The turning point of World War II came at Stalingrad. Hitler's soldiers stormed the city in September 1942 in a bid to complete the conquest of Europe. Yet Stalingrad never fell. After months of bitter fighting; 100;000 surviving Germans; huddled in the ruined city; surrendered to Soviet troops.During the battle and shortly after its conclusion; scores of Red Army commanders and soldiers; party officials and workers spoke with a team of historians who visited from Moscow to record their conversations. The tapestry of their voices provides groundbreaking insights into the thoughts and feelings of Soviet citizens during wartime.Legendary sniper Vasily Zaytsev recounted the horrors he witnessed at Stalingrad: “You see young girls; children hanging from trees in the park.[...] That has a tremendous impact.†Nurse Vera Gurova attended hundreds of wounded soldiers in a makeshift hospital every day; but she couldn't forget one young amputee who begged her to avenge his suffering. “Every soldier and officer in Stalingrad was itching to kill as many Germans as possible;†said Major Nikolai Aksyonov.These testimonials were so harrowing and candid that the Kremlin forbade their publication; and they were forgotten by modern history—until now. Revealed here in English for the first time; they humanize the Soviet defenders and allow Jochen Hellbeck; in Stalingrad; to present a definitive new portrait of the most fateful battle of World War II.
#2340693 in Books 2015-04-14Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 7.40 x .60 x 5.30l; .0 #File Name: 1608464601168 pages
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. A Highly Unusual Holocaust Story of a Remarkable WomanBy Marc LichtmanThis is another book I was sure I had reviewed but hadn't!While some people propagate the idea that the best survived the camps; the fact is that to survive many stole food from the weaker. I'm not interested in judging them; this is what capitalist society in general teaches people to begin with; and that's true even in the best of circumstances. It's generally magnified under the worst of circumstances.So this is a remarkable story about a woman whose socialist beliefs and activism helped enable her to play a big role in organizing collective survival. Modern socialists are not utopians--we don't try to organize little communes where we can have "socialism" in a hostile capitalist world. You can't even complete the road to socialism in a single country; contrary to Stalin (see The Revolution Betrayed. But we do try to lead by example; and that's what Hanna Levy-Hass did! That's what Cuba does when it sends internationalist doctors around the world. They make a difference; but they can't be everywhere. They can set an example; and show what is possible.For a Marxist view on Utopianism (which Marx and Engels studied and learned from); see both The Communist Manifesto 3rd (third) Edition by Karl Marx; Friedrich Engels published by Pathfinder Pr (2008) Paperback and Socialism: Utopian and Scientific.While the Jewish question has been present in Marxism from before the Communist Manifesto; the most serious study is The Jewish Question: A Marxist Interpretation by Abram Leon (1971-06-01). (Don't pay $35.00 for it; it's a $25.00 book and in print). Abram Leon traces the reasons for Jewish survival and for anti-Semitism giving a materialist; not a religious answer. Leon died in Aushwitz; and his comrade Ernest Mandel wrote in a biographical note to the book (which is closer to the norm than the story related by Levy-Hass):"Leon was the type least able to withstand the regime of Nazi concentration camps. He possessed a sense of human dignity which found intolerable contact with the degradation and cruelty which became the common denominator of human conduct inside the concentration camps. The nobility of his character was shattered against the implacable bestiality of desperate egoism; just as his body became broken by physical exertions to which it was not accustomed and by malignant disease. After several weeks of labor in a road-building gang; he was sent to a quarantine camp. There one had to devise tricks; grovel before the masters; engage in petty trading; and steal in order to survive. He could not rise above his companions in misery along these lines. Chained to his miserable cot; he passed his last days in reading and meditation. He was certain that the end was near. There came the final 'medical inspection.' The sick destined for the gas chambers were selected. He was among them."Also useful is On the Jewish Question by Leon Trotsky (1970-01-01).For Israel; I recommend Israel: A Colonial-Settler State?; although I think people who try to treat Israel as if it was still a colonial-settler state are off base. It hasn't escaped its past; any more than the US has escaped the legacy of slavery and genocide against the Indians; but it has become a more or less "normal" capitalist country. I'm of course for seeing a Palestinian state come into being; but does anyone think that the reactionary Hamas; and the bureaucratic Fatah (of today) can lead this?When the Palestinians had; despite limitations; revolutionary leadership; they fought like shown in this small book: Palestine and the Arabs' Fight for Liberation. To see their decline amidst the first Gulf War; I recommend New International no. 7: Opening Guns of World War III: Washington's Assault on Iraq. The only way forward to a Palestinian state is solidarity based on common class interests.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. not authenticBy Alfred JacobsonA long too-thought-out memoir that could never have been written in a KL. While she's starving to death; she has somehow managed to write copious paragraphs in a journal--a death sentence infraction. Where was the paper from? the pen/pencil? The hiding place for a few hundred pieces of paper. Please!!12 of 12 people found the following review helpful. Back in print; but with something missingBy Piso MojadoFive stars to Haymarket Books for republishing Hanna Levy-Hass's diary in a better translation than the first English edition (1982). Minus one star for republishing it without the author's thirty-nine page interview by Eike Geisel in Vielleicht war das alles erst der Anfang: Tagebuch aus d. KZ Bergen-Belsen 1944-1945 (Rotbuch ; 191) (German Edition). Since Levy-Hass left us so little in writing; it is difficult to understand this omission. Amira Hass dedicated this new edition to Eike Geisel. Did Haymarket Books think his 1978 interview of the author was outdated?
