Balkan Nightmare undercuts expectations. It's the story of a soldier, of a concentration camp survivor, of a refugee. Unlike most war memoirs published in English, however, this is the story of a German soldier - a member of the notorious Waffen-SS, Hitler's elite troops - and his concentration camp was run by the British military. Eventually, he became a refugee from a homeland that had disappeared - Saxon Transylvania.

When Fred Umbrich was born in 1925, German-speaking Saxons had lived in Transylvania for 800 years. By the time he was 21, his community had been destroyed, its people scattered, and Umbrich himself was living a nightmare in a concentration camp for German soldiers.

The Transylvanian Saxon community was remote, rural, and isolated. Social life was dominated by the church and centuries of tradition. The highlight of Umbrich's early educational life, and the limit of his travels, was a weekend spent at a local agricultural college when he was 14.

Even then, the seeds of his world's destruction had been planted. Germany was absorbing the ethnic German populations outside its borders. In his mid-teens, Umbrich joined an exciting new social group, the Deutsche Jugend or German Youth - a loose parallel to the Hitlerjugend in Germany itself. About the same time, the Waffen-SS began recruiting Romanian German volunteers. By the time Umbrich turned 18, the recruits were conscripts, and he was one of them.

Germany was already losing the war when Umbrich was conscripted, although he didn't realize it. He spent two years fighting various guerrilla forces in the Balkans, one of the most dangerous theatres of the war. He was, as he says, cannon fodder and one of the few among his fellow conscripts to survive.

Anna Wittmann, the writer of Umbrich's story, effectively weaves his experiences together with a larger picture of the Balkan war. The narrative is still sometimes hard to follow and would benefit from clearer maps, but the confusion is probably a reflection of the complexity of the Balkan war itself.

Umbrich clearly endured horrors, both as a soldier and as a prisoner after the war, but only occasionally does his emotion break through into the narrative of his personal experience. Much more open is his passionate regret for the loss of his homeland and the scattering of his people.

In his own section of the double introduction, Umbrich writes: "I am a Saxon from Transylvania. If someone were to ask me what I am, that is the answer I still would give. This is not to say that I am any less a Canadian, for Canada has been my homeland for more than forty-five years. Nevertheless, without a beginning, there is no ending, and the seed that germinates in one soil survives uprooting only when it is transplanted into another."

In Balkan Nightmare, Umbrich tells his own story and, at the same time, pays tribute to the soil of his ancestors and to their lost world. Both the story and the tribute are well worth the read.

As one with a lifelong interest in the Balkans, and one who actually got to travel there too, I am always on the lookout for good books on the area. So, I was happy to find CURTAIN CALLS in a bookstore in Nova Scotia. But, I'm afraid it is a little too light and chatty for me. I can't say that it is not well-written, no, the author has a pleasant style, but it's rather insubstantial, breezy, and more than a little gossipy, with far too much information about his various guides and mentors in the then rigidly controlled Balkan societies. If you like that sort of apolitical travelogue, pretty much blow by blow, then this book could be for you. Secondly, the whole area has changed so much in the last 20-odd years since Gardiner wrote, that the kind of information a would-be traveller could glean from this book would be well-nigh useless. I feel that a person who wants to know what the Balkans are like today---as well as one who wants to know what they were like in the 1970s---could do better elsewhere.

This book is another one of those lit crit essays. It's better than average, if you're into that sort of stuff. But if you're looking for solid information (not based on interpretation from literature) about the Balkans, there's not very much in this book. The author chooses mainly Serbian authors, or authors writing from Belgrade and he seems well aware that this is the politically un-correct side to be describing at this point in time. Perhaps for this reason, he tries to stay clear of politics, aside from a few mentions of atrocities against the Serbs during World War II. If you like reading other people's interpretations of novels you've never heard of, then you might enjoy this book.

Good, if brief, summary of Balkan campaign. Reviews political, logistical, and force aspects of the campaigns, but left me wanting to know more of somethings but less of others. For example, he lists a detailed order of battle for the German forces arranged against Yugoslavia, but leaves you to find out on your own what the composition of a German Tank Corps would be, when a simple table would provide lots of clarity. For the Yugoslavia campaign, the bulk of the writing involves preparations, and the combat narrative is a bare skeleton. The Greek campaign is described in somewhat more detail and leaves the reader with a better understanding. The photos might be interesting if they were not too fuzzy to interpret. The maps are almost illegible and therefore unhelpful.

