The SS Officer's Armchair is the story of what happened next, as Daniel Lee follows the trail of cold calls, documents, coincidences and family secrets, to uncover the life of one Dr Robert Griesinger from Stuttgart.

Author: Daniel Lee

Publisher: Random House

ISBN: 9781473548831

Category: History

Page: 320

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The gripping account of one historian's hunt for answers as he delves into the surprising life of an ordinary Nazi officer. 'Totally exhilarating' Philippe Sands It began with an armchair. It began with the surprise discovery of a stash of personal documents covered in swastikas sewn into its cushion. The SS Officer's Armchair is the story of what happened next, as Daniel Lee follows the trail of cold calls, documents, coincidences and family secrets, to uncover the life of one Dr Robert Griesinger from Stuttgart. As Lee delves deeper, Griesinger emerges as at once an ordinary man with a family and ambitions, and an active participant in the Nazi machinery of terror whose choices continue to reverberate today. 'Gripping, it unfolds like a detective story as an obscured past emerges into the light' Hadley Freeman, author of House of Glass 'An absorbing work of historical detection... Riveting' Evening Standard

The S.S. Officer's Armchair is the story of Lee's investigation to uncover who Dr. Griesinger was, and how his most precious documents ended up hidden inside a chair, hundreds of miles from Prague and Stuttgart.

Author: Daniel Lee

Publisher: Hachette Books

ISBN: 0316509094

Category: History

Page: 0

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Based on documents discovered concealed within a simple chair for seventy years, The S.S. Officer's Armchair is historian Daniel Lee's gripping investigation into the life of a single S.S. officer during World War Two, whose story encapsulates the tragic experience of war for a generation of Europeans. One night at a dinner party in Florence, World War Two historian Daniel Lee was told about a remarkable discovery. An upholsterer in Amsterdam had found a bundle of swastika-covered documents inside the cushion of an armchair he was repairing. The documents belonged to Dr. Robert Griesinger, a lawyer from Stuttgart, who worked at the Reich's Ministry of Economics and Labour in Occupied Prague during the war. The S.S. Officer's Armchair is the story of Lee's investigation to uncover who Dr. Griesinger was, and how his most precious documents ended up hidden inside a chair, hundreds of miles from Prague and Stuttgart. Lee weaves detection with biography to tell an extraordinary narrative of ambition and intimacy in the Third Reich. He uncovers Griesinger's American backstory -- his father was born in New Orleans and the family had ties to the plantations and music halls of nineteenth century Louisiana. As Lee follows the footsteps of a rank and file Nazi official seventy years later, and chronicles what became of him and his family at the war's end, he discovers an unforeseen connection between Griesinger and the murder of his own relatives in the Holocaust. The S.S. Officer's Armchair is an enthralling detective story and a reconsideration of daily life in the Third Reich. Lee dispels the image of the 'ordinary German' and provides a window into the life of one of Hitler's millions of nameless followers.

The SS Officer's Armchair is the story of what happened next, as historian Daniel Lee follows the trail of cold calls, documents, coincidences and family secrets, to uncover the life of one Dr Robert Griesinger from Stuttgart. Who was he?

Author: Daniel Lee

Publisher:

ISBN: OCLC:1262139019

Category: Czechoslovakia

Page: 302

View: 274

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It began with an armchair. It began with the surprise discovery of a stash of personal documents covered in swastikas that had been sewn into its cushion. The SS Officer's Armchair is the story of what happened next, as historian Daniel Lee follows the trail of cold calls, documents, coincidences and family secrets, to uncover the life of one Dr Robert Griesinger from Stuttgart. Who was he? What had his life been - and how had it ended? Lee reveals the strange life of a man whose ambition propelled him to become part of the Nazi machinery of terror. He discovers unexpected ancestors in New Orleans, untold stories of SS life and family fragmentation. As Lee delves deeper, Griesinger's responsibility as an active participant in Nazi crimes becomes clearer. Dr Robert Griesinger's name is not infamous. But to understand the inner workings of the Third Reich, we need to know not just its leaders, but the ordinary Nazis who made up its ranks. Revealing how Griesinger's choices reverberate into present-day Germany, and among descendants of perpetrators, Lee raises potent questions about blame, manipulation and responsibility. A historical detective story and a gripping account of one historian's hunt for answers, The SS Officer's Armchair is at once a unique addition to our understanding of Nazi Germany and a chilling reminder of how such regimes are made not by monsters, but by ordinary people.

