It was the last winter of the Second World War. The first week of February 1945. Far away in Europe, the Nazi war machine was crumbling; the Soviets were closing in on Berlin; the Americans would soon be crossing the Rhine. The war would be over in just a few months. The Big Three — Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin — were already at Yalta, meeting to decide what the world would look like when the fighting was finally done.
