The Polish War 1939

First to Fight

A new and definitive account of the German invasion of Poland that initiated WWII in 1939, written by a historian at the height of his abilities.

We tend to overlook “the war that Hitler won”, but Roger Moorhouse brilliantly underlines its crucial importance for the future course of the Second World War. This deeply researched, very well-written and penetrating book will be the standard work on the subject for many years to come

Andrew Roberts, author of ‘Churchill: Walking with Destiny’

[A] chilling, indignant narrative… Moorhouse has expertly laid bare…[the] truth

Moorhouse’s book remedies that gap [in history of The Polish War], weaving together archival material, first-hand accounts, perceptive analysis and heartbreaking descriptions of Poland’s betrayal, defeat and dismemberment

[A] fascinating book… Moorhouse has mastered a large body of material… this is…a very valuable book, as it gathers a mass of detail into a lucid narrative for general readers

An important book. Roger Moorhouse has a wonderful knack of reminding us about the parts of the Second World War that we are in danger of forgetting

[A] timely and authoritative book… Moorhouse… has trawled through an impressive quantity of unpublished Polish and German sources…to produce a balanced account of this much neglected yet important episode of the second world war which is both harrowing and inspiring

[A] very valuable addition to the literature on the outbreak of the Second World War… The great strength of this new account lies in the extensive use of Polish sources, all too often overlooked entirely when trying to piece together the history of the campaign... Moorhouse... admirably achieves his aim of putting the Polish-German war back onto the broader canvas of the Second World War

Exemplary... as good as military history can be

Roger Moorhouse is a historian and author specialising in modern German history. He is the co-author, with Norman Davies, of Microcosm: Portrait of a Central European City, and the author of Killing Hitler: The Third Reich and the Plots Against the Fuhrer and The Devil's Alliance: Hitler's Pact with Stalin.

A new and definitive account of the German invasion of Poland that initiated WWII in 1939, written by a historian at the height of his abilities. 
 
'Deeply researched, very well-written... This book will be the standard work on the subject for many years to come' - Andrew Roberts, author of Churchill: Walking with Destiny 
 
The Polish campaign is the forgotten story of the Second World War. 
 
The war began on 1 September 1939, when German tanks, trucks and infantry crossed the Polish border, and the Luftwaffe began bombing Poland's towns and cities. The Polish army fought bravely but could not withstand the concentrated attack. When the Red Army invaded from the east, the country's fate was sealed. 
 
This is the first history of the Polish war for almost half a century. Drawing on letters, memoirs and diaries from all sides, Roger Moorhouse's dramatic account of the military events is entwined with a human story of courage and suffering, and a dark tale of diplomatic betrayal. 
 
'Important... Moorhouse has a wonderful knack for reminding us about the parts of the Second World War that we are in danger of forgetting' Dan Snow 
 
** Shortlisted for the Duke of Wellington Medal for Military History 2020 **

Hitler's Pact with Stalin, 1939-1941

The Devils' Alliance

The gripping story of the last great unexplored aspect of the Second World War

The Devils' Alliance is a marvellous achievement. No event was more crucial to the outbreak of the Second World War than the Nazi-Soviet Pact of August 1939, and no one is better qualified to explore its grim implications than Roger Moorhouse

Superbly researched and academically impeccable, yet written with all the pace of a thriller, The Devils' Alliance shines a powerful beam into one of the undeservedly least known aspects of the Second World War

Meticulous and vividly readable… Moorhouse’s grim and compelling book could not be more topical

A highly enjoyable history written with verve and attention to detail

Moorhouse is the best guide now available to explain…the awful consequences for those caught in the unscrupulous coils of dictatorship

Thorough and eloquent... a scholarly yet accessible reminder of the frighteningly tangible costs of totalitarianism

Roger Moorhouse’s definitive book blends eyewitness accounts with an authoritative master narrative… The Devils’ Alliance is not just a good book, it’s an important one, making a significant contribution to our understanding of the two worst dictators of the 20th Century, and the calamitous conflict they both had a hand in causing

In this profoundly researched, briskly argued and wonderfully readable book, full of dramatic and darkly comic detail, Roger Moorhouse has done history a great service. He has rescued one of the Second World War’s dirtiest little secrets from the shadows into which the pro-Soviet bias of post-war historians had swept it and reveals in all its moral squalor the deal that made it possible for Hitler to go to war.

