Gerhard Palitzsch was born on June 17, 1913, in the village of Groß-Oßnitz, near Dresden, then part of the German Empire. Before his criminal career began, he worked as a farmer. In 1933, he joined the Nazi Party and the SS. His work in the concentration camp system started the same year, when he became … Read more
Deep in the mountains of Harlan County, Kentucky, an extraordinary discovery was made in 2003 when surveyors stumbled upon a remote cabin hidden so far from any trail that they initially believed they had found ruins from a century earlier. But the structure was not abandoned, and the man inside was not a relic. He … Read more
When Princess Margaret died in February 2002, one of her longest public roles did not pass to her daughter. Margaret had been president of the Royal Ballet School since 1956. For nearly 46 years, the connection between princess and institution had seemed permanent. Lady Sarah Chatto did not step into the presidency. She did not … Read more
When Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933, the Nazi regime quickly moved to restrict the civil and human rights of Jews and others deemed enemies of the state. The first concentration camp, Dachau, was opened near Munich. Alongside Jews and political prisoners, the Nazis also persecuted thousands of homosexual men … Read more
Emma Zimmer was 60 years old when she was hanged at Hamelin prison on September 20, 1948. The former Nazi guard had served at multiple concentration camps, including Ravensbrück and Auschwitz, where survivors testified to her brutal treatment of prisoners. Zimmer was born on August 14, 1888, in Hazmersheim, then part of the German Empire. … Read more
World War I is often taught as a tragedy triggered by two bullets in Sarajevo, but the deeper forces behind the conflict were rooted in economics, empire, and a single infrastructure project that terrified Britain more than any rival navy. That project was the Berlin–Baghdad railway, an iron road designed to connect the heart of … Read more
In August 1944, as the Polish Home Army launched the Warsaw Uprising, Nazi Germany responded with an order of unparalleled brutality. Adolf Hitler commanded that every inhabitant of the city be killed and that Warsaw be razed to the ground. To carry out this directive, German command deployed a collection of improvised units, including a … Read more
In the final days of World War II, as the Red Army closed in on Berlin, a German general made a decision that would define his legacy. General Walther Wenck, commanding the 12th Army, chose to disobey Hitler’s orders to save the city. Instead, he focused on a desperate evacuation that would save tens of … Read more
On January 27, 1945, the Red Army entered Auschwitz, the largest of the Nazi extermination centers in German-occupied Poland. At least 1.3 million people were deported to the camp between 1940 and 1945, and at least 1.1 million were murdered there. Soviet soldiers liberated more than 7,000 surviving inmates, most of whom were ill and … Read more
On June 6, 1944, Allied forces landed on the Normandy coast in France. The invasion marked a turning point in World War II and signaled the beginning of the end of the war in Europe. The following month, Soviet forces liberated Majdanek, the first major Nazi camp in German-occupied Poland. Only after the liberation of … Read more