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Latest From Around The Museum
Jack Sanders and the NFL Join the Fight
As dozens of their players left the gridiron for battlefields overseas, the cities of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh joined forces to keep the decimated NFL squads up and running.
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Operations Veritable and Grenade: The Allies Close on the Rhine
Before the Allies could cross the Rhine River, Bernard Montgomery’s forces first had to pry the German defenders away from its western bank with two simultaneous operations: Veritable and Grenade.
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Harry Stewart Jr., Decorated Tuskegee Fighter Pilot, Dies at 100
The Tuskegee Airmen National Historical Museum confirmed retired Lieutenant Colonel Harry Stewart Jr.'s death, saying he passed away peacefully at his home in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.
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‘Cold-Blooded Extermination’: The Allied Governments’ December 1942 Declaration on the Holocaust
In December 1942, a week before Christmas, the Allied governments issued a statement exposing a monstrous chain of events in Nazi-occupied Europe.
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The Child Prisoners of Santo Tomas
Tens of thousands of Allied civilians, including children, were caught in the crossfire of World War II in the Pacific and interned in camps such as Santo Tomas in the Philippines.
The Victory Belles Illuminate the Night
02/13/2025 | 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Join our signature vocal trio the Victory Belles for an evening of 1940s tunes paired with our state-of-the-art outdoor sound and light show, Expressions of America.
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Meet the Author: Anthony Tucker-Jones, "Hitler’s Winter" and "Churchill Cold War Warrior"
In Hitler’s Winter, Anthony Tucker-Jones explores the Battle of the Bulge, the last major German offensive in the West.
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2024 International Conference on World War II
The 17th International Conference on World War II, a program of the Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War and Democracy at The National WWII Museum, was presented by the Pritzker Military Foundation on behalf of Pritzker Military Museum & Library, with additional support from the Gen. Raymond E. Mason Jr. Distinguished Lecture Series on World War II Endowment Fund and the George P. Shultz Forum on World Affairs.
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Meet the Author: Rona Simmons, No Average Day: The 24 Hours of October 24, 1944
More than 2,600 Americans perished around the world on October 24, 1944—a day overshadowed by more widely remembered dates in WWII history.
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Meet the Author: Stephen O. Sears, 'Sunniland'
The novel Sunniland follows a young geologist in Florida monitoring the development of a new oil well while facing a German U-boat rampage taking place in the nearby Gulf of Mexico in the spring of 1943.
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Meet the Author: Mark T. Calhoun, "General Lesley J. McNair"
Mark Calhoun, PhD, offered a detailed examination of General Lesley J. McNair, a man so instrumental to America’s military preparedness and Army modernization but remains little-known today.
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Beyond the Beaches: D+1 and the Battle for Normandy
At this free daylong public symposium, guests heard from leading historians on the challenges, battles, and victories that followed the June 6 Allied landings and made the liberation of Europe from Nazi oppression possible.
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Museum Celebrates 2024 American Spirit Awards in New Orleans
Tuskegee Airmen, Four-Star General Ann E. Dunwoody, and Acclaimed Filmmaker Steven Spielberg Bestowed with Museum’s Highest Honor
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Dauntless: A Conversation with WWII Veteran Paul Hilliard
Visitors at the National WWII Museum had the special opportunity to hear from WWII veteran and Museum Trustee Paul Hilliard as he discussed his life story documented in the new biography, Dauntless.
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Our War Too: Women's History Symposium
The symposium, which took place from February 29 to March 1, 2024, featured topics expanding upon the Museum’s special exhibit, Our War Too: Women in Service.
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Meet the Author: James B. Conroy, 'The Devils Will Get No Rest'
Conroy discussed his unique perspective of the Anglo-American clash over military strategy in January 1943 that ultimately produced the Allied plan for victory in World War II.
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2023 International Conference on World War II
The 16th International Conference on World War II, a program of the Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War and Democracy at The National WWII Museum, was presented by the Pritzker Military Foundation on behalf of Pritzker Military Museum & Library, with additional support from The Gen. Raymond E. Mason Jr. Distinguished Lecture Series on World War II Endowment Fund.
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Pearl Harbor Commemorative Ceremony
During this year’s commemorative ceremony, pay tribute to those who lost their lives on December 7, 1941, through a moving program that brings to life the enduring significance and legacy of this day, its heroic Medal of Honor actions, and its relevance today.
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Keep in Touch: Letters of Hope
During this webinar, Linda Hope, daughter of Bob Hope, and The National WWII Museum will discuss her father’s legacy by examining some of the letters he received, emphasizing how this translates to current classrooms and how letter writing can still make an impact on active military communities today.
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Why Did "Kristallnacht" Happen? Teaching the History of European Antisemitism
Learn about Kristallnacht or the “Night of Broken Glass” and how the history of European antisemitism helped lead to this event.
