A World Divided

In 1944, physicist Joan Hinton joined the Manhattan Project and witnessed the first atomic bomb test, later questioning the moral cost of the weapon she helped create. Meanwhile, Frantz Fanon fought to liberate Alsace while enduring racism within the French army, causing him to doubt the cause he served. As World War II ended in Europe, Nazi loyalist Hedwig Höss fled from Soviet forces but was captured by the British and forced to choose between protecting her children or betraying her husband. The war concluded in the Pacific with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, leaving the world—and Hinton—shaken by the devastation.

In 1947, Golda Meir sees her dream come true: the newly founded United Nations decides to partition Palestine into an Arab state and a Jewish state. However, the creation of Israel is to meet with strong resistance in the Arab world.

In 1952, Frantz Fanon became head physician at the largest psychiatric hospital in French Algeria. Shortly afterwards, the uprising for Algerian independence began. In Moscow, the death of Stalin in 1953 heralded a radical change in direction.