Hello! I'm new to this forum and I found it while searching for some advices. (I apologize in advance, English is not my main language) Recently I've been writing about a Dystopian story where, following a horrible war, the new government silently hidden his war crimes: I've always been interested in this topic, so I would like to insert real things that happened in war (since the world is the same of ours) that, I realized, really few people know about. These facts that I would like to add, however, are a small parts in the story, even if they are important for both characters and story development; I would really like to put them, yet, I don't know how to make the right refences so that the reader will learn about it but without being boring or too heavy. I hope that I've been clear enough to make you understand what I mean, as I said, I don't speak English (not outside of the Internet at least). Thanks to anyone that will help me, and have a good day!
There are theories about Hitler escaping to south America instead of dying, that have a bit of incidental evidence backing the claims. These stories can be used on many historical figures where death was never confirmed. Just don't write an alternative history where a horrible event is whitewashed. It's okay to show humanity within the villains thou, to promote empathy. Even the most evil people have done acts of altruism because it's their twisted world image that's causing the damage.
The Hunger Games came to mind as an example. In that series Effie and Hamitch (sp?) are the keys to discovering the truth. Maybe have a character who swaps sides in some form and provides that information? IMO that that kind of detail is far more believable when coming from a character rather than in descriptive text.