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Young Gavrilo Princip arrived at the Vlajnic pastry shop in Sarajevo in Bosnia-Herzegovina on the morning of 28th June 1914. He was greeted by his fellow conspirators in the plot to kill Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The archduke, next in line to succeed as emperor of Austria, was beginning a state visit to Sarajevo later that morning. Ferdinand was not a very popular character - widely thought of as bad-tempered and arrogant and perhaps even deranged. To the young students, he embodied everything they loathed about imperial oppression.

Over the course of just 200 years, the Ottoman Empire grew from a small, obscure Anatolian state into the most powerful Muslim nation in the world, controlling vast swathes of the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and North Africa. Within the empire, science, medicine, technology, and art flourished, and the Ottoman army became one of the most feared and efficient fighting forces in existence. Then came a period of gradual decline.

The poignant, searching, haunting story of one family's entanglement with 20th-century history. Katja Petrowskaja's family story is impossible to untangle from the history of 20th-century Europe. Taking the listener from Moscow to Kiev to Warsaw to Berlin and deep into archives, pieced-together conversations and memories, Maybe Esther is a journey into language, memory, philosophy, history and trauma and a singular, beautiful, unforgettable work of literature.

In examining one of the defining events of the twentieth century, Doris L. Bergen situates the Holocaust in its historical, political, social, cultural, and military contexts. Unlike many other treatments of the Holocaust, this revised, third edition discusses not only the persecution of the Jews, but also other segments of society victimized by the Nazis: Roma, homosexuals, Poles, Soviet POWs, the disabled, and other groups deemed undesirable.

A Promise at Sobibór is the story of Fiszel Bialowitz, a teenaged Polish Jew who escaped the Nazi gas chambers. Between April 1942 and October 1943, about 250,000 Jews from European countries and the Soviet Union were sent to the Nazi death camp at Sobibór in occupied Poland. Sobibór was not a transit camp or work camp: Its sole purpose was efficient mass murder. On October 14, 1943, approximately half of the 650 or so prisoners still alive at Sobibór undertook a daring and precisely planned revolt, killing SS officers and fleeing through minefields and machine-gun fire.

Finally, the truth about vampires.Vampires are the most fearsome and fascinating of all creatures of folklore. For the first time, detailed accounts of the vampire and how its tradition developed in different cultures are gathered in one volume by eminent folklorist Alan Dundes.

Martin Luther's posting of the 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517, is one of the most famous events of Western history. It inaugurated the Protestant Reformation and has for centuries been a powerful and enduring symbol of religious freedom of conscience and of righteous protest against the abuse of power. But did it actually really happen? In this engagingly written, wide-ranging, and insightful work of cultural history, leading Reformation historian Peter Marshall reviews the available evidence and concludes that very probably, it did not.

Die Kriege in der Ukraine und in Nahost sind Symptom einer sich seit Jahrzehnten anbahnenden Zeitenwende: Militärische Konfrontation wird zunehmend wieder als legitimes Mittel zur Fortsetzung der Politik angesehen. Ausgehend von diesem Moment, aber auch vorangegangene Konflikte mit einbeziehend, analysiert Franz-Stefan Gady die konstante Natur des Krieges sowie den sich wandelnden Charakter der Kriegsführung.

Have a richer and more meaningful experience abroad through a better understanding of the local culture. Chapters on history, values, attitudes, and traditions will help you to better understand your hosts, while tips on etiquette and communicating will help you to navigate unfamiliar situations and avoid faux pas.

After losing 25 members of their family in the Holocaust, the author and his parents escape a brutal Communist regime in Czechoslovakia, transforming themselves in a single day from one of their native country’s wealthiest families to stateless refugees with all their assets contained in three suitcases. Young Charlie’s father orders him to speak English without an accent and to become a “100% American.”

