Catrine Clay

This is a good book, but not a wonderful one. I've been interested in Nicholas II ever since reading Massie's Nicholas & Alexandra. One of my main reasons for reading King, Kaiser, Tsar was to learn more about how and why George V abandoned Nicholas (his counsin) and his family in Russia whereas he could have given them asylum. But whereas Clay talks a lot about Wilhelm and all the details of his reign, and of course about George, she talks much less about the Russian cousin. She hardly gives you a clue as to the severity and importance of the Tsarevich's hemophilia.

But what bothered me the most was her handling of the murder of the Russian royal family. She says that some pounds of jewelry was removed from the bodies after they were shot and being prepared for burial. But she doesn't say what that burial intailed. The Tsar, his wife, and their five children were cut up with axes, dosed with acid, burned so that not a trace would remain (although traces did) and buried, hidden in the woods so that no one could find them. How is it that after all the details of Wilhelm's scandals, and what the royals wore at this event or another, she neglected to tell about the barbaric murder of Nicholas and his family (including his son's spaniel!).

Overall it was an interesting book because it's an interesting history of three very powerful and important cousins.… (meer)

Un gruppo di 18 persone si è incontrato in una piccola città a metà strada tra Tel Aviv e Gerusalemme. Alcuni sono ebrei, figli e figlie dei sopravvissuti Shoah; Il resto sono tedeschi, i figli dei criminali di guerra nazisti.
Il produttore Catrine Clay intervista i partecipanti mentre affrontano una storia condivisa finora indicibile.
Uno di loro è il figlio di Martin Borman, segretario privato di Adolf Hitler, un altro è il figlio una donna trovata viva sepolta sotto un mucchio di cadaveri nel campo di concentramento di Bergen-Belsen.
Questa riunione è stata organizzata dallo psicologo israeliano Dan Bar-On, che è stato uno dei primi a ricercare gli effetti della Shoah sui figli dei sopravvissuti della Shoah e sui figli dei criminali nazisti.… (meer)