Because of the grand scale of the conflict, there have been many books written about the Second World War, including both fact and fiction. The different aspects of the war, such as the battles, ideologies of the Nazis, events of the Holocaust, and effects on various cultures/countries, have meant that books about the War have a range of topics, and a selection of books are listed below.
Factual books about World War Two:
History of the Second World War. B. H. Liddell Hart, 2011.
The Second World War. Anthony Beever, 2011.
Third Reich Series. Richard J. Evans, 2005-12.
All Hell Let Loose: the World at War 1939-1945. Max Hastings, 2011.
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. William Shirer, 2011.
Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust. Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, 1997.
The Origins of the Second World War. A. J. P. Taylor, 2001.
The Eagle Unbowed: Poland and the Poles in the Second World War. Halik Kochanski, 2012.
France: The Dark Years 1940-1944. Julian Jackson, 2001.
The Holocaust. Martin Gilbert, 1989.
- Orderly and Humane: The Expulsion of the Germans after the Second World War. R.m. Douglas, 2013.
- The ‘Hitler Myth’: Image and Reality in the Third Reich. Ian Kershaw, 2001.
- The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation. Ian Kershaw, 2000.
Why the Allies \won. Richard Overy, 2012.
- The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide. Robert Jay Lifton, 1988.
- Jewels and Jackboots: Hitler’s British Isles, the German Occupation of the British Channel Islands 1940 – 1945. Nettles, John, 2013.
Autobiographies / Memoirs:
The Diary of a Young Girl. Anne Frank.
The Forgotten Highlander: My Incredible Story of Survival during the War in the Far East. Alistair Urquhart, 2010.
Gardens of Stone: My Boyhood in the French Resistance. Stephen Grady, 2013.
Eyewitness Auschwitz: Three Years in the Gas Chamber. Filip Muller, 1999.
Defeat Into Victory. William Slim, 2012.
Five Chimneys: A Woman Survivor’s True Story of Auscwitz. Olga Lengyel, 1995.
Für Volk and Führer. The Memoir of a Veteran of the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler. Erwin Bartmann, 2013.
Outwitting the Gestapo. Lucie Aubrac, 1993.
- The Pianist: The Extraordinary Story of One Man’s Survival in Warsaw, 1939-45. Wladyslaw Szpilman , 1998.
- Notes of a Russian Sniper: Vassili Zaitsev and the Battle of Stalingrad. Vassili Zaitsev, 2010.
- The Second World War. Winston Churchill.
With the Old Breed: at Peleliu and Okinawa. Eugene Sledge, 1981.
Fictional books about World War Two:
Alone in Berlin. Hans Fallada, 2010.
Atonement. Ian McEwan, 2001.
The Reader. Bernhard Schlink, 1995.
The Tin Drum. Günter Grass, 1959.
Schindler’s Ark. Thomas Keneally, 1982.
Goodbye to Berlin. Christopher Isherwood, 1939.
Men at Arms. Evelyn Waugh, 1952.
The Book Thief. Markus Zusak, 2007.
The Bridge over the River Kwai. Pierre Boulle, 1954.
From Here to Eternity. James Jones, 1951.
The Good Shepherd. C. S. Forester, 1955.
Slaughterhouse Five. Kurt Vonnegut Jr., 1969.
Two Brothers. Ben Elton, 2013.
The True Story of Hansel and Gretal. Louise Murphey, 2003.
A Thread of Grace. Mary Doria Russell, 2005.
If Not Now, When? Primo Levi, 1982.
Fictional books for children:
Milkweed. Jerry Spinelli, 2003.
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit. Judith Kerr, 1971.
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. John Boyne, 2004.
Carrie’s War. Nina Bawden, 1973.
Goodnight, Mr Tom. Michelle Magorian, 1981.
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