Free Republic

President Barack Obama's planned visit to the former Nazi concentration camp of Buchenwald on June 5 will have special significance because his great uncle, Charlie Payne, was one of the American soldiers who liberated a sub-camp of Buchenwald sixty-four years ago. In this April 16, 1945 black and white file photo, Buchenwald inmates are seen inside their barracks a few days after US troops liberated the concentration camp near Weimar. Photo: AP On April 4, 1945, Payne's unit came across the sub-camp, called Ohrdruf, as they chased the retreating German army. The Nazi guards had already abandoned the camp and...

BERLIN (AP) - Nazi Germany tested a crude nuclear device in March 1945, killing hundreds of people in a massive explosion south of Berlin, a German researcher claims in a new book published Monday. That the Nazis conducted nuclear experiments has been known for decades, but "Hitler's Bomb," by Berlin academic Rainer Karlsch, suggests they may have been closer to building an atomic weapon for military use than previously believed. No independent corroboration of the claims was immediately available. "German physicians did not lag behind their colleagues in the United States and Britain in their understanding of theory," Karlsch told...