On a June night in 1944, all was dark and quiet as the 13-man crew of the small D-Day landing craft slowly approached the south coast on its return journey from Normandy.

But just four miles from the safety of Portsmouth harbour, disaster struck. The small craft collided with HMS Rodney, a 34,000-ton battleship, which sliced the boat in half.

It is not unknown for Jews to make up new words. It is part of the psyche of a people as rich in vocabulary as in history. But there is one four-letter word that is wonderfully redolent of service to the Anglo-Jewish community. It will not be found in any dictionary. It is frequently misspelt. But at this time of year, in particular, it should be on the lips of every thinking British Jew.

A playwright has cancelled his Halloween ghost tours performances, which have parts set during the Second World War, because the body that commissioned the work, English Heritage, did not want him to focus on the Nazis or Jews.

Nazi Germany started bombing Britain in September 1940. The bombings continued on for 76 consecutive days - until May 10 1941 - as Germany attempted to destroy Britain's infrastructure and cripple the country's war economy.

It was reported at the time that the attacks were the worst offence committed by Germany since the war began.

By Alexander Baron
Sort of Books, £7.99

Alec Baron was one of the outstanding Jewish writers of the post-war period and, thanks to a group of small publishers, we have been re-introduced to his best novels. His two great subjects were the Second World War and London and There's No Home is the second in his war trilogy.

For the second time in less than 20 years Britain and France were declaring war on Germany, this time, for the invasion of Poland.

Hitler's obsession with expanding Germany into a greater nation with more "Lebensraum" (living space) began with the Polish territories.

The city had been occupied by Hitler's forces for four long years, but finally General Charles de Gaulle and the allied forces were able to march back into Paris.

When Eric Bourne's family fled Germany the year Hitler came to power, the nine-year-old never imagined he was about to embark on the happiest years of his life.

"I just remember an interview with this very large lady in a suburb of Berlin, and by October 1933 I was at school in Kent with 60 other Jewish children from Germany."

Chris Huhne has compared climate change sceptics to politicians in the 1930s who believed Adolf Hitler could be appeased.

The Energy Secretary was speaking at Chatham House when he said that today's need for a deal tackling climate change was "our Munich moment".

"Giving in to the forces of low ambition would be an act of climate appeasement," he said.