Gerry Van Tonder

The summary of this title states that this book intends to tell the story of Coventry’s blitz through a series of ‘ghost’ photographs, where historic wartime images are blended with their modern counterpart to create a fascinating window into Coventry’s past. It is appropriate to start this review by focusing on the photographs used. The author has taken pictures taken during the war, and merged them or overlaid them with contemporary images. The result is series of photographs that I have not seen before, presented in a way I have not seen before. Usually, authors tend to use a then and a now photograph alongside each other, a format I am comfortable with. While the photographs in this book are a clever use of modern technology, personally, I do not like the outcome. This is not to say it is wrong, and that other may not like the photographs, but I prefer the separate then and now format.

It is shame about the photographs, but that should not distract the reader from the text in the book. There are six chapters, preceded by a useful timeline. The first chapter examines ‘Why Coventry’, and charts the industrial heritage of this city. Being a local historian, this provides an interesting overview of nature of industry in the city, its links to the war economy, and why the city was targeted by the German air force during the Second World War. The second chapter looks at the nature and strength of the German air force attacking the U.K. in the period from 1939 until 1943. Chapter 3 is called ‘Prelude’ and describes the early air raids. The fourth chapter covers the main raid, codenamed ‘Moonlight Sonata’, that occurred in November 1940. The next chapter deals with another raid in April 1941, and the last chapter charts the redevelopment of the city after the Second World War.

All six chapters include personal stories of those people caught up in the various attacks, and are a powerful testament to the indiscriminate effect of bombing of towns and cities in war time. The use of area bombing by all the main nations involved in the Second World War remains a controversial issue. This book does not touch on the political aspects, but provides a very useful commentary on the subject in relation to one city, and the people who lived and worked there. Two websites that complement this book, and readers may find interesting are:
https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/blitz/blitz.php?pg=blitz
https://www.familyresearcher.co.uk/Blitz-Victims/Coventry-Blitz-Resource-Centre....… (mais)

Einsatzgruppen – A reminder of evil

Gerry Van Tonder has written and researched a comprehensive but short history of the Einsatzgruppen, the Nazi Death Squads. While it may say 1939 – 1945, but this also gives a time line that covers the period when the Gestapo were established and placed above the law to the final actions.

In Eastern Europe, between 1941 and 1945, just the mention of the Einsatzgruppen sent chills down the spine. In that period, they murdered more than 2 million people at a conservative estimate, they killed Jew and Slav. It is said they killed 1.3 million Jews, personally I think that it may be a higher number than that. They not only killed people over death pits across, but in situ, they did not care.

When people think of the holocaust, they think of Auschwitz and the death chambers and the showers of death. The Einsatzgruppen were up close and personal, their tools of death, was the rifle, pistol and machine gun. It is the only time I can honestly say I am glad my Great-Grandmother was arrested and exiled by the Soviets in 1940. I say this as she lived, in Eastern Poland, between Lwow and Tarnopol which were two major massacre sites of the Einsatzgruppen.

This is an excellent book, Van Tonder has been able to use recently declassified wartime memoirs as well as the many sources that have been in the ‘public’ sphere since 1945. This is an incredibly researched book and adds to the history of the Second World War.… (mais)