In der Nacht des 8. November 1943 saß General George S. Patton in seinem Quartier in Palermo auf Sizilien und konnte nicht schlafen. Er schlief selten gut, selten mehr als drei oder vier Stunden. Sein Kopf arbeitete ständig, plante, dachte an die nächste Schlacht. Doch diesmal gab es keine nächste Schlacht. Es gab nur Warten, … Read more
The morning of a September day in 2015 began with an unusual disturbance on Cleveland Street in Hutchinson, Kansas. Four unmarked FBI vehicles quietly pulled up in front of a small room at the Riverside Haven Nursing Home. Residents and a few morning shift staff peered through their curtains as agents in tactical jackets took … Read more
Pole hanging was an execution method used in Czechoslovakia and Hungary during and at the end of World War II. The practice had historical roots in the age of empires, but it was often carried out poorly, producing drawn-out deaths and more suffering than necessary. It was used against former German army soldiers and officers, … Read more
In the summer of 2009, Bend, Oregon, was the kind of quiet city where families felt safe. Located along the Deschutes River and surrounded by pine forests and dormant volcanic mountains, it was a place where children rode bikes until sunset. The Carter family lived in a modest home not far from downtown, known to … Read more
Five former female guards of the Stutthof concentration camp were hanged together before a crowd estimated at 200,000 people on a hill overlooking Gdansk, bringing to a close one of the most closely watched war crimes proceedings to emerge from the ashes of the Second World War. The executions, carried out at Biskupia Górka on … Read more
An estate sale in Chicago in October brought antique dealer Sophia Martinez to a sprawling Tudor-style mansion on the city's North Side. The Williamson family had lived in the house for nearly a century before the last heir, elderly Margaret Williamson, died without children. Now strangers sorted through the family's belongings, each item tagged with … Read more
In April 1945, a cold spring wind moved across a yard of frozen mud and rusted barbed wire near Hammelburg, Bavaria. It carried the smell of sickness. Hundreds of American prisoners stood in ragged formation. Their uniforms hung from shoulders that no longer filled them. Their cheeks were sunken, and their eyes looked past the … Read more
Snow still lay thick on the platform steps when Emily Hartman vanished from Anchorage, Alaska. The city of 183,000 was locked in the grip of early winter storms, and the last night of November began with a blast of frigid wind that whipped down with a blizzard, dumping more than a foot of snow across … Read more
At 2:17 a.m. Moscow time on November 23, 1963, Vladimir Semichastny, head of Soviet intelligence, sat in his office at the Lubyanka headquarters reading a translated cable from the Washington station. The message was urgent. The American president had been shot. Lee Harvey Oswald had been arrested — a former U.S. Marine, a defector to … Read more
Inside the Nazi concentration camp system during World War II, many men and women became monsters who unleashed terror on the prisoners they were assigned to guard and torture. Camps such as Bergen-Belsen and Dachau employed a variety of torture methods carried out by guards. Many guards received orders to sow fear in the hearts … Read more