World War II

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New Book Examines Hitler's Fatal Miscalculation

Declaring war on US wasn't just madness, authors say

(Newser) - The fates of nations could have gone in various directions in early December 1941. Japan might have attacked British installations in Asia instead of Pearl Harbor. Italy and the Vichy government of France could have followed through on negotiations to form a close alliance. And Adolf Hitler might have avoided...

Survey Finds Awareness of Major Holocaust Fact Is Lacking

52% of UK respondents didn't know how many Jews were murdered

(Newser) - A survey released Wednesday found what organizers say is a lack of awareness in Britain about the Holocaust and a major episode in the country's rescue of Jews ahead of World War II, reports the AP . The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, a New York-based group that...

Germany to Compensate Jewish Survivors of Siege of Leningrad

Agreement secures pensions for 6.5K Holocaust survivors

(Newser) - A German program to compensate Holocaust survivors for their suffering in World War II has been expanded to cover around 6,500 more survivors, including thousands of Jews who survived the siege of Leningrad. They will receive the equivalent of $435 a month for the rest of their lives under...

Seized by the Nazis, It Could Now Break Auction Records

Meissen porcelain collection goes up for auction next month

(Newser) - A collection of Meissen porcelain once seized by Nazis for Adolf Hitler himself is going up for auction next month. The Jewish owners of the 18th-century pieces, German lawyer Franz Oppenheimer and his Austrian wife Margarethe, fled Germany for Austria in 1936, then escaped to Budapest a little over a...

Scientists Work to Tie Uranium Cubes to Nazis

Hundreds were lost in the years following WWII

(Newser) - At the close of World War II, some 664 "Heisenberg cubes" belonging to the Nazis were dug up from a field near physicist Werner Heisenberg's secret subterranean lab and brought to the US. Kurt Diebner was at the same time also running a lab focused on trying to...

He Almost Fired on 3 Kids in WWII. Now, a Joyous Reunion

'My heart is bursting,' says American vet Martin Adler, 97

(Newser) - Martin Adler still has nightmares about his experience in World War II. But there are happy memories, too, like that day in October 1944 when he posed for a photo with three Italian children he'd nearly killed. Adler, then a 20-year-old private, had been searching the village of Monterenzio...

Man Who Kept Nazi-Era Tank in Basement Finds Out His Fate

It's a fine of $300K, plus a suspended 14-month prison sentence for German senior

(Newser) - In took 20 soldiers nearly nine hours to extract a Nazi-era military tank from an elderly German man's basement in 2015, just one of the many eyebrow-raising items found in his Heikendorf home. The man was also in possession of an anti-aircraft gun, a torpedo, machine guns and assault...

Jewish Artifacts Thought &#39;Lost For All Time&#39; Found in US
Jewish Artifacts Thought
'Lost for All Time' Found in US
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Jewish Artifacts Thought 'Lost for All Time' Found in US

Funeral scrolls, community records were illegally taken from eastern Europe around WWII

(Newser) - The Justice Department says it's recovered funeral scrolls, manuscripts, community records, and other priceless historical items stolen from Jewish people during the Holocaust that were thought to have been "lost for all time." The 17 artifacts dating from 1840 were taken from Jewish communities in Romania, Hungary,...

Palace Where Enigma Codes Were Cracked to Return to Life

The Nazis destroyed the Saski Palace in 1944

(Newser) - Poland is reviving plans to reconstruct a historic Warsaw palace where the German Enigma machine codes were first cracked in 1932 and that Nazi German occupying forces blew up in 1944. In a ceremony Wednesday at the site where the Saski Palace stood, President Andrzej Duda handed a law drafted...

After 73 Years, Fate of Tojo's Remains Revealed

US aircraft scattered WWII Japanese leader's remains over ocean

(Newser) - Until recently, the location of executed wartime Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo's remains was one of World War II's biggest mysteries in the nation he once led. Now, a Japanese university professor has revealed declassified US military documents that appear to hold the answer. The documents show the...

