News Desk: A Reporter’s Lawyer My lawyer died last week. His name was Michael Nussbaum, of Washington, D.C. He was seventy-six years old and Stage 4 lung cancer got him after a brave two-year struggle. He was survived by his wife, Gloria Weissberg, and her two daughters. What’s harder to put into words is the relationship of a trusted lawyer and an investigative reporter. Lots of words, but what do they mean in practice? Michael, whom I had initially befriended in 1958, when we were classmates at the University of Chicago law school (I bailed out; he was the class whiz), had been defending conscientious objectors and others opposed to the war in Vietnam. In early October of 1969, I picked up the first hint of what would become known as the My Lai massacre. It was more than a little distressing; it was frightening. He was then living in a small house in Georgetown and, luckily for me, answered my stricken telephone call one night in early November. So I did. Latimer had one more inducement. Michael Nussbaum in 1986.
World War II: The Battle of Britain - In Focus In the summer and autumn of 1940, Germany's Luftwaffe conducted thousands of bombing runs, attacking military and civilian targets across the United Kingdom. Hitler's forces, in an attempt to achieve air superiority, were preparing for an invasion of Britain code-named "Operation Sea Lion." At first, they bombed only military and industrial targets. But after the Royal Air Force hit Berlin with retaliatory strikes in September, the Germans began bombing British civilian centers. Some 23,000 British civilians were killed between July and December 1940. Thousands of pilots and air crews engaged in battle in the skies above Britain, Germany, and the English Channel, each side losing more than 1,500 aircraft by the end of the year. Use j/k keys or ←/→ to navigate Choose: The dome of St. A formation of low-flying German Heinkel He 111 bombers flies over the waves of the English Channel in 1940. The Palace of Westminster in London, silhouetted against light from fires caused by bombings. Mrs.
Reinhard Heydrich Biography: The First In-depth Look at a Nazi 'God of Death' - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International The site for the assassination was carefully chosen at a point where a steeply sloping street in Prague's Libe district made a hairpin turn, forcing approaching cars to slow down considerably. This is precisely what the driver of a heavy convertible Mercedes did as his vehicle climbed toward the curve at approximately 10:30 a.m. on May 27, 1942. Dieser Artikel ist aus dem SPIEGEL Hier geht es zum digitalen Heft Neu:Lesen Sie den vollständigen SPIEGEL auf Tablets, Smartphones oder am PC/MACMit vielen zusätzlichen Videos, interaktiven Grafiken und BildernLesbar über Apps oder Browser Behind the driver sat his boss, one of Adolf Hitler's most devoted followers. That man was none other than Reinhard Heydrich, chief of the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA), the body charged with fighting all "enemies of the Reich" within and outside German borders, and one of the principle organizers of the Holocaust. This and similar orders were what motivated the assassins lying in wait at the curve ahead.
The bombers looked so majestic... then death rained from the sky: 70 years after the Blitz, the heart-stopping accounts of courageous survivors By Juliet Gardiner Updated: 23:16 GMT, 27 August 2010 The familiar wail of the air raid siren had sent porter Robert Baltrop clambering on to the roof of a Sainsbury's store in East London on that never-to-be-forgotten warm and cloudless late summer afternoon of September 7, 1940. 'It wasn't bad doing lookout duty during these daytime warnings,' he recalled, looking back on events that happened 70 years ago, 'sitting up there in the sunshine, smoking and looking down at the people going about their business as usual in the streets below. I wasn't even really sure what I was watching for.' World War II was by this time officially more than a year old. Carnage: A bus lies inside a huge bomb crater after heavy German air raid attacks during the Blitz The declaration of war had been followed by a long autumn and winter of terrified anticipation, but little sign of the Armageddon that had been feared. Within minutes, the huge warehouses and factories on both sides of the Thames were ablaze.
China 1911: The Birth of China's Tragedy Jonathan Fenby argues that the failings of China's 1911 revolution heralded decades of civil conflict, occupation and suffering for the Chinese people. Chinese rebel leaders Liu Fuji (left) and Peng Chufan were arrested and beheaded early on October 10th. The Chinese displayed their heads as a warning, ‘killing the chicken to scare the monkeys’, but the Republican government honoured them as martyrs. The London Blitz, 1940 The London Blitz, 1940 The appearance of German bombers in the skies over London during the afternoon of September 7, 1940 heralded a tactical shift in Hitler's attempt to subdue Great Britain. During the previous two months, the Luftwaffe had targeted RAF airfields and radar stations for destruction in preparation for the German invasion of the island. With invasion plans put on hold and eventually scrapped, Hitler turned his attention to destroying London in an attempt to demoralize the population and force the British to come to terms. At around 4:00 PM on that September day, 348 German bombers escorted by 617 fighters blasted London until 6:00 PM. Two hours later, guided by the fires set by the first assault, a second group of raiders commenced another attack that lasted until 4:30 the following morning. This was the beginning of the Blitz - a period of intense bombing of London and other cities that continued until the following May. St.
