Prisoner of the Swiss

Prisoner of the Swiss PDF Author: Daniel Culler
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN: 1612005551
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 170

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Book Description
A harrowing memoir revealing the horrors that occurred within a little-known prison camp in Switzerland, by a POW who survived it. During WWII, 1,517 members of US aircrews were forced to seek asylum in Switzerland. Most neutral countries found reason to release US airmen from internment, but Switzerland took its obligations under the Hague Convention more seriously than most. The airmen were often incarcerated in local jails, then transferred to prison camps. The worst of these camps was Wauwilermoos, where at least 161 US airmen were sent for the honorable offense of escaping. To this hellhole came Dan Culler, the author of this incredible account of suffering and survival. Prisoners slept on lice-infested straw, were malnourished, and had virtually no hygiene facilities or access to medical care. But worse, the commandant of Wauwilermoos was a diehard Swiss Nazi. He allowed the mainly criminal occupants of the camp to torture and rape Dan Culler with impunity. After many months of such treatment, starving and ravaged by disease, he was finally aided by a British officer. Betrayal dominated his cruel fate—by the American authorities, by the Swiss, and, in a last twist, in a second planned escape that turned out to be a trap. But Dan Culler’s courage and determination kept him alive. Finally making it back home, he found he had been abandoned again. Political expediency meant there was no such place as Wauwilermoos. He had never been there, so he had never been a POW and didn‘t qualify for any POW benefits or medical or mental treatment for his many physical and emotional wounds. His struggle to make his peace with his past forms the final part of the story. An introduction and notes from military historian Rob Morris provide historical background and context, including recent efforts to recognize the suffering of those incarcerated in Switzerland and afford them full POW status.

Prisoner of the Swiss

Prisoner of the Swiss PDF Author: Daniel Culler
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN: 1612005551
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 170

Get Book Here

Book Description
A harrowing memoir revealing the horrors that occurred within a little-known prison camp in Switzerland, by a POW who survived it. During WWII, 1,517 members of US aircrews were forced to seek asylum in Switzerland. Most neutral countries found reason to release US airmen from internment, but Switzerland took its obligations under the Hague Convention more seriously than most. The airmen were often incarcerated in local jails, then transferred to prison camps. The worst of these camps was Wauwilermoos, where at least 161 US airmen were sent for the honorable offense of escaping. To this hellhole came Dan Culler, the author of this incredible account of suffering and survival. Prisoners slept on lice-infested straw, were malnourished, and had virtually no hygiene facilities or access to medical care. But worse, the commandant of Wauwilermoos was a diehard Swiss Nazi. He allowed the mainly criminal occupants of the camp to torture and rape Dan Culler with impunity. After many months of such treatment, starving and ravaged by disease, he was finally aided by a British officer. Betrayal dominated his cruel fate—by the American authorities, by the Swiss, and, in a last twist, in a second planned escape that turned out to be a trap. But Dan Culler’s courage and determination kept him alive. Finally making it back home, he found he had been abandoned again. Political expediency meant there was no such place as Wauwilermoos. He had never been there, so he had never been a POW and didn‘t qualify for any POW benefits or medical or mental treatment for his many physical and emotional wounds. His struggle to make his peace with his past forms the final part of the story. An introduction and notes from military historian Rob Morris provide historical background and context, including recent efforts to recognize the suffering of those incarcerated in Switzerland and afford them full POW status.

Shot from the Sky

Shot from the Sky PDF Author: Cathryn J. Prince
Publisher: US Naval Institute Press
ISBN: 9781612518336
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Prince presents the complete story behind Swiss claims of neutrality, where they applied international law in an unfair manner. They detained and in some cases punished American airmen while allowing Nazi pilots to refuel at Swiss airfields.

Black Hole of Wauwilermoos

Black Hole of Wauwilermoos PDF Author: Dan Culler
Publisher: Sky & Sage Books
ISBN: 9781887776011
Category : History
Languages : de
Pages : 383

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Book Description


Internment in Switzerland During the First World War

Internment in Switzerland During the First World War PDF Author: Susan Barton
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350037737
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 235

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Book Description
In contrast to the plethora of works focusing on the tragic loss of human lives during the First World War, little is known about the more hopeful realities of thousands of prisoners of war from Britain, France, Germany and Belgium who were sent to Switzerland from 1916. This book explores the everyday lives of these prisoners and their impact on Switzerland. Internees were warmly welcomed by local people and given education, training and employment. Leading relatively free lives, they were able to engage in leisure activities and develop new relationships. However, they also contributed to the country's economy, helping to keep Swiss tourism alive at a time when businesses were struggling and alleviating Switzerland's labour shortage as Swiss men were called-up to defend their borders and preserve the country's neutrality. Drawing on a wide range of sources from official records to magazines and postcards, Susan Barton provides an absorbing account of the social and cultural history of internment in Switzerland.

Prisoners of Our Thoughts

Prisoners of Our Thoughts PDF Author: Alex Pattakos
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
ISBN: 9781576752883
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
This timely book expands on Viktor Frankl's seminal Man's Search for Meaning, examining the book's concepts in depth and widening the market for them by introducing an entirely new way to look at work and the workplace. Alex Pattakos, a former colleague of Frankl's, brings the search for meaning at work within the grasp of every reader using simple, straightforward language. The author distills Frankl's ideas into seven core principles: Exercise the freedom to choose your attitude; Realize your will to meaning; Detect the meaning of life's moments; Don't work against yourself; Look at yourself from a distance; Shift your focus of attention; and Extend beyond yourself. By demonstrating how Dr. Frankl's key principles can be applied to all kinds of work situations, Prisoners of Our Thoughts opens up new opportunities for finding personal meaning and living an authentic work life.

