from April 1945, which Brisard was allowed to photograph. The next step was to translate the documents, including memos written to Stalin regarding the discovery of Hitler’s bunker and interviews with prisoners. The ever paranoid Russians spread information among three separate services, all of which hated and distrusted each other. The authors’ perseverance paid off, as they eventually succeeded with all three and got permission for a forensic scientist to examine the remains. Alternating with the story of finding the documents, they reconstruct the tale of the last days in Berlin. Ultimately, the evidence shows that Hitler died in a bunker from a self-inflicted bullet wound; he did not escape. There are still questions unanswered, and who knows when they might be allowed to be asked.
The new evidence presented here makes this a must-read for students of World War II.Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-306-92258-9
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Da Capo
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2018
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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