Family Histories of World War II

Expertly contextualized by two leading historians in the field, this unique collection offers 13 accounts of individual experiences of World War II from across Europe. It sees contributors describe their recent ancestors' experiences ranging from a Royal Air Force pilot captured in Yugoslavia and a Spanish communist in the French resistance to two young Jewish girls caught in the siege of Leningrad. Contributors draw upon a variety of sources, such as contemporary diaries and letters, unpublished postwar memoirs, video footage as well as conversations in the family setting. These chapters attest to the enormous impact that war stories of family members had on subsequent generations. The story of a father who survived Nazi captivity became a lesson in resilience for a daughter with personal difficulties, whereas the story of a grandfather who served the Nazis became a burden that divided the family. At its heart, Family Histories of World War II concerns human experiences in supremely difficult times and their meaning for subsequent generations.

Róisín Healy is Senior Lecturer in European History at NUI Galway, Ireland. She is the author of Poland in the Irish Nationalist Imagination, 1772-1922 (2017) and The Jesuit Specter in Imperial Germany (2003). She has also edited or co-edited four books, including Small Nations and Colonial Peripheries in World War I (2016; as co-editor) and 1916 in Global Context: An anti-Imperial moment (2017; as co-editor).
Gearóid Barry is Lecturer in European History at NUI Galway, Ireland. He is the author of The Disarmament of Hatred: Marc Sangnier, French Catholicism and the Legacy of the First World War, 1914-45 (2012). He is also the co-editor, along with Enrico Dal Lago and Róisín Healy, of Small Nations and Colonial Peripheries in World War I (2016) and 1916 in Global Context: An anti-Imperial moment (2017).

List of Figures
List of Tables
Acknowledgments
Notes on Contributors
1. From Generation to Generation: World War II Narratives in Transition, Róisín Healy (NUI Galway, Ireland) and Gearóid Barry (NUI Galway, Ireland)
Part I. Lives in Uniform: Enduring Combat and Captivity
2. Nothing Spectacular to Remember? Dealing with Wartime Memories in a German Family, Hans-Walter Schmidt-Hannisa (NUI Galway, Ireland)
3. The Returning POW and a Wartime Volunteer: A Love Story, Sheena Fennell (NUI Galway, Ireland) and Gill Fennell (Independent Scholar, Ireland)
4. Educating Friends and Enemies: An Irishman's Experiences in Wartime Britain, Patricia Scully (NUI Galway, Ireland)
5. The Diary of an Italian Officer in Nazi Concentration Camps, 1943-1945: The Forgotten History of Italian Military Internees, Marina Ansaldo (NUI Galway, Ireland)
6. Behind Enemy Lines: The Story of an American Soldier and the Italian Family who Saved Him, Colleen Maloney Williamson (Independent Scholar, USA) and Maureen Maloney (NUI Galway, Ireland)
7. From El Alamein to Bergen-Belsen: An Irish Dental Officer's War, Ciara Boylan (NUI Galway, Ireland)
8. Recording the War in Connemara: A Guianese Sailor in the Eastern Mediterranean, Cormac Ó Loideáin (NUI Galway, Ireland)
Part II. Lives under Seige: Coping with Occupation
9. A Spanish Communist in the French Resistance: Uncle Luís and a German Map, Sara Farrona (NUI Galway, Ireland)
10. A Boy in Small-Town Germany from Home Front to Allied Occupation, Hermann Rasche (NUI Galway, Ireland)
11. A Child's View of War: Nazi Occupation, Resistance, and Civil War in Northeastern Italy, 1943-1945, Enrico Dal Lago (NUI Galway, Ireland)
12. A Greek Tragedy: A Small Village at War, Constantinos G. Efthymiou (NUI Galway, Ireland)
13. A Russian Jewish Family Remembers the Siege of Leningrad, Irina Ruppo (NUI Galway, Ireland)
14. Slave Labour and its Legacies: My Maternal Grandparents' Journey from Ukraine to Germany to Belgium, Sylvie Mossay (NUI Galway, Ireland)
Select Further Reading
Notes
Index