This book is about the life and career of SS Colonel Jochen Peiper. I have read about him in another book about the Malmedy Massacre, and I ran across this one for two dollars at the used book store. I had to get it, because I wanted to know more about this seemingly heartless figure. He was Adolf Hitler's favorite tank commander. He was a personal adjutant of Heinrich Himmler. He was in charge of the Ardennes Offensive. He was fully involved in his soldering career, and seemed to be great at that. He was certainly well known and respected in the Nazi world, and also a very controversial figure in history. This book was very informative, and I would recommend it for anyone interested in this person. 

 I got this book for .99 on Kindle. It was extremely short, and provided a broad overview of the events of the Holocaust. I think I read it while I was waiting at the dentist, so that was a good thing to read to pass the time. I didn't learn a whole lot from it, but it was entertaining. 

 This book is about a girl from a prominent European family, Unity Valkyrie Mitford. This talks about her family and her life, as well as how she became involved with the Nazi regime, especially Adolf Hitler. It also talks about the circumstances surrounding her return to England, that Hitler arranged for her, and the end of her life. I think that her story is very interesting. 

 Switzerland was considered a beacon of neutrality during World War II, for better or worse. This book digs a little deeper into Swiss activities during World War II, and some of the things that were uncovered in the post war years certainly damaged that reputation of neutrality. Swiss banks had plenty to do with the Nazi regime. Stolen money and property from targeted demographics were placed in Swiss bank accounts. Artwork that was stolen were also hidden away in bank vaults in Switzerland. Many Nazi's themselves had personal bank accounts in Switzerland, as well as money that belonged to the Nazi Party as a whole. Royalties from Hitler's book Mein Kampf were deposited into Swiss bank accounts. (Additionally, they happily accepted money transfers from Jewish people, but did not want Jewish people moving there to live. They even marked their papers with a J so everyone would know when they saw their documents....doesn't that sound familiar.)

I watched something not long ago about stolen art work that was kept in Swiss vaults that they swear is not there and never was...and I really had a hard time buying that. On top of their strange statements, they were very reluctant to even speak about it and certainly did not want any filming to be done. There are dormant bank accounts filled with items and money stolen from victims of the Holocaust, and the banks will not release it to next of kin without a death certificate...as though the people thrown into gas chambers and crematoriums, entire families at a time, had death certificates made up. (Some did, especially in the earlier years of war, but absolutely not all.) Some of those bank accounts were taken by the Swiss and given to Swiss nationals who had their assets taken by the Communists.

I think this book takes a good look at Swiss activities and shines a light on some shady doings both during and after the war years. I imagine it would be quite difficult to be a European country in the middle of a global conflict, especially with a bunch of your neighbors. People are always out to get ahead and make money, and they do not care nearly as much as they should about what is right. Every country is likely guilty of that, and there is always something shady going on in the government that the common person doesn't know about. I think it is a shame that this isn't discussed nearly enough, because these next of kins deserve what is rightfully theirs, stolen things should be returned. If there are no survivors, then it should be released to help care for Holocaust survivors or to upkeep memorials, etc. Anyone that is interested in World War II should really check this book out and do some research into this subject. It is wild to think that people are still behaving like this to cover their behinds 80 years after the fact. 

 I started this book in December as my car book to read while my daughters were in dance. I generally read any organized crime book that I can get. I have read a few books about Whitey Bulger and his lot, and picked this one up to go with them. It always interests me to discover how people get involved in things, and reading about Johnny Martorano was very illuminating.

 I got this book when Audible had a sale, and it was entertaining to listen to while I played my games at night. My problem with this book was that it seemed fantastical to the point of disbelief. I would suggest reading this with several grains of salt. 

 This book was on a list of books about cults that I ran across. I cannot imagine growing up like this. Organized religion in a brick and mortar church is obnoxious enough to me, living here in the Bible Belt, but these tent revivals are a whole other level. I was forced into attendance at several of these places, and they remind me so much of one of my grandmothers. This particular preacher, David Terrell, carried on affairs with multiple of his female followers. He had several children on the side. He had secret families. Of course, there were donations and offerings taken up and used to buy properties and lavish things, much like you see today's television preachers doing. A lot of people preach on the end times, and this fellow liked to give prophecies about it.... the end times must not be as immediate as they would like you to believe, as the Christian Bible has been around for over 2,000 years and the end times were imminent since then. This personal account of life in a traveling tent revival cult situation was very interesting and tragic. It made me so sad for the kids and the people who believe in people like this who are just swindlers. I did a google search to see what had happened to this guy after all these years, and I am not surprised by the result. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in what life was like in tent revivals or just this type of preaching. It was interesting, for sure. 

 This book was written by two of the three victims of Ariel Castro, who kidnapped them and held them captive for years inside his home. Reading the personal accounts from these girls and what they went through is terrible. I cannot imagine having to endure that. They all suffered in their own ways and have tried to move on and live positive, fulfilling lives. I hope that they are all able to continue the healing process from this horrible time in their lives. This book was certainly an inspiration. 

 This was a very interesting book. I had never heard of this place, or this man. Herb Baumeister was a strange individual. I would like to find another book with more information about him and his crimes. This one gave a decent overview, but focused more on the paranormal happenings at his former home/murder location. I happen to be a believer in the paranormal, and I can imagine that a place with traumatic deaths would have paranormal activity there. I am very interested in learning more about this place and events. 

 There wasn't much to read in this book, but I do like historical photographs. These photographs were interesting and had captions for what events were occurring and who the people were in the photos. I think I got this for free on Kindle, so I didn't really have high expectations.