A PRIEST BEARS WITNESS Father Patrick Desbois is on a mission to uncover the mass graves of nearly two million Jews. Sixty years after the Holocaust, time is running out. by Sarah Breger Father Patrick Desbois seldom smiles. The diminutive 56-year-old has spent the last eight years on what some have called a “holy mission,” traveling across Eastern Europe—mostly in Ukraine—to identify the unmarked and sometimes previously unknown graves of the more than 1.5 million Jews murdered there during World War II. His work is bringing to light an often-neglected chapter of Holocaust history—that of entire Jewish communities massacred where they lived. Desbois was born in a farmhouse in peaceful Burgundy, France in 1955, after the war. As a mathematics student at Dijon University in eastern France, Desbois found himself attracted to theology and religious studies. In 2002, while traveling in Ukraine, he visited the site of his grandfather’s imprisonment, Rawa-Ruska. Documenting the massacres is only the first step.
Primary History - World War 2 - The war effort 1911, The Other Revolution | Online Only Photo by Gregory Jordan. Beijing’s underground system, hastily expanded for the 2008 Olympics, is spacious and modern. Its trains move so quietly that the ringing of mobile phones and the shouted conversations that ensue almost drown them out. Peremptory public announcements order passengers to Stand Back! Board the Train! On 1 July, every screen in the underground was tuned to the Chinese Communist Party’s celebration of its own ninetieth birthday: a cast of several hundred waving gigantic red flags on the gargantuan stage of the Great Hall of People, the main theatre of government ritual in Tiananmen Square into which the people, in fact, are rarely invited. There were two historic anniversaries this year in China. The Chinese Communist Party was founded in a small building in the then French Concession in Shanghai in 1921. The Qing Dynasty was overthrown ten years before the Party came into existence. Official references to 1911, so far, have been perfunctory.
Coco Chanel: Nazi agent? She was one of the most remarkable women of the 20th Century, but Coco Chanel's reputation is again under scrutiny over allegations that she was a Nazi agent in World War II France. To millions of people around the globe Chanel stands for style, opulence and understated elegance, from haute couture worn by the few to ready-to-wear treasured by the masses. Her achievements are undeniable. Chanel's instantly recognisable suits have been sported by stylistas from the Duchess of Windsor to Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. Jackie Kennedy was wearing a pink version when JFK was assassinated in Dallas in 1963. And, the "little black dress", that byword for elegant simplicity as worn by Audrey Hepburn in the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's, has regularly topped polls for the most iconic of all items of clothing. But there is another side to the story of Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, and it concerns her actions in occupied France during World War II. "Chanel was a consummate opportunist. "He wasn't. Murky motives
Hans Litten: The man who annoyed Adolf Hitler 19 August 2011Last updated at 11:19 By Jon Kelly BBC News Magazine A new drama tells the story of a Jewish lawyer who confronted Hitler 80 years ago - earning the dictator's life-long hatred. So who was Hans Litten? In the Berlin courtroom, Adolf Hitler's face burned a deep, furious red. The future dictator was not accustomed to this kind of scrutiny. But here he was, being interrogated about the violence of his paramilitary thugs by a young man who represented everything he despised - a radical, principled, fiercely intelligent Jewish lawyer called Hans Litten. The Nazi leader was floundering in the witness stand. "That is a statement that can be proved by nothing!" Litten's demolition of Hitler's argument that the Nazis were a peaceful, democratic movement earned the lawyer years of brutal persecution. He was among the first of the fuehrer's political opponents to be rounded up after the Nazis assumed power. Litten was, long before he confronted the dictator, a staunch anti-Nazi.
The Gorbachev Files: Secret Papers Reveal Truth Behind Soviet Collapse - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International In the summer of 1990, after both men had negotiated the details of German reunification, his relationship with Kohl changed. The ice was finally broken when Gorbachev and his wife Raisa traveled to Germany in November, visiting the Kohls at their house in Oggersheim in western Germany and touring the nearby Speyer Cathedral with them. They even dined at Kohl's favorite restaurant, the Deidesheimer Hof. The two men switched to first-name terms on that occasion -- the breakthrough in their relationship. Gorbachev needed the influential German chancellor, now that the situation was becoming dicey at home. In those months, Gorbachev reached for the phone more and more often to discuss the situation with his "friend Helmut," who had suddenly become his political adviser. This hesitation becomes clear to anyone who reads the transcripts, most of which were prepared by translators who also had to report to the KGB. The two men spoke by telephone once again on the evening of Feb. 20, 1991.
Why did Japan surrender? For nearly seven decades, the American public has accepted one version of the events that led to Japan’s surrender. By the middle of 1945, the war in Europe was over, and it was clear that the Japanese could hold no reasonable hope of victory. After years of grueling battle, fighting island to island across the Pacific, Japan’s Navy and Air Force were all but destroyed. But in early August 66 years ago, America unveiled a terrifying new weapon, dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. On Aug. 6, the United States marks the anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing’s mixed legacy. In recent years, however, a new interpretation of events has emerged. “Hasegawa has changed my mind,” says Richard Rhodes, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “The Making of the Atomic Bomb.” President Truman’s decision to go nuclear has long been a source of controversy. Both the American and Japanese public have clung to the idea that the mushroom clouds ended the war. Yet it was more than callousness.