How To Tell If A Conspiracy Theory Is Daft
In 2011, Giuliano Mignini, the prosecutor responsible for making a pig's breakfast of the Monster of Florence case and damaging, possibly beyond repair, the futures of Raffele Sollecito and Amanda…
A Reader’s Perspective on Christmas in the Third Reich
From my reader, Lilo, (b. 1939, near Munich), further evidence that any changes the Nazis made to Christmas celebrations were subtle and often ignored by the German public: I wasn't…
Leaving Nazi Germany
In Summer of Long Knives, Rolf and Klara's main goal--disrupted by the murder of Gretl Hofstengl--is to leave Nazi Germany. Accomplishing this involved clearing a couple of very high hurdles: the…
Talk to Me Live on Twitter Chat 11/13 @ 6pm Pacific
Our subject will be the lives of women in Nazi Germany during the 1930s, and the way those lives are reflected in Summer of Long Knives. Women's lives ran the gamut…
The Nazi Judiciary
The court system in Nazi Germany was an example of the meandering course of Hitler's efforts to reshape government institutions to suit his interests. Despite the lenient treatment he had…
Resistance to the Nazis in the 1930s
In the first months of Nazi rule, labor unions and opposition political parties ceased to exist as government and society were subjected to the Gleichschaltung process, which was intended to reorganize all…
Julius Streicher and Der Stürmer
When you're a member of a political party that includes Adolf Hitler, Joseph Goebbels, Alfred Rosenberg, Heinrich Himmler, and Reinhard Heydrich, and they call you "Jew-Baiter Number One", you know…
Doctors In the Third Reich
Given the Nazi emphasis on the maintenance both of pure blood and the body of the German volk, it should surprise no one that the Nazis had a special interest…
Block Wardens: The Eyes and Ears of the Gestapo
One of the things that surprised me when I started researching the Nazi police apparatus for Summer of Long Knives was how small the Gestapo really was: 40,000 agents and staff to…