In 1945, Allied troops overran Berlin. Hitler was driven into the bunker in which he would ultimately kill himself, not, however, before he issued a final command: the “Nero Order.” Like Nero’s order to his minions to burn down two-thirds of Rome, Der Nerobefehl decreed the destruction of Germany’s entire vital infrastructure so it could not be used by the invaders. This unfathomably cruel order, if implemented (which it never was), would have resulted in starvation, disease, and death for millions of people. Said Hitler’s close adviser Albert Speer, “It would have been a death sentence for the German people.”...