Lee Marvin died in 1987, and the obituaries painted a familiar picture: screen legend, war hero, Oscar winner, one of the toughest men Hollywood ever put on film. What those tributes rarely mentioned was the life he left behind—four children, two marriages, a landmark court case, and a private world that had little in common … Read more
Adolf Eichmann was one of the chief architects of the Holocaust. When World War II ended, he went on the run and remained a fugitive until 1960, when Israeli agents seized him in Buenos Aires, Argentina. His subsequent trial provided a much-needed catharsis for Holocaust survivors, World War II veterans, and war-weary citizens alike. Eichmann … Read more
During World War II, as Nazi forces swept across Europe, a teenage girl in the Netherlands was trained as a covert assassin for the resistance. She was only 14 years old. Her name was Freddie Oversteegen, and she would become known for using flirtation and charm to lure Nazi soldiers to their deaths. Freddie was … Read more
When William Randolph Hearst died in August 1951, the woman who had shared his life for three decades was asleep in the house they called home. By the time she woke, his sons had already removed his body and left her behind. She was not invited to the funeral. Marion Davies had saved Hearst’s empire … Read more
On 10 May 1940, Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands. The invasion included heavy aerial bombardment, and Rotterdam’s historic center was destroyed on 14 May. Dutch forces surrendered one day later, and the occupation began. Soon after, the Nazis introduced anti-Jewish laws designed to exclude Jewish people from society. Systematic deportations of Dutch Jews to death … Read more
The morning of July 29, 1981, was golden over London. The crowds had been waiting for days. Inside Clarence House, the work had begun before sunrise. A dresser who had been in royal service for 11 years later said she had never seen a bride cry so much in the hours before a wedding. She … Read more
On May 8, 1945, Germany surrendered and World War II officially ended in Europe. The Nazis were defeated, and millions of people were freed from oppression. However, 1945 did not mark the true end of the Nazi legacy. The notorious leaders of the Third Reich left another mark on the globe: their children. Monika Hertwig, … Read more
In 1934, a British surveyor named Alaric Vain crossed nine days of high Himalayan trail and entered a valley that did not appear on any map. He went in believing he was filling in a blank space on paper. He came out carrying the name of that valley written in his notebook, in an ink … Read more
On June 22, 1941, German forces crossed the Soviet border and launched Operation Barbarossa. Behind the front lines came the mobile killing units known as the Einsatzgruppen, tasked with exterminating entire populations in Eastern Europe, including Jews, communists, and other groups deemed enemies of the Reich. Among the first territories occupied by Nazi forces was … Read more
The funeral took place in a chapel on a late summer day in 1968. St. George’s Chapel at Windsor was filled with black coats, veiled hats, and old uniforms brought out of cupboards. Faces were schooled by decades of palace discipline into the correct contained expression of royal grief. They had come to bury Princess … Read more