The Book Thief

Personal Author:
Rush, Geoffrey, 1951-
Watson, Emily, 1967-
Zusak, Markus
Percival, Brian, 1962-

Publisher: London : Moore Park, New South Wales : Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, [2014]

Annotation: This is the historical war drama film by Brian Pervical based on the novel of the same name, set in Germany during Nazi era. It is a story about a girl who was adopted by German family during WWII who is illiterate and is encouraged by her foster father to learn to read. Germany has been taken by Adolf Hitler and his soldiers marching in the streets of Berlin. A Jewish family has been seeking refuge in this German family's house to protect their lives.  The girl starts to borrow books and shares them with the Jewish family, the movie shows how it helps them to escape the reality around them in this times of tyranny.

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March Violets

Author: Philip Kerr

Publisher: London : Penguin Books, 2015 ©1989

Annotation: This is the first book in Bernie Gunther series by Philip Kerr. This Berlin Noir takes us into the winter of 1936 Berlin, Germany where a man and his wife is killed in their bed and their priceless diamond disappeared. A wealthy industrialist hires a private detective to solve the mystery where Bernhard Gunther, a hard-boiled detective is put to the job who specialises in tracking down missing persons. What started as a good opportunity for Gunther takes him to the places he could only imagine in dreams, it's the time of the rise of Hitler, hatred towards Jews and Aryan racial superiority, fights with Gestapo agents all revealed in this fast paced crime thriller fiction.

For other books in Bernie Gunther series click here

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Darkest Hour

Personal Author:

Wright, Joe, 1972-, film director
Bevan, Tim, film producer
Fellner, Eric, film producer
Bruce, Lisa, film producer
McCarten, Anthony, 1961-, film producer, screen writer
Urbanski, Douglas, film producer
Oldman, Gary, actor
Scott-Thomas, Kristin, 1960-, actor
James, Lily, 1989-, actor
Dillane, Stephen, 1956-, actor
Pickup, Ronald, actor
West, Samuel, 1966-, actor
Mendelsohn, Ben, actor

Imprint: London : Australia : Universal Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Australia Pty Ltd, 2018

Annotation: This multi Academy Awards winning motion pictures displays one of the darkest time in the early days of the World War II. Adolf Hitler has risen to fame taking Austria and marching Nazi soldiers to occupy other European nations. The fall of France is an unbearable pain to British Empire, now a nation hailed as a winner in WWI is faced with fate whether to negotiate with Hitler and save British people or convince it's people to fight against Nazi Germany. All this is put to a table of newly appointed British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The movie has a high rating in both IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes with many saying it a must see movie.

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The death of democracy: Hitler's rise to power

Author: Benjamin Carter Hett

Publisher: London : William Heinemann, 2018

Annotation: This award winning book of the year nonfiction is a tell-tell story to history's past what happened in Germany during Weimar Republic, a period in Germany between the end of World War I and the Nazi Party and Hitler's seizure of power in 1933. The book is based on award winning research and recently discovered archival materials. It tried to shed a light on issues like How a democratic government allow Adolf Hitler to seize power ?. The narrative provides a good example of what happens to a nation when a liberal democracy fails and capitalism rises, what are the aspiration of middle class people, did they really choice Adolf Hitler or they simply choose an economic self-sufficient nation which gave power to their voice through Nazi propaganda and their leader whose took the path of authoritarian dictatorship.  

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The Order of the Day

Author: Eric Vuillard
Translator: Mark Polizzotti
Publisher: London : Picador, 2019

Annotation: Originally written in French this historical fiction won the Prix Goncourt (the most prestigious French Literary prize) in 2017. Unlike other books written about Germany in 1930's where Nazism is seen as an inevitable part of the Germany's political and social culture which no way would have been protected. This book counter argues the theory and tries to explain what happened on 20th February 1933 in harsh Berlin winter a secret meeting led by 24 German captains of Industry and senior Nazi dignitaries in Reichstag seems more than a fiction to the story. It also explores the annexation of Austria in 1938 and advancement towards Vienna demonstrated by German military strengths is accidents of fate.

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Pan Macmillan

Two Brothers

Author: Ben Elton

Publisher: Transworld Publishers Ltd : 2013 

Annotation: Ben Elton has written fifteen major bestsellers including, stark, popcorn, Inconceivable, Dead Famous, High Society to name a few. In this historical fiction set in 1920's pre-world war II Berlin two babies are born in a Jewish family believing they are twin brothers which turns out one is Jew and one gentile. It explores the life of two brothers how their life is shaped after Hitler came to the power. The fear and feeling of being Jew and Aryan is clearly depicted in this book, which takes the reader into one of the darkest times in the history of the world.

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The Guardian

How Hitler was made: Germany and the rise of the perfect Nazi

Author: Cory Taylor
Publisher: Amherst, New York : Prometheus Books, 2018

Annotation: Written by Emmy award-winning documentary filmmaker Cory Taylor. This book provides historical narrative to formative period of Adolf Hitler immediately after World War I unlike many other books which focuses his career after 1933. The book provides an insight into post war Germany where there was constant power struggle between the right and the left wing political parties. The socialist revolution in Bavaria, the change of attitude of German people towards democracy all intertwined together. How some influential group saw an opportunity to  take control of Hitler into the leader he became later. The narrative were based on extensive research carried out in Germany, England and US. This book reveals secrets of how fake news, manipulation of facts and political propaganda helped Hitler to be the dictator of one nation.

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Young Hitler: The making of The Fuhrer

Author: Paul Ham
Publisher: Penguin Random House Australia : North Sydney, 2017

Annotation: By the author of Hiroshima Nagasaki (2011), Vietnam: The Australian War (2007) and Kokoda (2004). This multi-award winning author writes about a biography of young Adolf Hitler who went to WWI in 1914 at the age of 25 only to be awakened by  temporarily blindness from mustard gas in hospital bed. When he came to realisation that Germany has lost the war, it was too much to bear for him. He was in complete loss to see his fatherland has been taken by others not only physically but ideologically by Kaiser, a Marxist uprising in Bavaria. This biography tries to explore a young Hitler's mind growing up in Linz, Vienna and Munich to become one of the most brutal dictator of the 20th century.

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