The Second World War was not only fought on the battlefield. This category covers the civilian experience. Rationing, propaganda, forced labour, resistance movements, and the social upheaval the war left in its wake on every
How a student union campaign became state censorship, and why the Nazis feared the written word. It’s a recurring theme in history, and not just in the history of World War II. It’s been going on for ages. I’m talking,…
“Wir haben es nicht gewusst”. It’s an iconic and globally recognizable phrase. “We didn’t know.” Iconic, if you’ve ever read anything about the aftermath of World War II. You can hardly avoid it. It was the phrase used by the…
During World War II, people in the Pacific countries and islands heard a radio broadcast. In fact, it was immediately clear who these broadcasts were aimed at. For approximately 75 minutes a day from around 1943 through 1945, American soldiers…
The kidnapping of children by the Nazis. To this day, it’s not something you read about very often. Yet it did happen, and on a larger scale than one might initially think. The exact number of children kidnapped by the…
How Ordinary People Became an Extraordinary Resistance Resistance movements were present throughout Europe during World War II. In some countries, these movements were more widespread than in others. In Germany, for example, there was virtually no widespread resistance movement, apart…
The Red Ball Express is generally well known in the history of the Second World War. A film of the same name has even been made about it. Yet the impact of the Red Ball Express is sometimes forgotten. It…
When one thinks of the resistance during the Second World War, the main movements that spring to mind are the French Resistance, La Résistance, and the Polish Home Army, Armia Krajowa. But the resistance could not have survived without information…
It is September 3, 1939. The United Kingdom officially declared war on Hitler’s Germany, the Third Reich. It was only two days after the German invasion of Poland. That same day, the Kriegsmarine was preparing for its upcoming operation in…
