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'Puzzle Women': Piecing together the files destroyed by East Germany's secret police

In 1989, East Germany's Communist regime collapsed with the fall of the Berlin Wall. At the Berlin headquarters of the Stasi, the all-powerful secret police, panicked orders were given to immediately destroy the millions of cards and files that documented decades of police surveillance. When the crowd finally entered the Stasi headquarters, 111 kilometres of archives and 16,000 sacks full of paper strips – the remains of millions of shredded or ripped-up files – were saved by East German citizens.

Paris in 2024: Much more than the Olympic Games at stake?

With Olympic events designed to showcase the grandeur of Paris's historical sights, we ask how the 2,000-year-old city is evolving today. Is the world’s top tourist destination thriving…or losing its soul?

Taiwan's 'White Terror' dictatorship still divides society

At the end of World War II, the island of Taiwan, which had been occupied for 50 years by Japan, was handed over to China, ruled at the time by Chiang Kai-shek's Chinese Nationalist Party, the Kuomintang. But in 1947, the Chinese troops who landed on the island were met with rioting from the local population, whose living conditions were deteriorating. The ensuing crackdown turned into a massacre. So began the "White Terror", which lasted for 40 years.

The City of Light: How Paris got its glow

Eiffel Tower illuminations: © SETE Tour Eiffel. Lighting designer: Pierre Bideau.

Mau Mau rebels, heroes of Kenya's independence, still seeking recognition

Sixty years ago, on December 12, 1963, Kenya gained independence after 68 years of British rule and following a decade of deadly violence. Between 1952 and 1960, the Mau Mau rebellion was one of the bloodiest episodes in the country's history. This rebel group, mainly made up of members of the Kikuyu ethnic group, organised a campaign of sabotage and assassinations against the British settlers, claiming 32 lives. The rebels' aim was to recover the land and freedom that had been stolen from them by the British colonial authorities.

Documentary: One woman's quest to break her family's silence on the Algerian War

A third-generation Harki, Sarah decides she can no longer accept her family's silence about the painful past. By looking into the story of her Harki grandfather, who fought alongside the French forces against the pro-independence National Liberation Front during the Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962), she respectfully but persistently attempts to break the wall of silence. This omerta exists within her own family, but also among members of the Harki community who were interned in the Bias camp in south-western France.

'We're not asking for the moon': Forty years on, what legacy for French anti-racism march?

Our reporters caught up with Djamel, Farid, Marilaure and Toumi, some of the protagonists of the 1983 march. Heroes to a whole generation of immigrants and second-generation immigrants in France, they bring us an uncompromising view of their initiative that shook up French society, but also on what has happened since.

My father, the war criminal: Children of Argentina's dictatorship grapple with dark past

Some in Argentina have known about their family's dirty secret since they were very young. Others lived for decades without suspecting anything, until the opening of trials for crimes against humanity committed under the dictatorship. These trials began in 2009 and continue to this day. How do you shape your personality or rebuild your life when you discover that your own father is guilty of torture, rape and sometimes even murder? How do you coexist alongside children of the victims?

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'Puzzle Women': Piecing together the files destroyed by East Germany's secret police

Paris in 2024: Much more than the Olympic Games at stake?

Taiwan's 'White Terror' dictatorship still divides society

The City of Light: How Paris got its glow

Mau Mau rebels, heroes of Kenya's independence, still seeking recognition

Documentary: One woman's quest to break her family's silence on the Algerian War

'We're not asking for the moon': Forty years on, what legacy for French anti-racism march?

My father, the war criminal: Children of Argentina's dictatorship grapple with dark past