For decades it was thought that the Jews of Europe went like “lambs to the slaughter” during the Holocaust. However, after the spectacular achievements of the Israeli armed forces during the 1967 war, a number of books began appearing which contradicted the idea that the Jewish people made no effort to defend themselves from Nazi persecution. We know today that over 1.5 million Jews served in the various allied forces during World War II. Among them were a number of distinguished generals and officers. Apart from this not inconsiderable number of combatants, who served with distinction, stood the vast numbers of partisans scattered throughout Nazi-occupied Europe. The exact number of partisans shall never be known, but an estimate of 1 million would not be an exaggeration. Fighting Back details the Jewish resistance movement in Poland, and adds many new and exciting details to this intriguing chapter of contemporary history. The author details his personal experiences as a member of one large Jewish partisan group. JB

Publisher: Columbia University
Paperback: 253 pages
Illustrated

This is the first expanded work on Hitler’s speeches offered in the English language, the first of four volumes, which spans the years of Hitler’s career from 1932 to 1945. There is perhaps no contemporary leader who spoke as much or as often as Adolf Hitler, whose utterances, however trivial, were faithfully recorded by devoted disciples. (A massive 30-volume set of Hitler’s speeches, writing and proclamations was published in Germany about 10 years ago.) The material is well-organized, though highly selective, due to the constrictions imposed by the sheer mass of Hitler’s torrents of verbiage. A few insightful quotes from the lips of the Fuehrer: “Lies and slander of positively hair-raising perversity are being launched about Germany. Horror stories of dismembered Jewish corpses, gouged-out eyes, and hacked-off hands are circulated for the purpose of defaming the German Volk in the world for a second time, just as they had succeeded in doing once before in 1918… They lie about Jewish females who have supposedly been killed, about Jewish girls allegedly being raped before the eyes of their parents, about cemeteries being ravaged. The whole thing is one big lie invented for the sole purpose of provoking a new world-war agitation.” JB

Publisher: Bolchazy-Carducci
Hardback: 611 pages

Judenrat is a massive undertaking which purports to raise and answer a number of uncomfortable questions concerning the role of Jews who “collaborated” with the Nazis during World War II, although the author is careful to assign ultimate guilt to the Nazis. The description of the Ghetto Police, who were comprised of Jews, is particularly harrowing: “Horrible stories are told about the Jewish Policemen at the Umschlagplatz. For them the victims were not human beings but heads for which money could be extorted. Ransom could be paid in cash, diamonds, gold, etc. The price of a head ranged from 1,000 to 2,000 zlotys at the beginning, until it grew to 10,000 zlotys per head… The policemen knew no mercy, even in regard to the most respected man. If he could not pay, or if there were no relatives ready to pay, he was shipped off. There were known cases when policemen demanded payment in kind—the flesh of women in addition to cash. The people apprehended… particularly women, put up resistance. All these factors created an unbearable situation for the policemen. They went berserk, committing unspeakable acts.” JB

Publisher: University of Nebraska
Paperback: 700 pages
Illustrated

Lethal Laws takes as its premise the idea that guns have been outlawed so that Jews could be murdered more than any other nationality. Thus, they argue, guns should be legal everywhere. The authors took great pains to reproduce documentation regarding the regulation of firearm sales and ownership in many foreign countries. JB

Publisher: Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership
Paperback: 350 pages
Illustrated

This is a genuinely disturbing book, written by one of the leading Holocaust historians of our time. By narrowing his focus to examining the activities of one Nazi police battalion, the author provides a chilling portrait of men whose humanity is torn from their very souls. This book would seem to have served as the catalyst for Daniel Goldhagen’s controversial book, Hitler’s Willing Executioners. JB

Publisher: Harper Perennial
Paperback: 231 pages
Illustrated

“Dulles told the SS envoy that ‘due to the inflamed state of public opinion in the Anglo-Saxon countries, the U.S. Government would not accept Hitler as a postwar chief of state. But it might be willing to negotiate with a National Socialist Germany led by another powerful Nazi, such as SS Chief Heinrich Himmler.’” In a second meeting, Dulles advised Hohenlohe that the SS should “act more skillfully on the Jewish question” to avoid “causing a big stir.” Obviously, there would be no war-crimes trials for Nazis with Himmler as head of state. And so it goes, from deception to deception, through all those garish little skeletons carefully hidden away in the closet by the government for which thousands of American boys sacrificed their lives in order to make the world “safe for politicians.” Ultimately, the author of The Splendid Blond Beast blames intrigue between international representatives as the major cause of genocide in our century. The book is well-written and meticulously documented, and holds a surprise or two even for those who think they have read it all. JB

Publisher: Common Courage
Paperback: 400 pages

This massive book, laced with rare photos and oblique documents, pursues the Mafia-CIA link and addresses such matters as: Two men named the gunman they say killed Kennedy. Why did the Reagan Justice Department refuse to pursue the matter? Former chief of the CIA’s Western Hemisphere Division believed there was a conspiracy, carried out by “rogue” colleagues in intelligence. The president’s body was surgically altered to conceal evidence of a second gunman. And the author’s ace in the sleeve?—a Cuban woman who has sworn to tell all… and does. JB

Publisher: Marlowe
Paperback: 657 pages
Illustrated

This book offers even the most grizzled devotees of mayhem and mystery more than enough meat to chew on. In this strange twist of events, the focus shifts to Israel’s role in the assassination of JFK. The author walks the reader straight into the domain of Meyer Lansky, Mickey Cohen, and the Mossad, maintaining that Israel and its secret service had a reason to be opposed to JFK; and that Israel’s allies in the mob and the CIA were, in turn, interacting with one another and opposed to JFK; thus these forces were allied together in the JFK conspiracy. JB

Publisher: Liberty Library
Paperback: 352 pages

When the prestigious German magazine Stern approached Riefenstahl on her 75th birthday with an offer to write the story of her life, she refused, remarking that no one but herself was qualified to write her biography. Perhaps she was right. In the 20th century, Riefenstahl stands apart as one of the most gifted and controversial women of our time; gifted because of her obvious talents, and controversial simply because of her association with Adolf Hitler. Not only was Riefenstahl one of the greatest film directors of all time, but her autobiography matches the intensity of this dynamic woman’s personality. JB

Publisher: Quartet
Hardback: 669 pages

The king of raunchy, campy B films, Waters tantalizes the reader with obscure facts about his cast of society’s outcasts. Many of Waters’ characters resemble those one might have found in the O.C. Buck shows, which toured the United States in the ‘50s and ‘60s. If only Waters had met the Alligator Man and the Bearded Lady! Waters’ descriptions read like a bastardized Lamparski’s “What Ever Happened To?” series. Consider the following: “The man with the singing asshole from Pink Flamingos is currently a married computer programmer living in Baltimore… A few years ago, a representative from a Boston rock club called me trying to find the singing asshole to hire him… I called and explained the offer to my old friend, and he was naturally hesitant. “Well, the muscles ain’t what they used to be,” he confided… But after thinking it over, the ‘Garbo of anal openings’ decided to pass.” JB

Publisher: Thunder's Mouth
Paperback: 243 pages
Illustrated