Daniel Lee, The S.S. Officer's Armchair: Uncovering the Hidden Life of a Nazi (Hachette, 2020), pp. 50–51. Wilfred Byford-Jones, Berlin Twilight (Hutchinson, 1947), Book 1: 'Meeting the People', pp. 51–2. 11.

Author: Peter Caddick-Adams

Publisher: Random House

ISBN: 9781529151718

Category: History

Page: 688

View: 951

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March 1945. Allied troops are poised to cross the Rhine and sweep on into Germany. Victory is finally within their grasp. But if they believe this victory can be easily won, they face swift disillusionment. The final 100 days of the Second World War will prove to be bitterly and bloodily fought, village by village, town by town. In Victory in the West 1945 acclaimed military historian Peter Caddick-Adams brings this closing stage of the Allies' fight against Nazi Germany brilliantly to life. He explores the immense challenges they faced in crossing the Rhine on a 300-mile front. He tells stories of individual acts of resolve and heroism, of often exhausted troops pressing forward attacks in the face of ferocious resistance. He recounts their shocked first encounters with the barbarities of Hitler's regime as they reached the gates of Buchenwald, Belsen and Dachau. And he goes behind the front line to analyse the strategic decisions made at Allied headquarters and to offer pin-sharp portraits of the military leaders. Throughout he draws on a vast range of memoirs and personal interviews with survivors to give a vivid sense of what it was like to encounter enemy combatants and civilians face to face. Compulsively readable, this will be the standard work on the closing days of the Second World War for a generation.

Origin & Development 1922–45 (Barnes & Noble, 1975) Kogon, Eugen, Hermann Langbein & Adalbert Rückerl (eds), Nazi Mass Murder (Yale University Press, 1993) Lee, Daniel, The S.S. Officer's Armchair: Uncovering the Hidden Life of a Nazi ...

Author: Peter Caddick-Adams

Publisher: Oxford University Press

ISBN: 9780190601867

Category: History

Page: 689

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The final volume in one of the most acclaimed works of military history of this generation. Here is Peter Caddick-Adams' third volume in his trilogy about the final year of the Western front in World War Two. Fire & Steel covers the war's final 100 days-beginning in late January 1945 and continuing until May 8th, 1945, when the German high command surrendered unconditionally to all Allied forces. Caddick-Adams' previous two volumes in the acclaimed series-Sand & Steel, which covers the invasion of Normandy in June 1944, and Snow & Steel, the definitive study of the Battle of the Bulge, the German's final offensive in the war-have set the stage for this concluding volume. In these final months of World War Two, all of Germany is ablaze, from daily bombing runs launched from just across its borders and incessant artillery fire from the east. In the west, the Allied progress was inexorable, with Eisenhower's seven armies taking on Germany's seven armies, town by town, bridge by bridge. With his customary narrative verve and utter mastery of the material, Caddick-Adams does these climactic final months full justice, from the capture of the Ludendorff Railway Bridge at Remagen, to the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, to the taking of Munich on Hitler's birthday, April 20th, and through to VE Day. Fire & Steel ends with the return of prisoners, demobilization of servicemen, and the beginning of the occupation of Germany. A triumphant concluding volume to one of the most distinguished works of military history of this generation.

New York Lee, Daniel (2020): The S.S. Officer's Armchair Uncovering The Hidden Life of a Nazi Hachette Books. New York Shore, Zachary (2003): What Hitler Knew. The Battle For Information in Nazi Foreign Policy. Oxford University Press.

Author: William N. Spencer

Publisher: Xlibris Corporation

ISBN: 9781669801702

Category: Social Science

Page: 454

View: 494

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A look back at some of the worst despotic tyrants in our world's history. Perhaps by reading about their great egotistical mistakes we can prevent abominable history from repeating itself.

