Hannah Arendt was one of the most fearless writers of the 20th century, and her report of the Adolf Eichmann trial coined the phrase, “the banality of evil.” The German American scholar transformed her time as a political prisoner and refugee during World War II into insights about the human condition, the refugee crisis and totalitarianism.

550,000 Jewish American men and women fought in World War II. In their own words, veterans both famous and unknown (from Hollywood director Mel Brooks to former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger) bring their war experiences to life: how they fought for for their nation and their people, struggled with anti-Semitism within their ranks, and emerged transformed, more powerfully American and more deeply Jewish.

Journalists Martha Gellhorn, Ruth Cowan and Dickie Chappelle shattered the gender barrier by defying their disbelieving male colleagues—including Gellhorn’s husband at the time, Ernest Hemingway—and covering WWII from the front lines. That they refused to take assignments asking them to cover the "woman’s angle" (stories about nurses, for example) and demanded access to generals and battlefield manoeuvres is, in retrospect, truly amazing given the profoundly sexist tenor of the time (Gellhorn left Hemingway and his dismissive attitude, never to return). Their courageous story has never been given the treatment it deserves—until now. Michele Midori Fillion—combining rarely seen archival footage and stills, actors reading the written words of the three main characters and interviews with contemporary female war reporters (Deborah Amos from NPR News, Janine di Giovanni from the Times of London, and Martha Teichner of CBS News, among them)—brings this fascinating story to light.