World History: True Stories of the 20th Century

Rudolf Höss, the long-time commandant of Auschwitz, became one of the most infamous figures of the Holocaust as the man who transformed Auschwitz-Birkenau into the largest killing center in Nazi-occupied Europe. Rudolf Höss, the long-time commandant of Auschwitz, remains one of the most infamous figures of the Holocaust—a man whose bureaucratic efficiency and unquestioning loyalty helped turn Ausc...

Joachim von Ribbentrop, Nazi Germany’s Foreign Minister and one of Adolf Hitler’s closest allies, helped shape the diplomatic strategy that paved the way for the Second World War. Joachim von Ribbentrop rose from a mediocre wine merchant to one of Adolf Hitler’s most trusted allies, shaping Nazi Germany’s foreign policy during its most aggressive years. Born in 1893, Ribbentrop lacked diplomatic t...

Johann Eichhorn became one of the most brutal serial killers in German history, committing a series of murders in Munich during the rise of Nazi Germany and the early years of World War II. Johann Eichhorn’s story unfolds against the backdrop of a world descending into war and brutality. As Nazi Germany invaded Poland in 1939 and unleashed the Second World War, Munich—far from the front lines—beca...

Pierre Laval, once a socialist politician and prime minister of France, became one of the most infamous collaborators with Nazi Germany during World War II. Pierre Laval’s legacy remains one of the most controversial in French history. Once a respected socialist and prime minister, Laval transitioned into one of the most infamous collaborators of Nazi Germany during World War II. Following France’...

Masaharu Homma, a general of the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II, became forever linked to one of the most infamous atrocities of the Pacific War — the Bataan Death March. General Masaharu Homma was one of the most controversial Japanese commanders of World War II. Celebrated early in his career as a cultured, Western-educated officer — fluent in English, a military attaché in London, a...

Sophie Scholl stands today as one of the most powerful symbols of moral courage in Nazi Germany. This biography explores her life, her resistance, and her final days as a member of the White Rose — one of the most important groups of German resistance during the Third Reich. Alongside her brother Hans Scholl, Christoph Probst, Alexander Schmorell, Willi Graf and professor Kurt Huber, Sophie helped...

The Minsk War Crimes Trial of 1945–1946 exposed the brutal realities of Nazi occupation in Belarus and ended with the public execution of several German perpetrators responsible for mass atrocities. In June 1941, 2 years after the beginning of the Second World War, Nazi Germany launched Operation Barbarossa and invaded the Soviet Union. Within days, Belarus fell under German occupation, and the ca...

Mikhail Tukhachevsky, Marshal of the Soviet Union and one of the most brilliant military reformers of his generation, became one of the most tragic victims of Joseph Stalin’s Great Purge. Born in 1893 into a family of minor nobility, Tukhachevsky rose rapidly through the ranks of the Russian and later Soviet armies. A decorated officer of the First World War, he was captured by the Germans and imp...

Lina Heydrich , the wife of SS leader Reinhard Heydrich , was one of the most fanatical women in the Nazi elite. Fiercely loyal to both her husband and Adolf Hitler’s regime, she embraced the power, privilege, and brutality that came with being the spouse of one of the Third Reich’s most feared men. Born in 1911 on the island of Fehmarn, Lina grew up surrounded by nationalism and antisemitism. In...