PN1501

On September 1, 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland, marking the beginning of the Second World War. After defeating the Polish Army, the Germans ruthlessly suppressed the Poles, whom they considered racially inferior. In the weeks following the attack, German SS, police, and militia units shot thousands of Polish civilians, including many members of the nobility, … Read more

Few German generals impressed Hitler and the Nazi leadership in the final months of World War II as much as Ferdinand Schörner. His reputation rested less on tactical brilliance than on brutality. Schörner stood apart from nearly all of Hitler's senior army commanders because of his humble origins. Born in Munich in 1892 to a … Read more

In May 1945, outside Frankfurt, an American soldier at a checkpoint noticed a girl approaching. She looked about 15 years old, thin and exhausted, her dirty clothes hanging loose on her frame. She was carrying a baby. The soldier raised his hand. Stop. The checkpoint was closed to civilians. But the girl kept walking, slowly, … Read more

In April 1945, as General George S. Patton's column moved through a small German town, a woman appeared at a checkpoint on the main road. She was not a refugee and she was not asking for passage. She had walked from a building three streets away, an orphanage that had stood on the same site … Read more

In April 1945, the Third Army was 12 miles from the end of the war in Europe. Among the many Americans serving in its ranks was Lieutenant Margaret Chen, a Red Cross nurse who had been in Europe since June 1944. She had spent 10 months in field hospitals, working through the night when it … Read more

In April 1945, as Patton's Third Army raced east toward the Czech border, a scout patrol sweeping a German farm made a discovery that would leave even hardened veterans shaken. The patrol was led by Sergeant Tom Riley, a 28-year-old from Brooklyn who had been fighting since Normandy. He thought he had seen everything the … Read more

In May 1945, the war in Europe was over. The SS was surrendering across Germany. An SS officer was brought to Third Army headquarters as a prisoner. He was high-ranking and arrogant, still wearing his black uniform as if it meant something. He had been captured near the Austrian border. His unit had tried to … Read more

In the summer of 1944, as Allied armies broke into fortress ports and field hospital complexes across Normandy, German military nurses began falling into American hands in groups. They came out of bunkers with their hands raised, wearing gray uniforms with Red Cross armbands. They had been told exactly what capture would mean. Germany's propaganda … Read more