Portrait of an Ordinary Nazi

“History is not another name for the past,” wrote the historian A.J.P. Taylor. “It is the name for stories about the past.” To tell new stories about the past, historians have to actively seek them out, whether by exploring uncharted territory or traversing old ground through a different approach. On rare occasions they don’t need to go looking at all: The stories come to them, out of the blue, and in the form of a golden opportunity.