Operation Foxley was the name of the secret plan supported by Winston Churchill to assassinate Hitler in 1944–45. More than 75 years after its conception, the assassination plan remains shrouded in mystery. Eric Lee’s new book is the product of painstaking research and sheds more light on this plan. This book asks what would have […]
Down the rabbit hole – to kill Hitler
The historian Eric Lee made some surprising discoveries when he found himself going down research rabbit holes in pursuit of plots to kill Hitler. I love working in archives. Holding in one’s hand original documents written a century ago (or much longer) is the closest thing I will ever experience to time travel. (I’ve written […]
An appearance of serenity: the French fashion industry in WWII
Author Catherine Hokin writes for Historia about a (perhaps conveniently) forgotten period in the history of Paris couture: the city’s occupation during the Second World War.
Historia Interviews: Clare Mulley
Clare Mulley is one of an exciting group of biographers who are also acclaimed historians. In all three of her books Clare has written about remarkable and original women who were very different, except for one factor: their achievements have not been widely known. The Woman Who Saved Children, a biography of Eglantyne Jebb, founder of […]
Review: The Women who Flew for Hitler by Clare Mulley
Clare Mulley has written a fascinating biography about two fascinating women. You would have thought that two women who grew up in post-World War One Germany with a love for flying and an intense urge to succeed in becoming pilots, would have been allies, even friends. Instead, Hanna Reitsch and Melitta von Stauffenberg (nee Schiller) […]
Hitler’s Sex Life
It may not be the weightiest of historical enigmas, but the sex life of Adolf Hitler has to be one of the most enduring. Historians probing the dictator’s psychology repeatedly find themselves turning to his sexuality in the search for some clue towards his warped world view. The issue of whether Hitler was gay, straight, […]