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 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…
By Lothrop Stoddard ∙ January 1, 1940
During his lifetime Lothrop Stoddard (1883-1950) was one of America’s most influential writers. He earned a doctorate from Harvard, and was the author of 15 books, including the much-discussed 1920 work, The Rising Tide of Color. He wrote numerous articles and essays, and was an editorial writer and foreign affairs expert for The Washington Star….
By Mark Weber ∙ March 1, 2000
During the Second World War, Britain's main “dirty tricks” propaganda agency was the Political Warfare Executive (PWE), a unit of the British Foreign Office. This psychological warfare agency invented and distributed “black” propaganda disinformation to boost morale among anti-German British and Americans, and to promote anti-German sentiment in neutral countries. Its work also included manufacturing…
By Mark Weber ∙ March 1, 2000
A highly publicized German exhibition of atrocities allegedly carried out by regular German army forces during the Second World War has been closed down in the wake of revelations that many of the harrowing photographs it displayed are deceitful. The organizers of “War of Annihilation: Crimes of the German Armed Forces, 1941–1944,” announced the shutdown…
By Samuel Crowell ∙ December 15, 1999
As Holocaust historians concede, hard evidence for mass killings in Second World War gas chambers has proven to be elusive. After an extensive search, especially of wartime German wartime records held in Polish archives, French author Jean-Claude Pressac acknowledged in his detailed 1989 study, Auschwitz: Technique and Operation of the Gas Chambers, that he was…
By Klaus Sojka ∙ October 20, 1999
A common deception technique is to falsely caption or otherwise misrepresent an authentic photograph. Shown here is the front cover of a 1943 issue of the British magazine Parade, which was a tool of wartime Allied anti-German propaganda. It purports to show a disheveled and malevolent-looking German soldier, above the caption "Master Race." Derek Knight, an…
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