Nazis
The book as narrator: The Pages, by Hugo Hamilton, reviewed
It is a truism that a book needs readers in order to have a meaningful existence. Hugo Hamilton’s The Pages…
On the run from the Nazis: a Polish family’s protracted ordeal
Writers of memoirs are often praised for their honesty — but how do we know? I found I did believe…
Hitting the buffers: The Passenger, by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz, reviewed
‘They’ll slowly undress us first and then kill us, so our clothes won’t get bloody and our banknotes won’t get…
From family home to mausoleum: the Musée Nissim Camondo
The potter and author Edmund de Waal revisits familiar terrain at an angle in his third book, Letters to Camondo.…
Sleeping with the enemy: the wartime story of ‘La Chatte’
The name ‘Carré’ immediately evokes the shadowy world of espionage. Ironically, however, few people today have heard of the real…
How should we honour the 'angels' of the Holocaust when they're gone?
Yom HaShoa is Israel and the Jewish people’s day of remembrance for the Shoa, or Holocaust. It falls this year…
Gina Carano and the hypocrisy of Hollywood
Godwin’s Law has become a way of life in our polarised political times. Go on social media any given day…
No, Spike Lee: Donald Trump is not like Hitler
I wish people would stop comparing Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler. Not because I’m worried about Trump’s feelings — he’s…
How Hitler’s great gamble nearly paid off
Do we need another wrist-breaking book about Adolf Hitler, the Third Reich and the second world war? Since Ian Kershaw…
The unlikely Schindler who saved my wife’s family
As I gaze at my four children on Christmas morning, clambering on to the bed with their stockings, I will…
The Venus de Marlene
Tanjil Rashid on the legend of Dietrich
The heroic couple who defied Hitler
Philippe Sands on the heroic couple who defied Hitler and paid the ultimate price
Swanky, stale and sullen, the summer music festival has had its day
The summer music festival has had its day, says Norman Lebrecht
From ‘divine Caesar’ to Hitler’s lapdog – the rise and fall of Benito Mussolini
Mussolini dreamed of a new Roman empire and dominion over the Mediterranean. Two decades later he was hanging by his feet in a public square, as Ian Thomson relates
René Dreyfus: the racing driver detested by the Nazis
I have driven a racing car. On television, it looks like a smooth and scientific matter. It is not. A…
One of those films that never seems to end: A Hidden Life reviewed
Terrence Malick’s A Hidden Life is a historical drama based on the true story of Franz Jäggerstätter, an Austrian who…
A museum-quality car-boot sale: V&A’s Cars reviewed
We were looking at a 1956 Fiat Multipla, a charming ergonomic marvel that predicted today’s popular MPVs. Rather grandly, I…
With these documentaries, the BBC has lost any claim to impartiality
Because the rise of the Nazis is a topic so rarely mentioned these days, least of all in schools, the…
The tragic story of Witold Pilecki, whose reports from Auschwitz fell on deaf ears
On 14 October 1942, the 23 Swiss members of the International Committee of the Red Cross met in Geneva to…
A captivating freak-show: Bitter Wheat reviewed
Bitter Wheat, David Mamet’s latest play, features a loathsome Hollywood hotshot, Barney Fein, who offers to turn an actress into…
One of the most astonishing things I’ve ever seen in the theatre: A German Life reviewed
It starts at a secretarial college. The stage is occupied by a dignified elderly lady who recalls her pleasure at…
A stubborn Conservative PM attempting to negotiate with Germany? Not Theresa May but Neville Chamberlain
When lists are compiled of our best and worst prime ministers (before the present incumbent), the two main protagonists of…
Do we really need to read Isaiah Berlin’s every last word?
This is a fascinating example of a small genre, in which the author decides at an early stage in his…
Have wildfires really got worse over the years?
Hard bitten A British tourist died after contracting rabies from a cat bite in Morocco. Whatever happened to the prominent…
The truth about Wilhelm Furtwängler
The morning after the first night of Ronald Harwood’s Taking Sides in May 1995, I received a call from Otto…
