Queen Genepil, Mongolia’s last queen consort, lived a brief but extraordinary life. Chosen to marry Bogd Khan, she became a symbol of monarchy in a land shifting toward communism. After Stalin’s purges reached Mongolia, she was arrested, tortured, and executed in 1938 at just 33 years old—while p...

Tsar Boris III of Bulgaria walked a dangerous line during WWII. While allying with Hitler to regain lost territories, he refused to send troops against the Soviet Union and blocked deportations of Bulgaria’s Jews. In August 1943, he died suddenly after a stormy meeting with Hitler—was it natural,...

Born a Qing dynasty princess, Yoshiko Kawashima was adopted by a Japanese spy and transformed into the infamous “Mata Hari of the Far East.” She seduced Chinese officials, manipulated the last emperor, and helped Japan conquer Manchuria. From glamour and power to betrayal and execution, witness t...

Josias, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont, was no ordinary aristocrat. Cousin to Dutch royalty, he joined Hitler’s SS and rose to power under Himmler. As Higher SS and Police Leader in Weimar, he had supervisory authority over Buchenwald concentration camp, where thousands suffered. Tried at the Buch...

She was the daughter of King Victor Emmanuel III, the wife of a German prince, and once moved in the most elite royal circles. But when Italy turned against Hitler, Princess Mafalda was arrested and deported to Buchenwald. Under a false name, she endured isolation and starvation. Wounded in an ai...

Prince Yasuhiko Asaka was no ordinary soldier—he was royalty. In 1937, Prince Asaka commanded Japanese troops during the infamous Nanjing Massacre, where as many as 300,000 civilians and unarmed soldiers were killed. Despite eyewitness accounts of his orders to “kill all captives,” Asaka was neve...