Benito Mussolini (third from the left) and other top members of the Fascist party hang by their heals in a public square following the fall of Rome in 1945. The son of a blacksmith, who promoted a new Mediterranean Roman Empire, Mussolini was imprisoned 11 times before becoming leader of Italy as founder of the Italian Fascist movement. During his period as el Duce, Mussolini closed opposition clubs and offices and took over newspapers. He believed that every Italian citizen must exist for the state and work as a cog in the great machine of the government. The Fascist slogan was, "Mussolini is always right," and this movement managed to gather a strong youth ("Black Shirts") following. 

German resistance leader, Carl Goerdeler

Resistance movements existed from the beginning to the end of the Third Reich, although small and feeble at times. Resisters came from every branch of German society, but they were never united in organization. One prominent German resistance leader, Dr. Carl Goerdeler, worked with the Nazis from 1933-1936, but slowly came to understand the evils of their aims and ideals. From 1937 to his death, he became an energetic enemy of Hitler and Nazis. Had the bomb plot of July 20 against Hitler succeeded, Goerdeler would have become Chancellor. Other resistance leaders included Gen. Ludwig Peck and Bishop von Galen.

The most spectacular resistance, was that of the White Rose Group, centered around Munich University. The leaders were brother and sister, Hans and Sophie Scholl, who were students, along with Prof. Kurt Huber. Harro Schulze-Boysen and his group, the Red Orchestra, were active against Nazism.

Two anti-Nazi resistance poems are presented in this issue's Reflections section.

The Big Three wartime Allies; Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin at the Yalta Conference, February 1945. This meeting reshaped Europe and the world for the remainder of the 20th century.

Lieutenant General Charles Foulkes (left), commander of the 1st Canadian Corps, outlined the terms of the unconditional surrender to German Colonel General Johannes Blaskowitz in the Dutch town of Wangeningen on May 6, 1945. General Blaskowitz later committed suicide while awaiting trial for war crimes.

Lieutenant Ronald Reagan with his first wife Jane Wyman and year-old daughter Maureen leaves his Los Angeles home on April 19, 1942 to report for active duty. He later was disqualified from combat due to poor eyesight. Reagan's extensive personal journals will be published as White House Diaries next year. 

Later as president, Ronald Reagan holds a hammer and chisel next to the Berlin Wall on Potsdammer Platz in East Berlin on September 12, 1990. He is widely credited for winning the Cold War without firing a shot, and during an emotional visit to Berlin in 1987, he challenged the reformist Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev with a theatrical moment when he said "Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Tear down this wall."

On May 8, 2005, a march by 3,000 black-shirted young skin-heads neo-Nazis, organized by the far right NPD party through the streets of Berlin from Alexander Platz in the east to the edge of Brandenburg Gate, the historic heart of the city. Berliners of all backgrounds turned out to the streets to express their refusal to let history repeat itself. They succeeded to stop the march. The march was blocked off by more than 10,000 Berliners; hundreds of communists who carried red star flags with banners reading 'thank you' in Russian as a message to the Soviet Red Army that liberated Berlin in 1945, there were tie-died members of the Green Party and Birkenstock - supporters of the social democrats which both now govern Germany. German Chancellor, Horst Kohler, delivered a speech in which he asked for forgiveness for the German invasion of Europe and other crimes that cost more than 50 million lives.