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Meet the Author—Borderlands Biography: Z. Anthony Kruszewski in Wartime Europe and Postwar America
Join us for an engaging evening with Z. Anthony Kruszewski—an eyewitness to the war in Europe, an extraordinary man, and leading intellectual in the Polish-American community.
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Lunchbox Lecture: Unconditional Extermination: Operation Reinhard and the SS Camps at Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka
This presentation will offer a detailed history of the Operation Reinhard camps Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka in 1942–1943 and where they might fit in the larger history of the Holocaust.
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Lunchbox Lecture: Mealtime in the Mess Halls: Food in the Japanese American Incarceration Camps of World War II
During World War II, 120,000 Japanese Americans attempted to adjust to their lives behind barbed wire at one of 10 incarceration camps—and this included encountering new food served in the mess halls.
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Lunchbox Lecture: Holocaust By Bullets
Before the killing centers opened at Birkenau, Treblinka, Sobibor, Belzec, and Majdanek, Jews were already being murdered by the Germans, their Axis allies, and local collaborators in Ukraine, Belarus, and other USSR republics.
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A Black Soldier's Letters Home
Join us for a special program highlighting wartime correspondence from James Killion, Jr.
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China's War, China's Memories
Join us for an engaging conversation about Sir Rana Mitter's two masterful works, Forgotten Ally and China’s Good War: How World War II Is Shaping a New Nationalism.
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The Orlin Russell Corey Memorial Lecture--Mary Churchill's War: The Wartime Diaries of Churchill's Youngest Daughter
Join us for a conversation on a unique and evocative portrait of World War II—and a charming coming-of-age story—from the private diaries of Winston Churchill's youngest daughter, Mary.
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Mark Gordon Hazard, 79th Infantry Division
Mark Hazard discusses a patrol he led behind German lines just before the assault on Hagenau with the objective of capturing a German soldier to interrogate for information about enemy strength in the area.
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Benjamin Carson, 2nd Marine Raider Battalion
Benjamin Carson talks about volunteering for the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion and the brutally realistic training they received in San Diego to prepare for combat in the Pacific.
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Jack Glass, USS Enterprise (CV-6)
Jack Glass describes his experiences aboard the USS Enterprise (CV-6) during the Battle of the Eastern Solomons in August 1942.
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Frank Buschmeier, 100th Bomb Group
Frank Buschmeier discusses his capture and subsequent imprisonment after his B-17 was shot down during a mission to Merseberg, Germany in July 1944.
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James “Horse Collar” Smith, 1st Marine Raider Battalion
James “Horse Collar” Smith describes his experiences during the Battle of Bloody Ridge on Guadalcanal in September 1942.
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Walter Jacobs, 77th Infantry Division
Walter Jacobs talks about encountering a wounded Japanese soldier during the fighting on Ie Shima and how he believes that his sparing of an enemy soldier’s life resulted in him surviving the fighting there and later on Okinawa.
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Florence Reynolds, WASP
Florence Reynolds describes a negative encounter she had with an Army Air Forces maintenance officer when she questioned the condition of an aircraft she was ordered to fly.
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William S. Jones, 7th Infantry Division, Attu
William S. Jones describes his experiences during the fight to recapture Attu in the Aleutian Islands in May 1943.
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Mike “Iron Mike” Mervosh, 4th Marine Division
Mike Mervosh describes his experience with the flag raising on Iwo Jima.
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Herbert Helibrun, 301st Bomb Group
Herbert Heilbrun describes the Christmas 1944 mission he took part in to bomb the oil refineries at Brux, Czechoslovakia and how well defended the area was.
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Stanley Wolczyk, 7th Infantry Division, Attu
Stanley Wolczyk discusses his experiences on Attu in May 1943 and being wounded late in the fight, a wound which ended his Army service.
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Charles McGee, 332nd Fighter Group
Charles McGee discusses flying bomber escort for 15th Air Force heavy bombardment groups and downing a German Focke Wulf Fw 190 during one of those missions.
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George Peto, 1st Marine Division
George Peto describes an uphill assault he took part in on Okinawa that ended up being his proudest day in the Marine Corps, despite the tremendous casualties his company suffered.
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Maynard David, 504th Bomb Group
Maynard David talks about a particularly harrowing mission he and his crew flew to Tokyo, Japan in May 1945.
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Theodore “Dutch” Van Kirk, Navigator on the Enola Gay
Theodore “Dutch” Van Kirk, navigator on the Enola Gay, describes arriving at Wendover Field, Utah and figuring out that he would be taking part in a mission to drop an atomic bomb.
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Joseph Sasser, 50th Engineers, Attu
Joseph Sasser discusses his experiences on Engineer Hill during the final hours of the Battle of Attu in May 1943.
A PODCAST SERIES FROM THE NATIONAL WWII MUSEUM
Making Masters of the Air
Join hosts Kirk Saduski and Donald Miller each week for The National WWII Museum's Making Masters of the Air podcast presented by Boeing to dive deeper into the making of Masters of the Air and explore the history behind the Apple TV+ series. New podcast episodes available Fridays.