Caroline Moorehead Boeken

Published to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Red Cross's founding idea at the Battle of Solferino, this work explores the history of the world's largest humanitarian organization through its remarkable photographic archive. These iconic images, part of an international campaign, document the harsh realities of war and highlight the Red Cross’s effectiveness in providing aid without discrimination. They also reflect the evolution of photography, showcasing moments from the American Civil War to contemporary works by renowned photographers like James Nachtwey and Sebastian Salgado. As warfare has transformed over the years, the Red Cross has adapted its mission, expanding beyond medical assistance to include educators, water specialists, nutritionists, and legal experts. Despite this evolution, its core activities—visiting detainees, facilitating prisoner exchanges, repatriating the wounded, tracing missing persons, and reconnecting families—remain vital. Caroline Moorehead, a biographer and journalist, has previously written about the International Committee of the Red Cross and Martha Gellhorn. James Nachtwey, an acclaimed American photojournalist, has received the Overseas Press Club's Robert Capa Gold Medal five times, underscoring his impact on war photography.

The untold story of the 999 young, unmarried Jewish women who were tricked into boarding a train in Poprad, Slovakia on March 25, 1942 that became the first official transport to Auschwitz.

Set in the remote villages of the southern Massif Central in France, this narrative explores the remarkable history of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon during World War II. The local inhabitants courageously sheltered thousands from the Gestapo, including resisters, Freemasons, communists, and primarily Jewish orphans whose parents had been deported. Their collective bravery and moral conviction highlight a profound act of humanity amidst the horrors of war.

A diverse group of individuals, including teachers, students, and professionals, united in their courageous efforts against the Nazi regime. They engaged in activities such as distributing anti-Nazi leaflets, hiding Jews, and transporting weapons. This remarkable resistance network spanned ages and backgrounds, from a fifteen-year-old schoolgirl to a farmer's wife in her sixties, showcasing the extraordinary bravery and commitment of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.

A gripping tale of intrigue... I was enormously moved Observer

Set in early 20th-century Florence, the narrative follows the Rosselli family, particularly matriarch Amelia, as they confront the rise of fascism under Mussolini. With a strong commitment to antifascism, her sons, Carlo and Nello, boldly oppose the regime, risking their status among the elite. As Mussolini's oppressive police state takes hold, the family's resistance evolves into active defiance, highlighting the tension between cultural aristocracy and political conviction in a time of national turmoil.

This volume is the biography of a pioneer of field archeology, Heinrich Schliemann (1822-1890), retelling how Schliemann rose from grocer's apprentice in Germany to wealthy indigo merchant in St. Petersburg to his final re-creation as an archaeologist. Although Schliemann outraged scholars with his boastfulness, penchant for willful ambiguousness in his writings, and brutal methods of excavation, he amazed the world by discovering one of the most important and glorious sites in the history of mankind. The author emphasizes Schliemann's story to track the fate of Priam's Treasure. This cache of gold and other artifacts was discovered and stolen by Schliemann, later hidden by the Nazis, and then stolen and hidden by the Russians

In the late summer of 1943, when Italy changed sides in the War and the Germans - now their enemies - occupied the north of the country, an Italian Resistance was born. Ada, Frida, Silvia and Bianca were four young Piedmontese women who joined the Resistance, living clandestinely in the mountains surrounding Turin. They were not alone. Between 1943 and 1945, as the Allies battled their way north, thousands of men and women throughout occupied Italy rose up and fought to liberate their country from the German invaders and their Fascist collaborators. The bloody civil war that ensued across the country pitted neighbour against neighbour, and brought out the best and worst in Italian society. The courage shown by the partisans was exemplary, and eventually bound them together as a coherent fighting force. The women's contribution was invaluable - they fought, carried messages and weapons, provided safe houses, laid mines and took prisoners. Ada's house deep in the mountains became a meeting place and refuge for many of them

Edda Mussolini was Benito's favourite daughter- spoilt, venal, uneducated but clever, faithless but flamboyant, a brilliant diplomat, wild but brave, and ultimately strong and loyal. She was her father's confidante during the 20 years of Fascist rule, acting as envoy to both Germany and Britain, and playing a part in steering Italy to join forces with Hitler. From her early twenties she was effectively first lady of Italy. She married Galeazzo Ciano, who would become the youngest Foreign Secretary in Italian history, and they were the most celebrated and glamorous couple in elegant, vulgar Roman fascist society. Their fortunes turned in 1943, when Ciano voted against Mussolini in a plot to bring him down, and his father-in-law did not forgive him. In a dramatic story that takes in hidden diaries, her father's fall and her husband's execution, an escape into Switzerland and a period in exile, we come to know a complicated, bold and determined woman who emerges not just as a witness but as a key player in some of the twentieth century's defining moments. And we see Fascist Italy with all its glamour, decadence and political intrigue, and the turbulence before its violent end.

On an icy morning in Paris in January 1943, 230 French women resisters were rounded up from the Gestapo detention camps and sent on a train to Auschwitz—the only train, in the four years of German occupation, to take women of the Resistance to a death camp. The youngest was a schoolgirl of 15, the eldest a farmer's wife of 68; among them were teachers, biochemists, salesgirls, secretaries, housewives and university lecturers. Six of the women were still alive in 2010 and able to tell their stories of the great affection and camaraderie that took hold among the group. They became friends, and it was precisely this friendship that kept so many of them alive. Drawing on interviews with survivors and their families, on German, French and Polish archives, and on documents held by WW2 resistance organisations, A Train in Winter covers a harrowing part of history that is, ultimately, a portrait of ordinary people, of bravery and endurance, and of the particular qualities of female friendship.