World War II

Stalin refrigerator magnets for sale outside the Stalin Museum in Gori, Georgia
History
As Putin’s war in Ukraine continues, historians say it’s crucial to reflect on Stalin’s reign in the Soviet era
The entrance to Treblinka, one of Europe’s largest World War II-era extermination camps.
History
A new monument in Poland sparks concern about Holocaust revisionism
African American soldiers lined up in ranks during World War II
Science & Technology
New technology could identify thousands of unknown soldiers who died in World War II
A man wearing a white shirt speaks on a microphone while gesturing with his hands.
Alexei Navalny poisoned with Soviet-era Novichok, German officials confirm
Full Episode
Putin stands at a podium in front of a crowd and signage for May 9
Global Politics
Coronavirus postponed Russia’s Victory Day. That could be a problem for Putin.
A mushroom cloud from a nuclear bomb.
Nuclear
How the race for nuclear power began
a closeup of an older man with a bald head and glasses
This Holocaust survivor convinced a Dutch rail firm to make reparations
a 1949 visa photo of a man
US deports accused former Nazi guard to Germany
Firefighters blast water in Berlin in mid-August, providing relief from the heat. This is among the few ways to cool off in a city with little air conditioning.
It’s so hot in Berlin that people are cooling down in an old WWII bunker
Anthony Acevedo wearing a POW hat
Conflict
This POW kept a secret diary that showed daily life in a concentration camp
Arts, Culture & Media
Commentary: War Memorials
Arts, Culture & Media
Zoot Suit Riots
Arts, Culture & Media
Chiura Obata
Arts, Culture & Media
Philip Roth
Awa Timera works in corporate recruiting in France. She says it can hard to put your finger on discrimination in France because it's often subtle.
Culture
How France uses ‘le testing’ to combat hiring discrimination
Kalman Aron began sketching when he was 3 years old. He's now 93, and says if he didn't still paint and draw every day he would "die of boredom."
Arts
For over 90 years, this Holocaust survivor’s art has kept him alive
Image of old report card with black and white photo of young girl
Culture
There hasn’t been a Japantown in Chicago since the 1980s, but this exhibit is bringing the community back together
Jeannie Rousseau (de Clarens), in 1939 or 1940.
Conflict
‘What I did was so little’: Remembering World War II spy hero Jeannie Rousseau de Clarens
After the ancient Jewish graveyard in Thessaloniki was destroyed, the gravestones were broken up and used as building materials in the city.
Religion
The rescued Jewish tombstones of Thessaloniki
Mizgin, a Syrian refugee from Aleppo, and her family are living with Rachel Miller's family for the year.
Conflict
For this Syrian Yazidi family and their Jewish hosts, Passover is a refugee story
WWII
Culture
Poland’s right-wing government thinks this WWII museum isn’t ‘glorious’ enough
Jim
Conflict
Japanese Americans remember a dark chapter when they were ‘more number than name’
black and white photo of people holding up signs of location names
Justice
New immigration policies are convincing more Japanese Americans to engage in the radical act of remembering
The Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island in New York Harbor.
Arts
A fascist America, as revealed by an Amazon series
German tanks in Poland, just days after Clare Hollingworth spotted them massing across the border
Media
Remembering Clare Hollingworth, the journalist who broke the news of World War II
A bomb after deactivation in downtown Augsburg, Germany on Dec. 25. The nearly 2-ton bomb was dropped on Germany by Britain's Royal Air Force during World War II.
Conflict
An unexploded World War II bomb forced 54,000 Germans to evacuate on Christmas
Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler in Munich, Germany.
Global Politics
How US journalists normalized the rise of Hitler and Mussolini
Newspaper clippings in scrapbook about the attack on Pearl Harbor
Global Politics
At Pearl Harbor, Japanese Americans were victims of the attack — and their own government
People line up in front of a bulding
Justice
Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II could still vote, kind of
The Downs family after their rescue. A German U-boat torpedoed the ship they were sailing on in the Gulf of Mexico in 1942.
Conflict
Survivor of WWII U-boat attack: ‘I went under and didn’t think I was ever going to come up’
Mendy Cahan in his library, Yung YiDish, at Tel Aviv's Central Bus Station.
Culture
He calls Yiddish a language of life — so translating Oscar-winner ‘Son of Saul’ was an especially dark experience
Two kimonos in the wind on a laundry line
Justice
These images of Japanese American incarceration were embargoed for almost 30 years
Rosie the Riveter poster, from World War II era
From segregation to social change, how the Rosie the Riveter era fit into a century’s arc
Full Episode
My ASA blog 2
Conflict
The Nazi plan to relocate Jews to Madagascar, one of World War II’s forgotten ‘what ifs’
Heart Mountain War Relocation Center
Conflict
How two lives came together at a Japanese American internment camp
World War II veterans walk to a wreath laying ceremony at the National World War II Memorial on Veteran's Day to pay tribute to the more than 16 million men and women who served with U.S. armed forces during World War II.
