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WW2 blog with personal views, events, museums, memorials

Articles, stories and historical research about the Second World War

The World War II Blog

Explore in-depth articles about veterans, memorials, Holocaust history, books and other important aspects of World War II.

The World War II Blog

Personal blog page on WWII

Welcome to the D-Day, Normandy and Beyond World War II blog. This section features historical articles about the Second World War, including stories about veterans, Holocaust history, museums, memorials, books, exhibitions, and other topics related to WWII history and remembrance. Museums, events, books and historical projects may also be submitted for inclusion on this page.

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Add your museum or event to the list of 73 articles you find here below.

Canadian Trail Overijssel

Canadian Trail Overijssel

Date of publication: 02 May 2026

Canadian Trail Overijssel: Walking Route and Liberation Stories Deventer and several of its villages are now also connected to the western track of…

Hygiene, Stimulants and survival in WW2

Hygiene, Stimulants and survival in WW2

Date of publication: 25 March 2026

The invisible front: Hygiene, Stimulants, and Survival in WW2. While history books focus on Tiger tanks and Spitfires, the average soldier’s daily re…

Japanese Army Proficiency Badges by Andrew Reznik

Japanese Army Proficiency Badges by Andrew Reznik

Date of publication: 10 January 2026

This specialized reference is a detailed identification and study guide to Imperial Japanese Army proficiency badges spanning the years 1888 to 1945…

Auschwitz Museum unveils new exhibition on prisoner life

Auschwitz Museum unveils new exhibition on prisoner life

Date of publication: 17 December 2025

The Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum has opened a new permanent exhibition that sheds light on the everyday lives of prisoners held in the larg…

Charles Norman Shay dies at the age of 101

Charles Norman Shay dies at the age of 101

Date of publication: 08 December 2025

Master Sergeant Charles Norman Shay died at the age of 101 on Wednesday, December 3, 2025, at his home in Normandy, France. Shay, a decorated Native…

Women in the Normandy Campaign: Unsung Contributions

Women in the Normandy Campaign: Unsung Contributions

Date of publication: 14 November 2025

When most people imagine the Normandy invasion, they picture paratroopers dropping into the night sky, infantry struggling ashore under machine-gun f…

When honour is hidden: removal of Black American soldiers

When honour is hidden: removal of Black American soldiers

Date of publication: 11 November 2025

When Honour is Hidden: The removal of Black American soldier Memorials at Margraten I’m actually angry about this. At the heart of honouring freedom…

After 84 years, a sailor comes home

After 84 years, a sailor comes home

Date of publication: 31 October 2025

More than eight decades after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the remains of a U.S. Navy sailor have been identified, bringing long-awaited closure to a…

The passing of the last Tuskegee airman

The passing of the last Tuskegee airman

Date of publication: 30 September 2025

Farewell to an Era. The passing of Lt. Col. George E. Hardy on 25 September 2025 marks the end of a living chapter in American history. Hardy, born J…

New Exhibition “Churchill: Image and Power”

New Exhibition “Churchill: Image and Power”

Date of publication: 09 September 2025

This month, September 2025, Chartwell, the former home of Sir Winston Churchill, unveils an exciting new exhibition that delves into the iconic leade…

Breathing life into the lost voice of Sidney Keyes

Breathing life into the lost voice of Sidney Keyes

Date of publication: 21 August 2025

In a quiet but powerful act of remembrance, Finborough Theatre has brought to light the haunting poetry of a voice silenced far too soon. Remember Yo…

Walking in the Shadows of Operation Anthropoid

Walking in the Shadows of Operation Anthropoid

Date of publication: 20 August 2025

In the spring of 1942, two young Czechoslovak parachutists, Jozef Gabčík and Jan Kubiš, jumped into Nazi-occupied Bohemia. Their mission, codenamed O…

The Hunger Plan: The chilling strategy of starving

The Hunger Plan: The chilling strategy of starving

Date of publication: 31 July 2025

Famine is not a natural disaster, it's primarily man-made Imagine a government blueprint that weaponized starvation, not as an unfortunate consequen…

Papa Jake Larson dies at 102

Papa Jake Larson dies at 102

Date of publication: 19 July 2025

'Papa Jake' Larson was born on December 20, 1922, in Hope, Minnesota. At just 15 years old, during a time of economic hardship, he joined the Nationa…

Auschwitz Tours from Warsaw

Auschwitz Tours from Warsaw

Date of publication: 22 May 2025

A thoughtful journey to the past guided day trips from Poland’s capital I was asked to make a blog post about this Polish touroperator that offers g…

Nazi artifacts discovered in Argentina after 80 years

Nazi artifacts discovered in Argentina after 80 years

Date of publication: 15 May 2025

In a remarkable historical discovery on May 11 in Beunos Aires, Argentina, 83 boxes of Nazi-related materials confiscated by Argentine authorities du…

