Ghosts from Nazi Germany

Today I embark on a weeklong research trip. I'll work in the Latter-day Saint archives, but the highlight will be two oral history interviews, each with the child of a Mormon who lived during the Third Reich. Both possess their fathers' diaries.

One man rescued a Jewish couple in the wake of Kristallnacht and drove them to safety across the Swiss border. The other faced a post-war trial, charged with running a "wild" concentration camp in Berlin during the early days of the regime when Hitler was consolidating his power and eliminating political opposition.

The hero's son downplays his father's bravery and the alleged perpetrator's daughter defends her dad. It will be a delicate proposition, being sympathetic to their feelings while still maintaining scholarly objectivity.

I'm lucky. Most historians mine moldy archives, piecing together the tangible evidence left by subjects who died long ago. No witness lives who can fill in the blanks. For all of the scholarly landmines that must be avoided, working with living subjects is fascinating.