Second World War

Albert Brackmann & the Nazi Adjustment of History

Michael Burleigh charts the career of one of the pillars of the German scholarly establishment under the Third Reich an invaluable middle-man in 're-educating' his pupils and massaging research to suit Nazi ideology.

The Nazi State: Machine or Morass?

Competing interests as much as ideology fuelled the functioning of the Third Reich, augmented by forced labour and the plunder of Occupied Europe.

A Final Solution? Nazi Policy Towards the Jews

A Satanic conspiracy designed from the beginning to eliminate European Jewry? Or ad hoc responses aimed at replenishing Nazi zeal and producing convenient scapegoats? A fresh look at one of the most hideous episodes in world history.

Franco and World War Two

Franco's traditional image has been as a canny neutral in the struggle between the Allied and Axis powers. But in 1940 his aspirations for an African empire drew him to within an ace of war with Britain.

Anne Frank, Forty Years On

On 4th April 1944, Anne Frank wrote, 'I want to go on living even after my death!' Four months later, she and her family left for a concentration camp after capture by the Gestapo, and she died from typhus at Bergen-Belsen in March 1945, aged fifteen years.

Churchill as Chronicler: The Narvik Episode 1940

In his actions and writings, Churchill made General Mackesy the scapegoat for the allied failure to recapture Norway in 1940. Was this a fair assessment? And why did Churchill pursue the cause with such bitterness? Mackesy's son explains.