When World War II erupted in 1939, Brazil seemed a world away. Lush, remote, and underdeveloped, the country and its capital of Rio de Janeiro lured international travelers seeking a respite from the drums of the war. Rio: at the end of civilization, as we know it, claimed Orson Welles as he set out for the city in 1942. But Brazil s bucolic reputation as a distant land of palm trees and pristine beaches masked a more complex realityone that the country s leaders were busily exploiting in a desperate gambit to secure Brazil s place in the modern world.
In "Brazil," acclaimed historian...

By the end of January 1945, it was clear to Germany that the war was lost. The Third Reich was in freefall, and its leaders, apart from those clustered around Hitler in his Berlin bunker, sought to abscond before they were besieged. But they wanted to take their wealth with them. Their escape routes were diverse: Sweden and Switzerland boasted proximity, banking, and industrial closeness, while Spain and Portugal offered an inviting Atlantic coastline and shipping routes to South America. And in various ways, each of these so-called neutral nations welcomed the Nazi escapees, along with the...