Kurt Josef Waldheim (German pronunciation: [ˈkʊɐ̯t ˈvaldhaɪm]; 21 December 1918 – 14 June 2007) was an Austrian diplomat and politician. Waldheim was the fourth Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1972 to 1981, and the ninth President of Austria, from 1986 to 1992. While running for President in Austria in 1985, his service as an intelligence officer in the Wehrmacht during World War II raised international controversy.

Waldheim was born in Sankt Andrä-Wördern, a village near Vienna, on 21 December 1918. His father was a Roman Catholic school inspector of Czech origin named Watzlawick (original Czech spelling Václavík) who changed his name that year as the Habsburg monarchy collapsed. Waldheim served in the Austrian Army (1936–37) and attended the Vienna Consular Academy, where he graduated in 1939. Waldheim's father was active in the Christian Social Party. Waldheim himself was politically unaffiliated during these years at the Academy. Shortly after the German annexation of Austria in 1938, a 20-year old Waldheim applied for membership in the National Socialist German Students' League (NSDStB), a division of the Nazi Party. Shortly thereafter he became a registered member of the mounted corps of the SA.

Eli M. Rosenbaum (born 1955) was the director of the U.S. DOJ Office of Special Investigations (OSI), which was primarily responsible for identifying and deporting Nazi war criminals, from 1995 to 2010, when OSI was merged into the new Human Rights and Special Prosecution Section. He is now the Director of Strategy and Policy in the new Section.

Rosenbaum graduated summa cum laude from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, from which he also received his MBA degree. He came to the Justice Department through the Honors Program after his graduation from Harvard Law School in 1980. He was a trial attorney with OSI from 1980 to 1984. In 1984, Rosenbaum left the Department to work as a corporate litigator and then as general counsel for the World Jewish Congress. He later returned to OSI in 1988 where he was appointed as Principal Deputy Director. Rosenbaum has been considered a "Nazi hunter" in his professional career and personal life.

Rosenbaum was the primary author of Betrayal: The Untold Story of the Kurt Waldheim Investigation and Cover-Up, a book which alleges that Waldheim was linked to or knew of war crimes while serving in the German-Austrian military as an officer under the Nazi regime, and postulates a conspiracy to whitewash his history. Waldheim had become Secretary General of the United Nations and later president of Austria and was never officially considered to be a suspect in any war crimes.

Rudolf Kirchschläger (20 March 1915 – 30 March 2000) was an Austrian diplomat, politician, judge and, from 1974 to 1986, the eighth President of Austria.

Born in Niederkappel, Upper Austria, Kirschläger was orphaned at the age of 11. He graduated from High School in Horn in 1935 with distinction and started to study law at the University of Vienna. However, after the Anschluss of Austria in 1938, he had to give up his studies. Without joining the NSDAP, which he refused to do, his scholarship was revoked and Kirchschläger could not finance his studies any more. Kirchschläger worked as a bank clerk in 1938 until he was drafted to service in the infantry of the Wehrmacht in the summer of 1939. Kirchschläger fought as a soldier from the very beginning of the war, first during the invasion of Poland, later on the Western Front and after 1941 against Russia on the Eastern Front.

In late 1940, in order to get out of the military, he used a two-month front-leave to prepare for the final exam (Staatsexamen) of his law studies. Legend has it that he was working up to 20 hours a day, while keeping himself awake with large amounts of honey. Subsequently he passed the exams and graduated to Doctor iuris.

Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed, born March 2, 1942, is an American rock musician, songwriter, and photographer. He is best known as guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground, and for his solo career, which has spanned several decades. Though the Velvet Underground were a commercial failure in the late 1960s, the group has gained a considerable cult following in the years since its demise and has gone on to become one of the most widely cited and influential bands of the era. As the Velvet Underground's principal songwriter, Reed wrote about subjects of personal experience that rarely had been examined so openly in rock and roll, including sexuality and drug culture.

After his departure from the group, Reed began a solo career in 1971. He had a hit the following year with "Walk on the Wild Side", although he subsequently lacked the mainstream commercial success its chart status seemed to indicate. Reed's work as a solo artist frustrated critics wishing for a return of the Velvet Underground. In 1975, Reed released a double album of feedback loops, Metal Machine Music, upon which he later commented, "No one is supposed to be able to do a thing like that and survive."

Eric Fred Norris (born Fred Leo Nukis; July 9, 1955) is a Latvian-American radio personality known for being the longest-tenured staff member of The Howard Stern Show aside from Stern himself. He first met Stern while working at WCCC-FM, a radio station in Hartford, Connecticut.

Born in Willimantic, Connecticut, Norris is the son of Valija and Henry Nukis who were Latvian immigrants. Fred was raised in Manchester, Connecticut. By the time Fred, the second of two sons, was born, his parents' marriage was already on the ropes. His biological father left home when Fred was five, but those first few years were turbulent. "There was always tension and rage," Norris remembers. "My father had an alcohol problem. When Dad came home, you hid in the closet because there was always something going on you'd rather not be a part of." Fred spent most of his early childhood alone. When his older brother wasn't using Fred as a human punching bag, the brother wanted nothing to do with him. So Fred would escape by reading books, taking long bicycle rides, or watching lots of afternoon TV reruns (whence came his encyclopedic knowledge of trashy fifties TV). "I'd like to state for the record that every person on this show of Howard's, even Robin, at least had a father figure to guide them," he says. "Me, I was on my own."