q1903

They were the women who had it all: the wives and mistresses of Nazi Germany's leaders. They lived gilded, luxurious lives at the expense of the state, were held up as symbols of perfect German womanhood, and often wielded considerable influence behind the scenes. So what happened to them and their children when their husbands … Read more

In September 1944, an American armored column ground to a halt in a narrow stone street in a liberated village near Reims, France. Mud-splattered tanks idled as tired soldiers sat on the fenders, wiping grease from their hands. Then a small figure emerged from the shadow of a ruined bakery, walking straight toward the command … Read more

Rain beat against the canvas of a convalescent ward tent outside Paris in March 1945. Inside, on the third cot from the entrance, lay Private Ray Nelson, a 21-year-old artillery observer. A thick layer of gauze rested across his ruined eyes. His fingers turned over a small carved wooden corncob whistle in his right hand. … Read more

In February 1945, near Metz, a muddy and frozen prisoner-of-war enclosure held hundreds of captured German soldiers under the watchful eyes of American guards. Rain glistened on the barbed wire. Among the crowd stood Major Kurt Meier, 42, a defeated Wehrmacht officer in a soiled uniform, clutching a torn, water-damaged piece of paper with trembling … Read more

On the night of August 30, 1944, a convoy of US Army trucks raced west through pitch darkness and hammering rain near the Belgian border. The drivers were not afraid of German snipers or landmines. They were afraid of American military police, because they were not on a supply run. They were on a heist. … Read more

In May 1945, the war in Europe was over. Inside a secret Allied interrogation center known as Ashcan, the highest-ranking survivors of the Third Reich were gathered. Field marshals and generals, the architects of the German war machine, sat in simple chairs smoking American cigarettes. They had been stripped of their power. An American intelligence … Read more