Fewer Attend D-Day Events, but France 'Does Not Forget'

Coronavirus restrictions limit attendance as Britain opens new memorial

(Newser) - When the sun rises over Omaha Beach, revealing vast stretches of sand extending toward distant cliffs, one starts to grasp the immensity of the task faced by Allied troops on June 6, 1944, landing on the Nazi-occupied Normandy shore. Several ceremonies were being held Sunday to commemorate the 77th anniversary...

A Nazi-Era Wrong Is About to Be Righted

France is returning Klimt painting to family that originally owned it

(Newser) - Nora Stiasny, an Austrian Jew, inherited Gustav Klimt's Rosiers sous les Arbres from her uncle, but was forced by the Nazis to sell it in 1938 for vastly less than what it was worth. She was ultimately deported to a concentration camp in Poland, where she died in 1942....

Harvard Academic Claims 'Comfort Women' Chose to Be Sex Workers

J. Mark Ramseyer's article condemned by governments, historians

(Newser) - Historians agree that Japan forced many thousands of women into sexual slavery in World War II, euphemistically calling them "comfort women." Harvard law professor J. Mark Ramseyer, however, has caused an uproar by claiming that the women were actually sex workers who had chosen to work in military...

Former Nazi Guard, 100, Charged as Accessory to Murder

Unnamed man hit with more than 3.5K counts

(Newser) - German prosecutors have charged a 100-year-old man with 3,518 counts of being an accessory to murder on allegations he served during World War II as a Nazi SS guard at a concentration camp on the outskirts of Berlin, authorities said Tuesday. The man is alleged to have worked at...

2 Holocaust Researchers Ordered to Apologize

Polish court sides with woman who accused them of slandering her uncle

(Newser) - A court in Warsaw ruled Tuesday that two prominent Holocaust researchers must apologize to a woman who claimed her deceased uncle had been slandered in a historical work that suggested he helped kill Jews during World War II. Lawyers for 81-year-old Filomena Leszczynska argued that her uncle was a Polish...

95-Year-Old German Woman Might Be Tried in 10K Killings

Prosecutors say she worked as the commandant's secretary at Stutthof concentration camp

(Newser) - A 95-year-old woman who worked as a secretary and typist at a German concentration camp during World War II has been charged in the killings of more than 10,000 people. The senior prosecutor said she helped carry out "the systematic killing of Jewish prisoners," as well as...

Disturbing Concern Raised About Land for US Base

Critics fear remains of unaccounted war dead are in soil being used for Okinawa construction

(Newser) - The project is controversial enough: Japan is building a new military base for the US in Okinawa to replace another that's being shut down, and the vast majority of Okinawans oppose the coastal construction, reports Stars and Stripes . In fact, local groups have asked President Biden to reconsider plans...

Man Tries to Repay Village That Hid His Family in WWII

Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, France, protected about 2,500 Jewish refugees

(Newser) - Eric Schwam, his parents and grandmother arrived in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, a small French village known for providing refuge since the 17th century— when it helped Huguenots escaping religious persecution—in 1943. A pastor and his wife had urged villagers to protect Jewish refugees from Nazi occupiers, as well as their...

Court Orders Japan to Compensate WW2 Sex Slaves

Tokyo refuses to accept 'comfort women' ruling

(Newser) - A South Korean court has ordered Japan to pay compensation to a dozen women who were forced into sexual slavery by its military during World War II—but seven of them have died since the lawsuit was filed in 2013, and the survivors may not live to see the money....

Pastor Finds 500-Year-Old Church Bell Taken by Nazis

BBC reports it will be returned to its former home in Poland

(Newser) - A 500-year-old church bell will be returned to its former home in Poland some 77 years after it was stolen by the Nazis. Nazis made off with an estimated 80,000 bells, most of which were melted down for their metal and used to make weapons and ammunition during World...

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