Holy claims to be writing about the 'Czech nation' and thus very irresponsibly lumps Moravians into that grouping. This is my main complaint. As an anthropologist who has done fieldwork in the area, it seems elementary to make this distinction. Holy is Czech and this may be the best explanation for his neglect

Wachtel's book represents an attempt to seek the causes for Yugoslavia's collapse over a decade ago in cultural factors. More specifically, he looks at the role literature and the fine arts (although the latter aspect receives much less attention; other forms of cultural creativity are basically ignored) played in both fomenting a common Yugoslav culture and undermining and eventually initiating the destruction of that very same culture. Along the way, Wachtel makes some valid observations and conclusions: early on, he takes issue with the 'historical inevitability' argument of Yugoslavia's break-up, pointing out that a study of the culture of any nation can produce arguments for 'inevitable' collapse. He cites the example of Germany, although the same applies to France, Italy, England, Spain and so on. Yet even in this initial section of the book, Wachtel's analysis is often marred by broad statements that are not sufficiently argued or backed by strong evidence. But the key flaw in this book is that it is yet another analysis based on a 'master variable' theory of Yugoslavia's collapse, i.e. culture, says Wachtel, is the key determinant. (Ironically, in the introduction he criticizes other scholars for making the same mistake, lambasting those who see the country's destruction as the result of exclusively political or economic factors.) Even if this thesis has merit, Wachtel's study is certainly insufficient to prove it one way or another. First, the focus on literature is too narrow, and second, even within this literary focus, the scope of research is again too narrow - he only covers a small handful of authors, and one can also question his reasons for choosing some and ignoring others. Sorely lacking is any consideration of popular/rock music, which during at least the last two decades of Yugoslavia's existence was a crucial cultural arena with both unifying and, to a lesser extent, disintegrative features. The same can also be said about Yugoslavia's motion picture industry. Wachtel's book is therefore only interesting and useful as a rather good but limited analysis of some aspects of mainly 20th century Yugoslav literary culture.

This is a collection of articles that cover the entire span of the history of the Bosnian Muslims, although the quality of the individual contributions varies greatly. The first three articles, which go from the Middle Ages to 1878, are unfortunately uninformative and even tedious for anyone who has already done some reading on general Balkan history, and probably confusing and perhaps overwhelming for those who have no previous knowledge in this field. By far the best piece is the article by this volume's editor, Mark Pinson, which covers the period of Austro-Hungarian rule in Bosnia-Herzegovina (1878-1918) and its effects on the Muslim community. This was in fact a very crucial period for the Bosnian Muslims, because as Pinson points out, it was when they first became a politically aware as a community, and began to seek new ways to articulate their needs. The final article by Ivo Banac, which covers the twentieth century, is a good survey of Bosnian Muslim political history, but it lacks depth, which is disappointing given the importance of this period for understanding events in Bosnia today. There is also a useful, if somewhat dated, appendix for finding further resources on Bosnia, both in print and on the Web. This book is, thus, a generally useful reference source, but it could and should have been something much more.

* * * Do NOT buy hardcover version! * * *

Summary:
Maps: **(*)
Text: ***(*)
To be used together with another atlas. (e.g. "Historical Atlas of East Central Europe, by P. R. Magocsi or Cartographia's "Történelmi Világatlasz" (in Hungarian))

Just like when I first discovered the "Historical Atlas of Eastern Europe" I thought: "At last a specific work on the topic in English!".
Well, despite the range of the maps - 50, listed at the end of the review - it was quite a disappointment.

The maps... They can at best be described as of "average" quality, but words like "perfunctory" or "sloppy" could be used as well. There is no excuse for the roughness and distortion of state boundaries, the lack of rivers and cities/towns. And the actual errors to them have yet to be mentioned. Still, since these maps cover a smaller area than their counterparts in the
"Historical Atlas of Eastern Europe", they are a bit more precise, but far from detailed.

It must be noted as well that GEOGRAPHICALLY the Northern boundary of the Balkan Peninsula is defined by the Danube - Sava - Kulpa rivers. Thus Slovenia is entirely and Croatia and Romania is partly outside of it. However, while historically Ljubljana and Zagreb is rightly considered Central European, Bucharest is linked to the Balkans. Despite it's acquisition of Transylvania in 1918/20.

It must be noted that the author makes an honest attempt to be objective in the history telling, by sometimes presenting several versions/views on the same event, BUT I am sure that even this won't satisfy everybody.
However, the style of the text is sometimes "odd". "Nationalist", is one of the much preferred word used by the author, especially when dealing with newer history. The difference between "nationalism" and "patriotism" is apparently very subjective.

All in all, the map part of this atlas is suitable for low-level studies of the area only, and the text for high-school studies.

