My grandpa was a very frugal man.

opens into a long underground hallway. The air smells sterile, metallic. We pass guards who nod to the colonel and glance at me with vague suspicion. At the end of the hall is a steel door. He punches in a code. It clicks open.

Inside is a room filled with old photographs, maps with pins, dusty file boxes—and at the center, a glass case. Empty. The continue reading …