Tripped

If you had asked me, I couldn't have told you what connection, if any, psychedelic drugs like LSD had with WWII. Ohler's research connects the dots. 

Spy

Did she really know what she was signing up for when she accepted a position as a spy in Nazi-occupied France during WWII??? 

Code Name Madeleline by Arthur J. Magida

Passive Resistance

Magida reports a fascinating dialog that took place between Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Buber over the effectiveness or the ineffectiveness of passive resistance in the case of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. Noor Inayat Kahn, the daughter of a Sufi mystic herself and inclined toward non-violence, nonetheless seemed persuaded that some kind of active resistance was required.

Nonfiction

Picked up another couple of books at my local library—Norman Ohler’s Tripped and Arthur J. Magida’s Code Name Madeleine.

Midred Harnack

Finished reading Rebecca Donner's All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days. A very interesting follow-up to Erik Larson's The Demon of Unrest. 

Diaries

I really appreciate seeing these snippets of handwriting from various diaries in Rebecca Donner's book.

Bonhoeffer

"Dietrich Bonhoeffer is inside the Castle Church in Wittenberg listening to Bishop Müller blabber on about the glories of Hitler." - Rebecca Donner

All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days

Spotted this in my local bookstore and wondered if I might also find it in my public library. Huzzah! It was there and, better yet, available, perhaps because it was first published in 2021. 

Private Ron Beal

I really appreciate how David O'Keefe concluded his book, One Day in August, with Private Ron Beal of the Royal Regiment of Canada "In 2012, after the real reasons for the Dieppe Raid were revealed to him, he said: 'Now I can die in peace. Now I know what my friends died for.'"

Declassified Records

Still eagerly waiting to see the full extent of what declassified records say about what actually happened at Dieppe in O'Keefe's account.

Braude & Gara

Another trek to the library, this time to pick up Mark Braude's just recently released book and, while I was there, Larry Gara's biography of Franklin Pierce, first published way back in 1991.

Order of Battle

 So what went wrong? I guess I'll only find out by reading further in O'Keefe's "One Day in August".

Dieppe

Alan Brooke, Chief of the Imperial General Staff: "Little did I ever think in the old days of my regular journeys of Newhaven-Dieppe, that I should have been planning as I was this morning!" - O'Keefe, One Day in August

"Red" Ryder

"Robert Ryder was a rare character in the annals of military and naval history . . . resolute, determined and courageous in battle as he was reserved, humble and self-effacing in its afterglow." -- O'Keefe, One Day in August 

Secrets

There have been reports lately that British intelligence officials maybe don't trust their American counterparts to keep secrets. Well, according to David O'Keefe's "One Day in August", there has actually been a long history of such mistrust, dating as far back to at least WWII.