STR Germany

The motorcade rolled through Sarajevo on the morning of June 28, 1914, and Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were smiling at the crowds. They had survived an assassination attempt just minutes earlier, a bomb thrown from the cheering masses that had exploded behind their car. The heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne decided to … Read more

In 1917, while Europe tore itself apart in the Great War, a small Southeast Asian kingdom made a bold move. Siam, today known as Thailand, declared war on Germany and Austria-Hungary and sent its own soldiers to fight on the Western Front. This is the story of how a nation that had never been colonized … Read more

September 1944, eastern France. A German major had spent nearly twenty years learning how to stop an advancing army. He knew the rules: destroy the bridge, mine the crossroads, hold the high ground, force the enemy to pause. Every hour you delayed an attacker gave your headquarters time to move reserves into position. That was … Read more

Dix ans de silence à l’intérieur de la villa Castillot furent brisés par une phrase trop petite pour porter autant de poids. Alejandro Castillot se tenait devant la cheminée, regardant le portrait de Diego, le fils qui avait disparu alors qu’il n’avait que quatre ans. Toute la maison semblait retenir son souffle. Les couloirs de … Read more

Hans Frank was hanged on October 16, 1946, but his death closed only one chapter in the history of the family he left behind. His widow, Brigitte, and their five children remained tied to one of the most reviled figures of the Third Reich long after the war ended. As governor general of occupied Poland, … Read more

Une simple faute de frappe peut changer le cours d’une vie. Clarara voulait juste quitter un homme qui ne se souvenait jamais de son anniversaire. Son pouce a glissé sur l’écran fissuré de son téléphone. Elle a envoyé son dernier adieu à Mè dans le vide numérique. La réponse qu’elle a reçue 30 secondes plus … Read more

In April 1945, as the Third Reich crumbled, Hitler clung to a desperate hope: that the Americans and Soviets would turn on each other. He had seen the Allied plan for dividing Germany, captured from the British, and he watched the Americans push into the Soviet zone, crossing the Elbe and moving into Czechoslovakia. German … Read more

The first siren wailed across Keel on a morning in 1940, and for months afterward, the workers in the yards would speak of that sound as the moment everything changed. Not overnight, but like the gradual darkening of a Baltic afternoon, where you cannot pinpoint the exact moment when light becomes shadow. The RAF had … Read more

In the autumn of 1942, beneath the gray waters of the Atlantic, a revolution was underway. It wasn’t a battle or a dramatic clash of ships. It was the quiet arrival of a technology so new that most people had barely heard its name: radar. And within six months, it would dismantle the most feared … Read more

Mon père a brûlé mes affaires pour me punir. J’ai regardé la fumée en silence. Six ans plus tard, je l’ai appelé. « Vérifie ton courrier. » C’était une photo de moi devant sa maison, celle que je venais d’acheter aux enchères. « Voilà ce qui arrive quand on me désobéit », a déclaré mon … Read more