Tag: world war II

WWII military history book – “A Satellite Empire” (Cornell University Press, 2019) – Vladimir Solonari interview

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Dr. Vladimir Solonari is a history professor at the University of Central Florida. He has written extensively on ethnic cleansing in Romania during WWII and we discussed his latest book on Romanian occupation of Transnistria in Ukraine during WWII. Check out the book here.

0:45 – Vladimir talks about why he is writing about Romanian occupation of Ukraine during WWII.

2:43 – Vladimir talks about the geography of the Ukrainian region the book focuses on.

5:58 – Vladimir talks about German post-WWII plans for this Ukrainian region had Germany won the war. Romania was trying to get Transylvania back.

8:18 – Vladimir talks about how the progress of Operation Barbarossa affected Romanian strategic plans for this region.

12:19 – Vladimir talks about how Romanian troops were deployed around the Eastern Front and used.

14:42 – Vladimir talks about Romanian elite troops known as “mountain shooters”.

15:30 – Vladimir talks about Romanian policing of the Transnistria region. He discusses Soviet created terrorist groups used to harass the Romanians. He also discusses local partisan groups.

22:35- Vladimir talks about how Romania conducted ethnic cleansing of Jews, Roma, Ukrainians, Bulgarians, and Hungarians and moved them to Transnistria. He also discusses how typhus spread through the camps.

27:05 – Vladimir talks about whether the Romanians used specialized troops to massacre ethnic prisoners.

29:55 – Vladimir talks about how some Romanian officers opposed ethnic cleansing. Ethnic German villages were willing to conduct ethnic cleansing in this region.

33:30 – Vladimir talks about how Romania wanted to show its power on the world stage and to Europe.

36:30 – Vladimir talks about German perceptions of Eastern Europe as an empty space that needed order.

38:07 – Vladimir talks about the archives he used for his research.

39:31 – Vladimir relates a story about an aspiring composer in Odessa who was living a double life and pining over a lost love.

46:05 – Vladimir talks about how the Romanian government withdrew their approval for him to use certain photographs in his book.

47:46 – Vladimir talks about visiting a museum and the catacombs of Odessa.

57:14 – Vladimir talks about the complexity of the whole situation.

59:58 – Vladimir tried to determine how much the German and Romanian occupation attitudes depended on racist ideas.

1:07:30 – Vladimir talks about the legalities that the Romanians applied to conducting their ethnic cleansing.

Links of interest

Check out the book here.

https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501743184/a-satellite-empire/

https://history.cah.ucf.edu/faculty-staff/?id=318

For more “Military History Inside Out” please follow me at www.warscholar.org, on Facebook at warscholar, on twitter at Warscholar, on youtube at warscholar1945 and on Instagram @crisalvarezswarscholar

Guests: Vladimir Solonari

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, Romania, ukraine, world war ii, wwii, ethnic cleansing, Odessa, Russia, USSR, Germany, fascism, communism, transylvania, transnistria, Moldova, operation barbarossa, crimea, sevastopol, stalingrad, eastern front, Hitler, mountain shooters, spy networks, terrorists, intelligence, partisan, stukas, jewish, hungary, bulgaria, roma, typhus, Antonescu, police, gendarme, colonialism, US Holocaust Museum, Sviatoslav Richter, NKVD, cannibalism, Stalin, cornell

WWII warfare history book – “Ghost Riders” (Da Capo Press, 2018) – Mark Felton interview

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Mark Felton is an author and historian who has written extensively on World War II. He also produces short films on various subjects. We spoke about his latest WWII history book Ghost Riders.

0:57 – Mark talks about how he got into writing on this subject.

2:44 – Mark talks about how he tells the story in the book.

5:00 – Mark talks about Patton and the individuals who were important to this story.

7:20 – Mark talks about how he treats the Soviets in the book.

9:37 – Mark talks about the SS in this story.

13:10 – Mark talks about plans for an Aryan warhorse.

18:20 – Mark talks about how General Patton launched this operation.

24:00 – Mark talks about the Cossacks in the book.

26:00 – Mark talks about how he collected his information for the book.

36:00 – Mark discusses the Disney film “Miracle of the White Stallions” which is a ficitonalized version of this story.

57:58 – Mark can be found at markfelton.co.uk and he has a youtube channel with lots of films at Mark Felton Productions.

