The story of Rachel Sternheim may answer a long-unsolved mystery surrounding the rescue of 6,000 Lithuanian Jews from the Nazis The story of Chiune Sugihara – the Japanese consul in Kovno, Lithuania, who disobeyed his government’s orders in 1940 and issued transit visas through Japan to thousands of Jews seeking to flee war-torn Europe —…
Category: Historical Study
Espionage Files: Ex-Cia Officer to be Extradited to Italy to Stand Trial
I have been following this case since 2003. This is an interesting but tragic story in how espionage blowback has NO statute of limitations. For those of you who want to read the backstory on this, check out A Kidnapping in Milan: The CIA on Trial.-SF An appeals court in Portugal has ruled that…
On This Day in History: The Chernobyl Disaster
On this day, 30 Years Ago, in 1986, the world’s worst nuclear accident to date occurs at the Chernobyl nuclear plant near Kiev in Ukraine. The full toll from this disaster is still being tallied, but experts believe that thousands of people died and as many as 70,000 suffered severe poisoning. In addition, a large…
Military History: Six Astounding 18th Century Rules of War
“Yes, the objective of any general is to defeat the enemy, but that doesn’t mean you should be a boor about it.” Editor’s Introduction THE GENEVA CONVENTION is in the news of late, thanks to Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump. The bombastic billionaire-turned-politician has been taking aim at international lawsgoverning the use of military force, characterizing…
Military History: Dowsett’s War
DOWSETT’S WAR It is a story common to many Australian families – a history of military service that spans generations and decades. It is the story of the soldiers of the Dowsett family of the Bexley-Hurstville area of Sydney, New South Wales and their time serving with the First Australian Imperial Force (1st AIF) in…
World War I History: Gallipoli
With the war along the Western Front at a standstill in early 1915, allied leaders were looking for ways to break the stalemate. Many were worried that the deadlock might be permanent. Lord Kitchener, the British secretary of state for war, reluctantly conceded that operations needed to be established elsewhere. Breaking the Stalemate That “elsewhere,”…
World War Two History: The Man Who Fell 22,000 Feet and Lived to Tell The Tale
Paratroopers make a big deal about jumping out of planes from 800 feet, but U.S. Army Air Force Staff Sgt. Alan Magee fell out of a plane at 22,000 feet without a parachute while the plane was on fire. And he lived. Magee was a ball turret gunner in a B-17 named “Snap! Crackle! Pop!”…
Brush-Up On Your History: 6 Real Life Gunslingers Who Put Billy the Kid to Shame
If some bizarre criminal held you at gunpoint and asked you to name six gravel-shitting badasses from the Old West, you’d probably get as far as Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday before you started wondering whether the Lone Ranger was based on a real person. But a closer look at Old West history reveals a…
Obscure History: Revolutionary War Veterans Live to See the Invention of Photography
Records of the Revolutionary War consist almost exclusively of paintings, sketches, and writings. However, one book, The Last Men of the Revolution, written by Reverend E. B. Hillard 81 years after the war’s conclusion, does contain photographic evidence of a few individuals who fought for America’s freedom: “Published in 1864, the 64-page book stands as the only…
Brush-Up On Your History: The Legacy of the “Sisters-In-Arms”; History’s Famous Female Fighting Units
“There have been a number of women’s brigades that have served in wartime. Here are a few of them.” IT WAS 100 years ago this week that a coalition of armed republican factions seized the city of Dublin and proclaimed Ireland’s independence from Great Britain. The disturbance, which began on April 24, 1916, would go…