Хорватия – страна с долгой и противоречивой историей. В своей книге Патрисия Бартолич рассказывает о событиях, происходивших на территории этого региона, начиная с древних времен и заканчивая XXI веком. Так сложилось, что на территории этой маленькой балканской страны всегда пересекались интересы разных государств, и именно поэтому на протяжении столетий хорватам приходилось бороться за право на независимость и суверенитет.

This biography traces the Holocaust through the eyes of young Nathan Poremba and examines the difficult emotional and physical choices he had to make to survive. His father was murdered by the Nazis before his hometown went under deportation orders, so he made the heart-wrenching decision to flee his home in Southern Poland (Wieliczka) and leave his mother and sisters behind.

Koledzy z Polskiej Armii na Zachodzie mówili o nich „PESTKI” (od Pomocniczej Służby Kobiet). Miłości, przyjaźnie, codzienne kłopoty. PESTKI po wojnie wylądowały w różnych zakątkach globu; w Afryce, w Australii, w Szkocji, Kanadzie i na Podkarpaciu. Losy 19 dzielnych kobiet, które wyrwały się ze Związku Sowieckiego i razem z II Korpusem polskim przeszły cały szlak bojowy. „Byłam jedną z pierwszych ochotniczek wcielonych do Pomocniczej Służby Kobiet. Dostałam mundur. Wreszcie czysta, syta i ubrana w coś innego niż łachmany.

Krystyna Mazurówna jest tak ekscentryczna, że aż archetypiczna. Jej konsekwentne poszukiwanie wolności i radości życia oraz brawurowa fantazja sprawiły, że blisko poznawała najciekawszych mężczyzn, jakich napotykała na swej drodze. A było ich naprawdę wielu – lgnęli do niej z całej Europy niczym opiłki do magnesu, przyciągani jej wrażliwością, odwagą i buntowniczym charakterem. Bo tylko tchórze i mięczaki boją się Krystyny Mazurówny! Dla tych, którzy mają charakter, jest jasne, że spotkanie z nią to wyzwanie i rozkosz dla inteligencji.

La historia de Europa Oriental es una historia de éxitos y fracasos, de intereses contrapuestos, y de ascenso y caída de estados e imperios. Los antiguos imperios griego y romano conocían la importancia de Europa del Este para el comercio y los asentamientos. Más tarde, durante el período Migratorio, también conocido como las «invasiones bárbaras», Europa del Este se convirtió en el terreno de juego de muchos grupos humanos. Los visigodos, los hunos, los eslavos y las tribus turcas de Asia central, como los ávaros y los jázaros, se abrieron paso en Europa Oriental.

The Russian Federation and Ukraine do indeed share a common heritage, but their history and culture led them along divergent paths. Many listeners might be surprised to learn that the historical center of Russia was not Moscow, but Kiev, the capital of modern Ukraine.

Eighteen years have passed since ten countries from Central & Eastern Europe joined the European Union and more than three decades since the Berlin Wall was torn down in 1989—but ignorance about what is popularly still called Eastern Europe is as widespread as ever. Slovenia still gets mixed up with Slovakia, the Slavs remain a mystery in a Europe apparently dominated by Romanic and Germanic nations and a country like the Czech Republic is labelled as Eastern European, although one needs to travel west to get from Vienna to Prague.

Holocaust survivor Harry Gordon recalls in brutal detail the anguished years of his youth, a youth spent struggling to survive in a Lithuanian concentration camp. A memoir about hope and resilience, The Shadow of Death describes the invasion of Kovno by the Red Army and the impact of Soviet occupation from the perspective of the ghetto's weakest and poorest class. It also serves as a reminder that the Germans were not alone responsible for the persecution and extermination of Jews.

Una lectura imprescindible para descifrar los orígenes de la guerra en Ucrania y la frágil situación de Europa del Este.

Decades ago, the historian Bernard Wasserstein set out to uncover the hidden past of the town forty miles west of Lviv where his family, especially his grandfather Berl, originated: Krakowiec (Krah-KOV-yets). In this book he recounts its dramatic and traumatic history. 'I want to observe and understand how some of the great forces that determined the shape of our times affected ordinary people.'