Auschwitz
How Anne Frank’s photograph became as recognisable as the Mona Lisa
To date, the diary, pieced together from Anne’s notebooks, has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, with her story further explored in plays, films and novels
Saved from certain death at Auschwitz – by playing the cello
Exploring the relationship between the cello and its player, Kate Kennedy describes how Anita Lasker-Wallfisch’s musical gift enabled her to survive not just one but two Nazi death camps
Across the wire at Belsen
Hannah Pick-Goslar, a survivor of the Holocaust and Anne’s friend in Amsterdam, movingly describes their snatched conversations in Belsen before Anne disappeared forever
Nazi on the run
Who would have thought that someone would write a novel about Josef Mengele, the Auschwitz doctor and infamous experimenter on…
The horror unfolds
No one had prepared the Allied soldiers, as they began their invasion of the Reich early in 1945, for what…
Does Evil really exist?
A week of remembrance marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz last month had me thinking hard about…
Was the bombing of Dresden a war crime?
A conversation between Sinclair McKay and A.N. Wilson
Evil personified
The atrocities of the concentration camp at Auschwitz–Birkenau are now universally known, but it is still almost beyond belief that…
The power of Sue MacGregor’s The Reunion
The return of Sue MacGregor’s long-running Radio 4 series The Reunion (produced by Eve Streeter) is a welcome reminder of…
Filming the Final Solution
Amid the abundant cinema of Nazi atrocity, Son of Saul is exemplary. Ian Thomson explains why
The house that Alfred built
This is a book about boundaries — and relationships. At its heart is the eponymous house by the lake, which…
The brutal mask of anarchy
In September 1939 Britain went to war against Germany, ostensibly in defence of Poland. One big secret that the British…
Dizzying swirls of impasto
With a career of more than 60 years so far, Frank Auerbach is undoubtedly one of the big beasts of…
The lives of others
‘I call Zelma Cacik who may be living in London,’ says the announcer, in the clipped RP accent of the…
Plumbing the depths of horror
Concentration camps in Nazi Germany were originally set up in 1933 to terrorise Hitler’s political enemies; as war drew near,…
Cry, the beloved country
By 1940 Irène Némirovsky, who had arrived in France at the age of 16 as a refugee from Kiev, had…
Grappling with the impossible subject
‘Everybody could see that this man was not a “monster”, but it was difficult indeed not to suspect that he…
Stealing history
What do you feel when a survivor of Auschwitz tells you their story?
Back to the camps
Confronted by this lavishly endorsed book — ‘compelling’ (David Lodge), ‘gripping’(John le Carré),‘thrilling’ (Jonathan Freedland) — I felt depressed. Two…