The truth about the German surrender in Wageningen on May 5, 1945

The truth about the German surrender in Wageningen on May 5, 1945

Date of publication: 01 May 2025

On May 5, 1945, the small Dutch town of Wageningen became the site of a turning point in World War II history. After years of occupation and ha…

Haven for Military Scale Model Enthusiasts and History Buffs

Haven for Military Scale Model Enthusiasts and History Buffs

Date of publication: 31 October 2024

ScaleCrafted.com is an absolute gem for anyone passionate about military vehicles, aircraft, and scale modeling. Whether you’re a seasoned model buil…

The Crete Fleet

The Crete Fleet

Date of publication: 15 May 2024

The Crete Fleet is a free on-line encyclopaedia of Concrete Ships, Concrete Barges and Mulberry Harbour components. The website is a result of a five…

Frank Gubbels Battlefield Guide

Frank Gubbels Battlefield Guide

Date of publication: 30 January 2024

Frank Gubbles was motivated by Dr. Stephen Ambrose's acclaimed book and the hit HBO series Band of Brothers, numerous individuals embark on journeys…

Berlins Darkest Years Tour

Berlins Darkest Years Tour

Date of publication: 19 January 2024

Embarking on a journey through Berlin's poignant World War 2 sites isn't just about exploring history; it's about connecting with the profound storie…

Irish lady whose forecast saved D-Day, dies at 100

Irish lady whose forecast saved D-Day, dies at 100

Date of publication: 20 December 2023

Maureen Sweeney, the remarkable Irish woman whose pivotal weather forecast altered the course of the D-Day landings, has passed away at the age of 10…

Léon Gautier, last survivor Kieffer commando dies (100)

Léon Gautier, last survivor Kieffer commando dies (100)

Date of publication: 03 July 2023

Léon Gautier was the last survivor of the 177 French who landed in Normandy on June 6, 1944. "To you, to your brothers in arms with whom you landed…

Holocaust Histories podcasts

Holocaust Histories podcasts

Date of publication: 01 July 2023

My name is Jonathan Bonder. I'm the producer of Holocaust Histories a new podcast series. Each episode in the first season features a boxer with a di…

Benjamin Ferencz, last surviving Nuremberg prosecutor, dies at 103

Benjamin Ferencz, last surviving Nuremberg prosecutor, dies at 103

Date of publication: 08 April 2023

Benjamin Berell Ferencz (March 11, 1920 - Boynton Beach Florida, April 7, 2023) was an American lawyer. He was an investigator of Nazi war crimes aft…

WW2 in color

WW2 in color

Date of publication: 23 December 2022

In the four-part series WO2 IN COLOR colourist Jakob Lagerweij brings the Second World War to life in a masterful way. Part 1 begins with the h…

Stumbling block challenge

Stumbling block challenge

Date of publication: 06 November 2022

On November 9th 1938 was the peak of the so called November pogroms in Nazi Germany. A series of massive riots against the Jewish population. At the…

Hannah Pick-Goslar dies 93

Hannah Pick-Goslar dies 93

Date of publication: 28 October 2022

Hannah Pick-Goslar passed away on October 28 at age 93. Hannah, or Hanneli as Anne called her in her diary, was one of Anne Frank's best friends, the…

Remains of 8.000 Nazi victims found in Polish mass grave

Remains of 8.000 Nazi victims found in Polish mass grave

Date of publication: 13 July 2022

In Poland, a mass grave containing the burnt remains of about 8.000 people has been found near the former German concentration camp Soldau. Researche…

Verzetsmuseum Amsterdam

Verzetsmuseum Amsterdam

Date of publication: 23 June 2022

On April 24, 1984, the first meeting of the incoming board of a foundation with the aim of “creating and maintaining a museum dedicated to resistance…

The Walter Frentz Collection

The Walter Frentz Collection

Date of publication: 01 June 2022

The Walter Frentz Collection is a website displaying over 5.000 images and photographs of the vast collection of German cameraman Walter Frentz. We m…

Band of Brothers Tour

Band of Brothers Tour

Date of publication: 10 May 2022

The Band of Brothers Tour is an unforgettable 11-day journey from the shores of Normandy to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest, hitting all of the highlights of t…

Stichting Driel Polen

Stichting Driel Polen

Date of publication: 10 May 2022

1.003 paratroopers of the 1st Polish Independent Parachute Brigade landed on September 21, 1944 in Driel and the surrounding area to take part in the…

Mimi Reinhardt, dies at 107

Mimi Reinhardt, dies at 107

Date of publication: 30 April 2022

Mimi Reinhardt, who compiled lists of names for German industrialist Oskar Schindler to help Jews during the Holocaust, has died aged 107. She…

