940.53-940.54: World War II in Europe (2023)

The following list contains books, published in the last 5 years, that discuss the European theater of World War II. Works in this list will feature battles, campaigns, and personal narratives set in eastern and western Europe as well as Scandinavia, Russia, and northern Africa between 1941 and 1945.

Updated June 9, 2023
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1

All the frequent troubles of our days : the true story of the American woman at the heart of the German resistance to Hitler
Donner, Rebecca
Paper Book
The INSTANT New York Times Bestseller Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography Winner of the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award  Winner of the Chautauqua Prize Finalist for the Los...

2

Bloodlands : Europe between Hitler and Stalin
Snyder, Timothy.
Paper Book
From the author of the international bestseller On Tyranny, the definitive history of Hitler's and Stalin's politics of mass killing, explaining why Ukraine has been at the center of Western history for the last century. Americans call the Second World...

3

The Correspondents: Six Women Writers on the Front Lines of World War II
Mackrell, Judith
Paper Book
The riveting, untold history of a group of heroic women reporters who revolutionized the narrative of World War II--from Martha Gellhorn, who out-scooped her husband, Ernest Hemingway, to Lee Miller, a Vogue cover model turned war correspondent. "Thrilling from the...

4

D-Day girls : the spies who armed the resistance, sabotaged the Nazis, and helped win World War II
Rose, Sarah
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * The dramatic, untold history of the heroic women recruited by Britain's elite spy agency to help pave the way for Allied victory in World War II "Gripping. Spies, romance, Gestapo thugs, blown-up trains, courage, and...

5

The diary keepers : World War II in the Netherlands, as written by the people who lived through it
Siegal, Nina
Paper Book
A riveting look at the story of World War II and the Holocaust through the diaries of Dutch citizens, firsthand accounts of ordinary people living through extraordinary times  Based on select writings from a collection of more than two thousand Dutch diaries written during World War...

6

Eight days at Yalta : how Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin shaped the post-war world
Preston, Diana
Paper Book
While some of the last battles of WWII were being fought, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin--the so-called "Big Three"--met from February 4-11, 1945, in the Crimean resort town of Yalta. Over eight days of bargaining,...

7

The escape artist : the man who broke out of Auschwitz to warn the world
Freedland, Jonathan
Paper Book
Winner of the National Jewish Book Award · New York Times Bestseller "A brilliant and heart-wrenching book, with universal and timely lessons about the power of information--and misinformation. Is it possible to stop mass murder by telling the truth?" -- Yuval Noah Harari,...

8

Every man a hero : a memoir of D-Day, the first wave at Omaha Beach, and a world at war
Lambert, Ray
Paper Book
The New York Times Bestseller | Winner of the Army Historical Foundation Distinguished Writing Award  Omaha Beach legend Ray Lambert's unforgettable firsthand account of D-Day  "Lambert landed on [Omaha Beach] as a 23-year-old Army medic. ... As...

9

The first wave : the D-Day warriors who led the way to victory in World War II
Kershaw, Alex
Paper Book
Beginning in the pre-dawn darkness of June 6, 1944, The First Wave follows ten men attempting to carry out D-Day's most critical missions. Their actions would determine the fate of the invasion of Hitler's Fortress Europe. The ten make a charismatic, unforgettable cast. They include the first...

10

Ghost riders : when US and German soldiers fought together to save the world's most beautiful horses in the last days of World War II
Felton, Mark
Ebook
It is April 1945 and the world's most prized horses are about to be slaughtered . . . As the Red Army closes in on the Third Reich, a German colonel sends an American intelligence officer an unusual report about a POW camp soon to be overrun by the Soviets. Locked up, the report...

11

The girls who stepped out of line : untold stories of the women who changed the course of World War II
Eder, Mari K.
Paper Book
For fans of Radium Girls and history and WWII buffs, The Girls Who Stepped Out of Line takes you inside the lives and experiences of 15 unknown women heroes from the Greatest Generation, the women who served, fought, struggled, and made things happen during WWII--in and out of uniform--for theirs...

12

In the garden of the righteous : the heroes who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust
Hurowitz, Richard
Paper Book
"In the Garden of the Righteous brilliantly describes how in the midst of the brutality of the Holocaust and the collaboration, acquiescence and passivity of millions, there were people who risked their lives to save others out of a sense of shared humanity. This book is more timely...

13

The island of extraordinary captives : a painter, a poet, an heiress, and a spy in a World War II British internment camp
Parkin, Simon
Paper Book
The "riveting...truly shocking" (The New York Times Book Review) story of a Jewish orphan who fled Nazi Germany for London, only to be arrested and sent to a British internment camp for suspected foreign agents on the Isle of Man, alongside a renowned group of refugee musicians,...

14

Last call at the Hotel Imperial : the reporters who took on a world at war
Cohen, Deborah
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE MARK LYNTON HISTORY PRIZE * A prize-winning historian's "effervescent" (The New Yorker) account of a close-knit band of wildly famous American reporters who, in the run-up to World War II, took on dictators and rewrote the rules of modern journalism ...

