World War II

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Albert Einstein's 'Magnificent Birthday Gift'

By Olivia B. Waxman

The False Hope of the Iwo Jima Flag-Raising Photo

By Matthew Pressman and James J. Kimble

A Nazi U-Boat Tactic Stumped Allied Forces — Until a Retired British Naval Officer Designed a Game to Reveal How It Worked

By Simon Parkin

Germany Is Often Praised for Facing Up to Its Nazi Past. But Even There, the Memory of the Holocaust Is Still Up for Debate

By Jacob S. Eder
More in World War II

What Translating a Firsthand Account of Life in Auschwitz Taught Me About the Language of Suffering

When Eddy de Wind wrote 'Last Stop Auschwitz,' he was driven to let others know what he had suffered. How can that emotion be translated?

By David Colmer

A Surprisingly Large Percentage of Young French People Don't Know About the Holocaust, Study Finds

The survey also found that 20% of young French respondents believe that anti-Semitic views are "acceptable"

By Olivia B. Waxman

Hundreds of Britons Volunteered for a Diary-Keeping Project in 1937. They Left an Invaluable Record of World War II

The founders of Mass Observation couldn’t have known that they’d be uniquely positioned to capture the hopes and fears of a nation at war

By Julia Kelly

How Methamphetamine Became a Key Part of Nazi Military Strategy

World War II was not only the most destructive war in human history but also the most pharmacologically enhanced. It was literally sped up by speed

By Peter Andreas

Why the U.S. Sent Librarians Undercover to Gather Intelligence During World War II

As bookmen and women became intelligence agents, the ordinary activities of librarianship—acquisition, cataloguing, and reproduction—became fraught with mystery

By Kathy Peiss

Refugees Fleeing Nazi Germany Reshaped Hollywood. This Forgotten Woman Helped Make It Possible

An estimated ten thousand refugees from Germany and Austria settled in greater Los Angeles between 1933 and 1941

By Donna Rifkind

What Happened to USS Arizona?

Today, the underwater wreckage is considered a historic relic, a sacred open grave and an environmental dilemma

By Sanya Mansoor

The WWII Incarceration of Japanese Americans Stretched Beyond U.S. Borders

The U.S. government orchestrated the roundup of people of Japanese descent in 12 Latin American countries, citing “hemispheric security"

By Erika Lee

The Persecution of the Roma Is Often Left Out of the Holocaust Story. Victims’ Families Are Fighting to Change That

They were subjected to forced sterilization as a form of ethnic cleansing, and a large number were sent to special internment camps

By Rachael Bunyan

The Man Who Died Pursuing Nazi Criminals More Than Four Decades After World War II Ended

Read an excerpt from 'Citizen 865: The Hunt for Hitler’s Hidden Soldiers in America'

By Debbie Cenziper

How Israel’s Justice System Dealt With Alleged Jewish Collaborators in Concentration Camps—And Why That Still Matters Today

Only in recent years has the Israel State Archives made the transcripts of some of these trials publicly available

By Dan Porat

The U.S. Recruited Missionaries as Spies During World War II. Their Stories Are Only Now Being Told

At about the same time that William Eddy was recruiting French hitmen, he wrote to his family about the sacrifices he was making for Lent

By Matthew Avery Sutton

What the British and the French Actually Thought About the Decision to Appease Hitler at Munich in 1938

In 1938, opinion polls were taking their first baby steps

By P. E. Caquet

World War II Launched a New Age of Global Power. 80 Years After the War Began, That Era Is Ending

On Sept. 3, 1939, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany. Nearly everyone old enough to remember that time as an adult has passed

By David Kaiser

As Teenagers, These Sisters Resisted the Nazis. Here’s What They Taught Me About Doing the Right Thing

Eight decades after World War II, their message endures

By Sophie Poldermans

Why the Invasion of Poland Launched WWII

Roughly 1.5 million German soldiers, 2,000 airplanes and 2,500 tanks crossed the Polish border on Sept. 1, 1939

By Olivia B. Waxman
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