Untold WWII: 10 Books that Explore Beyond the Basics

This is the tragic, sweeping history of chemist Fritz Haber and engineer Carl Bosch, who saved billions from mass starvation at the dawn of the 20th century by discovering the process to make fertilizer—or "bread out of air." However, their triumph came at a high cost, as the same Haber-Bosch process went on to be used to produce the explosives and gunpowder that killed millions during both world wars, leading both brilliant men to die disillusioned and disgraced.

Facing overwhelming losses in World War II, Britain's elite spy agency, the Special Operations Executive (SOE), was forced to recruit women to "set Europe ablaze," training 39 heroic operatives in sabotage and espionage. Drawing on declassified files, this book tells the thrilling true story of three of these D-Day Girls—a streetwise Parisian, a suburban mother, and a French socialite—who went behind enemy lines to destroy Nazi infrastructure and gather the crucial intelligence that paved the way for the Allied victory.

The true, New York Times-bestselling story of the strangest deception in World War II, chronicling the brilliant and slightly mad scheme by two British intelligence officers to mislead the Nazi army about the Allied invasion of Southern Europe. Their plan hinged on the most unlikely of secret agents: a dead man outfitted in a British uniform, planted with false documents, who successfully fooled Hitler and ultimately paved the way for a crucial Allied victory.

This is the remarkable, untold story of France's courageous winemakers who, during the 1940 Nazi occupation, mobilized a unique form of resistance to save their nation's most treasured commodity from German plunder. Facing relentless pillaging, these clever vignerons undertook ingenious, daring measures to hide and protect their cherished crops and bottles, waging a secret war that ultimately helped save the very spirit of France.

This is the incredible true story of British special agents, the Nearne sisters, who risked everything for freedom during World War II. Their secret was only revealed after the death of the quiet elder sister, Eileen. While Jacqueline narrowly avoided capture as a courier for the French Resistance, Eileen was posted to Nazi-occupied France as a radio operator, where she was captured, tortured by the Gestapo, and astonishingly escaped the notorious Ravensbrück concentration camp.

Drawing on new research, this thrilling narrative illuminates Pope Pius XI's little-known, valiant, and ultimately tragic campaign to unequivocally condemn Nazism and the policies of the Third Reich. The book reveals how the Pope secretly prepared an unprecedented, progressive pronouncement against Hitler, only to have his final crusade derailed by his death and the secretive plotting of conservative churchmen who sought to prevent the world-changing message from ever being delivered.

As the only luxury hotel permitted to operate in occupied Paris, the world-famous Hôtel Ritz became an extraordinary crucible where celebrity glamour, opulence, and deadly intrigue converged during World War II. This captivating history traces the hotel's wartime existence as it simultaneously served as the luxurious headquarters for high-ranking German officers like Hermann Göring and a clandestine home to patrons like Coco Chanel, revealing a hotbed of espionage, illicit affairs, and stunning acts of resistance.

This epic, true story follows the Fukuhara family—three Japanese American brothers who found themselves on opposing sides during World War II—as their loyalties were tragically divided after their return to Hiroshima. While eldest brother Harry served the U.S. Army as a key Japanese translator, his brothers Frank and Pierce fought for the Japanese Imperial Army, bringing them ever closer to an unthinkable confrontation that was brutally preempted by the atomic bombing of their family's home city.

Dubbed "Columba," a brilliant and absurdly risky British intelligence operation parachuted 16,000 homing pigeons across Nazi-occupied Europe to gather crucial intelligence from ordinary citizens willing to resist. This gripping true story follows the quirky spy masters and the heroic people—like the Belgian villagers led by a brave priest—who risked execution to send back vital information on German movements, new Nazi weapons, and V-rocket deployment, all written on tiny pieces of rice paper.

Juvenile court judge Leora was a wife, mother, and daughter living a routine life—but she was also a second-generation Holocaust survivor unaware of the full weight of that identity. An accidental discovery of a secret file of handwritten notes addressed to her father and a WWII postcard set her on a lyrical, emotional collision course with her family's hidden past and the secrets buried deep within wartime Europe explored in this moving memoir.