How France debased itself in the course of a decade, shredding the qualities that had helped make it great, . How its ingrained anti-Semitiism blew up like a balloon from 1940. How its treatment of refugees from the Spanish Civil War was unconscionable, and of Jews, both refurgees and citizens, predatory and murderous. The unique aspect of this book is an examination of French concentration camps and how their inmates got in and out of them. Though the streams of refugees into the apparent haven that was France were distinct in origin, they often met in the camps or, out of them, in the...

The Spanish Civil War engaged not only the Spanish people, but also the ideologies of Left and Right, which had long underpinned conflict within several nations, though rarely with the same level of savagery as in Spain. The war ended in 1939, a few months before the second world war commenced, and in which the combatants stood for Fascism on the one hand, and Democracy, and Communism, on the other. Other countries became the battle fields, and France was prominent among them because of its size and pivotal location. Its eventual liberation from enemy occupation was a major aim of the Allies...

A gripping story of how directors and managers in charge of a condominium conspired to part owners from millions of their dollars. Election rigging, deceitful procedures, excesses by management, inadequate legal guidance, apathetic owners, all contributed to the large sums swindled from the owners of the Gran Capitan condos in Santa Maria, California. Although trusted by the owners, directors failed them and the homeowners association, by preferring manager interests. Crooked operators benefited through owner inertia, and their ignoring of the need to be on guard in the unusual environment of...