Learn about WWII History

Explore the critical events related to the war and the personal stories of those who lived through that challenging time.

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Thomas Buergenthal

Prof. Thomas Buergenthal was one of the most prominent lawyers specializing in human rights and international law. He ta...

#Biography

Edward R. Murrow

“Good night and good luck” was one of the most popular phrases uttered by E. Murrow from his days as a war correspondent...

#Biography

Ilse Koch

The Witch of Buchenwald – that’s what the prisoners called Ilse Koch. She dressed in a provocative manner to taunt the m...

#Biography

Alice Herz-Sommer

Those who knew Alice Herz-Sommer often recalled her love for music and her incorrigible optimism. Years later, describin...

#Biography

Victor Ullmann

Viktor Ullmann came from an assimilated Jewish family that converted to Catholicism. He came from Cieszyn in Silesia. He...

#Biography

Štěpán Trochta

Štěpán Trochta was a Salesian who believed that great emphasis should be placed on working with youth and caring for the...

#Biography

Władysław Ostrowski

When war broke out, Ostrowski fought in the ranks of the Polish Army. On September 18, 1939, he was wounded during a cla...

#Biography

Richard Dimbleby

Richard Dimbleby was one of the most famous British reporters and radio journalists of the 20th century and the BBC’s fi...

#Biography

Anne Frank

It seems that thanks to the diary she wrote, the whole world knows the story of Anne Frank. It is one of the most recogn...

#Biography

Josef Kramer

Josef Krame joined the NSDAP at age 25, and a year later he was a member of the SS. He grew up in Munich, in a Catholic ...

#Biography

Stefan Krukowski

Stefan Krukowski was a Pole who was caught in a roundup on a Warsaw street. He was sent to a harsh prison, where he was ...

#Biography

Sergeant Albert J. Kosiek

Albert Kosiek was born into a Polish immigrant family in Chicago, United States. In November 1942, he joined the 11th Ar...

#Biography

Stanisław Grzesiuk

Stanisław Grzesiuk is known in Poland as an author and singer, popularizing folklore and Warsaw dialect. He came from a ...

#Biography

Franz Ziereis

Franz Ziereis was a war criminal, he had been a member of the SS since 1936. He joined the SS-Totenkopfverbände, the cor...

#Biography

Hermine Brausteiner

Hermine Brausteiner or “Mare” from Majdanek, as concentration camp inmates called her, testified that she snatched child...

#Biography

Andrée de Jongh

“Dédée” – “little mother” – was one of Andrée de Jongh’s nicknames. Those who knew her from the Résistance, in turn, cal...

#Biography

Karl Gebhardt

Karl Gebhardt was a veteran of World War I. In the interwar period, he gained fame in the field of orthopedic surgery. H...

#Biography

Janusz Korczak

Janusz Korczak was a Polish-Jewish medic, educator and writer who was dedicated to the upbringing of children and workin...

#Biography

Karolina Lanckorońska

Karolina Lanckorońska was born at the end of the 19th century in Buchberg (now Austria). Her life was accompanied by art...

#Biography

Jan Karski

Jan Karski was a member of the Polish Underground State, and a witness of the Holocaust. On the orders of his commanders...

#Biography

Franz Reichleitner

Franz Reichleitner was called “Idiot” by the inmates of the Nazi camp at Sobibór. However, they did not call him that be...

#Biography

Johan Niemann

Johan Niemann died during a prisoner revolt at Sobibor concentration camp. He spent a third of his short life as a part ...

#Biography

Leon Feldhendler

He was one of the prisoners in the Sobibór concentration camp, which, like Treblinka and Bełżec, was a site of mass exte...

#Biography

Vasily Grossman

Born in Berdyczow (now Ukraine), his actual name was Iosif Solomonovich Grossman, he came from a Jewish family. Although...

#Biography