Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Dr Katrin Paehler, Professor of modern European history at Illinois State University.
First, a journalist describes how he accompanied Hitler through the embers of the Reichstag fire in 1933.
Then, the harrowing recollections of a doctor who saved survivors of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
Next, a woman describes how she was caught between her job and her clan during the UN's disastrous Somalia mission in the 1990s.
A Liberian woman explains how she helped end the country's civil war.
Finally, how Germany's 'death zone' became a natural paradise.
Contributors:
Sefton Delmer - British journalist at the Reichstag fire. Dr David Tuggle - surgeon at the Oklahoma City bombing. Halima Ismail Ibrahim - former UN worker in Somalia. Leymah Gbowee - Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace. Professor Kai Frobel - co-founder of Germany's 'Green Belt'.
(Photo: Reichstag building on fire. Credit: Corbis via Getty Images)