15

The last hill : the epic story of a ranger battalion and the battle that defined WWII
Drury, Bob
Paper Book
Bob Drury and Tom Clavin's The Last Hill is the incredible untold story of one Ranger battalion's heroism and courage in World War II. They were known as "Rudder's Rangers," the most elite and experienced attack unit in the United States Army. In December 1944, Lt. Col....

16

The liberation of Paris : how Eisenhower, de Gaulle, and von Choltitz saved the City of Light
Smith, Jean Edward
Paper Book
Prize-winning and bestselling historian Jean Edward Smith tells the "rousing" (Jay Winik, author of 1944) story of the liberation of Paris during World War II--a triumph achieved only through the remarkable efforts of Americans, French, and Germans, racing to save the city from destruction...

17

The Nazi conspiracy : the secret plot to kill Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill
Meltzer, Brad
Paper Book
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "An absolute home run! You will never look at WWII the same way again." --Brad Thor, #1 bestselling author "Meltzer and Mensch are masters." --Jon Meacham, author The Soul of America "A...

18

Operation Pedestal: The Fleet That Battled to Malta, 1942 [Large Print]
Hastings, Max
Paper Book

19

Poland 1939 : the outbreak of World War II
Moorhouse, Roger
Paper Book
A "chilling" and "expertly" written history of the 1939 September Campaign and the onset of World War II (Times of London). For Americans, World War II began in December of 1941, with the bombing of Pearl Harbor; but for Poland, the war...

20

The pope at war : the secret history of Pius XII, Mussolini, and Hitler
Kertzer, David I.
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * "The most important book ever written about the Catholic Church and its conduct during World War II."--Daniel Silva "Kertzer brings all of his usual detective and narrative skills to [The Pope at War] . . . the most comprehensive account...

21

The princess spy : the true story of World War II spy Aline Griffith, Countess of Romanones
Loftis, Larry
Paper Book
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES, WALL STREET JOURNAL, AND USA TODAY BESTSELLER "As exciting as any spy novel" (Daily News, New York), The Princess Spy follows the hidden history of an ordinary American girl who became one of the OSS's most daring...

22

Prisoners of the castle : an epic story of survival and escape from Colditz, the Nazis' fortress prison
Macintyre, Ben
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The "entertaining [and] often-moving account" (The Wall Street Journal) of the remarkable POWs whose relentlessly creative attempts to escape a notorious Nazi prison embodied the spirit of resistance against fascism, from the author of The Spy and...

23

The ravine : a family, a photograph, a Holocaust massacre revealed
Lower, Wendy
Paper Book
Winner, 2022 National Jewish Book Award Shortlist, 2022 Wingate Literary Prize A single photograph--an exceptionally rare "action shot" documenting the horrific final moment of the murder of a family--drives a riveting process of discovery for a gifted Holocaust scholar ...

24

Resistance : the underground war against Hitler, 1939-1945
Kochanski, Halik
Paper Book
"To resist, therefore. But how, when and where? There were no laws, no guidelines, no precedents to show the way . . ." --Dutch resister Herman Friedhoff In every country that fell to the Third Reich during the Second World War, from France in the west to parts of the Soviet Union in the...

25

Sicily '43 : the first assault on fortress Europe
Holland, James
Paper Book
A major new history of one of World War II's most crucial campaigns--the first Allied attack on European soil--by the acclaimed author of Normandy '44 and a rising star in military history On July 10, 1943, the largest amphibious invasion ever mounted took place, larger even...

26

Spearhead : an American tank gunner, his enemy, and a collision of lives in World War II
Makos, Adam
Paper Book
THE NEW YORK TIMES, WALL STREET JOURNAL, LOS ANGELES TIMES, AND USA TODAY BESTSELLER  "A band of brothers in an American tank . . . Makos drops the reader back into the Pershing's turret and dials up a battle scene to rival the peak moments of...

27

Three days at the brink : FDR's daring gamble to win World War II
Baier, Bret
Paper Book
The Instant New York Times Bestseller "I could not put this extraordinary book down. Three Days at the Brink is a masterpiece: elegantly written, brilliantly conceived, and impeccably researched. This book not only sparkles but is destined to be a classic!" --Jay Winik,...

28

Three ordinary girls : the remarkable story of three Dutch teenagers who became spies, saboteurs, Nazi assassins--and WWII heroes
Brady, Tim
Paper Book
Recruited as teenagers, Hannie Schaft, and Dutch sisters Truus and Freddie Oversteegen fulfilled their harrowing missions as spies, saboteurs, and Nazi assassins with remarkable courage, but their stories have remained largely unknown. Smart, fiercely political, devoted solely to the cause, Hannie,...

29

The winter army : the World War II odyssey of the 10th Mountain Division, America's elite alpine warriors
Isserman, Maurice
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE INTERNATIONAL SKIING HISTORY ASSOCIATION'S ULLR AWARD, the epic story of the US Army's 10th Mountain Division, whose elite soldiers broke the last line of German defenses in Italy's mountains in 1945, spearheading the Allied advance to the Alps and final victory. ...

30

X troop : the secret Jewish commandos of World War Two
Garrett, Leah
Paper Book
WALL STREET JOURNAL BOOK OF THE MONTH "This is the incredible World War II saga of the German-Jewish commandos who fought in Britain's most secretive special-forces unit--but whose story has gone untold until now." --Wall Street Journal "Brilliantly researched,...

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