The Rest Is History

Extolling his love for democracy, the Senator took on autocratic powers, during a time of emergency, to save the Republic. The Republic was then abolished, and in its place rose an Empire… This is not the story of Julius Caesar or Augustus, but of ‘Star Wars’, the blockbuster movie series telling the story of a struggle between good and evil, a battle for the revival of the old Republic...

In the late 17th century, during the glorious reign of Louis XIV, the Sun King, France was at its apogee, with royal absolutism at its zenith. But, beneath the gold and glamour of Louis’ reign, there lay a terrifying darkness: a prison system into which people could be disappeared without a trace...

By November 1938 the scene in Germany was at its darkest yet, as the full scale of Hitler’s intentions for the Jewish population of the German Reich was becoming evermore apparent. As the threat of another world war increased, so the Nazi anti-semitism machine went up a gear. Synagogues were destroyed, Jewish businessmen, bureaucrats, lawyers and doctors disbarred, plans were made for a mass expulsion of Jews from Europe...

As Hitler ramps up the German war machine, he remains obsessed with one idea: uprooting Jews from the Reich. The Nazis embark on a campaign of totalitarian oppression against them, persecuting Jewish people in every aspect of life. They are excluded from most professions, forbidden from intermarrying, Jewish children are bullied and excluded from schools, all Jews have a “J” stamped in their passport, to name but a few measures...

“We must have a healthy people to dominate in the world”. In July 1933, Hitler’s Nazi party passed a new law for the compulsory sterilisation of anyone with a physical disability, or “congenital feeble-mindedness”. They claimed this was scientifically sound, and for the moral and biological good of the Aryan race. The measure darkly foreshadowed the tragedies to come, as Nazi Germany ratcheted up its horrific program of racial sterilisation, euthanasia and extermination...

By 1937, Hitler’s ever-growing ambitions were driving Europe to the brink of war. Ever restless, he knew that Germany must conquer the world, or be destroyed. His first target was Austria, his homeland, whose annexation to Germany would unite German blood under one indomitable Reich. However, in an effort to avoid Nazi rule, the Austrian Chancellor, Kurt Schuschnigg, called a referendum on annexation, to show the Austrian people’s will against it...

“No one can doubt that this world will one day be the scene of dreadful struggles for existence on the part of mankind. In the end, the instinct of self-preservation alone will triumph.” Hitler has been planning for war since 1928. However, the Treaty of Versailles has placed immense limitations on his ability to rearm Germany, and he must first overcome internal enemies, whether the SA or the communists...

“We did not lose the war because our artillery gave out, but because the weapons of our mind didn’t fire” In September 1934, the Nazis held their sixth annual party conference in the Bavarian city of Nuremberg. The location held a symbolic resonance for the party, being not only the embodiment of an uncorrupted medieval Germany, and the centre of the First Reich, but also a bedrock of anti-Semitism...

“Hitler had entered Röhm’s bedroom alone with a whip in his hand. Behind him had stood two detectives holding pistols, with the safety catch removed, at the ready…” The 30th of June 1934 saw a seismic moment unfold in the early years of the Third Reich. With the Führer and his party firmly in power, a bloody faction fight takes place within the Party. The Nazis have gained control of both the streets and the democratic institutions of Germany, with Hitler made Chancellor in 1933...

A Pope of great renown once reigned during chaotic years for the medieval Church: she was an extraordinary figure, from in a time when women were forbidden from merely becoming priests - indeed she is History’s only female Pope...