World War II

Winston Churchill in Downing Street giving his famous 'V' sign, 1943. (photo credit: Imperial War Museums/public domain)

June 4, 2023, 12:15 pm

Original Churchill World War II victory letter goes on sale for $200,000

Text written in May 1945 was signed by British prime minister, then copied and sent to his many fans

Almanya Narula, Nyani Totty and Sheer Aviram in the West Coast production of playwright Wendy Kout's 'Survivors,' May 2023 (Photo: Katherine Kohl)

June 3, 2023, 6:03 am

Inspired by ‘Hamilton,’ diverse docudrama based on survivor testimony is touring US

In under an hour, ‘Survivors’ touches on Nazi racial laws, Kristallnacht, and the Kindertransport rescue. ‘The survivors in the play are warning us,’ says playwright Wendy Kout

By Matt Lebovic

Germany created the Warsaw ghetto to imprison and starve more than 400,000 Jews during World War II. (Public domain)

May 31, 2023, 4:56 am

Jewish doctors’ secret study of Warsaw ghetto starvation rediscovered 80 years later

Tufts professor sheds light on smuggled medical research conducted by imprisoned Jewish physicians on what they label ‘hunger disease’; 100 patients enrolled in the study

By Matt Lebovic

Roman Vishniac and his daughter Mara c. mid-1930s. (© Gift of Mara Vishniac Kohn, The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, University of California, Berkeley)

May 11, 2023, 10:29 pm

Daughter helps turn lens on pioneering photographer father Roman Vishniac in new film

In ‘Vishniac,’ screening at DovAviv from May 11, filmmaker Laura Bialis shows a man who documented pre-Holocaust European Jewry, then reinvented himself as a self-styled scientist

By Renee Ghert-Zand

Ukrainian soldiers fire a cannon near Bakhmut in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, May 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Libkos, file)

May 8, 2023, 4:30 pm

Zelensky says Russia will be defeated ‘as Nazism was,’ as Europe remembers WWII’s end

Ukrainian president decries ‘old evil’ of Moscow during address commemorating victory over Nazi Germany, as wave of attack drones are downed in skies over Kyiv

By Victoria LUKOVENKO

Nazis are villains in the "Hellsing" series and many other anime shows. (Screenshot/ YouTube, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

May 4, 2023, 2:57 am

Does anime have a Nazi problem? Some Jewish fans think so

Japanese animation medium hit with criticism for alleged glorification of antisemitism, fascism; some experts say Nazi references more to do with Japan’s history, culture

By Jordyn Haime

This photo provided by the Australian War Memorial shows the Montevideo Maru. (Australian War Memorial via AP)

April 22, 2023, 6:15 pm

Australian explorers find ship sunk in WWII with over 1,000 POWs onboard

Montevideo Maru located at depth of 4,000 meters off Philippines island in South China Sea; artifacts, human remains won’t be removed

By AP

'70 Years of Exile' by Karen Frostig (courtesy)

April 20, 2023, 5:16 am

Obscure Nazi concentration camp in Latvia put back on map by art professor

Karen Frostig’s ‘Locker of Memory’ project unites Jungfernhof survivors and descendants, officials in Latvia, around Holocaust ‘memory work’ including plan for on-site memorial

By Matt Lebovic

Netflix miniseries creator 'Transatlantic' creator Anna Winger (Courtesy)

April 17, 2023, 10:01 am

Not ‘Holocaust distortion’ but creativity, says creator of Netflix’s ‘Transatlantic’

Anna Winger’s series is based on Varian Fry’s real-life rescue of thousands of European artists and intellectuals; critics warn of historical inaccuracies caused by dramatization

By Renee Ghert-Zand

A tube of Czech toothpaste found where a group of 300 Holocaust survivors stayed in Troutbeck Bridge, in England's Lake District in 1945. (Twitter screenshot: used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

April 16, 2023, 8:24 am

Czech toothpaste found near interim refuge of Holocaust survivor orphans in England

‘Windermere Children’ brought from Prague in 1945 at request of philanthropist Leonard Montefiore, briefly stayed at Lake District village before moving to hostels, permanent homes

By ToI Staff

Hanno Koffler as Hans Fittko, Deleila Piasko as Lisa Fittko, Cory Michael Smith as Varian Fry and Amit Rahav as Thomas Lovegrove in "Transatlantic." (Anika Molnar/Netflix via JTA)

April 6, 2023, 1:26 pm

The Jewish history behind the WWII rescue that inspired Netflix’s ‘Transatlantic’

While the WWII drama details the true story of a young American in France who saved thousands from the Nazis, many involved criticize the streaming giant for historical inaccuracy

By Shira Li Bartov

Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, right, leaves after an EU summit in Brussels, March 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Olivier Matthys, Pool)

March 24, 2023, 10:32 pm

Italian opposition criticizes Meloni over Nazi massacre comments

After Italy’s PM, whose party has neo-fascist roots, says Nazis killed 335 ‘because they were Italian,’ opponents lash her for ignoring that victims were antifascists, Jews

By Nicole Winfield

Louis Hofmann (as Cioma Schönhaus) and Luna Wedler (as Gerda) in 'The Forger.' (Courtesy of Kino Lorber)

March 15, 2023, 6:02 am

How a young Jewish man with a talent for forgery hid in plain sight in WWII Berlin

Now playing in the US, the German-language feature film ‘The Forger’ recounts true-life story of the spirited Cioma Schönhaus, who created documents that saved hundreds of lives

By Renee Ghert-Zand

Rabbi Alexander D. Goode and a view of the Dorchester, which was requisitioned by the US Army during World War II. The ship was sunk by a German torpedo on February 3, 1943. (Courtesy Mark Auerbach via JTA)

February 8, 2023, 10:39 am

Honoring a US rabbi who went down with his torpedoed warship 80 years ago this month

Mark Auerbach works to preserve the memory of his relative Alexander Goode, an army chaplain who gave away his lifejacket and calmed panicked soldiers after a German U-boat attack

By Lisa Keys

Members of the Christian Front pose with rifles in the 1940s (public domain)

February 8, 2023, 3:36 am

‘Ultra’ podcast depicts little-known Nazi-funded plot to topple US government

Rachel Maddow’s eerily timed series depicts how ultra-right nationalists prepared to bomb Jewish sites while ‘bought’ members of Congress disseminated Nazi talking points

By Matt Lebovic