A last remark: This volume shares 14 - or 1/3 - out of it's 50 maps with the "Historical Atlas of Eastern Europe" from the same series. (Nos. (5), 8, 11, 13, 17, 19, 21, 25, 30, 32, 33, 37, 38, 49 and 50, as observed by the author of these lines.)
So basically, the "Historical Atlas of the Balkans" - with it's 36 additional maps of the Balkans - is a complementary to the "Historical Atlas of Eastern Europe".

The Maps:
1: Physical
2: Political, 2001
3: Natural Resources
4: Demographic
5: Cultural
6: The East Roman Balkans, Late 6th Century
7: Avar, Slav, and Bulgarian Invasions, 7th Century
8: Rise of the First Bulgarian Empire, 7th-10th Centuries
9: Fall of the First Bulgarian Empire, Mid-10th-Early 11th Centuries
10: Rise of Medieval Croatia, 19th-12th Centuries
11: The Balkans, Late 12th Century
12: Crusades in the Balkans, Late 11th-Early 13th Centuries
13: The Balkans after the Fourth Crusade, 1204-1214
14: Byzantium Resurrected, 1261-1328
15: Rise of the Romanian Principalities, Mid-13th-14th Centuries
16: Rise of Medieval Bosnia, 13th-14th Centuries
17: Rise of Medieval Serbia, 13th-Mid-14th Centuries
18: Political Fragmentation, Mid-14th Century
19: Ottoman Expansion in the Balkans, Mid-14th-Early 16th Centuries
20: Fall of Constantinople, 1453 (and Ottoman Istanbul)
21: Apex of Ottoman Expansion, Mid-16th Century
22: Ottoman Millet Organization, Mid-16th-17th Centuries
23: Habsburg Croatian-Slavonian Military Border, 17th-18th Centuries
24: The Ottoman Balkans, Late 17th-18th Centuries
25: Emergence of Modern Balkan States, 1804-1862
26: The Balkan Crisis of 1875-1876
27: The "San-Stefano" Balkans, March 1878
28: The "Berlin" Balkans, July 1878
29: Balkan State Territorial Expansion, 1881-1886
30: The Macedonian Question
31: The Balkans, 1908
32: Bosnia-Hercegovina, 1908-1914
33: The Balkan Wars, 1912-1913
34: World War I in the Balkans
35: The Post-Versailles/Lausanne Balkans
36: Yugoslavia, 1929-1941
37: Post-Trianon Romania, 1920-1938
38: The Transylvanian Question
39: Bulgaria, 1919-1940
40: Greece, 1923-1941
41: Albania, 1921-1939
42: The Balkans, 1939-1940
43: World War II-The 1941 Balkan Campaign
44: The Axis-Dominated Balkans, 1941-1944
45: Balkan Cominform States 1945-1947
46: The Greek Civil War, 1946-1949
47: Splits in Communism, 1948-1960
48: Collapse of Communism, 1989-1991
49: Wars of Yugoslav Succession, 1991-1995
50: The Kosovo Crisis, 1999

Review based on First paperback September 2001 edition.

Expensive book. Syme started this book back in 1939. It was suppose to be his first book, but ended up shelving it. Some 60 years later a profesor from Germany (Anthony Birley) took on the project of dusting off Syme's original manuscript and a bunch of unpublished papers on the region which is the second title of this book. Syme died in 1989, but not before leaving all of this material to have one more book published posthumously. I read only one other Syme book (Emperors and Biography) and despite the prose being a little dated it was a good read. The Provincial at Rome is the first 120 pages of this book and is an excellent survey of the Roman Senate. He also covers the time leading up to Augustus, but I have read much better books on the early Empire. He does have an interesting take on the justification of Augustus' rule as compared to that of Julius Caesar. The last 70 or so pages is about Rome's involvement in the Balkans and that is why I read this book. I have seen very little written about Rome and the Balkans. Syme was one of the few historians with published works on the subject. However, even Syme is only able to "outline" the history. He has some detail on Macedonia, Dardania, Illyricum, and a great chapter on Caesar's plan to carve-up Dacia and Partha. A good read, but dry in parts. It takes a real Roman history nut to read this stuff. It has a couple good maps. The best part is the editor's choice to use footnotes instead of endnotes. It's so much easier to read footnotes.

Although Romania's contribution to World War II, both on the Axis and Allied sides, was much greater than Italy's, it has received very little attention in the West. This is mainly because almost all Romanian action was on the Eastern Front, save for air actions against Western Allied planes raiding over Romanian oil-refining plants, and therefore got little attention from West-oriented historians. Axworthy has remedied this situation with this dry, thorough, careful overview of the Romanian experience in World War II. This is a valuable reference tool, but not for pleasure reading...hopefully, the change in circumstances in Eastern Europe will eventually bring out livelier memoirs of Romanian veterans before they all pass away.