Helmut Ortner reveals a staggering history of perpetrators, victims and bystanders in Hitler's Germany. He explores the shocking evidence of a merciless era – and of the shameful omissions of post-war German justice. Johann Reichhart was a state-appointed judicial executioner in Bavaria from 1924 until the end of the war in Europe. During the Nazi era, he executed numerous people who were sentenced to death for resisting National Socialism, including many of those involved in the 20 July 1...

The biography of the infamous judge who oversaw Nazi justice for the Third Reich as president of the "People's Court."Though little known, the name of the judge Roland Freisler is inextricably linked to the judiciary in Nazi Germany. As well as serving as the State Secretary of the Reich Ministry of Justice, he was the notorious president of the "People's Court," a man directly responsible for more than 2,200 death sentences; with almost no exceptions, cases in the...

Living as a carpenter who had spent time working in a watch factory, Georg Elser was just an ordinary member of society living in Munich. That is, however, until he took it upon himself to attempt to assassinate the Führer, Adolph Hitler. Being a common man who opposed the Nazi regime, Elser took the skills from his craft and worked to assemble his own bomb detonator. Every night, he snuck out to the Munich Beer Hall, where he worked on assembling the bomb that he planned to use to kill Hi...

General Robert E. Lee is well known as a major figure in the Civil War. However, by removing Lee from the delimiting frame of the Civil War and placing him in the context of the Republic's total history, Dowdey shows the "eternal relevance" of this tragic figure to the American heritage. With access to hundreds of personal letters, Dowdey brings fresh insights into Lee's background and personal relationships and examines the factors which made Lee that rare specimen, a complete person.” I...

The inspiration for the 2016 Sundance Film Festival documentary, NUTS!. “An extraordinary saga of the most dangerous quack of all time...entrancing” –USA TodayIn 1917, John R. Brinkley–America’s most brazen con man–introduced an outlandish surgical method for restoring fading male virility.It was all nonsense, but thousands of eager customers quickly made “Dr.” Brinkley one of America’s richest men–and a national celebrity. The great quack buster Morris Fi...

In the shouted words of a woman bound for Auschwitz to a man about to escape from a cattle car, If you get out, maybe you can tell the story! Who else will tell it?”Our Crime Was Being Jewish contains 576 vivid memories of 358 Holocaust survivors. These are the true, insider stories of victims, told in their own words. They include the experiences of teenagers who saw their parents and siblings sent to the gas chambers; of starving children beaten for trying to steal a mo...

This New York Times' bestseller features the West’s most prominent lawmen and criminals, who tell their stories of fight, death, and survival.In the romantic narrative of the Old West, two larger-than-life characters emerged as the perfect foils for each other-the rampant outlaw and the heroic peace officer. Without the villain, sheriffs would not have needed to uphold the law; and without the sheriff, villains would have had no law to break. Together, bot...

National Indie Excellence Award Winner for Historical FictionWinner - Military Writers of America Silver MedalInternational Book Award Winner for Historical FictionAlternative Version of American History—President Lincoln Saved from AssassinationIn Lincoln's Bodyguard, an alternative version of American history, President Lincoln is saved from assassination. Though he prophesied his own death—the only way he believed th...

This thrilling account of WWII espionage by the former French secret service chief chronicles an Allied spy's actions in the German Cipher Office.A spy for the French Secret Service during World War II, Hans-Thilo Schmidt was embedded in the nerve center of the Third Reich. From deep within Hitler's most sensitive operations, Schmidt created an intelligence network between France, Poland, and England. In The Spy in Hitler's Inner Circle, France's former se...

Tennent Bagley’s Spymaster is the single most revealing book about espionage to emerge from the Cold War.” -Edward Jay Epstein, author of Deception: The Invisible War Between the KGB and the CIAFrom the dark days of World War II through the Cold War, Sergey A. Kondrashev was a major player in Russia’s notorious KGB espionage apparatus. Rising through its ranks through hard work and keen understanding of how the spy and political games are played, he hand...

Between 1933 and 1945, more than 500,000 German citizens resisted the Nazi government. Many were imprisoned for political crimes which included both active attempts to remove Hitler from office and passive attempts to oppose the Nazi regime. Resistance was found among university students, churches and even in the German military.This fascinating and compelling history of the German resistance covers groups and methods from underground newspapers such as "Rote Kapella" and "Internal...

The memoirs of a man who saved thousands from the Nazi death camps.Although not as well-known as Raoul Wallenberg, Valdemar Langlet was the savior of thousands of Jews in Budapest in the last two years of World War II.Entirely without the permission or the financial support of the Swedish Red Cross, he issued so-called Letters of Protection,” which were passport-like documents with official-looking stamps that frequently saved Hungarian Jews from deportati...