One Step Ahead; by Avraham Azrieli.

One step ahead, the title, is clear in the context of the holocaust perpetrated with full intention during WWII by the nazi regime across all of occupied Europe, and chiefly in the eastern sector.

This is the story of a family that fled across border to east for reasons not then clear to them, but fleeing the advancing German forces that not only had no compunction firing and bombing aimed at fleeing poor civilians in wagons or on foot, women, children, old or sick, but in all probability were ordered to do so too and used not only infantry and artillery but their vastly modern air force too, for this purpose.

This family fled their home and town Skalat, at the then border of Poland and Ukraine, escaping the death that overtook the hundreds on road alongside, often by inches, and survived this and much more. And it took most of the time span of this escape for them to realise they were fortunate to have left, for no one of their families or friends back home had survived!

Priceless reading, even when one is familiar with the general holocaust picture of events that took place.

Last Train to Istanbul; by Ayşe Kulin.

A general reader not that steeped in history is aware of the general story of WWII as in the broad strokes etched in films and literature generally, which tells more about the west, some about Russian, and very little about how the war affected the smaller nations caught willy nilly in the conflict that killed millions in war and genocide. From Scandinavia to Poland to Central European smaller nations to Balkan theater, people were affected in ways that left little hope or escape for them - and of these the role of Turkey isn't much known. This story fills in some of the gaps, although it uses historic facts to tell about characters not claimed here to be historical. Which is no deterrent to the learning of history of the time and place, and about what people went through.

Turkey had sided with Germany in WWI, and since become a republic; the nation had been broken into over half a dozen parts since, from a claim to landmass covering from central Asia to Egypt and Arabia, to a small rectangle across the straits that divided Asia from Europe. Turkey was desperately trying to retain its dual character then as now, to keep the best of east and west as people saw fit, and too to keep neutral in the war. This last was not that easy, with both sides pressuring her to join them, but neither promising help in actually fighting, in terms of weapons and ammunitions.

The story here is about people navigating the safety of their lives while France is occupied, and the people who had taken residence or citizenship in France for one reason or another having to escape again to Turkey.

For Turkey took the position that she did not discriminate its citizens on basis of faith or race, and must and shall save all she can, despite German insistence about extermination of all Jews.

Turkey had officials in place in France who arranged for a carriage to take such people from Paris to Istanbul, and the tale gravitates towards this event, while relating the personal stories of various characters and the history of Jewish diaspora in Turkey that were refugees from Spain when in 1492 the supposedly just and fair couple, Ferdinand and Isabella, expelled them and ordered them executed if not gone, and furthermore ordered them to liquidate their properties in Spain and leave the money, gold and all else behind.

Turkey had then specifically invited them to come to Turkey, where they lived in peace and prospered, until the turn of century when many relocated to France. They had kept their language, cuisine and so on as they had brought it from Spain, and found a cultural resonance in France. Until the German occupation.

This story is about the train journey of those people, returning from France to Turkey.

For those unaware about the general widespread nature of colourful variety of eyes and hair outside Europe, perhaps there are surprises. For those more aware of the world and that light coloured hair and eyes are not unknown, even relatively less infrequent than thought in Europe or US, through Asia albeit not far east, - not that much surprise in that respect.

End of a Berlin Diary; by William L. Shirer

William Shirer's definitive Rise And Fall of Third Reich was so very well known, so unquestionably acknowledged to be THE book to read on the topic if one were to read just one, that one sort of postponed it when reading other stuff on the topic - after all, the horrors of the second world war, especially the genocide related ones, are precisely what a young person aware of the general history would not go into, for fear of drowning in the then recent past, who knows with what result! So instead one read other books of his, such as Nightmare Years, with unexpected benefits of discovery.

This book, one that a reader picks up naturally after reading his Berlin Diary, is unexpected in a different direction - where one expects him to pick up where he left off his Berlin sojourn in the previous book, and relate the horrors of devastation Germany in general and Berlin in particular went through, which was not trivial at all, he gives that in short too, but much, much more. This too being a diary, one goes with him on his travels as a journalist and reporter while he attend to the important, the very significant events of that year. And that was a lot.

What's more he gives much of the various speeches and documents of importance, from those related to events such as early and unexpected demise of Roosevelt, to the birth of UN and its charter set forth amidst struggles by allies with their conflicting agenda - and these conflicts, as one knows, grew only worse as far as the two powerful nations across the north pole, US and USSR, went.

Shirer, the seasoned and by then cosmopolitan albeit very American, gives an unexpected view in that he sees the various bumbling US personnel as a bit crude, less aware and more impatient to get home, than the patient, suave, knowledgeable counterparts in Europe, particularly USSR. Perhaps this is what earned him the subsequent wrath of his nations' authorities in the McCarthy era, from which he rose with his stupendous definitive work he is known for.

One should count oneself fortunate if one reads this, although it does include some documents horrific - he gives a very small selection of what documents were discovered when allies found the fourteen hundred tons of meticulously documented details of everything nazis had done, decided, and so forth, penned with typical Teutonic thoroughness as Shirer points out.

But even more fortunate one feels is about reading this book not only for its documents quoted but for the comments by its author, the sensitive and intelligent person whose awareness of the world went far beyond his limits of selfish interests - he and a few others such as he (FDR, Upton Sinclair come to mind, among those known generally) guided humanity into the illuminated path of thinking that has been generally acknowledged as the high road since, despite the not quite gone totalitarians including nazis who were not only able to take refuge in various countries around the world but actively sought out by likes of Peron of Argentina and Stroessner of Paraguay, for their preferences lay with the racist and fascist ideology.

Shirer writes about the allies marching in, battling their way into Germany, about death of Roosevelt and the reaction of the then still battling Germans who rejoiced with the impression that they had been granted a reprieve, about the birth of UN and about US insisting - despite USSR opposition - on inclusion of a very fascist Argentina that was an ally of Germany, about Berlin destroyed (and its residents, like other Germans too, upset with their leaders then only about the losing the war, not about having started it or having caused destruction and havoc and genocides that affected others), and about the Nuremberg Trials that - again - the residents of the city and others across Germany then took as theater by victors punishing the losers. About the horrendous facts that came out with documents that showed intention and plans by the nazis, and more.

If only these works by Shirer were prescribed reading for schools, students would graduate and arrive at colleges far better educated than they have for the better part of century past.