C. A. MacDonald Knihy

Mimořádný dokument o nejtěžším období moderních českých dějin.

Na základě dosud nedostupných archivních materiálů a rozhovorů s přeživšími členy britské Správy pro zvláštní operace (SOE) a československé vojenské rozvědky nám tato kniha poutavě vypráví o nebezpečí a hrdinství, které tragicky zakončila zrada. Autorem je britský historik, známýsvým výzkumem příčin II. světové války.

A richly illustrated album-style history of Prague under Nazi occupation. Ch. 5 (pp. 113-134), "The Prague Jews, " relates to the introduction of anti-Jewish laws and segregation of the Jews in 1939-41, resettlement of Czech Jews, deportations to Theresienstadt and to Poland, and destruction and looting of Jewish communal and private property. Describes, also, the Theresienstadt ghetto, a "show ghetto" aimed to deceive the world concerning the fate of the Jews. States that of 39,395 Jews deported from Prague to Theresienstadt, 31,709 perished. Of the 92,199 Jews who lived in Bohemia and Moravia in 1941, only 14,045 survived. (From the Bibliography of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism)

The invasion of Crete in 1941 should have been a textbook battle, a swift and decisive blitzkrieg, based on tactical surprise. In fact it was based on a series of misjudgements which were to result in large and bloody losses and Crete becoming the graveyard of the German parachute troops. In this account, Callum MacDonald shows how the interception of German plans by British intelligence allowed them to create a carefully prepared trap for the German parachute troops, and also how the German victory proved a hollow one, as their forces suffered greater losses in the battle for Crete than in the entire Balkan campaign. MacDonald has made use of material previously kept secret, to create a narrative of one of the vital battles of World War II.

On 4 June 1942 one of the most powerful figures of the Nazi regime died in agony from wounds sustained during an assassination attempt in Prague. This is the story of the killing of Reinhard Heydrich, a man of extraordinary intelligence, ruthlessness and ambition who had risen from obscurity to become head of the Nazi security police and Governor of Bohemia-Moravia. Regarded by many as Hitler's most likely successor, he was feared and hated even by other high-ranking Nazi officials.Heydrich's death caused shockwaves throughout the Nazi leadership, provoking ferocious reprisals against Czechs and Jews. Those who carried out the assassination were hunted down, and, trapped like rats in the cellar of a Prague church, committed suicide rather than face the certainty of torture and execution at the hands of the SS.Based on original archive material, interviews with surviving members of the Special Operations Executive, who trained the Czech assassins in the UK, and Czech military intelligence, Callum MacDonald's book is a well-researched and gripping account of one of the most audacious assassinations of the Second World War.