Book reviews, books about WW2 Romania

This topic was created to popularize books related to Romania and its participation in WW2. Please post your reviews here.

few of my favorites books...

Attached Image

Horia, you must start by reviewing at least one... of course, we expect you can review them all in due time!:D

Ruy

P.S. Will post a review of an interesting find today.

Here goes something I found in the Eastern European history section of a university library in Porto (I don't know if the book is still available in Romania):

Title: România, Viaţa politică în documente 1945
Author: collective work, coordinated by Ioan SCURTU
Publishing house: Arhivele Statului din România
Local and year of publication: Bucureşti, 1994
ISBN: 973-96198-4-3

Softback, 477 pages; dimensions 24cmx16cm.


I found this book by a mere twist of luck, when I was taking a peer at the Eastern European History section of a local university library. When I asked how they got it, I was informed by one of the library clerks that it was obtained through university exchange. I managed to negotiate a long-term loan in order to get a nice assessment of this work; as an aside note, I must emphasize that Romanian books on XX century history are a relatively rare find in Portuguese and Spanish universities. However, by comparison, it is easier to find academic periodicals on diverse subjects, from archaeology to modern history (eg., the periodical "Analele Universităţii Bucureşti - Istorie").


As its title implies, the book is basically an extensive compilation of 106 original documents dating from 1945, published by the General Directorate of the Romanian State Archives. The selection was made by a team of six researchers (Tudor Bucur, Marin Radu Mocanu, Ioana Alexandra Negreanu, Silvia Popovici, Natalia Tampa and the coordinator himself), and contains Romanian and foreign archive documents, as well as others obtained from other sources.
The book has a tri-lingual – Romanian, English and French - introduction about the pivotal year of 1945, signed by the coordinator, where a short overview of the period is provided. The aims of the work are also established in the same short text: “Efortul principal al autorilor a vizat nu ineditul cu orice preţ, ci prezentarea unei imagini echilibrate, complexe şi reale asupra evoluţiei vieţii politice a ţării, cu principalele sale componente, interne şi externe” (English translation: “The authors major concern lay in offering a comprehensive and real image of the evolution of the country’s political life, including the major domestic and foreign factors that influenced it, rather than presenting novelties for the sake of novelty”).
The documents of American, British and Soviet origin, were (quite rightly so, in my opinion) made available in the original languages. Each document in English or Russian is followed by a Romanian translation.
A very positive point of the book structure is the presence of a complete list of contents, with a short but useful description of each document, preceded by its correlative number and the date in bold scrip (of course, the respective page number is also given). An example:

"1. 1945 ianuarie 6. Sinteză întocmită de lt. col. D. Panaitescu, şeful secţiei a III-a – Armata 1, asupra luptelor desfăşurate de forţele române în Budapesta şi pe teritoriul Cehoslovaciei între 1 şi 6 ianuarie 1945 .........................................................................61"

As an added bonus for those who can’t read Romanian, the contents list is also provided in English and French, in separate pages (Romanian, pp. 5-12; English, pp. 13-20; French, pp. 21-28).
The book has also two handy indexes at the end: one of person’s names (or “indice antroponimic” in Romanian), and also one of geographical names.
All in all, this is a very handy compilation that should appeal to all those interested in the history not only of Romania, but also of Eastern European during the closing stage of World War II and the first moments of uneasy peace that came after the end of hostilities.
As every document compilation, the book looks "dry" to people not used to do historical research, but nevertheless works of this kind are useful tools for both dedicated researchers and enthusiastic amateurs.

Ruy

This post has been edited by Ruy Aballe on April 03, 2005 03:10 pm

Attached Image

An interesting - and today scarce - German pictorial book on the Bessarabia and Crimea Campaigns, published during the war, in 1943.

Hardcover, 240 pages with 392 b/w photos and about 30 drawings, text in German. Size: 9 3/4" x 6 3/4".

Gen. Dénes

Attached Image

Several very interesting old books.

1. A book written by general Dabija about the Polish campaign. It is an incredible objective analisys of this campaign. The author identifies all the factors that led to the quick German victory: the use of massed formations of tanks, the importance of airpower and the role of Stukas, the weaknesses of the Polish army, the wrong Polish tactics, the deficiencies of the Polish defense plan... The book is focused on the airwar.
It is incredible that even in Romania there were people who understood the lessons of the Blitzkrieg while most French and British generals were unable to.



This post has been edited by dragos03 on April 21, 2005 09:38 pm

Now on eBay, a German book about the fights around Iaşi in 1944: Jassy by Walther Rehm.



The description in German (which unfortunately I cannot understand) is:

This post has been edited by Carol I on May 07, 2005 10:36 am

On eBay there is a book which appears to be presenting the German point of view on the events in the summer of 1944 in Romania: Die Katastrophe in Rumänien 1944 by Hans Kissel.



Seller description (in German):

Source: Internet auction

This last book is about Adrian Nastase's father. He decided to waste some state money to publish this expensive book, to make his communist father look like a war hero. It's a shame.

You should see a rwal waste of public money on a "museum " about maps in the center of BuC.!

Let's stick to book reviews and leave museums for other topics.

Some pages from this book:


Source: Internet auction

A Hungarian book has just been published about the military actions in Transylvania, between 1940-1944. The title is 'Erdély a Hadak Útján' (Transylvania on War Path) and was authored by three professional historians, Péter Illésfalvi, Péter Szabó and Norbert Számvéber. The Publisher is Puedlo, located in Budapest.
Reportedly, the book is illustrated by 150 photos and 10 maps.

Since the timeframe is August 1940-October 1944, references to the Rumanian Army should be abundant.

Myself I didn't have the book yet, but when I'll receive it, I'll post here a short note.

Here is the book's cover:


Gen. Dénes

This post has been edited by Dénes on September 28, 2007 06:37 pm

Any project for english edition of the book ?