World War Two: Behind Closed Doors; Stalin, the Nazis and the West

London: BBC Books, 2008. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. [6], 442 pages. Illustrations. Postscript. Notes. Index. Acknowledgments. Inscribed by the author, Laurence Rees, on the title page. Inscription reads: For Bob, with gratitude, Laurence. Book includes introduction, as well as chapters on An Alliance in All but Name; Decisive Moments; Crisis of Faith; The Changing Wind; Dividing Europe, and The Iron Curtain. The book was published to accompany the television series entitled World War Two: Behind Closed Doors, first broadcast on BBC2 in 2008. Laurence Rees (born 1957) is a British historian. He is a documentary filmmaker and author of several books about atrocities committed by the totalitarian states of the Second World War. He is the former Creative Director of History Programmes for the BBC. His documentaries and books are used as teaching aids in British schools. Rees was appointed editor of Timewatch, the BBC's historical documentary series, in 1992 and over the next 10 years commissioned and editorially oversaw more than a hundred different history films. In 1994 he was also the founder editor of the BBC's biographical TV strand, Reputations. He was subsequently appointed Head of BBC History and Creative Director, BBC History. Rees carried on writing and producing his own programmes alongside his executive producer responsibilities. The series he himself wrote and produced include the BBC television series Nazis: a Warning from History, War of the Century, Horror in the East, Auschwitz, the Nazis and the 'Final Solution' and World War Two: Behind Closed Doors. He wrote books to accompany each of these series. Drawing on material only available since the opening of archives in the East, Rees re-examines the key choices made by Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt during the war. As the truth about Stalin's earlier friendly relationship with the Nazis is laid bare, a devastating and surprising picture of the Soviet leader emerges. In this revelatory chronicle of World War II, Laurence Rees documents the dramatic and secret deals that helped make the war possible and prompted some of the most crucial decisions made during the conflict. Drawing on material available only since the opening of archives in Eastern Europe and Russia, as well as amazing new testimony from nearly a hundred separate witnesses from the period-Rees reexamines the key choices made by Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt during the war, and presents, in a compelling and fresh way, the reasons why the people of Poland, the Baltic states, and other European countries simply swapped the rule of one tyrant for another. Surprising, incisive, and endlessly intriguing, World War II Behind Closed Doors will change the way we think about the Second World War.