In the neighborhood of zero
Subtitle: a World War II memoir
By: William V. Spanos
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Lincoln
Language: eng
Number of pages: 198
ISBN-13: 9780803226814
Description: "The following memoir about my experience in World War II, written a long half-century later, particularly the 'legendary' Battle of the Bulge in December 1944 and the nearly forgotten firebombing of Dresden, is not, therefore, intended to be 'objective' ... On the contrary, my memoir is frankly intended as a counter-memoir, a dissident remembrance of, a witness to, this 'just war', whose cumulative glorification has been recently reiterated ... In a way I began writing this book about my experience as a prisoner of war in Dresden, Germany, on August 16, 1945 ... I knew then, that despite my will to forget what I had undergone in that brief, traumatic five-month period of my life ... I felt I had borne witness to a massive crime against humanity that no appeal to reason, not even to the saving of countless other lives, could justify"--Preface.
Table of contents: title: Departure and border crossings : Newport, New Hampshire, to Cheltenham, England, Spring 1943-1944; title: Captivity : disintegration in the Ardennes Forest, December 10, 1944-c. January 4, 1945; title: Arbeitskommando : Rabenau-Dresden, c. January 5-February 12, 1945; title: In the neighborhood of zero : Dresden, February 13-14, 1945; title: Interlude : Dresden, February 18-c. April 25, 1945; title: Persephone and the beast : Brux, Czechoslovakia, c. April 26-May 1, 1945; title: Love in the ruins : Brux, Czechoslovakia, May 2-13, 1945; title: Return : Camp Lucky Strike, Normandy, to Newport, New Hampshire, May 13-June 1, 1945; title: Coda : Main Street, Newport, New Hampshire, August 15, 1945.