Latvia

Catherine I

Marta Skavronskaya was born a peasant in what is now Latvia, orphaned when three years old and fostered by a Lutheran pastor named Glück. In 1702 she was taken prisoner during a war with Ru... [more]

Ivan VI

Ivan, the great-grandson of Czar Ivan V, was born on 13 August 1740 and adopted on 27 October as her heir by Empress Anna Ivanovna (1693-1740), his great-aunt, who had no natural heirs. ... [more]

Shoah

The Shoah, also known as the Holocaust , is the name given to the attempt by Nazi Germany to exterminate not only the Jews of Europe, their primary target, but also the mentally and physic... [more]

Wilkomirski, Binjamin

Wilkomirski (he is not sure whether this is in fact his real name) claims to be one of the many Jewish children orphaned by the Nazi Holocaust and one of the few hundred young children to s... [more]