On December 22, 1947, in Kraków, Poland, former personnel of Auschwitz, the deadliest of the German Nazi concentration camps, heard their verdict. After a month of horrifying testimony, it emerged that many SS guards had taken part in inhuman torture and mass murder of prisoners, often for pleasure, and that their cruelty went far beyond … Read more
On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany launched Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. Among the first territories occupied was Belarus, officially the Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, which had been under Russian control for almost 150 years. Within a week, German forces captured the capital, Minsk, and immediately began implementing genocidal policies. Jews were … Read more
On September 12, 1942, in the South Atlantic about 600 miles off the coast of West Africa, the German submarine U-156 torpedoed a British troop ship. As the vessel sank, Commander Werner Hartenstein surfaced to capture officers for interrogation. Then he heard voices — hundreds of them. Hartenstein realized what he had done. The ship … Read more
The balcony kiss on July 29, 1981, was watched by 750 million people. It was the first kiss ever performed on that balcony, and it was requested for the cameras. Days earlier, the bride had found a gold bracelet in an aide's office. It was engraved with two initials that were not hers. It was … Read more
Dusko Popov grew up in Dubrovnik, Croatia, then part of Yugoslavia, in a wealthy and well-connected family. His privileged upbringing gave him confidence, friends, and a taste for fast cars and fast women. He was also a star pupil, fluent in Italian, German, and French. His father insisted he attend the finest European schools, sending … Read more
For most of the world, the story of Edward VIII is finished. A king, a woman, and a crown left behind on a table. It is remembered as a dramatic romance about a man who had everything and chose to give it all up for love. But one detail is often overlooked. Queen Elizabeth II, … Read more
The ten days between Adolf Hitler's death and Heinrich Himmler's departure from the Flensburg area are often treated as a footnote in the history of the Third Reich. In reality, they were a period of intense political intrigue, as the former Reichsführer SS refused to accept that power had passed him by. Himmler had believed … Read more
On March 15, 1939, German troops marched into Prague. Crowds stood in stunned silence as armored vehicles rolled across the cobblestones and soldiers took positions at bridges, ministries, and railway stations. By afternoon, the swastika flew above the city. The capital of Czechoslovakia had fallen without a single battle. Fear settled over the city as … Read more
By the autumn of 1944, the war in the West had entered a strange and brutal new phase. The German army that had once marched triumphantly into Paris was now being pushed back across the same roads it had conquered four years earlier, retreating while bleeding fuel, men, and the myth of its own invincibility. … Read more
The 1936 Berlin Olympics were staged as a spectacle of Nazi power. Adolf Hitler watched from a grandstand surrounded by banners and soldiers as athletes from around the world competed in a city transformed into a stage for dictatorship. The regime downplayed its antisemitic agenda and its plans for territorial conquest, using the Games to … Read more