The Gilded Chalet

The Gilded Chalet PDF Author: Padraig Rooney
Publisher: Nicholas Brealey
ISBN: 1473645026
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 458

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Book Description
Part detective work, part treasure chest, full of history and scandal, The Gilded Chalet takes you on a grand tour of two centuries of great writing by both Swiss and foreign authors and shows how Switzerland has always been at the center of literary Europe. Two centuries after the Romantics went there to invent Gothic horror, the lure of Switzerland hasn't left us. Writers from the Fitzgeralds to Fleming, Highsmith to Hemingway, Conan Doyle to le Carré, came to escape world wars, political persecution, tuberculosis. They came for sanctuary (from oppression or the tax man), for fresh air and nude sunbathing, for scenery resembling, as Rooney puts it, 'Mother Nature on steroids.' Patricia Highsmith spent her last years in a granite home in Ticino with a fridge containing little but peanut butter and vodka. Hermann Hesse had himself buried to the neck as a cure for alcoholism. Nabokov chased butterflies and played tennis on the hotel courts. When it comes to literature, it seems all roads lead to Switzerland. Padraig Rooney peers through the chalet windows and discovers how Switzerland has influenced some of the greatest authors and characters of literature.

The Swiss Peasant

The Swiss Peasant PDF Author: Mary Shelley
Publisher: Lindhardt og Ringhof
ISBN: 8726595745
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 27

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Book Description
‘The Swiss Peasant’ (1830) is a short story by the famous English writer Mary Shelley. The story tells of the brutal effect the French Revolution had on those living in the Alps. Told through the eyes of a Swiss peasant called Fanny, it exposes the flaws of the class system and highlights the strength of women - a common Shelley theme. Mary Shelley wrote several successful books but is best known for her highly acclaimed novel ‘Frankenstein’ (1818). Mary Shelley (1797–1851) was an English author and travel writer best known for her ground-breaking Gothic novel ‘Frankenstein’ (1818). Considered one of the first true works of science-fiction, the book became an instant bestseller. It has been adapted for TV, stage and film on many occasions, with Boris Karloff famously playing Frankenstein’s monster on screen in 1933. Other adaptations include ‘Mary Shelley's Frankenstein’ (1994) starring Kenneth Branagh and Robert De Niro and ‘Viktor Frankenstein’ (2015) starring Daniel Radcliffe and James McAvoy. Shelley’s other novels include Valperga (1823), The Last Man (1826), Perkin Warbeck (1830), Lodore (1835), Falkner (1837) and the posthumously published Mathilde (1959). However, she will always be remembered as the creator of Frankenstein. The book continues to influence filmmakers, writers and popular culture to this day, inspiring and terrifying new audiences the world over.

A Prisoner of Birth

A Prisoner of Birth PDF Author: Jeffrey Archer
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 1429934492
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 644

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Book Description
International bestseller and master storyteller Jeffrey Archer returns with a tale of fate and fortune, redemption and revenge with A Prisoner of Birth. Danny Cartwright and Spencer Craig never should have met. One evening, Danny, an East End cockney who works as a garage mechanic, takes his fianceé up to the West End to celebrate their engagement. He crosses the path of Spencer Craig, a West End barrister posed to be the youngest Queen's Counsel of his generation. A few hours later Danny is arrested for murder and later is sentenced to twenty-two years in prison, thanks to irrefutable testimony from Spencer, the prosecution's main witness. Danny spends the next few years in a high-security prison while Spencer Craig's career as a lawyer goes straight up. All the while Danny plans to escape and wreak his revenge. Thus begins Jeffrey Archer's poignant novel of deception, hatred and vengeance, in which only one of them can finally triumph while the other will spend the rest of his days in jail. But which one will triumph? This suspenseful novel takes the listener through so many twists and turns that no one will guess the ending, even the most ardent of Archer's many, many fans.

The Tattooist of Auschwitz

The Tattooist of Auschwitz PDF Author: Heather Morris
Publisher: Bonnier Zaffre Ltd.
ISBN: 1760403180
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
The incredible story of the Auschwitz-Birkenau tattooist and the woman he loved. Lale Sokolov is well-dressed, a charmer, a ladies' man. He is also a Jew. On the first transport of men from Slovakia to Auschwitz in 1942, Lale immediately stands out to his fellow prisoners. In the camp, he is looked up to, looked out for, and put to work in the privileged position of Tatowierer - the tattooist - to mark his fellow prisoners, forever. One of them is a young woman, Gita, who steals his heart at first glance. His life given new purpose, Lale does his best through the struggle and suffering to use his position for good. This story, full of beauty and hope, is based on years of interviews author Heather Morris conducted with real-life Holocaust survivor and Auschwitz-Birkenau tattooist Ludwig (Lale) Sokolov. It is heart-wrenching, illuminating, and unforgettable. 'Morris climbs into the dark miasma of war and emerges with an extraordinary tale of the power of love' - Leah Kaminsky

Prisoner of Dunes

Prisoner of Dunes PDF Author: Isabelle Eberhardt
Publisher: Peter Owen Publishers
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 136

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Book Description
Hitherto unpublished in English, this book describes Eberhardt's wanderings from Marseilles to Tunis and Algeria from 1899 to 1904. She spent much of her short life in North Africa, where she was converted to Islam and learned to speak fluent Arabic.