Showing results for "oconnor" in World War II & Holocaust

It is 1938 and for Manod, a young woman living on a remote island off the coast of Wales, the world looks ready to end just as she is trying to imagine a future for herself. The ominous appearance of a beached whale on the island's shore, and rumours of submarines circling beneath the waves, have villagers steeling themselves for what’s to come. Empty houses remind them of the men taken by the Great War, and of the difficulty of building a life in the island's harsh, salt-stung landscape.

September 1943: German forces occupy Rome. SS officer Paul Hauptmann rules with terror. The war's outcome is far from certain. An Irish priest, Hugh O'Flaherty, dedicates himself to helping those escaping from the Nazis. His home is Vatican City, the world's smallest state, a neutral, independent country within Rome where the occupiers hold no sway. Here Hugh brings together an unlikely band of friends to hide the vulnerable under the noses of the enemy. But Hauptmann's net begins closing in on the Escape Line and the need for a terrifyingly audacious mission grows critical.

Despite a fatherhood deferment, thirty-year-old dance instructor Jim Tanzer enlists in the Army in 1943. He expects to serve his country by fighting, but the former dance instructor is assigned to the morale unit. His squad includes Private Mickey Rooney — the Hollywood star who traded the silver screen for fatigues. They crisscross war-torn Europe in Jeeps, performing in combat zones where the USO dared not go. They put on small, spirited variety revues — Jeep shows — for frontline troops desperate for both diversion and camaraderie.