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As far as possible, the women saved each other.

(Magdeburg camp, 1944)

"an insane feminist and pioneer of the "liberation" movement and equality of women', the report continued. 'A hysterical woman'.*" '

Got to love the lack of self-censorship in pre-Freedom of Information civil servants' memos.

Zo usually returned from Germany [to Poland] within a few days, bringing back her observations on changing travel regulations, rationing and morale... After one Berlin air raid, Zo was asked to walk around the city and later discreetly mark up a map to help assess the accuracy of the campaign.

'The English know almost everything about the results of their attacks on Germany', Joseph Goebbels... sullenly complained to his diary."

I finally finished this massive tome. I‘ve neglected learning much about WW2 over my lifetime, so this was quite the journey through history, but well worth it. I realize that some modern academic historians are critical of Shirer‘s work in that as a journalist, they view him as an amateur who failed to research and analyze in a rigorous manner. I‘m in no position to weigh in on that, but I can confess that I did enjoy this book quite a bit.

During the Great War the Dutch dancer Margaretha Zelle, better known as Mata Hari, had lodged the idea of femme fatale spies in some romantic minds Although women serving in the resistance deployed whatever skills and resources they had, their distinguishing superpower was not, in fact, irresistible sexual allure, but simply their ability to be consistently overlooked and underestimated.

I knew about some of the efforts to keep the public fit in WWII, but not the experimental basis behind them, and not all of the stuff discussed here. I found this very readable and interesting.

Warning: if you're phobic about insects (or at least biting ones), be careful. There's a whole chapter on them, and I definitely had some intrusive thoughts and a nightmare because of it.

Enjoying the quiet morning as everyone adjusts to the time change.

This was one of the books from the #WPNF25 list I was most excited for and it did not disappoint. It‘s a banger of a book, detailing the life of Polish resistance fighter Elzbieta Zawacka in WWII and beyond. She was a remarkable woman. If you love historical fiction but are wary of NF, give this one a try.

This book looks at the incarceration of Japanese-Americans during WWII from the focus of a group of boys/young men who played football in one of the camps. It does a great job of showing the situation Japanese-American citizens were in but the football parts are a bit dull (and I like the game), so I‘m glad there was actually less of that than I was expecting.

My February stats. Proud Shoes was the highest ranked, but the tagged book is so important right now.