WW2 victim identified after 77 years

WW2 victim identified after 77 years

Date of publication: 30 April 2022

77 years after World War II, a victim has been identified. It concerns Cornelis Pieter Kreukniet from The Hague. His remains were found after the war…

Harry Billinge: D-Day veteran dies aged 96

Harry Billinge: D-Day veteran dies aged 96

Date of publication: 09 April 2022

D-Day veteran Horace "Harry" Billinge has died aged 96 following a short illness, his family has confirmed. Mr Billinge, from St Austell, Cornwall, w…

Letters offer a look at youth Adolf Hitler

Letters offer a look at youth Adolf Hitler

Date of publication: 08 April 2022

An Austrian historian has found 31 letters from Adolf Hitler's father. Roman Sandgruber used them to write the first biography of Alois Hitler and to…

German Holocaust denier (93) has to go to jail

German Holocaust denier (93) has to go to jail

Date of publication: 03 April 2022

Ursula Haverbeck a 93-year-old German woman has been jailed for a year for denying the Holocaust. She denied the Nazi genocide from WW2 at a 2017 ral…

Resistance women who saved thousands of lives

Resistance women who saved thousands of lives

Date of publication: 03 April 2022

They hid people in hiding in their own house, cycled through the country carrying weapons and food stamps, plotted attacks and smuggled Jewish childr…

A unique find of a Short Stirling BF396

A unique find of a Short Stirling BF396

Date of publication: 02 April 2022

Wreckage of a British World War II bomber that washed up on the beach at Camperduin in February has been identified. It turns out to be the remains o…

WWII bomber on display in 2000 pieces

WWII bomber on display in 2000 pieces

Date of publication: 01 April 2022

'Unique in the world'. More than 2000 fragments of a British bomber from the Second World War will soon be on display in the Overloon War Museum. Vol…

Eagles Over Husky by Alexander Fitzgerald-Black

Eagles Over Husky by Alexander Fitzgerald-Black

Date of publication: 14 February 2022

The Allied Air Forces in the Sicilian Campaign, May 14 to August 17, 1943 In the summer of 1943, the United Nations began Operation HUSKY, the invas…

Veteran Richard Overton still waiting for a headstone

Veteran Richard Overton still waiting for a headstone

Date of publication: 07 February 2022

Richard Overton, who was the oldest World War II veteran when he died in 2018 at 112, is still waiting on a headstone for his grave at Texas State Ce…

Badges on Battledress by Jon Mills

Badges on Battledress by Jon Mills

Date of publication: 17 November 2021

Badges on Batteldress with the subtitle 'An Illustrated History of the Cloth Insignia Worn on Khaki and Jungle Green by Britain's Armed Forces 1939…

Veterans Day (11 November)

Veterans Day (11 November)

Date of publication: 11 November 2021

Veterans Day is an annual memorial in the United States that pays tribute to all those who served in the armed forces, especially living veterans. Ve…

Fabric of War by Bill Alexander

Fabric of War by Bill Alexander

Date of publication: 09 November 2021

Fabric of War is the first thoroughly researched and detailed history dealing with the Canadian army cloth shoulder titles as worn between 1900 and 1…

Market Garden Commemoration

Market Garden Commemoration

Date of publication: 18 September 2021

By September 1944, Allied forces had successfully broken out of their Normandy beachhead and pursued shattered German forces across Northern France a…

Veteran books of WW2

Veteran books of WW2

Date of publication: 04 September 2021

A new part on my website: books written by veterans of WW2. Well known authors have enough exposure so therefor this part of my website is meant to g…

Liberation of Camp Westerbork NL

Liberation of Camp Westerbork NL

Date of publication: 11 April 2021

On April 12, 1945, the Canadian army freed 876 Jewish prisoners in camp Westerbork. To the cry: "The Tommy's are here!", everyone rushed out to catch…

Jewish Virtual Library

Date of publication: 30 March 2021

Encyclopedia of Jewish and Israeli history, politics and culture, with biographies, statistics, articles and documents on topics from anti-Semitism t…

Camp Vught National Memorial discovers unique photographs

Camp Vught National Memorial discovers unique photographs

Date of publication: 30 March 2021

Camp Vught National Memorial recently came into possession of three special photos, which were taken by a German soldier during one of the Jew transp…

Holocaust Memorial Center Zekelman Family Campus

Holocaust Memorial Center Zekelman Family Campus

Date of publication: 30 March 2021

The Holocaust Memorial Center Zekelman Family Campus (HMC) opened in 1984 on the campus of the Jewish Community Center in West Bloomfield, Michigan (…

