Best Of MetaFilter

image via Miss T.Horn

My great-uncle was in a cell in the French Resistance during WWII ... An intriguing question about a 50-year old mystery photo location from Miss T.Horn, and a fabulous answer 37 minutes later by essexjan.

Crepuscular rays at dawn over the Normandy coast by TeaMeister (cc by)

Eisenhower then makes the biggest call of his life and an example to leaders everywhere: He trusts the expert ... A really great analysis by garius of Blacksod, D-Day, the planning, the storm, the leaders, the meteorologists, the arguments and the massive intwining, nerve-shredding drama of it all.

Pages from one of Lindgrens' notebooks. Photo credit: Andrea Davis Kronlund / Kungliga Biblioteket via spiegel.de

It's a small world. This man's granddaughter - whose wartime letter was read by Astrid Lindgren and copied in secret - teaches my daughter violin.

Three blind mice comments in the Astrid Lindgren wartime diaries thread on his friendship with the son of the letter-writer whose missive to his brother led Lindgren to write: "Hitler apparently intends to transform all of Poland into a ghetto, where the poor Jews will die of hunger and filth..."

swiss re art by phogel (cc by)

In a thread about the odd new Swiss/US dual-citizenship of Michele Bachmann, MeFi member The 10th Regiment of Foot tells the tale of being "a 12 year old Alabama dirt child" given French lessons from a former Swiss spy.

There she would have some sort of cultural lesson, usually centering around her incredible collection of antique goods pilfered from war-torn Europe (and why not turnabout is fair play, non?). She'd have laid out on her horsehair divan a spectacular tapestry, ceramic, or other artwork and we'd discuss its provenance and the story behind the person depicted.