Alex Gerlis

Dec 6, 2024 | aspectsofhistory.com | Alex Gerlis

One could be excused for thinking that a travel guide on the Holocaust would be in bad taste. Having read Rosie Whitehouse’s excellent, The Holocaust: A Guide to Europe’s Sites, Memorial & Museums I can assure you that nothing is further from the truth. One of the problems with Holocaust literature is not only the extent of it, but also the very detailed nature of most of the books. Both the Friedlander and Cesarani books I refer to above run to around a thousand pages each.

Dec 6, 2024 | aspectsofhistory.com | Alex Gerlis

January 2025 will be the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp, a single event which has come to symbolise the Holocaust. No-one could claim that in the eighty years since there’s been a shortage of literature on the Holocaust: a search on Amazon for ‘Holocaust books’ shows over 40,000 titles. Refine that to ‘Holocaust History Books’ and it’s still over 20,000 books.

Nov 1, 2024 | aspectsofhistory.com | Bethany Hall |Alex Gerlis

I’ve written extensively on the Second World War in Europe. My eleven books may be works of fiction but the plots are all based around real events that unfolded during the war. That history and the locations I use are all carefully researched. I scrupulously avoid altering the history or any other facts to fit the plots: it’s an important principle that they have to work around the real events and places and not the other way round.

Jul 15, 2024 | express.co.uk | Alex Gerlis

Sentries guard English coastline following the fall of France in 1940 (Image: Getty)The man who ordered a pint of champagne cider at 9am on Tuesday September 3, 1940, at The Rising Sun could not have been a more atypical customer of the pub in the small coastal village of Lydd in Kent. He spoke with a foreign accent, was unsure about how to use the British currency he had with him and his clothes were wet.

Jun 9, 2024 | aspectsofhistory.com | Alan Bardos |Alex Gerlis

In your new book Every Spy a Traitor you move away from a World War II/Post War setting and focus purely on a ‘Cold War’ with the Soviet Union in the 1930s. What was it that attracted you to the period? I liked the idea of a series that covered a longer time span, because in the Second World War, particularly in Europe you’re dealing with a 5/6 year timescale. I fancied the idea of something that was a bigger sweep of history.