Links of interest

https://www.dacapopress.com/titles/mark-felton/ghost-riders/9780306825606/

http://markfelton.co.uk/

For more “Military History Inside Out” please follow me on Facebook at warscholar, on twitter at Warscholar, on youtube at warscholar1945 and on Instagram @crisalvarezswarscholar

Guests: Mark Felton

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, D-Day, Ardennes, Germany, Riding horses, Patton, WWII, world war II, Lipizzaner, Lipizzan, Soviets, German SS, Aryan, tanks, cavalry, Task Force Baum, Cossacks, Hostau, Americans, disney film, san diego zoo, spanish riding school, vienna

WWII history book – “No Forgotten Fronts” (Naval Institute Press, 2018) – Lisa Shapiro interview

 

Professor Lisa Shapiro holds masters degrees in literature and management and teaches at San Diego Mesa College. She has previously taught creative writing. She’s written a book based on thousands of archived letters sent by San Diego State students who were in WWII to their professor Dr. Post. I interviewed Professor Shapiro about the book titled “No Forgotten Fronts.”
1:54 – Professor Shapiro talks about her first historical project. It dealt with European medieval historical fiction. Her interest in WWII came out of her work with community college students in San Diego.
3:57 – She began studying war literature and got a second degree in that subject. In the school archives she found letters written to a professor during WWII.
5:46 – Professor Shapiro explains the basis and details of the book. It’s a collection of student letters written to their professor, Dr. Post. He turned the letters into a regular newsletter. He did this through the entire war.
10:16 – Several hundred students participated in writing to Dr. Post. This includes men and women and many wrote repeatedly. People also provided funds to support him. The original documents are in the San Diego State college archives.
12:16 – Professor Shapiro discusses how the US military censors worked with Dr. Post. He took care to keep out sensitive information out of his newsletters.
16:35 – Sometimes students wrote things only for Dr. Post and not the newsletter.
17:16 – Dr. Post was also able to connect two brothers, one of whom was a prisoner of war during the war. Dr. Post even visited their mother to provide reassurance about her sons. One student who was at Anzio wrote that he had lost his marbles and Dr. Post knew he needed some mental comfort. Dr. Post notified a nearby chaplain in Europe from San Diego State to visit this soldier and also gave comfort to the student’s father.
22:54 – Professor Shapiro explains how Dr. Post got information on killed or injured students and how he dealt with that information. Dr. Post would also update information he had published.
27:57 – Dr. Post didn’t have any children. Professor Shapiro discusses how Dr. Post met his wife in college. But both were active in the lives of their students. He also did trick roping and performed for his students. His wife was a singer. Dr. Post did have a nephew in the Marines who would write to Dr. Post.
30:36 – There don’t seem to have been any other people who collected letters from specific groups during WWII. Others have created letter collections after wars.
34:43 – The students loved getting the newsletters.
36:07 – Professor Shapiro focused on the letters that captivated her. The emotion of the letters touched her. She was able to track the stories of specific individuals.
40:28 – Professor Shapiro reads a letter from Herman Adelson who nicknamed himself Little Geronimo since he was a paratrooper. He and the others really believed in what they were fighting for. For good, freedom and democracy.
43:22 – A letter arrived for Dr. Post saying that Herman had died during D-Day and included a eulogy for him. San Diego State lost three members of their championship basketball team during the war. But the community found comfort in knowing what their loved ones had been doing.
48:29 – Professor Shapiro did a lot of reading to brush up on her knowledge of WWII and current events at the time the letters were written. She used Anthony Deevers’ history. She also read a lot of San Diego history. San Diego had a lot of women participate in the war. A lot of San Diego State students became pilots.
53:40 – Professor Shapiro had few problems getting the book published. She had to shorten the book since it was very long at first.
55:02 – Grif Williams was one of the students and was famous for being on the Doolittle Raid. He was taken prisoner eventually and he was eventually a cellmate with another San Diego State student who had been captured in Germany.
59:26 – The website for the book is NoForgottenFronts.com.

For more “Military History Inside Out” please follow me on Facebook at warscholar, on twitter at Warscholar, on youtube at warscholar1945 and on Instagram @crisalvarezswarscholar

Guests: Lisa Shapiro
Host: Cris Alvarez
Tags: war, military, WWII, WWII history, san diego, san diego state, pacific war, d-day, north africa, europe, germany, doolittle raid, anzio