Bernard Wasserstein Book order

"The revelatory history of Krakowiec - 'a little place you've never heard of ' - through which we see life in Eastern Europe as never before. Decades ago, the historian Bernard Wasserstein set out to uncover the hidden past of the town forty miles west of Lviv where his family 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.' The result is an exceptional, often moving book. Wasserstein traces the arc of history across centuries of religious and political conflict, as armies of Cossacks, Turks, Swedes, and Muscovites rampaged through the region. In the age of enlightenment, the Polish magnate Ignacy Cetner built his palace at Krakowiec and, with his vivacious daughter, Princess Anna, created an arcadia of refinement and serenity. Under the Habsburg emperors after 1772, Krakowiec developed into a typical shtetl, with a jostling population of Poles, Ukrainians, and Jews. In 1914, disaster struck. 'Seven years of terror and carnage' left a legacy of ferocious national antagonisms. During the Second World War the Jews were murdered in circumstances harrowingly described by Wasserstein. After the war the Poles were expelled and the town dwindled into a border outpost. Today, the storm of history once again flows through Krakowiec as hordes of refugees flee for their lives from Ukraine to Poland. At the beginning and end of the book we encounter Wasserstein's own family, especially his grandfather Berl. In their lives and the many others Wasserstein has rediscovered, the people of Krakowiec become a prism through which we can feel the shocking immediacy of history. Original in conception and brilliantly achieved, Krakowiec is a masterpiece of recovery and insight"--Publisher's description

Working with the Nazi-appointed Jewish Council in Amsterdam, Gertrude van Tijn helped many Jews escape. But she faced difficult moral choices. Some called her a heroine; others, a collaborator. Bernard Wasserstein's haunting narrative draws readers into this twilight world, to expose the terrible dilemmas confronting Jews under Nazi occupation

Bernard Wasserstein presents a disturbing interpretation of the collapse of European Jewish civilisation even before the Nazi onslaught. He shows how the harsh realities of the age devastated the lives of communities and individuals.

On the Eve is the portrait of a world on the brink of annihilation. In this provocative book, Bernard Wasserstein presents a new and disturbing interpretation of the collapse of European Jewish civilization even before the Nazi onslaught.

A vibrant new history of twentieth-century Europe - covering everything from war and politics to social, cultural, and economic developments in a period of convulsive and dramatic change.

The paradise of adventurers, Shanghai during World War II was suffused with dangerous glamour. Cutthroats and con-men jostled for advantage as secret agents of the great powers waged a sinister struggle for power. In this classic account, Bernard Wasserstein draws on the files of the Shanghai Police as well as other intelligence archives, to provide the definitive story of Shanghais secret war.