Reddit mentions of Strong of Heart: Life and Death in the Fire Department of New York

J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography by Humphrey Carpenter - Originally, I bought this one for my older brother as a birthday gift, because he got me into Tolkien in the first place. I borrowed it when he had read it. Definitely a must for any fantasy fan! You start to get his work when you realize what he had to go through.

Die drei Leben des Rudi Dutschke / The three lives of Rudi Dutschke by Ulrich Chaussy - If you´re not german, you probably never heard of this guy and never will. While students in the US in the late 1960s demonstrated against the war in vietnam and dreamed of a better way of living, students in west germany pretty much did the same things, but they also started to aks questions about what their parents did during the nazi regime. Rudi Dutschke was one of the ideological leaders of the student movement in the west. Born in communist east germany, he wasn´t allowed to study since he refused to serve in the east german army because of his christian-pacifist believes. He fled to west Berlin and became a vocal activist against any kind of authoritarianism (wich was still very dominant even in west germany at that time).

Strong of Heart: Life and Death in the Fire Department of New York by Thomas von Essen - Long story short, this guy was the commissioner of the FDNY during 9/11. As a volunteer FF and (back then) student of an emergency management engineering program, this autobiography was a must read. And I openly confess, I cried at certain points.

From Dachau to D-Day by Helen Fry - The story of Willy Field, born Willy Hirschfeld, a german of jewisch faith, who was improsoned by the nazis, was send to Dachau concentration camp, was bought free by a friend of his family, fled to London and joined the british army to free europe. This man was born in my hometown, which is why I became interested in his story in the first place.