A terrifying account of cynical diplomacy, deceit, untrammelled power and the echoes that can be heard even now

Has a lot more to offer than the usual facts and figures thrown together about a largely forgotten part of history… This has a certain amount of written fluidity… I have read any number of books about this subject and I have to say that this is one of the best researched that I have found… I found it a satisfying read throughout, I learnt a lot and filled in a few holes in my knowledge, an excellent book.

Roger Moorhouse is an historian and author specialising in modern German history. He is the co-author, with Norman Davies, of Microcosm: Portrait of a Central European City, and the author of Killing Hitler and Berlin at War.

For nearly two years the two most infamous dictators in history actively collaborated with one another. The Nazi-Soviet Pact stunned the world when it was announced, the Second World War was launched under its auspices with the invasion and division of Poland, and its eventual collapse led to the war’s defining and deciding clash. 
 
 It is a chapter too often skimmed over by popular histories of the Second World War, and in The Devils’ Alliance Roger Moorhouse tells the full story of the pact between Hitler and Stalin for the first time, from the motivation for its inception to its dramatic and abrupt end in 1941 as Germany declared war against its former partner. 
 
 Using first-hand and eye-witness testimony, this is not just an account of the turbulent, febrile politics underlying the unlikely collaboration between these two totalitarian regimes, but of the human costs of the pact, as millions of eastern Europeans fell victim to the nefarious ambitions of Hitler and Stalin.

Life and Death in Hitler's Capital, 1939-45

Berlin at War

A fascinating portrayal of the German experience during the Second World War told through the eyes of the citizens of Berlin.

Roger Moorhouse has a deep knowledge of Wartime Germany... Moorhouse has a nice eye for social detail

As a leading historian of modern Germany, Moorhouse has chronicled a largely unknown story with scholarship, narrative verve and, at times, an awful, harrowing immediacy

Moorhouse's evocative social history of Hitler's capital brings all these aromas together, along with the sights, sounds, thoughts and feelings of the ordinary Germans who lived here

Few books on the war genuinely increase the sum of our collective knowledge of this exhaustively covered period, but this one does... By trawling through the complex, often deeply morally compromised personal stories of many survivors, Moorhouse has produced new insights into the way ordinary Berliners tried to escape the disastrous ill-fortune of living in the belly of the beast

Roger Moorhouse's measured, sympathetic book offers a fascinating corrective to that Anglocentric perspective... After reading this thorough and engaging book you'll never be able to watch a war film or even a World Cup football match in quite the same way

It provides something rare: a popular history account that will satisfy both general readers and professional historians

Roger Moorhouse has marshalled an impressive range of primary sources including newspaper reports, official documents, memoirs, diaries and interviews with the dwindling band of survivors to create a gripping panorama of Berlin at war... Moorhouse's meticulous and painstaking research matched by his narrative verve, wide ranging sympathy and eye for telling detail

A finely observed social history of Berliners during the war

There is a haunting quality to Roger Moorhouse's Berlin at War, the ominous drumbeat of approaching nemesis for ordinary civilians who, since 1933, had witnessed and participated in the rise of the Nazi cult

The searing experiences of Berliners are brought to life through often deeply morally compromised personal stories

Moorhouse has a deep knowledge of wartime Germany...he has a nice eye for social detail

Moorhouse has written an extraordinarily detailed account of ordinary life in Berlin during the Second World War

There's a pounding quietness to Moorhouse's description of life in Berlin

A well-researched, fluently-written and utterly absorbing account of what life (and, so very often) death was like for ordinary Germans in the capital of Hitler's Reich during the Second World War. The Berliners' capacity for suffering, for sacrifice, for self-delusion, but also astonishingly for love - and even on occasion humour - is superbly evoked by Moorhouse's cornucopia of new information

Andrew Roberts, author of The Storm of War

Berlin at War is a well-researched and beautifully composed account, vividly recreating those years of Nazi arrogance, oppression, and corruption, that ended in such terrible destruction and civilian suffering

Roger Moorhouse is an historian and author specialising in modern German history. He is the co-author, with Norman Davies, of Microcosm: Portrait of a Central European City, and the author of Killing Hitler: The Third Reich and the Plots Against the Führer.

