

Illustration by Michael Caplanis

Occupation

Ian Ousby (1998)“A very good overview that answered all of my questions about life in Nazi-occupied France.”

The Employment of Negro Troops

Ulysses Lee (1966)

“The most profound thing I’ve ever read on both the war and racist America of the 1940s, commissioned by the U.S. Army to examine the effectiveness of their employment of black soldiers. Lee came up with such damning information about the military that it was withheld from public view until 1966. Powerful.”

Ministry of Illusion

Nazi Cinema and Its Afterlife

Eric Rentschler (1996)

“A wonderful critical reexamination of German cinema under Joseph Goebbels. Rentschler goes far beyond the demonizing approach employed by most writers on this subject (like Susan Tegel in Nazis and the Cinema). His excerpts from Goebbels’s diaries are priceless. And after all these years he dares to make a fair appraisal of Nazi filmmaker Veit Harlan.”

Leni Riefenstahl

The Fallen Film Goddess

Glenn B. Infield (1976)

“The first of many books I’ve read on Fräuline Riefenstahl.”

Leni Riefenstahl

Leni Riefenstahl (1993)

“Mesmerizing. Though you can’t believe half of it. That still leaves half to ponder. Her descriptions of normal friendly conversations with Hitler are amazing and ring of truth.”

Writer-director Quentin Tarantino, who made his mark in Hollywood with Reservoir Dogs (1992) and solidified it with the groundbreaking Pulp Fiction (1994), has turned to World War II with his latest film. Inglourious Basterds, the story of a group of Jewish American soldiers who take violent revenge against the Nazis, opened August 21. Click here to read our review of the film.