This time it turned out to be a high-ranking SS officer from Berlin who served as a liaison between the gestapo headquarters there and the Bergen-Belsen ... My father painted him in various positions—standing and sitting in an armchair.

Author: Henryk Schönker

Publisher: Indiana University Press

ISBN: 9780253050373

Category: History

Page: 401

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The extraordinary story of a child’s survival of the Holocaust and the basis for the award-winning documentary directed by Marek T. Pawlowski. Henryk Schönker was born in 1931 into one of the most prominent and highly esteemed Jewish families of Oswiecim—the Polish town renamed Auschwitz during the German occupation. He and his family managed to flee Oswiecim shortly before the creation of the Auschwitz death camp, and survived the war through sheer luck and a strong will to survive. The Schönker family’s return to Oswiecim in 1945 provides a fascinating glimpse of challenges faced by Jewish people who chose to remain in Poland after the war and attempted to rebuild their lives there. Schönker’s testimony also reveals an astonishing fact: the town of Oswiecim could have become the departure point for a mass emigration of Jewish people instead of the place of their annihilation. Documents included with the narrative provide support for this claim. Although he was only a child at the time, Henryk Schönker’s life experience was the Holocaust. Even so, death and the threat of death are not the focus of this memoir. Instead, Schönker, with a touching personal style, chooses to focus on how life can defy destruction, how spirituality can protect physical existence, and how real the presence of higher powers can be if one never loses faith.

The SS organization interpreted this neurotic withdrawal with more insight than the Berlin judge — and acted with characteristic venom by framing him as a ... But if PF had become a Nazi and — so far — an armchair SS officer simply ...

Author: Henry Victor Dicks

Publisher:

ISBN: UOM:39015027243362

Category: Mass murder

Page: 283

View: 343

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Text and pictures portray a variety of birds.

The Armchair Reader series will entertain and enlighten with spellbinding anecdotes, little known stories, and fascinating facts.

Author:

Publisher: Publications International

ISBN: 1412714370

Category: World War, 1939-1945

Page: 520

View: 310

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The Armchair Reader series will entertain and enlighten with spellbinding anecdotes, little known stories, and fascinating facts. Take a front-row seat and delve into tales of astounding feats, unmatched heroism, unfathomable mistakes, and electrifying exploits from the European and Pacific theaters of World War II.

' JAMES HOLLAND 'Wonderfully original . . . putting readers at the heart of the decision-making process and allowing them, literally, to change the course of history. This is counterfactual history at its best.

Author: John Buckley

Publisher: Random House

ISBN: 9781473581951

Category: History

Page: 339

View: 859

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A ground-breaking approach to history where YOU choose the fate of WWII - perfect for readers of Bletchley Park Brainteasers and The GCHQ Puzzle Book. ''An original and exciting approach . . . Buckley is one of our very finest historians.' JAMES HOLLAND ________________________ TAKE THE HOTSEAT Assume the role of real Generals, Leaders, Soldiers and Intelligence Officers in the Allied Forces during WWII, including Winston Churchill and President Eisenhower. EXAMINE THE INTELLIGENCE Explore eight key moments of the war with real contemporaneous intelligence: Britain's Darkest Hour, 1940; The War in North Africa; Stalin's War on the Eastern Front; The Pacific Battle of Midway; The Dresden Bomber Offensive; Casablanca; Arnhem and Operation Market Garden; The Bomb and Hiroshima. CONSIDER THE SCENARIO & MAKE YOUR DECISION From battlefields to war cabinets, each tactical and strategic decision you make leads to a different outcome. Will you follow the path of the past - or shape a new history? ________________________ 'A reminder that history is a never ending now, a relentless and endless present that comes without the luxury of hindsight.' AL MURRAY 'An original and exciting approach . . . Buckley is one of our very finest historians. The Armchair General adds enormously to our understanding of the conflicts.' JAMES HOLLAND 'Wonderfully original . . . putting readers at the heart of the decision-making process and allowing them, literally, to change the course of history. This is counterfactual history at its best.' SAUL DAVID 'A unique, enjoyable approach to evaluating military decision-making.' HISTORY OF WAR