Nancy Wake, known as the “White Mouse,” became one of WWII’s most daring resistance fighters. From smuggling Allied pilots to leading deadly raids, she outwitted the Gestapo time and again. Trained by Britain’s SOE, she cycled 500 km to deliver vital codes, killed an SS officer with her bare hand...

Heinrich Hoffmann was more than Adolf Hitler’s photographer. He was the man who built the dictator’s image. His photos filled propaganda posters, books, and newspapers, shaping Hitler’s public myth. But Hoffmann also grew rich from looted art and Nazi profiteering. Arrested after WWII, he was con...

Zarah Leander, Sweden’s greatest film star, rose to fame in Hitler’s Germany as the face of UFA’s propaganda cinema. Dubbed the “Diva of the Third Reich,” she earned a fortune and lived in luxury while Europe burned. With her deep voice, striking presence, and iconic roles, she embodied the glamo...

Zinaida Reich was one of Moscow’s brightest actresses, the wife of director Vsevolod Meyerhold, and the former partner of poet Sergei Yesenin. Outspoken and unwilling to bend to Stalin’s control of Soviet art, she became a target. In July 1939, assailants stabbed her 17 times in her apartment, in...

Erik Jan Hanussen, an Austrian--born clairvoyant and showman, became Hitler’s secret mentor in crowd control and propaganda. He dazzled Berlin with séances, lavish parties, and predictions—including foreseeing the Reichstag fire. But his closeness to Nazi leaders and the debts they owed him seale...

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,...

Wilhelm Canaris, head of Nazi Germany’s military intelligence, lived a double life. While he built spy networks for Hitler, he also aided resistance groups, warned foreign leaders, and secretly helped Jews escape. In April 1945, Hitler ordered Canaris executed by hanging on a meat hook. This film...

General Alfred Jodl signed orders that fueled massacres from the Soviet Union to occupied Europe. He helped craft the Commissar and Commando Orders, condemning countless prisoners to death. Tried at Nuremberg for war crimes and crimes against humanity, Jodl was sentenced to death. Executed in 194...

Wilhelm Keitel rose to the top of Hitler’s war machine as a loyal “yes-man,” signing criminal orders that fueled massacres and repression across Europe. From the invasion of Poland to Operation Barbarossa, his obedience enabled atrocities. At Nuremberg, he pled he was “just following orders,” but...