Spectacular color footage

Spectacular color footage

Date of publication: 25 March 2021

Spectacular HD-scanned footage of 1945 with narration by newsreel cameraman Jack Lieb. According to this source Lieb's voice had been recorded in 197…

Camp Gordon Johnston WWII Museum

Camp Gordon Johnston WWII Museum

Date of publication: 12 February 2021

The Mission of the Camp Gordon Johnston WWII Museum is to honor and preserve the heritage of the men who trained at Camp Gordon Johnston in Carrabell…

Remco Reiding

Remco Reiding

Date of publication: 11 February 2021

Remco Reiding, researcher, writer and WW2 project manager became known for his years of research into the forgotten Soviet Field of Honor in Leusden…

Captain Sir Tom Moore dies at 100

Captain Sir Tom Moore dies at 100

Date of publication: 02 February 2021

Captain Sir Tom Moore, the second world war veteran who raised almost £39 million for NHS charities during the first coronavirus lockdown in spring 2…

USHMM permission

USHMM permission

Date of publication: 02 February 2021

I would like to thank the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum located at 100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, Washington, USA for their willingness to hel…

Karl Höcker's Auschwitz album (USHMM)

Karl Höcker's Auschwitz album (USHMM)

Date of publication: 29 January 2021

The Höcker Album (or Hoecker Album) is a collection of photographs believed to have been collected by Karl-Friedrich Höcker, an officer in the SS dur…

Crowdsourcing: Every name counts!

Crowdsourcing: Every name counts!

Date of publication: 25 January 2021

On the upcoming 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp, which coincides with International Holocaust Memorial Day, th…

The Juno Beach Centre

The Juno Beach Centre

Date of publication: 18 October 2020

The Juno Beach Centre Association (JBCA) is a Canadian non-profit charitable corporation that is governed by a Board of Directors based in Burlington…

U.S. Army Center of Military History

U.S. Army Center of Military History

Date of publication: 15 July 2020

The Center Of Military History (CMH), which reports to the Administrative Assistant to the Secretary of the Army, is responsible for the appropriate…

German Russian Museum Berlin

German Russian Museum Berlin

Date of publication: 21 May 2020

The Second World War ended in Europe with an act of unconditional surrender in our house. On 8 May 1945 the High Command of the German Wehrmacht sign…

Cigarette box found!

Cigarette box found!

Date of publication: 19 May 2020

A small aluminum tin with an engraved portrait, a name in Cyrillic script and a date: it was accidentally excavated at the site of former Camp Amersf…

Stephen Ambrose Tours

Stephen Ambrose Tours

Date of publication: 07 May 2020

Live the memory of a lifetime on a historical or WWII tour by Stephen Ambrose Historical Tours! Our Founder Stephen E. Ambrose, author of t…

Liberation of The Netherlands

Liberation of The Netherlands

Date of publication: 01 May 2020

After the Allied landing in Normandy in June 1944, the western Allies rapidly advanced in the direction of the Dutch border. Tuesday 5 September is k…

Wannsee Conference Memorial

Wannsee Conference Memorial

Date of publication: 29 April 2020

I visited this memorial last year. The Wannsee Conference (German: Wannsee konferenz) was a meeting of senior government officials of Nazi Germany an…

Auschwitz, the Exhibition

Auschwitz, the Exhibition

Date of publication: 29 April 2020

Auschwitz was the largest and most lethal of all the German Nazi concentration and extermination camps. More than 1,100,000 people were murdered behi…

Big Red One Assault Museum

Big Red One Assault Museum

Date of publication: 28 April 2020

On one of my many trips to Normandy I visited the The Big Red One Assault Museum in Colleville-sur-Mer. Owned by Pierre Louis Gosselin, this US 1st I…

The SNAFU special C47

The SNAFU special C47

Date of publication: 28 April 2020

This mindboggling project lead by Patrick Elie (the man with the biggest knowledge of D-Day and the Invasion), is simply breathtaking! With a group o…

Dutch women from Ravensbrück

Dutch women from Ravensbrück

Date of publication: 28 April 2020

A Swedish count has rescued thousands of women from Ravensbrück concentration camp, including 200 from the Netherlands. White buses with a red cross…

The Arolsen Archives, Germany

The Arolsen Archives, Germany

Date of publication: 26 April 2020

The Arolsen Archives are an international center on Nazi persecution with the world’s most comprehensive archive on the victims and survivors of Nati…

Musée Memoires 39-45

Musée Memoires 39-45

Date of publication: 26 April 2020

A stone‘s throw from the Pointe Saint Mathieu, step back in time in this exceptional German command post bunker. On 5 floors, discover a museum focus…

How it started...

How it started...

Date of publication: 25 January 2019

In 1999, I drove down to Normandy with my wife Anyta for a weekend to visit my parents who were enjoying a two week holiday there. A visit to the loc…