This work is by a Dutch historian with an interest in the main German personalities still close to Hitler at the end of WWII. On this special 75th anniversary of VE Day, I would like to share the short passage from Escaping Hitler (Pen and Sword Books 2016), written directly from Joe’s memories of that time, spent in Bramley near Basingstoke, serving with the Ordnance Corps and where he met his wife to be Jean Skitmore. This work is an excellent summation of the masses of information, much first-hand testimony garnered over the years since 1945 and is a fitting conclusion to the saga of the last days of Hitler and the Third Reich. Her publications include Los Poetas y El General: Voces de oposición en Chile bajo Augusto Pinochet, 1973–1989 / The Poets and the General: Chile's Voices of Dissent under Augusto Pinochet, 1973–1989 and Huyendo del Infierno Nazi: La inmigración judio-alemana hacia Chile en los años treinta. Having found myself on the recommended list of Zoom speakers for the Derbyshire Federation, I was approached just last week to see if I was available to speak at short notice.

This is the incredible story of four escape routes out of Nazi occupied Europe and the Allied servicemen and men and women of the Resistance who all risked their lives for freedom. Escaping Hitler brings new material to the English speaking audience and as such is a contribution to Holocaust history.Anyone who openly criticised him or the Nazi party, they didn’t go to court or anything, they were political prisoners and locked up in the camps – these were not Jews, no Jewish people were making speeches against the Nazis. Prisoner of war Len Harley went on the run in Italy, surviving months in hiding and then a hazardous climb over the Abruzzo mountains with German troops hot on his heels. He has written several books, including The Fisherman's Apprentice and the Monty Halls' Great Escape series, and is a regular contributor to magazines and newspapers.

Andree de Jongh risked her life to smuggle men through occupied France, survived being sent to two concentration camps, and has been described by MI9 as 'the greatest of our war-time agents'.While he was being arrested they toured through our living area and opened all the drawers, through everything out, china and glass on the floor, and trampled on it incase anything had survived.