I am a historian of the Second World War and the aim of this site is to enable others to access some of the research I have carried out over the past few years, and to encourage people to exchange ideas and views about a wide range of subjects relating to the conflict. On this site you will find an oral history archive with transcriptions of many of the interviews I have conducted with veterans of the war from many different countries, and there are also blogs, comment pieces, book reviews, suggested reading, and also contributions from other leading historians in this field.
I hope you find it interesting.

James Holland


Blog - Wednesday 26th April 2006

Diary of Writing Italy’s Sorrow

Basel, Switzerland, April 26, 2006
There are still some files we have ordered that have not appeared.  Only after repeatedly questioning this were we finally told that permission to use them has been refused – this includes a memoir by someone who had served in the Fallschirm Panzerkorps Hermann Goering.  Very annoying, but as it happens we had more than enough to keep us busy and all in all I feel it’s been a good trip.  Some of the material I now have is really good, and it was also good to delve into some of the non-personal records as well.  Interestingly, there is a quite a lot of cross-over between the records here and those in the Military History Institute in the US; the files on Von Senger, for eg, were almost identical.

Took Sarah into town by the train station then headed south to Basel and ran into a torrential downpour. 

 

Posted by James Holland
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