Gábor Sztehlo and the Good Shepherd: Saving Hungary’s Children from the Holocaust
Although Hungary was an ally of Nazi Germany, Hungarian Jews were largely exempted from mass extermination until the German invasion in March 1944. But when Hitler's army occupied his country, Pastor Gábor Sztehlo was torn from his peaceful pastoral work and given a new mission. It was a mission that…
Karl of Austria: From Crown to Canonization
Royal shoes are not light footwear. They are not easy for anyone who wears them. Even Charles I of Habsburg was uncomfortable when he took them from the dying Emperor Franz Joseph in 1917, amidst the blizzard of the Great War. He never thought he would sit on the royal…
The Tragic Majesty of Mary Stuart: A Life of Power, Love, and Betrayal
On the night of 7-8 February 1587, the closest members of the staff of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, did not close their eyes for a moment. There were frantic preparations for the next morning, when everything had to be in place for the final act of the Queen’s exciting…
Catholic Church Secrets: How the Vatican Controlled Global Intelligence
As the supreme authority of the Catholic Church, the Papacy is the oldest institution in the world. It is the only institution that flourished in the Middle Ages, led the Renaissance, thrived in the Counter-Reformation and endured the French Revolution, the Industrial Era, Fascism and Communism. The popes have always…
Horned God to Devil: Evolution of Evil
“Suddenly, a figure with horns entered the room with loud footsteps. It was the Horned One. It was God.” This is how the American bestselling author Marion Bradley imagined the fateful meeting between Morgana and her half-brother Arthur. In this Celtic epic, she faithfully followed the theory of the British…
Italian Unification: The Role of Pope Pius IX and the Papal States
In his apartment, high up in the Quirinal Palace, Pope Pius IX paced nervously up and down. He feared that his escape would not succeed. A few days earlier, thousands of Romans had besieged the Quirinal, demanding an end to the Pope's reign. The aristocracy, so fond of gathering around…
Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust: Nazi Relations with the Vatican
The message was a plea: "If only the world could be freed from this erroneous and fatal racism which strictly distinguishes between superior, inferior and indigenous races ... The present persecution of the Jews denies millions of people on the soil of their own homeland the elementary rights of citizenship,…
Torture Through the Ages: From Ancient Sacrifices to the Inquisition
There are hardly any savage tribes in human history that have not used torture for religious purposes or as a form of punishment. In many parts of the world, prisoners of war have accepted torture as something inevitable and a normal consequence of captivity. This is why they often preferred…
The Birth of Zionism: From Dreyfus to the Founding of Israel
"Death to Judas!" echoed from all sides in January 1895. On the parade ground of the military academy in Paris, representatives of all the regiments were lined up to expel Captain Dreyfus from the French army. Dreyfus walked between four soldiers with his head hanging. A general on horseback shouted,…
The Lykov Family: A Family’s 34-Year Isolation in the Siberian Taiga
A few hundred kilometres from the Soviet-Mongolian border, at the foot of the Altai Mountains, a group of geologists were searching for iron ore deposits in the summer of 1978. In these remote places, a helicopter was the best means of transport to cross the endless Siberian forests. As the…
