Jewish partisan group formed by the brothers Tuvia, Asael, and Alexander (Zus)Bielski after the murder of their parents and two brothers by Nazi forces in late 1941, following the German occupation of their Polish village Stankiewicze. Operating in the Naliboki Forest in what is today Belarus, the group eventually comprised more than 1,200 Jews--including women, children, and elderly persons--who survived the war under the protection of the Bielski partisans. [...]
One of the main architects of the "Final Solution," Reinhard Heydrich was head of the Nazi intelligence service (SD) and led the combined criminal and political police force (SiPo, consisting of Kripo and Gestapo). Heydrich was behind some of the most brutal policies of the Holocaust, including orders to consolidate Jewish populations in eastern Europe in concentration camps and ghettos, the deportation of Jews from Germany, and the use of Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing squads). In January 1942 he convened the Wannsee Conference, where the plan for the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question” was presented to top Nazi officials. Appointed governor of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (Czechia) in September 1941, Heydrich was assassinated by Czech agents in spring 1942.
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A Swedish businessman recruited by the U.S. War Refugee Board in 1944 to travel to Hungary to aid and rescue Hungarian Jews. Wallenberg was assigned to the Swedish embassy and given diplomatic status, enabling him to provide protective documents to Jews in Budapest and to create a system of safe houses. He saved tens of thousands of lives. After the Red Army reached Budapest in January 1945, Wallenberg was detained by Soviet officials and disappeared. The circumstances of his disappearance were never clarified.
A celebrated German general during World War I, Paul von Hindenburg was elected second president of the Weimar Republic and served from 1925 until his death in 1934. His term was wracked by political instability and economic crisis. Despite von Hindenburg’s distaste for Adolf Hitler, he was not able to oppose his rise to power. Following parliamentary elections in 1932, from which the NSDAP emerged as the strongest party, von Hindenburg appointed Hitler Chancellor of Germany.
General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party from 1922-1953, Stalin was the second leader of the Soviet Union. A Bolshevist and disciple of Lenin during the Russian Revolution, Stalin later became the architect of Soviet totalitarianism, brutally persecuting political opponents. Stalin industrialized the Soviet Union and commanded the Red Army during World War II, driving the German military out of Eastern Europe and occupying Berlin. After the war, Stalin consolidated Soviet influence over the countries of Eastern Europe.
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