Although World War II is seen as a fight against the wrongs of
fascism, winning the war required Allied leaders to make moral
compromises that were often far from right. In the United
States, Russian leader Josef Stalin was Time magazine’s 1942
“Man of the Year” and heralded as an American ally because he
fought the Nazis in Europe. But before he became Hitler’s enemy,
Stalin was his ally and worked with the German leader to carve
up nations and eliminate political enemies. Recently unearthed
documents reveal a clearer picture of the actions that gave
Stalin his iron-fisted reputation and the extent to which the
United States and Great Britain accommodated him so he would
continue to fight Hitler. Secret Russian documents made
available only briefly after the fall of Communism have helped
historians get a deeper understanding about what happened
between Allied leaders during the war. In WWII Behind Closed
Doors, award-winning historian and filmmaker Laurence Rees
(Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State, Nazis – A W