World War II

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Incredible Photos Emerge of WWII Ship Sunk 65 Years Ago

USS Independence is remarkably well-preserved

(Newser) - The USS Independence has remained submerged a half-mile deep off the coast of California for 65 years, out of human sight since it was purposely relegated to the bottom of the ocean by the US Navy in 1951, reportedly with a bunch of 50-gallon barrels containing radioactive waste, per the...

The Term 'Polish Death Camp' Soon to Be Illegal in Poland

Many Poles support the legislation

(Newser) - The Polish government approved a new bill on Tuesday that foresees prison terms of up to three years for anyone who uses phrases like "Polish death camps" to refer to Auschwitz and other camps that Nazi Germany operated in occupied Poland during World War II, the AP reports. The...

Painting Stolen Off Hitler's Wall Is Being Auctioned Off

It was swiped by an American soldier in 1945

(Newser) - At the end of World War II, American Sgt. Herson Whitley reached Adolf Hitler's headquarters in the Bavarian Alps and swiped an oil painting off the wall, Fox News reports. According to the Mirror , Whitley was part of a race by Allied troops to reach Hitler's Eagle's...

German Nazi Hunter Finds 8 More Elderly Suspects

They allegedly worked at a concentration camp where 65K were killed

(Newser) - Eight elderly men and women could be charged with working at a Nazi concentration camp in Poland during WWII, the AP reports. German investigators say the four men were guards at Stutthof concentration camp and the four women were telephone operators and secretaries. According to Reuters , the eight individuals were...

Monuments Men Rescued the Art. Nazis Got It Back

It was 'restitution to the Nazis rather than to their victims'

(Newser) - The Monuments Men are famous for rescuing art looted from Jewish families during World War II—but it turns out that many pieces never made it back to their original owners. That's because when the famed group turned over the artwork to the Bavarian state after the war, the...

Tunnel Hand-Dug by Jews to Flee Nazis Found in Lithuania

It's been the stuff of legend for more than 70 years

(Newser) - A 100-foot escape tunnel dug by Jewish prisoners using only their hands and spoons has been unearthed in Lithuania, a research team announced Wednesday. From 1941 to 1944, about 100,000 people (70,000 of them Jews from nearby Vilnius) were slaughtered by the Nazis, then dumped into burial pits...

Marines Conclude Man Was Misidentified in Iwo Jima Pic

It was really Marine Howard Schultz, not Navy officer John Bradley: investigation

(Newser) - A long-standing debate behind World War II's iconic Iwo Jima photo appears to have been settled. A Marine Corps investigation used facial recognition technology and other photos taken that day to conclude, with "near certainty," that one of the six men IDed in the famous image taken...

Professor Tells the Secret Story of the &#39;Nazi Titanic&#39;
Professor Tells the Secret
Story of the 'Nazi Titanic'
in case you missed it
Jun 18, 2016 1:15 PM CDT

Professor Tells the Secret Story of the 'Nazi Titanic'

Accidental bombing of Cap Arcona killed thousands of concentration-camp inmates

(Newser) - The ship was fashioned after the Titanic, and met an end no less tragic, but the tale of the Cap Arcona—and the thousands of concentration-camp prisoners who lost their lives aboard it—is one you've likely never heard. The "Nazi Titanic" gets its due in a new...

Hundreds Attend Funeral of Veteran With No Family

'We serve together, so therefore we should not die alone'

(Newser) - When Army Maj. Jaspen Boothe heard about Serina Vine, she knew she had to do something. Vine, a veteran of World War II, died May 21 at age 91 with no known surviving family. Boothe learned that there were only going to be four people attending Vine's funeral service...

Female WWII Pilots Regain Right to Be Buried at Arlington

'I think that the WASP deserve to have that honor'

(Newser) - Female WWII pilots are once again allowed to have their ashes buried with honors at Arlington National Cemetery thanks to legislation passed by Congress this week, the Los Angeles Times reports. More than 1,000 women flew noncombat and training missions as part of the Women Airforce Service Pilots program...

Army Count Reaches Low Not Seen Since Before WWII

But it's all part of the plan

(Newser) - In 1940, the head count for active-duty soldiers in the US Army was 269,023, a low that hasn't been reached since, the Army Times reports. But due to budget cutbacks, a drawdown plan announced last summer to whittle manpower by 40,000 troops has left the Army with...

Marines Probe Possible Iwo Jima Photo Error

History buffs say wrong man was identified

(Newser) - The Marine Corps says it has begun investigating whether it mistakenly identified one of the men shown raising the US flag at Iwo Jima in one of the most iconic images of World War II, the AP reports. The Marines announced its inquiry more than a year after Eric Krelle...

Story of WWII Escape Finally Surfaces Thanks to Son

Edwin Shifrin helped devise plan to fool Nazi guards

(Newser) - Edwin Shifrin, 93, seldom discussed his time at war and his memory is fading, but the Missouri man received a prisoner-of-war medal in February after son Dan Shifrin dug through old news reports and his father's military records and pieced together what happened. Assigned to the Army's 30th...

German Historian: AP Was in Cahoots With the Nazis

Claims that Nazis even had a propaganda plant as an AP photographer

(Newser) - A historian at Germany's Martin Luther University has uncovered what she says is proof from Associated Press archives that it was in formal cahoots with Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime in exchange for being the only Western news agency to report from there, the New York Times reports. In...

Surprise $4.99 Find in Goodwill Bin: a Purple Heart

Ariz. woman's post seeking its owner goes viral

(Newser) - Laura Hardy says she and her husband were browsing in their local Goodwill in Mesa, Ariz., over the weekend when her husband spotted something unusual in the jewelry section: a Purple Heart medal with the name Eual H. Whiteman on it. "It was just classified as purple jewelry for...

WWII Hero's Dog Tag Will Finally Return Home

Found on Saipan in 2014, it will likely go to a nephew

(Newser) - Dorothy Hollingsworth was just 7 when her brother Tom left the family farm in Indiana to join the Army a few months before the US entered World War II. She never saw him again. Now, more than 70 years after Pfc. Thomas E. Davis was killed in one of the...

Only 67 Survived Treblinka. Now None Remain

Samuel Willenberg died on Friday

(Newser) - The last survivor of the Nazi death camp Treblinka—which systematically murdered 875,000 people during World War II, a gruesome toll eclipsed only by Auschwitz—died Friday at his home in Israel at the age of 93. Samuel Willenberg, born in Poland in 1923, was a physically fit bricklayer...

WWII Sweethearts Share a Squeeze—70 Years Later

Norwood Thomas, Joyce Morris will spend two weeks together in Australia

(Newser) - It was the hug he'd been waiting 70 years for. World War II vet Norwood Thomas, 93, greeted his wartime sweetheart Joyce Morris, 88, in person on Wednesday for the first time since their brief love affair in London in 1944, per NBC News . "This is about the...

Sole Survivor of Forgotten WWII Disaster Has Died

David Stoliar survived the worst civilian maritime disaster of WWII

(Newser) - "For 58 years, no one asked me about the Struma," David Stoliar told the New York Times in 2000, "and I felt that no one cared." But experiencing the worst civilian maritime disaster of WWII never left him: "I carried the memories in my head...

WWII Sweethearts to Reunite on Valentine's Day

Norwood Thomas hopes to give his wartime girlfriend a 'squeeze'

(Newser) - Norwood Thomas' reunion with his wartime girlfriend was incredible, but it came with one major drawback: "I can't take you in my arms and give you a squeeze," the 93-year-old World War II vet told Joyce Morris, 88, during a Skype call in November. "Well, we'...

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