Twenty years after the Normandy invasion which sealed the doom of Hitler's Third Reich, the search for the explanations of how and why such an evil regime could come into being and stay in power until it had an entire continent in its grasp goes on. The histories that were written immediately following its total collapse no longer satisfy a new generation of scholars and writers who are determined to unearth as much of the raw truth as possible and who, in the process; are prepared to call into question the acts and decisions of even the most highly respected individuals and hallowed institutions.

The flower of human freedom blooms seldom and precariously in world history. One such occasion was the period of the Enlightenment when philosophers from Rousseau to John Locke and Jefferson proclaimed new conceptions of natural rights. Inspired by these new ideas of freedom, revolutions spread from America, France and England through Europe. New nations arose throughout Europe of the nineteenth century as a wave of new nationalism spilled across the Continent. The right of nationhood and self-determination was one of the new doctrines of freedom.