Institute for the Study of War and Democracy Roundtable featuring Conrad C. Crane, PhD.

Days after Pearl Harbor, Nazi Germany declared war on America. But why did Hitler choose to draw the United States directly into the European conflict?

Originally designated Operation Anvil and intended to support the hammer blow of the Normandy landings two months earlier, the renamed Operation Dragoon fulfilled an American desire for a lodgment in southern France that shifted forces from the strategic cul-de-sac of Italy.

The fire seemed to become a living entity, changing course at will, consuming everything in its path, and generating a heat that melted glass and cutlery and turned bricks to ash. For over four hours, Hamburg burned. 

Felice and Lilly’s story is one of contradictions. One a bohemian writer in the Jewish underground; the other wife to an ardent Nazi, a “good German” Hausfrau, and mother of four. The two women fell in love in wartime Berlin.