On 8 May 1995, the British prime minister, John Major, referred to the end of World War II as the end of a thirty years’ war; in this, he was correct: both sides saw this war as an attempt to complete a task left undone at the close of the First World War – the show-down which ended European global domination. The Second World War was, however, the ultimate catastrophe of modern history, laying waste the heart and soul of Europe. Here you will find contributions about this conflict, its prelude, conduct, and personalities – excluding non-military Nazi personalities, which are covered under the entry “Third Reich Era.” Also covered are contributions dealing with war crimes (and lies about alleged war crimes) committed in the course of the conflict. This does not include the “Holocaust,” which has a separate entry (and is not a war crime in the strict sense).
By Scott L. Smith ∙ July 1, 2001
Enemy at the Gates. (2001) Genre: film (war, drama). Length: 131 minutes. MPAA rating: R. Starring: Jude Law, Joseph Fiennes, Ed Harris, Rachel Weisz, Ron Perlman, Gabriel Marshall-Thomson, Matthias Habich. Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud. Producers: Jean-Jacques Annaud, John D. Schofield. Released by: Paramount. Grade: B+. Scott Smith holds a B.A. in history from Idaho State University….
By Samuel Crowell ∙ July 1, 2001
The Bombing of Auschwitz: Should the Allies Have Attempted It? edited by Michael J. Neufeld and Michael Berenbaum. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000. Hardcover. 350 pp. Bibliography, index, illustrations. Given the belief that Auschwitz was a unique slaughterhouse in which a million, or several millions, were gassed and burned, the question of whether the…
By Daniel W. Michaels ∙ July 1, 2001
Between the Alps and a Hard Place: Switzerland in World War II and Moral Blackmail Today by Angelo Codevilla. Washington, DC: Regnery, 2000. Hardcover. $27. 263pp. Index. Daniel W. Michaels is a Columbia University graduate (Phi Beta Kappa, 1954), and a former Fulbright exchange student to Germany (1957). He is retired from the US Department…
By Daniel W. Michaels ∙ March 1, 2001
Unternehmen Barbarossa und der russische Historikerstreit (“Operation Barbarossa and the Russian Historians’ Dispute”), by Wolfgang Strauss. Munich: Herbig, 1998. Hardcover. 199 pages. Illustrations. Source references. Bibliography. Index. No two peoples suffered more during the Second World War than the Russians and the Germans. In the carnage of that great global conflict, nothing matched the massive…
By Adolf Hitler ∙ June 22, 1941
On the morning of June 22, 1941, Reich Minister Joseph Goebbels announced to the world the startling news that German forces, together with Finnish and Romanian troops, had struck against the vast Soviet Union. On German radio he read Adolf Hitler’s historic proclamation justifying the attack. Among other things, he said that Stalin had massed…
By Mark Weber ∙ January 15, 2001
After more than half a century, facts about a grim chapter of World War II history are coming to light: the widespread rape by American military servicemen of local women on the Pacific island of Okinawa. The discovery in 1998 of the bones of three wartime US Marine Corps men, each one 19 years old…
By Donald E. Tarter ∙ January 1, 1992
Abstract The Second World War produced two great and memorable scientific and technological teams: the German Peenemünde rocket team under the direction of Dr. Wernher von Braun, and the American Los Alamos atomic bomb team under the direction of Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer. Taken together, the contributions of these teams created the post-war capability for…
By Mark Weber ∙ October 1, 2000
Advertisement poster of the Cap Arcona All prisoners of German wartime concentration camps who perished while in German custody are routinely regarded as “victims of Nazism” – even if they lost their lives as direct or indirect result of Allied policy. Similarly, all Jews who died in German captivity during World War II – no…
By Theodore J. O'Keefe ∙ June 1, 2000
Theodore J. O'Keefe is book editor for the Institute for Historical Review, and an associate editor of the IHR's Journal of Historical Review. He previously worked at the IHR from 1986 until 1994, serving as chief editor of this Journal from 1988 until April 1992. He also addressed the IHR Conferences of 1986, 1987, 1989,…
By Yûnus Bahrî ∙ April 1, 2000
This account is a translation of a portion of the memoir of Yûnus Bahrî (1902?-1979), Hunâ Berlin! Hayiya al'Arab!, volume five, pages 79-93, published in Beirut in 1956 by Matb'at al-Jihâd. Itis translated from the Arabic by E.G. Müller, an Arab studies specialist with a Master's degree in political science who is currently working on…
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