Best WWII non-fiction you've read

[ellecf21]

Mine was Tattooist of Auschwitz. Possibly one of the most incredible stories I've ever read. What's yours?

I’ve read The Cut Out Girl some time ago @LemonJuiceFromConcentrate . Can you remember if it would be suitable for a tweenager? (Because I can’t) My granddaughter has got into war fiction since reading Anne Frank. I got her Behind the Bedroom Wall and Someone named Eva but she devours books so looking for other suitable books.
On the back of this thread I’ve bought A woman in Berlin and I shall bear witness.

The latter 2 for myself I should have said.

I’ve PMd you about this @Countmeout

"If this is a woman: Inside Ravensbruck" by Sarah Helm. About the only woman'only concentration camp. You'll need a strong stomach and a resilient midset as the medical experiments described are brutal. What really interested me was the extent to which the prisoners divided themselves into factions. The Russian Soviet prisoners saw themselves as superior to the Jewish prisoners and deprived them of food when they could. And everyone hated and despised the lesbians.

Also, "Berlin" by Anthony beevor, which is about the final assault on Berlin by the Russians. Divided between the experiences of ordinary Berliners and the devastation wreaked by the outraged Russian army as they flooded into Berlin.

Hitlerland. The pre-war third reich through the eyes of American/British ex-pats is fascinating

The Alice Network

If this is a Woman - about the women's concentration camp ar Ravensbruck

The Blitz by Julia Gardiner. Really interesting and harrowing.

Berlin by Sinclair Mackay

Hitler's British Isles - about the occupation of the Channel Islands

Auschwitz by Laurence Rees

The Ticket Collector from Belarus - about the only Nazi to be put on trial in the UK. Absolutely loved this book.

Hunting Evil - about how Nazis escaped Germany at the end of the war and how some of them were brought to justice

Their Darkest Hour by Laurence Rees.
This once is excellent. He interviews all sorts of people about fheir experience in the war. The accounts from nazis are particularly chilling, no remorse what so ever.

Hitler's furies by Wendy Lower. About women in the Ukraine who helped the Nazis. The accounts from the nurses who killed children with disabilities are horrifying.

Schindler s List by T Keneally

Five Days that shocked the World by Nicholas Best. Eyewitness accounts of Europe in the final days of the war. Some accounts from famous people, really interesting.

All of Primo Levi’s books, especially “If This Is A Man”!

The diaries of Victor Klemperer. Son of a rabbi who survived in Dresden all through the war-time thanks to his gentile wife and kept incredibly detailed diaries throughout.

I’ve found my people! I think a lot of there books are based on people and real events but are fictional to they sometime blur timelines or people. My contributions are:

The nightingale by Kristin Hannah
The three sisters by Heather morris
This diamond eye by Kate Quinn
the huntress by Kate Quinn
Beneath a Scarlett sky by mark sullvan
the last green valley by mark sullvan
Code name verity by Elizabeth wein
The Tom wild series by Rory clements
The little war time library by Kate Thompson
When we had wings by Ariel lawhon, kristina mcmorris and Susan meissner
Code name Helene by Ariel lawhon

I haven’t read the entire thread to see if this book was mentioned, I really enjoyed ‘A woman of no importance’ true story of a ww2 spy

Anything by Anthony Beevor.
Stalinfrad
Fall of Berlin.
And the book Blitzed by a German author. Just incredible
And Inside The Bunker by JP Donnelly

Inge’s War by Svenja O’Donnell was well worth reading

Lots of wonderful suggestions above.

Here are some more

Non fiction

Armageddon. Max Hastings
The Past is Myself. Christabel Beilenberg
Swansong. Walter Kempowski
Village of Secrets. Caroline Moorhead
Our longest days. Edited by Sandra Kia Wing

Fiction
All for Nothing. Walter Kempowski
The Honeyed Peace. Martha Gellhorn
Pied Piper. Neville Shute

And another fiction

The Night Watch. Sarah Waters

I met cristabel Belienberg. She visited our school in Ireland. Somehow our English teacher knew her. She was a great story teller, she felt so young. She must have been in her 80s but came across as a lively spirit. Really posh and a bit intimidated first but we spent ages chatting with her. She was lovely

Agreed on Anthony Beevor..

Others have mentioned Stephen Ambrose - Yes he wrote well but some of his later works need reading with a pinch of salt because they drift towards fiction...also for reasons never really explained he seemed to take an increasingly anti-British slant as he got older - no, the "Tommies" weren't always stopping to drink tea!!!

I met cristabel Belienberg.... Really posh and a bit intimidated first..

Excuse me if you know this but she popped up briefly in some quite moving interviews in the now very old Thames TV "The World at War" series...

Both The Diary of Anne Frank and Judith Kerr’s When Hitler stole Pink Rabbit have to be the most powerful for me because I read them as a child and they have stayed with me. I enjoyed Nella Last’s War as shows the nitty gritty of dealing with rationing and everyday life.

Christabel Bielenberg was interviewed in The World at War. She sheltered a Jewish family for a short while and her anguish when she had to ask them to leave is heart-rending - she said that she felt the Nazis had made her one of them.

Millions Like Us by Virginia Nicholson

The Endless Steppe by Esther Hautzig

My son reads a lot of WW2 non fiction. Recent fave was Helen Fry's MI9.

The Happiest Man on Earth: The Beautiful Life of an Auschwitz Survivor by Eddie Jaku.

Oh and the Tim Wilde series by Rory Clements