Welcome to Litsy!

Listening to the tagged on my neighborhood walk where the cherry blossoms are blooming

'She was a very strong lady,' Marzenna recalled. 'For her, nothing was impossible.
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Recommended history of Polish resistance in WW2.

The descriptions of Agent Zo's personal skills reminded me of my gran. Everyone loved her, but not for her small talk!
Personal gripe: one of those "hidden histories" where actually what the author means/ acknowledges is "*English speakers* didn't know about it...".

This book HURTS! I have, over the course of this trilogy; developed anxiety, heart palpitations, and my depression is definitely not living the good life. I think these books are an important read and a deeply emotional reminder. I learned a lot, and am horrified by all of it. 5/5 stars ⭐️

#wpnf25

Well, I've read 3 of them! Agree with 2 (Agent Zo & What the Wild Sea Can Be), not so sure about Raising Hare.

I'm glad The Eagle and the Hart didn't make it, but disappointed Sister in Law isn't there.

Will be getting Story of a Heart out of the library!

As far as possible, the women saved each other.

(Magdeburg camp, 1944)

"an insane feminist and pioneer of the "liberation" movement and equality of women', the report continued. 'A hysterical woman'.*" '

Got to love the lack of self-censorship in pre-Freedom of Information civil servants' memos.

Zo usually returned from Germany [to Poland] within a few days, bringing back her observations on changing travel regulations, rationing and morale... After one Berlin air raid, Zo was asked to walk around the city and later discreetly mark up a map to help assess the accuracy of the campaign.

'The English know almost everything about the results of their attacks on Germany', Joseph Goebbels... sullenly complained to his diary."

I finally finished this massive tome. I‘ve neglected learning much about WW2 over my lifetime, so this was quite the journey through history, but well worth it. I realize that some modern academic historians are critical of Shirer‘s work in that as a journalist, they view him as an amateur who failed to research and analyze in a rigorous manner. I‘m in no position to weigh in on that, but I can confess that I did enjoy this book quite a bit.

During the Great War the Dutch dancer Margaretha Zelle, better known as Mata Hari, had lodged the idea of femme fatale spies in some romantic minds Although women serving in the resistance deployed whatever skills and resources they had, their distinguishing superpower was not, in fact, irresistible sexual allure, but simply their ability to be consistently overlooked and underestimated.

I knew about some of the efforts to keep the public fit in WWII, but not the experimental basis behind them, and not all of the stuff discussed here. I found this very readable and interesting.

Warning: if you're phobic about insects (or at least biting ones), be careful. There's a whole chapter on them, and I definitely had some intrusive thoughts and a nightmare because of it.