AN UPLIFTING BOOK

I deeply cherish Glenn Kurtz’s THREE MINUTES IN POLAND. Praising this important book, Noble laureate Elie Wiesel said: “It is intensely moving and brilliantly researched, and it reads like a thriller.” In 2009, Glenn found a film his paternal grandparents made of their 1938 trip through Europe. One three-minute section especially arrested his attention, as…

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DAVID MARWELL’S OUTSTANDING BOOK ON MENGELE

This post is about David G. Marwell’s brilliant book  MENGELE: UNMASKING THE “ANGEL OF DEATH”, which you may view on Amazon here. *** Hailed by the New York Times as “a leading American investigator of Nazi war crimes,” Dr. David G. Marwell trained as an historian and then put his training to superb use outside the…

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INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR DEBORAH LIPSTADT

Author and educator Deborah Lipstadt counts among the contemporary public intellectuals I most admire. She is widely-known for her victory in a libel suit filed by Holocaust denier David Irving. Her superb book about that experience, HISTORY ON TRIAL: MY DAY IN COURT WITH A HOLOCAUST DENIER is the basis for the film DENIAL in which…

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LITERARY LIGHT ERIKA DREIFUS

I’m proud and excited to be offering this interview with literary light Erika Dreifus. Reviewing Dreifus’s short story collection QUIET AMERICANS for The Quivering Pen, David Abrams said: “She’s a classic storyteller and there’s a clear, direct line from Isaac Bashevis Singer and Bernard Malamud to her 21st-century keyboard.” I highly recommend following Erika Dreifus…

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Jewish Museum’s Christoph Kreutzmüller

(Christoph Kreutzmüller) Dr. Christoph Kreutzmüller, a German scholar, has done seminal work, creating a database of businesses that were Jewish-owned in Nazi-era Berlin. As I’ve said previously, Christoph’s sleuthing for his book FINAL SALE IN BERLIN, The Destruction of Jewish Commercial Activity, 1930-1945 fills a gap in the record that so frustrated me while I was seeking restitution for…

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AUTHOR’S CORNER: GREG MITCHELL

(NOTE: This post has been updated at the bottom with a sampling of enthusiastic reviews of Greg Mitchell’s THE TUNNELS) Award-winning author Greg Mitchell‘s past books include THE CAMPAIGN OF THE CENTURY, about Upton Sinclair’s gubernatorial race in California, and JOY IN MUDVILLE; A LITTLE-LEAGUE MEMOIR. In this interview, I catch up with Greg, whose…

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Author’s Corner: Ralph Blumenthal

Author Ralph Blumenthal, whose parents were born in Berlin, worked for 45 years for The New York Times, and still contributes to the paper regularly. I am pleased to present my interview of this outstanding writer. 1) Do you remember when you first heard about the Holocaust, and what you thought about it at the…

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NOVELIST GARY HAYNES

Gary Haynes writes terrific thrillers — his past novels include STATE OF HONOUR and STATE OF ATTACK. His upcoming novella is set in part in Berlin during the final days of World War II. I caught up with Gary for this interview. I understand that your next thriller is set partially in Berlin in the final days…

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Luisa Weiss: The Toast of Berlin

Luisa Weiss is the culinary force behind THE WEDNESDAY CHEF. For that blog, she tests recipes from newspapers’ food sections, often published on Wednesdays. Her delightful cuisine-centric memoir MY BERLIN KITCHEN has received rave reviews. Amanda Hesser, cofounder of Food52 and author of THE ESSENTIAL NEW YORK TIMES COOKBOOK , says: “Luisa Weiss writes with grace and ease…

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