In April 1997, Victoria Gifford Kennedy and her husband issued a joint statement announcing their separation after 16 years of marriage. The statement was described as amicable. It requested privacy. It was carefully worded, the way statements written by lawyers are worded. Nothing was admitted, nothing was denied, and nothing was mentioned that could be … Read more
In the autumn of 1956, a woman walking through the small German village of Stocksee stopped in front of a brick house. A polished brass plaque beside the door read: “Dr. Herta Oberheuser, General Medicine and Pediatrics.” The woman read the name once, then again. She knew exactly who that doctor was. She knew what … Read more
Lazar Kaganovich never wrote important theory, never commanded a celebrated army, and never built a personal following. By the usual measures of standing in the Bolshevik world, nothing about him should have placed him near the center of Soviet power. Yet he became one of the most powerful men in the Soviet Union, and he … Read more
When the burial party reached the top of the hill, they found George Armstrong Custer stripped naked except for his socks, his body propped against fallen soldiers as if he were merely sleeping. But the peaceful appearance was deceiving. His chest and head had been pierced by bullets. His brother Tom lay beside him, gutted, … Read more
On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany. The Nazi regime quickly moved to restrict the civil and human rights of Jewish people, gradually excluding them from professions, businesses, and public spaces. Propaganda campaigns created an atmosphere tolerant of violence against Jews. These campaigns also prepared the German population for harsher measures, … Read more
On July 19, 1940, Adolf Hitler walked into the Kroll Opera House in Berlin. He was not there to watch a performance, but to stage one. In a single afternoon, he promoted 12 generals to field marshal, the highest rank in the German military. Within five years, one of them would be hanged by the … Read more
The war in Europe ended on May 8, 1945, but for Germany’s top U-boat commanders, the reckoning came in fragments over the following weeks, months, and years. Some were killed by their own men. Others faced prison, courtrooms, or exile. A few returned to service under a new flag. Wolfgang Lüth did not survive the … Read more
In late September 1941, German forces and their auxiliaries carried out one of the largest single-site mass killings of World War II at a ravine called Babi Yar, just outside Kiev, Ukraine. Over two days, SS units, German police, and local collaborators massacred 33,785 Jewish men, women, and children. The massacre came after months of … Read more
In late 1941, the German military advance into the Soviet Union brought with it the mobile killing units of the SS and police. These units followed the front lines with a specific mission: the mass murder of Jews, Communists, and others deemed threats to German occupation. The city of Kharkov, one of the Soviet Union’s … Read more
In late 1941, the German 11th Army under General Erich von Manstein began its offensive to seize Crimea. After months of brutal fighting, German forces gained total control of the peninsula by July 1942. During the occupation, Jews in Crimea faced systematic persecution, including beatings, torture, and mass executions. At the time of the German … Read more