This is a remarkable movie and the heart of the story is very beautiful. Two stories are intertwined. The first is simply the story of the persecution of the Jews by the Nazis during World War II. The second is the story of Oskar Schindler, a German businessman, determined to profit from the war by hiring Jews as cheap laborers. He is a womanizer, living the high life through in spite of the suffering around him.
Back in print! It was May 1941 and the British were struggling to hold back the Germans (this is of course before the United States had entered World War II). Since the summer of 1940 the Germans had access to the harbors and airfields of western Europe from Norway to southern France. Their submarines, warships and bombers were wreaking havoc on Britain's supply convoys crossing the Atlantic which was seriously threatening Britain's survival.
Chico Felippo is a young boy living in a small village in Southern Italy. It is 1944 and most of the war has moved north, but the American Army has a special "Remount Depot" nearby where donkeys are trained to assist the soldiers in the difficult mountain fighting. Chico loves these animals and becomes friends with many of the Americans as well as one particularly beloved animal, "Sergeant Donkey". The entire town suffers from a shortage of food because all of the donkeys which worked the fields had been seized by the Germans earlier in the war.
Cast: Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, et al.
Robb White brings us an exciting historical fiction tale of life aboard a military submarine in the Pacific in World War II. Someone's been transmitting top-secret plans from the American base in Hawaii to Tokyo. The Americans have learned that transmissions are being sent from Hawaii to an island in the mid-Pacific and from there to Japan. They believe they've located the island where the transmissions are being passed along, but have been unable to break the special code being used there.
This classic movie with an all-star cast and real war footage presents the dramatic story of one of the most significant battles of World War II - the naval battle of Midway in June 1942. The story also deals, more briefly, with the backlash against Americans of Japanese descent. A good movie and important story, but language and battle-scenes make it most appropriate for teens and adults.
A wonderful intelligent, faith-filled story of courage and hope in the midst of great hardships The story centers around a Catholic family in Holland during the Nazi occupation. There is plenty of excitement as the boys discover and give aid to a downed English pilot and deliver messages for the "underground." Their family "grows" as they take in fugitives and war orphans which brings both hardship and joy.
With a gripping story and a spellbinding narrator, The Winged Watchman audiobook is a winner. Set during the dark days of the Nazi occupation of Holland during WWII, Joris, 10-years-old, and his older brother Dirk Jan are the main characters in this story. From the opening chapter in the book, when Joris saves a young puppy from being beaten, they struggle--alone or together--to do what is right in a world that seems to be falling apart.
A true story of Italian Catholics helping Jews escape from the clutches of the Nazis during the Holocaust. It focuses on Padre Rufino, the superior of St. Francis' own church of San Damiano. I especially love the scene where a Mother Abbess who is hiding Jews in her cloister stands up to the Nazi officials and refuses to allow them to search the convent. Most appropriate for upper grade school or high school, depending on the sensitivity of your children. The movie is very well done, appears to be very carefully researched and was filmed on location is Assisi, Italy.
This serves as a tamer, but every-bit-as-powerful, version of Schindler's List (at least in-so-far as it portrays the reality of the Nazi concentration camps and the hopelessness and unfairness suffered by its prisoners). Perhaps because this is a "fable" rather than biography, it manages to portray the awfulness of war in a more subtle way - without all the gore and through the eyes of a child. It's still quite intense, though, and would only be suitable for teens and adults.