Walls is the story of how a young German woman, acting alone with the cooperation of a handful of other individuals in wartime Germany, brought sustenance and hope to thousands of political prisoners of the Third Reich. “When so many of us seem crippled by the numbness we see in our own society, Walls reminds us of the power of individual conscience.” — The Nation “I want my friends to read this book. I want to fix them with a glittering eye, à la Ancient Mariner, and force them to sit down and start reading. How else can they learn that a book about wartime Germany and concentration camp horror can be enthralling, inspiring and even possess charm.” — Pamela Marsh, Christian Science Monitor “The autobiography of Hiltgunt Zassenhaus pierced through the malaise and oppressive apathy of our society to affect me more profoundly than I recall a book ever having done before.” — Genesis II “The suspenseful and dramatic story of one courageous woman’s bold deception of the Gestapo.” — Book-of-the-Month Club News “This book releases its own inspiriting energies. In times that call for courage, ever more courage, Walls will remind any human heart of its own worst dangers and its best possibilities.” — National Catholic News Service “... set down in cool reflection but charged with inescapable emotion...” — The New Yorker

Resisting the Third Reich-One Woman's StoryNew Foreword by Katherine PatersonBest Book of the Year--American Literary AssociationAn enthralling and inspiring account of one woman's experience in wartime Germany.

This is a classic, standard resource for collection building and on-the-spot readers advisory absolutely indispensable for school and public libraries.

Combines creative activities with a comprehensive list of biographies written for children. Organized by age group: pre-school (ages 3-5), primary (6-8), intermediate (9-11), and young people (12-14).

Judge Robert P. Patterson resigned from the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York City in 1940 to join the War Department to help prepare the country for a war he knew was coming. As Under Secretary of War he was responsible under Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson for industrial mobilization and procurement for the army and the army air force. The study documents Patterson’s extraordinary and largely unrecognized contributions to the war effort, recounts how the federal government transformed itself for war and converted a vast market-oriented economy into an effective war machine, and documents numerous issues about the evolution of civil-military relations during the emergency. Patterson emerges as a self-effacing public servant of unusual ability and character. “This splendid biography does belated justice to one of the unsung heroes of the Second World War. Robert P. Patterson, a quiet man of commanding ability and sturdy purpose, played a key role in the mobilization of American men and resources that made victory possible. Mobilizing America illuminates both the integrity of the man and the complexity of his achievement.” — Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. “In Mobilizing America, Keith E. Eiler... makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the mobilization by describing the contributions of Robert P. Patterson, a heretofore neglected yet pivotal figure in making President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s vision of America as the Arsenal of Democracy into a reality... Mobilizing America is a worthy work of scholarship. Gracefully written... it deftly examines Patterson’s style and numerous issues of wartime policy and reminds us that a ‘purposeful’ individual can make a difference in a vast national endeavor.” —The Journal of Military History “Students of the Second World War, even professional military officers, are often woefully uninformed about the vast and complex war effort waged on the home front to provide the supplies, trained manpower, and munitions necessary to ultimate victory. Keith Eiler has found a way to portray this mobilization effort vividly by telling the story through the eyes of Undersecretary of War Robert P. Patterson, a modest but dynamic man whose contributions, in the author’s words, were ‘comparable only to those of the army’s chief of staff, General George C. Marshall, and of the president himself.’ I recommend this book to anyone seeking to attain a full understanding of the entire United States war effort.” — John S. D. Eisenhower “As a study of the domestic economy during WWII, this book is unparalleled.” — Choice “Eiler has written a comprehensive account of Patterson’s Herculean efforts (largely unrecognized then or later), which were so essential for the final victory. Patterson emerges as a patriot and ideal public servant.” — Library Journal “This account of the career of one of the 20th century’s great public servants... is a dramatic story, ably narrated and documented, about a side of World War II — the domestic war against entrenched bureaucracy — in which Patterson played an heroic role.” — Washington Times “[A] detailed, well-researched book.” —The Journal of American History

This new hardcover edition of Odd Nansen's diary, the first in over sixty-five years, contains extensive annotations and other material not found in any other hardcover or paperback versions. Nansen, a Norwegian, was arrested in 1942 by the Nazis, and spent the remainder of World War II in concentration camps--Grini in Oslo, Veidal above the Arctic Circle, and Sachsenhausen in Germany. For three and a half years, Nansen kept a secret diary on tissue-paper-thin pages later smuggled out by various means, including inside the prisoners' hollowed-out breadboards. Unlike writers of retrospective Holocaust memoirs, Nansen recorded the mundane and horrific details of camp life as they happened, "from day to day." With an unsparing eye, Nansen described the casual brutality and random terror that was the fate of a camp prisoner. His entries reveal his constantly frustrated hopes for an early end to the war, his longing for his wife and children, his horror at the especially barbaric treatment reserved for Jews, and his disgust at the anti-Semitism of some of his fellow Norwegians. Nansen often confronted his German jailors with unusual outspokenness and sometimes with a sense of humor and absurdity that was not appreciated by his captors. After the Putnam's edition received rave reviews in 1949, the book fell into obscurity. In 1956, in response to a poll about the "most undeservedly neglected" book of the preceding quarter-century, Carl Sandburg singled out From Day to Day, calling it "an epic narrative," which took "its place among the great affirmations of the power of the human spirit to rise above terror, torture, and death." Indeed, Nansen witnessed all the horrors of the camps, yet still saw hope for the future. He sought reconciliation with the German people, even donating the proceeds of the German edition of his book to German refugee relief work. Nansen was following in the footsteps of his father, Fridtjof, an Arctic explorer and humanitarian who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922 for his work on behalf of World War I refugees. (Fridtjof also created the "Nansen passport" for stateless persons.) Forty sketches of camp life and death by Nansen, an architect and talented draftsman, provide a sense of immediacy and acute observation matched by the diary entries. The preface is written by Thomas Buergenthal, who was "Tommy," the ten-year-old survivor of the Auschwitz Death March, whom Nansen met at Sachsenhausen and saved using his extra food rations. Buergenthal, author of A Lucky Child, formerly served as a judge on the International Court of Justice at The Hague and is a recipient of the 2015 Elie Wiesel Award from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.