The Power of One Man
Jews, mostly Polish, had managed to escape the Nazi pogrom in Lithuania, but now they had nowhere to go. The Lithuanians did not want them among them. Most of them would have preferred to get rid of the Jews who had lived among them for centuries. Through Europe, the paths…
A Football Coach with the Soul of a Psychologist and the Mind of a Thinker
The Italian football team Lucca was mediocre. Erno Egri Erbstein came in and it became great. The boys got a coach they had never known before: an undisputed football expert and a profound connoisseur of the human soul. Five years later, their paths diverged. A heavy cloud of prejudice descended…
Welcome to Hell
JANCFU, an unidentified US soldier wrote on the yellow casing. The abbreviation was an acronym for Joint Army Navy Civilian Fuckup. The crew of the B-29 Bockscar bomber signed the casing and added messages such as A second kiss for Hirohito or Here you go! Then they loaded the atomic…
Could It Really Have Prevented World War I?
"Thank you for your telegram. Yesterday I told your government how war can still be avoided. Although I asked for an explanation by noon today, so far my ambassador has not yet sent me any reply from your government. I am therefore forced to mobilise the army. An immediate positive…
The Most Famous Commander in the Service of the Revolution
Alexandre Dumas was the most prolific and almost certainly the most popular writer in France in the 18th century. His Three Musketeers are still sought after by readers around the world today. And who doesn't know the novel about the Count of Monte Cristo? The story of an honest but…
The Real James Bond from Dubrovnik
We all know about the books and films about James Bond, the charming spy in Her Majesty's service, written by Ian Fleming. The exciting life of the fictional secret agent, sipping cocktails in prestigious hotels, driving fast cars and seducing a different beauty every night, still captures the interest of…
Swallowing Europe in the New Age
"We Spaniards suffer from a heart disease that only gold can cure." This is how Hernan Cortés, the prototype conquistador of the early colonial era, explained the unbridled greed for wealth to the Aztec ruler Montezuma II. Montezuma was perplexed - for the great and opulent civilisations of Central and…
Iranian Embassy Siege – Small, Bold and Dangerous
On 5 May 1980, just before 7:30 PM, the British SAS Special Forces executed a strategic operation known as the Iranian embassy siege in central London. A group of six terrorists were holding 25 hostages. Their leader, Oan Ali Mohamed, had thrown the body of one of the hostages out…
The Amistad Rebellion – A Long Way Home
In August 1839, a rickety double-masted ship was wandering in the sea off New York. Sailors who got close enough to it claimed that strange scenes were taking place on board. Newspapers began running sensationalist stories about a pirate ship full of black people, and it wasn't long before the…
German Espionage – Bombs on the Streets of New York
On a cold March morning in 1915, NYPD Captain Tom Tunney approached the altar of St Patrick's Cathedral on Fifth Avenue and hid behind it, silent and hiding in the shadows of the columns. He was the head of the police bomb squad with a long and enviable career. New…