Culture
A new book that debunks myths of World War II
Stolpersteins or stumblestones placed in Mainz, Germany on October 15th, 2015 to honor Juliane and Simon Gaertner. Juliane was deported to Theresienstadt where she died in 1942.
Culture
Remembering an 80-year-old Jewish woman who marched into the Gestapo to demand the release of her son
Water, food, and a welcome sign greeted refugees who reached Frankfurt, Germany
Global Politics
Germany’s track record taking in outsiders makes its refugee policy even more inspiring
Grandfather
Conflict
My grandfather’s hidden past is wrapped up in his complex relationship to World War II
Japanese surrender
Conflict
Looking back on the events that led to the surrender of Japan 70 years ago
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visits a Tokyo shrine for war dead
Global Politics
Seventy years later, Japan still grapples with the legacy of World War II
Ordnance
Conflict
In Massachusetts, old military explosives washing ashore is just another day at the beach
Gottscheer descendants attend a festival in New York
Culture
Each year in New York, Gottscheers celebrate the culture of a city that no longer exists
Social worker Minori Nakaso pays a home visit to an atomic bomb survivor in Hiroshima.
Justice
As Hiroshima’s survivors age, their need to speak out grows
Atomic bomb survivor Teruko Namura (left) with a friend at her home in Los Angeles.
Justice
Let down by two governments, US-based Hiroshima survivors fend for themselves
An elderly Korean woman appears with her son and daughter-in-law at a hearing in Hiroshima to determine whether she is eligible for special rights accorded to survivors of the atomic bomb.
Justice
Korean survivors of Hiroshima have had to fight for their rights
Hiroshima survivor Sueko Hada (foreground) with her daughter, granddaughters and great-granddaughter.
Justice
‘It truly was a vision of Hell’ – a Hiroshima survivor speaks out
Dutch and U.S. flags decorate the graves at the American Cemetery and Memorial in Margraten.
Conflict
Generations of Dutch citizens still trek to the graves of US World War II soldiers
The Bomb Sight Project locates where German bombs fell on London during an eight-month period in World War II.
Conflict
This map shows the locations where bombs fell on London during World War II
Did the Nazis prepare this Argentine hideout during the 1940s as a place to flee?
Science
A remote, forgotten Nazi hideout? Archaeologists shine light on Argentine history.
Survivors attend a ceremony on the site of the former Nazi German concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland. Tuesday marked the 70th anniversary of the Nazi camp's liberation by Allied soldiers.
Justice
Why I want to remind you of the Holocaust
One of the images Levi Bettweiser developed from among 31 rolls of World War II film for his Rescued Film Project.
Culture
These never-before-seen WWII photos are ‘just the tip of the iceberg’
"A Woman Sitting In A Chair" by Henri Matisse. The painting is one of the 1,400 works confiscated from the late German collector Cornelius Gurlitt, the son an Nazi era art dealer. The painting was allegedly looted from a Jewish family by the Nazis.
Arts
A Swiss musem accepts a ‘Nazi art’ collection — and vows to return stolen works
A view of the Bridge on the River Kwai during a light-and-sound show in Kanchanaburi, Thailand, in 1994
Conflict
A new book recalls the Japanese ‘railroad of death’ from World War II
Stefan Baluk (pictured here in 2010) fought for Polish independence in the Warsaw Uprising. He spent much of his time underground, in the sewers. After the war, he was arrested by the Soviets.
Conflict
A Polish resistance fighter remembers fighting in the Warsaw Uprising — from the sewers
The Soviet foreign minister, Vyacheslav Molotov, saying farewell to his German counterpart, Joachim von Ribbentrop (right), after a visit to Berlin during the Nazi-Soviet alliance that lasted from 1939 to 1941.
Conflict
This pact between Hitler and Stalin paved the way for WWII
A US cartoon from 1877, showing Russia as an octopus spreading its tentacles over Europe and south-west Asia. In that year, Russia went to war to ‘save’ Orthodox Christian rebels in the Ottoman Empire.
Conflict
Moscow has a long history of making interesting excuses for its military interventions
A tourist from China takes pictures of Japanese traditional masks at a souvenir shop in Asakusa district in Tokyo.
Books
China and Japan must remedy their one-sided views of history
Conflict
The last surviving member of the Enola Gay crew dies
The barbed wire fence surrounding the labor camp at Auschwitz I. Johann Breyer says that he worked here as a guard during World War II and not at the nearby gas chambers at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Conflict & Justice
After years in obscurity, a Philadelphia man stands accused as a Holocaust collaborator