Voices of World War II: Contemporary Accounts of Daily Life

Gr 8 Up—Offering voices from all sides of the conflict, this source includes 32 documents ranging from letters to statements and from speeches to poems, divided into six sections from "The Coming of War in Europe" to "The War's Social and Economic Impact" that will help users to understand the course of the war. With documents such as "Father Johannes A. Siemes Recalls the Atomic Attack on Hiroshima of August 6, 1945," "The Final Solution: Minutes of the Wansee Protocol, January 20, 1942," and "Comfort Women: Account of Ms. K, an Anonymous Korean Woman," the book discusses sensitive events such as treatment of women and racial and religious minorities during war, and the horrors of conflict. The section on how to understand and use primary documents includes information about how author and reader biases affect the consumption of information. It will aid newcomers to this type of material. Each document has an introduction, points to keep in mind, sidebar glossaries, questions to ask, and topics to consider, along with suggestions for books, websites, and media with further information. Access is enhanced by appendixes of people and terms in addition to the index. Even with only 32 documents, this title offers a greater overview of the range of people involved in the conflict than Max Arthur's Forgotten Voices of World War II (Lyon Press, 2004) and Veronica Kavass's Last Good War: Faces and Voices of World War 2 (Welcome Books, 2010), which have British and American slants, respectively. Students in AP history and literature classes and general library users who want to read words from those who lived through the war years will find this a useful resource.—Ann West LaPrise, Huron School District, New Boston, MI