Berlin was the nerve-centre of Hitler's Germany - the backdrop for the most lavish ceremonies, it was also the venue for Albert Speer's plans to forge a new 'world metropolis' and the scene of the final climactic bid to defeat Nazism. Yet while our understanding of the Holocaust is well developed, we know little about everyday life in Nazi Germany. 
 
In this vivid and important study Roger Moorhouse portrays the German experience of the Second World War, not through an examination of grand politics, but from the viewpoint of the capital's streets and homes.He gives a flavour of life in the capital, raises issues of consent and dissent, morality and authority and, above all, charts the violent humbling of a once-proud metropolis. 
 
Shortlisted for the Hessell-Tiltman History Prize.

The Third Reich and the Plots Against the Fuhrer

Killing Hitler

The first comprehensive study of the various assassination attempts on Hitler - and a history of the Third Reich from an illuminating new angle.

The story of the attempts to kill Hitler has been told before... but [Moorhouse's] survey can claim originality thanks to the inclusion of plots hatched by non-Germans

Roger Moorhouse's enthralling book accounts for a whole gallimaufry of foiled assassination attempts on the Fuhrer, which ranged from the sublime near miss to ridiculous schemes worthy of Mel Brooks

A gripping account, which is thoroughly researched, but wears its scholarship lightly enough to be read like a good political thriller

Highly readable... Moorhouse tells his story briskly and sensibly

In Killing Hitler, Roger Moorhouse has found a new approach to the story of the Third Reich which is both original and authentic

Such is Moorhouse's story telling power that we await every fresh attempt on Hitler's life with the hope that this one will succeed... A story as gripping as it is authentic

Joseph E. Persico, author of Roosevelt's Secret War

Few books on the Third Reich offer a genuinely fresh perspective on the period but Roger Moorhouse's engrossing chronicle of the plots against Hitler does

This book shows what a murderous place Hitler's Reich was, and that the Fuhrer had the devil's own luck

The first detailed account of the numerous attempts to kill one of history's most reviled dictators

Osborne has written a fluent and fascinating book.... Read and enjoy this remarkable book

Roger Moorhouse is an historian and author specialising in modern German history. He is the co-author, with Norman Davies, of Microcosm: Portrait of a Central European City, and the author of Berlin at War.

Most people have heard of the Stauffenberg Plot but it is not widely known that this was only one of a long series of attempts on the life of Adolf Hitler. The Germans, Soviets, Poles and British all made plans to kill the Fuhrer. Lone gunmen, disaffected German officers and the Polish Underground, the Soviet NKVD and the British Special Operations Executive were all involved. Their methods varied from bombing, poisoning or using a sniper, to infiltrating the SS, or even sending Rudolf Hess back to Germany under hypnosis. Many of the plans did not make it beyond the drawing board, some were carried out. All of them failed. 
 
Alongside the dramatic and largely unknown stories of Hitler's numerous assassins, this book presents a fascinating investigation of a number of broader issues, such as the complex motives of the German Resistance, the curious squeamishness of the British, and the effectiveness of the Nazi security apparatus. 
 
Drawing on memoirs and original archival sources in Poland, Germany, Russia and Britain, Killing Hitler offers a unique perspective on the history of the Third Reich.

A Portrait of a Central European City

Microcosm

'A fascinating story' Antony Beevor, Spectator

This big, lucidly written and fact-filled book admirably achieves its purpose... Anyone who enjoyed Norman Davies's...The Isles will recognise the same qualities in this book: a gift for broad exposition, a marvellous eye for quirky but revelatory details, and, above all, a willingness to question the categories of traditional history, wherever they may come from.

