When Nazi Germany and fascist Italy were united, both had savage racial laws; Hitler and Mussolini viciously denounced the Jewish manace. In the Second World War Jews who fell into the hands of the German army were consigned almost without exception for the death camps, not one Jew who came under the control of the Italian army ended there. The Italian officers protected not just Italian Jews, but Jewish refugees of every nationality. To the Germans, their actions were inexplicable and subversive.

A comprehensive new biography exploring the greatness and limits of the 'Iron Chancellor', Otto von Bismarck: a political genius who remade Europe and united Germany between 1862 and 1890 by the sheer power of his great personality.