Code Name Hélène

by Ariel Lawhon

This is how people are brainwashed, I think. This is how they follow a monster.

How? Why? These are the sort of questions we ask afterward, with the luxury of time and history behind us. But I wanted to know what Nancy would have felt like, sitting on those stands in Berlin, watching a rally in support of Adolf Hitler. How could these people possibly think that he was good? Why would they ever follow him? I also wanted to tap into the fear and rage she would feel as a dissenter in that crowd. She went to Berlin as a member of the press—determined to tell the truth about what was happening in the heart of Europe—but she left as a member of the resistance—determined to do anything she could to help stop the Nazi scourge.