Absorbing...clear...and persuasive...as even-handed, erudite and enlightening as history can be.

Microcosm tells the story of the city across the centuries. While not neglecting ethnic hatred and folly, the book is a hymn to diversity and cultural achievement.

The city is fortunate to have found such chroniclers as Davies and Roger Moorhouse.

Norman Davies C. M. G., F. B. A. is a Professor Emeritus of the University of London, a Supernumerary Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford, and the author of several books on Polish and European history, including God's Playground, Europe and The Isles. 
 
Roger Moorhouse, who is a Germanist and historian, was chief researcher on Davies's previous books. Since Microcosm he has published two solo books: Killing Hitler and, most recently, Berlin at War. He is a regular contributor to the BBC History Magazine and History Today, a book reviewer for the Independent on Sunday, and an occasional commentator on television and radio

The story of Central Europe is anything but simple. As the region located between East and West, it has always been endowed with a rich variety of migrants, and has repeatedly been the scene of nomadic invasions, mixed settlements and military conquests. In order to present a portrait of Central Europe, Norman Davies and Roger Moorhouse have made a case study of one of its most colourful cities, the former German Breslau, which became the Polish Wroclaw after the Second World War. 
 
The traditional capital of the province of Silesia rose to prominence a thousand years ago as a trading centre and bishopric in Piast Poland. It became the second city of the kingdom of Bohemia, a major municipality of the Habsburg lands, and then a Residenzstadt of the kingdom of Prussia. The third largest city of nineteenth-century Germany, its population reached one million before the bitter siege by the Soviet Army in 1945 wrought almost total destruction. Since then Wroclaw has risen from the ruins of war and is once again a thriving regional centre. 
 
The history of Silesia's main city is more than a fascinating tale in its own right. It embodies all the experiences which have made Central Europe what it is - a rich mixture of nationalities and cultures; the scene of German settlement and of the reflux of the Slavs; a Jewish presence of exceptional distinction; a turbulent succession of imperial rulers; and the shattering exposure to both Nazis and Stalinists. In short, it is a Central European microcosm.

Roger Moorhouse

The Forgers is a well-constructed and agreeably concise book with a clear narrative drive and fascinating detail ... Moorhouse's most laudable achievement is the light he shines on Lados and his team, who saved at least 2,000 Jews from extermination. Until now, they have not received the recognition they deserve

Among the many remarkable aspects of The Forgers is the fact that the prime movers were Poles, many of whom were notorious for antisemitism ... [Moorhouse] does well to highlight that some Poles displayed admirable compassion.

Roger Moorhouse, the leading historian on Poland's war, publishes a full account of Lados's efforts in an excellent book on the passport ring

Absorbing... It is a story that seems not to have been told much outside the academic literature, and it is deeply researched and well reported here

In this fascinating book, Roger Moorhouse shines a light on extraordinary, audacious and little-known rescue operation

There is much fascinating research in Moorhouse&rsquo;s book

Many inspiring stories have emerged from the horror of the Holocaust. This is one of them. Moorhouse's account of the remarkable humanitarians who gave life to thousands of Jews by providing them with forged South American passports, is as gripping as it is moving

Julia Boyd, author of Travellers in the Third Reich

Every now and again a new story emerges about the Holocaust despite the wealth of literature already available. Roger Moorhouse is to be congratulated for finding the remarkable account of thousands of Jews rescued by the efforts of a determined circle of Polish helpers. Original and thought-provoking, the history of the Lados circle challenges the argument that there was no way for the Allies to rescue Jews from Hitler's Europe. With sufficient will and ingenuity, it was possible, against all the odds, to rescue a fraction of those otherwise doomed to die

This is a powerful story about a group of brave individuals who found a unique way of saving Jewish lives from the Nazis. Moorhouse's original research is characteristically scholarly, his insights illuminating and his narrative gripping. An inspiring read and an important addition to the history of the Holocaust

A powerful and painful book. The Forgers offers new details of the brave efforts of the Polish Underground to rescue Jews. It is heartbreaking when Moorhouse details the bureaucracy and bad intentions of the international community who knowingly turned their backs on these rescue operations. This is an intimate portrait of the cycles of hope and despair that the sadistic ruses and bestial atrocities of the Nazis imposed on concentration camp prisoners

