State prisons played an indispensable part in the terror of the Third Reich, incarcerating many hundreds of thousands of men and women during the Nazi era. This important book illuminates the previously unknown world of Nazi prisons, their victims, and the judicial and penal officials who built and operated this system of brutal legal terror. Nikolaus Wachsmann describes the operation and function of legal terror in the Third Reich and brings Nazi prisons to life through the harrowing stories of individual inmates. Drawing on a vast array of archival materials, he traces the series of changes in prison policies and practice that led eventually to racial terror, brutal violence, slave labor, starvation, and mass killings. Wachsmann demonstrates that "ordinary" legal officials were ready collaborators who helped to turn courts and prisons into key components in the Nazi web of terror. And he concludes with a discussion of the whitewash of the Nazi legal system in postwar West Germany.

Coauthor Erich Friedrich won the Iron Cross fighting the Soviets. But when he refused to give the Nazi salute and criticized Hermann Göring, he was charged with subversion and thrown into a cell. With him were a suspected spy, two accused deserters, a Jehovah's Witness, a draft dodger, and a leftist. To try to push back the terror of the unknown, each man took a turn telling why he was awaiting torture and possibly death. Friedrich vowed to remember their remarkable stories forever.

State prisons played an indispensable part in the terror of the Third Reich, incarcerating many hundreds of thousands of men and women during the Nazi era. This important book illuminates the previously unknown world of Nazi prisons, their victims, and the judicial and penal officials who built and operated this system of brutal legal terror. Nikolaus Wachsmann describes the operation and function of legal terror in the Third Reich and brings Nazi prisons to life through the harrowing stories of individual inmates. Drawing on a vast array of archival materials, he traces the series of changes in prison policies and practice that led eventually to racial terror, brutal violence, slave labor, starvation, and mass killings. Wachsmann demonstrates that “ordinary” legal officials were ready collaborators who helped to turn courts and prisons into key components in the Nazi web of terror. And he concludes with a discussion of the whitewash of the Nazi legal system in postwar West Germany.

A rare look at Hitler's "other victims" - non-Jewish Germans caught in the trap of Nazi terror

-- Mein Kampf. Until now, no one has fully examined this single and pivotal period of Hitler's life. In 1924, Peter Ross Range richly depicts the stories and scenes of a year vital to understanding the man and the brutality he wrought in a war that changed the world forever.

Philip Kaplan presents us here with a riveting account of the Allied experience behind enemy lines, detailing the trials and tribulations experienced by the British and American airmen who were shot down in European skies during World War Two, to be incarcerated 'behind the wire' in enemy camps. With eloquence and a clear enthusiasm for the subject at hand, the author describes how various individuals adjusted to their incarceration. Whilst some set their minds resolutely on escape, and dreamt up plots and plans to achieve this end, others retreated, away from their comrades and into themselves as the grim reality of their predicament pushed them ever deeper into debilitating depression. Others were determined that they would not waste their time; affected by the quick and brutal deaths they had witnessed during their wartime careers, they were unwilling to sit idle. Theatres, recreational areas, and other camp facilities were designed and built a creative spur that made their time behind the wire, and the quality of life of their fellow comrades, infinitely more bearable. These small acts of enterprising heroism, alongside the harrowing tales of those who crumpled under the weight of their prison reality, combine to create a complete picture of this collective experience. Kaplan's skill lies in informing the reader of the facts of this history with both honesty and reverence.

With firsthand sources and archeological research, this study explores life inside Nazi prisons during the occupation of the Channel Islands. Through most of the Second World War, Nazis occupied the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey, two British Crown dependencies in the English Channel. With extensive research, archeologist Gilly Carr has uncovered the enduring legacies of this occupation. In Nazi Prisons in Britain, she shines a light on the lives of citizen resisters who became political prisoners on their own soil. Carr explores political prisoner consciousness and solidarity through the letters of the “Jersey 21” and the diaries of Frank Falla, Guernsey’s best-known resister. Drawing on memoirs, poetry, graffiti, official archives, and material culture—as well as the words of war criminals, traitors, surrealist artists, and many others—she reveals what life was like inside these brutal Nazi prisons.