Reception: 4:30 p.m. — 5:30 p.m. CT | Event: 5:30 p.m. — 6:30 p.m. CT

This event is free and open to the public. Register today to join us in person or to view the event online.

Join us in conversation with historian Pamela D. Toler, author of The Dragon from Chicago: The Untold Story of an American Reporter in Nazi Germany, which explores the story of Sigrid Schultz, a trailblazing journalist who served as the Chicago Tribune’s Berlin bureau chief and primary foreign correspondent for Central Europe from 1925 to 1941. Witnessing Hitler’s rise to power, Schultz was one of the first reporters–male or female–to warn American readers of the growing threat of the Nazi regime in Germany.

A reception from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. will precede the event, and Toler will sign copies of her book following the presentation.

For additional information, please email Connie Gentry, Conference and Programs Manager, at connie.gentry@nationalww2museum.org.

About The Dragon from Chicago

At a time when women reporters rarely wrote front-page stories and powerful unmarried women were an anomaly, Sigrid Schultz would make history as one of the first women to head a foreign bureau for a major US newspaper. As chief correspondent for the Berlin bureau of the Chicago Tribune, Schultz spent years courageously reporting the news, from the revolts of 1919 through the Nazi rise to power and Allied air raids over Berlin in 1941. In The Dragon from Chicago, historian Pamela D. Toler draws on extensive archival research to unearth the largely forgotten story of Schultz's life as a foreign correspondent–the midnight cables to America, the importance of sifting facts from propaganda, Nazi attempts to control the foreign press through bribes and threats, and the constant calculations about how to get accurate information out without being kicked out of the country. Using Schultz’s words, Toler captures how the era felt as it unfolded, providing a powerful illustration of how we can reclaim truth in modern times marked by the spread of disinformation and propaganda spawned by hate.

About the Author

Armed with a PhD in history, a well-thumbed deck of library cards, and a large bump of curiosity, author, speaker, and historian Pamela D. Toler translates history for a popular audience. She goes beyond the familiar boundaries of American history to tell stories from other parts of the world as well as history from the other side of the battlefield, the gender line, or the color bar. Toler is the author of 10 books of popular history for children and adults, including Heroines of Mercy Street: Real Nurses of the Civil War; Women Warriors: An Unexpected History; and The Dragon From Chicago: The Untold Story of an American Reporter in Nazi Germany. Her work has appeared in American Scholar, Aramco World, Calliope, History Channel Magazine, MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History, Ms., Time.com, and The Washington Post and has been featured in National Geographic.