Rosemary Sullivan, author of The Betrayal of Anne Frank

Precise yet heartfelt. The Forgers is an important and harrowing contribution to Holocaust literature. Essential reading

Clare Mulley, author of The Women who Flew for Hitler

The Forgers is an important contribution to the way we understand international responses to the Holocaust. Powerfully told and meticulously researched, Moorhouse's new book outlines the courageous efforts of the Lados Group, a circle of Polish diplomats in Switzerland who provided false documents for thousands of Jews during the Second World War in an attempt to save as many as possible from persecution and death. The Forgers is an astonishing book about one of the most ambitious rescue operations of the Holocaust

Once again Roger Moorhouse has produced an original and thrilling narrative which challenges several of the stereotypes about World War II. A tremendous story.

Norman Davies, author of Vanished Kingdoms

A captivating narrative of heroism and an illuminating account of the international diplomatic response to the Holocaust

As gripping and dramatic&hellip;as any thriller&hellip; The Forgers does a remarkable job of shining a light on this little-known truth

Moorhouse&hellip;is one of today&rsquo;s academic experts on 20th-century Central Europe&hellip; I knew little of the extraordinary story he recounts

The True Story of the Holocaust’s Most Audacious Rescue Operation

Between 1940 and 1943, a group of Polish diplomats in Switzerland engaged in a wholly remarkable - and until now, completely unknown - humanitarian operation. In concert with Jewish activists, they masterminded a systematic programme of forging passports and identity documents for Latin American countries, which were then smuggled into German-occupied Europe to save the lives of thousands of Jews facing extermination in the Holocaust. 
 
While the Nazis unleashed their murderous fury, they retained a strange legalism that respected the citizens and passport holders of neutral countries. At first, these Jews were interned, in relative comfort, to be exchanged for German citizens held in these countries. Yet when it became obvious that the Latin American states were unwilling to honour these illegally issued documents, the 'Exchange Jews' gradually lost the protection that had saved them from the death camps. 
 
With the international community failing to act, the operation was one of the largest actions to aid Jews of the entire war. The Forgers tells this extraordinary story for the first time. We follow the desperate bids of Jews to obtain these life-saving documents; we witness their painful uncertainty over whether they will offer the desired protection, as the Nazi death machine draws ever closer. And we witness the quiet heroism of a group of ordinary men who decided to do something rather than nothing and saved thousands of lives.

Roger Moorhouse

Praise for The Forgers

The Forgers is a well-constructed and agreeably concise book with a clear narrative drive and fascinating detail ... Moorhouse's most laudable achievement is the light he shines on Lados and his team, ...

Among the many remarkable aspects of The Forgers is the fact that the prime movers were Poles, many of whom were notorious for antisemitism ... [Moorhouse] does well to highlight that some Poles displa ...

Roger Moorhouse, the leading historian on Poland's war, publishes a full account of Lados's efforts in an excellent book on the passport ring

The Forgers is a well-constructed and agreeably concise book with a clear narrative drive and fascinating detail ... Moorhouse's most laudable achievement is the light he shines on Lados and his team, ...

Among the many remarkable aspects of The Forgers is the fact that the prime movers were Poles, many of whom were notorious for antisemitism ... [Moorhouse] does well to highlight that some Poles displa ...

Roger Moorhouse, the leading historian on Poland's war, publishes a full account of Lados's efforts in an excellent book on the passport ring

The Forgers is a well-constructed and agreeably concise book with a clear narrative drive and fascinating detail ... Moorhouse's most laudable achievement is the light he shines on Lados and his team, ...

Among the many remarkable aspects of The Forgers is the fact that the prime movers were Poles, many of whom were notorious for antisemitism ... [Moorhouse] does well to highlight that some Poles displa ...

Roger Moorhouse, the leading historian on Poland's war, publishes a full account of Lados's efforts in an excellent book on the passport ring

Books by Roger Moorhouse

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