N1104

Amon Leopold Göth was born on December 11, 1908, in Vienna, then part of Austria-Hungary. He grew up in a bourgeois household sustained by a book and art publishing business, a setting that offered comfort but little emotional warmth. As a child and adolescent, Göth showed little discipline and frequently clashed with authority figures. After … Read more

On May 10, 1940, Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands. German airborne forces seized tactical points to support the advance of ground troops, while heavy aerial bombardment struck Rotterdam. The destruction of the city's historic center culminated on May 14, and with the Germans threatening to bomb Utrecht in the same manner, the Dutch forces surrendered … Read more

When Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933, it marked the end of German democracy. The Nazi regime soon established a Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda under Joseph Goebbels, using propaganda to mobilize the population for its wars of conquest. After Nazi Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, … Read more

Carl Hanke was born on August 24, 1903, in the small Silesian town of Lauban, then part of the German Empire and today the Polish town of Luban. His father, Wilhelm Robert Hanke, was a railway engineer. During the First World War, Carl's older brother was killed. Too young to fight in that war, Hanke … Read more

When Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933, the Nazi movement began tightening its grip on the state. Political opponents were arrested, rival parties were destroyed, and Germany was transformed into a dictatorship. The new regime did not need only soldiers and party officials. It also needed symbols: women who could be … Read more