

Josephine Baker | Captivating Performer and War Hero in France
Baker used her talent and celebrity status to gather intelligence for the French Resistance. She also entertained the troops and assisted the Red Cross. To smuggle classified documents written in invisible ink on sheet music. Notes pinned inside her underwear while traveling across Europe remained undetected because guards were more apt to ask for her autograph.
Susan Stoderl
Sep 17, 20252 min read


Adolf Hitler’s Rise: The Nazi’s Beer Hall Putsch, Landsberg Prison, and “Mein Kampf”
Adolf Hitler began spying on political groups in Munich as a hired Weimar Army informant in mid-1919. A small nationalist group called the German Workers’ Party (DAP) caught his fancy. So much so that he became member #55, and soon became the party’s most dynamic speaker, shaping its pro-nationalist agenda by demonizing Jews, Marxists, and Democracy.
Susan Stoderl
Sep 16, 20252 min read


Jane Fawcett | The “Jill” of All Trades, Best Known for Codebreaking in Hut Six of Bletchley Park
Jane Fawcett (née Hughes, 1921–2016) was the “Jill” of all trades. She is best known for her work at Bletchley Park during World War II.
Susan Stoderl
Sep 10, 20252 min read


Germany’s Golden Twenties: Prelude to Hitler’s Rise and the Third Reich
After World War I, Germany owed 132 billion gold Marks in reparations ($2.84 trillion USD). Germany began printing more paper money without gold reserves, which led to hyperinflation. The U.S. 1924 Dawes Plan allowed Germany to restructure reparations and attracted foreign loans. A cultural renaissance, known as the Weimar Renaissance or the Golden Twenties, laid the groundwork for Hitler’s rise and the establishment of the Third Reich.
Susan Stoderl
Sep 9, 20251 min read



