David M. Crowe

"Schindler is best known for saving over a thousand Jews by putting them on the famed "Schindler's List" and then transferring them to his factory in today's Czech Republic. In reality, Schindler played only a minor role in the creation of the list through no fault of his own. Plagued by local efforts to stop the movement of Jewish workers from his factory in Krakow to his new one in Brunnlitz, and his arrest by the SS who were investigating corruption charges against the infamous Amon Goth, Schindler had little say or control over his famous "List. The tale of how the "List" was really prepared is one of the most intriguing parts of the Schindler story that Crowe tells here for the first time." "Forced into exile after the war, success continually eluded Schindler and he died in very poor health in 1974. He remained a controversial figure, even in death, particularly after Emilie Schindler, his wife of forty-six years, began to criticize her husband after the appearance of Steven Spielberg's film in 1993."--BOOK JACKET.

A History of the Gypsies of Eastern Europe and Russia, drawn from previously untapped East European, Russian, and traditional sources, explores the life, history, and culture of the Gypsies, or Roma, from their early appearance in the region during the Middle Ages until the present. David Crowe's study looks at the rich and diverse cultural and historical traditions of the Gypsies in each nation and region. He covers Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, the republics of the former Yugoslavia, Albania, and the states that made up the former Soviet Union. He focuses in particular on Russia, where the Gypsies have exerted a profound influence on literary and musical traditions. . Crowe also explores the virulent prejudice and mistreatment that has been so much a part of the Gypsies' tragic history and culminated in their losses during the Nazi Holocaust. He concludes with a close look at the revival of this prejudice and the plight of the Roma today as they struggle to redefine their role in the new worlds of post-communist Eastern Europe and Russia.

This is the first complete account of the diplomatic relations and military steps leading to Estonia's, Latvia's, and Lithuania's forcible absorption into the USSR in 1940. David Crowe - making use of recently opened archival sources - traces the Baltic states' relations with the Soviet Union, Germany, Poland, Great Britain, France, and with one another from 1917-1940. He starts with an overview of 1917-1936 and then offers a detailed description of the diplomatic maneuvering that marked Europe's collective slide toward war. Crowe covers the Sudeten and Memel crises involving German communities in 1938, the German-Soviet Pact in August 1939, the mutual assistance pacts between the Baltic states and the USSR, the Baltic German migration, Soviet use of Estonia's military installations during their assault on Finland, and the subsequent Soviet occupation of the Baltic states. The story ends with the election of new, Soviet-sponsored legislatures that sought admission into the USSR as Soviet republics in 1940 - a step that most Western countries never recognized and one that the Baltic states finally reversed when they regained their independence fifty-one years later in August 1991.

"From the 'show' trials of the 1920s and 1930s to the London Conference, this book examines the Soviet role in the Nuremberg IMT trial through the prism of the ideas and practices of earlier Soviet legal history, detailing the evolution of Stalin's ideas about the trail of Nazi war criminals. Stalin believed that an international trial for Nazi war criminals was the best way to show the world the sacrifices his country had made to defeat Hitler, and he, together with his legal mouthpiece Andrei Vyshinsky, maintained tight control over Soviet representatives during talks leading up to the creation of the Nuremberg IMT trial in 1945, and the trial itself. But Soviet prosecutors at Nuremberg were unable to deal comfortably with the complexities of an open, western-style legal proceeding, which undercut their effectiveness throughout the trial. However, they were able to present a significant body of evidence that underscored the brutal nature of Hitler's racial war in Russia from 1941-45, a theme which became central to Stalin's efforts to redefine international criminal law after the war. Stalin's Soviet Justice provides a nuanced analysis of the Soviet justice system at a crucial turning point in European history and it will be vital reading for scholars and advanced students of the legal history of the Soviet Union, the history of war crimes and the aftermath of the Second World War."--Bloomsbury Publishing.

"The Holocaust: The Basics is a concise introduction to the study of this seismic event in mid twentieth-century human history. The book takes an original approach as both a narrative and thematic introduction to the topict, and provides a core foundation for readers embarking upon their own study. Suppported by a chronology, glosary, questions for discussion and boxed case studies that focus the reader's thoughts and develop their appreciation of the subjects considered more broadly, The Holocaust: The Basics is the ideal introduction to this controversial and widely-debated topic for both students and the more general reader"--

"Combining transcultural and comparative approaches, the essays collected here exemplify the best work being done in the emerging field of German-Asian studies. Here, a range of specialists examine the varied, multi-faceted ties between not only the various German states and China over the past two centuries, but also the more personal nature of such relationships during this important period in both these countries' histories. They cover a range of topics including economics, geography, history, human rights, philosophy, literature, politics, and religion. For the first time, they offer the reader a unique look at the role that each of these subjects played in developing what is today a very unique relationship between two of the world's most important political and economic powers"--