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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The Reifeisen family

The Reifeisen family was an ‘ordinary’ Jewish family, whose fate is exemplary for the destruction of European Jewry duri...

#Biography

Ugo Brilli

After Italy announced its withdrawal from the Second World War in early September 1943, the Wehrmacht deported Italian s...

#Biography

Umberto di Savoia

During the Italian campaign, Crown Prince Umberto di Savoia often visited the front and on the eve of the Battle of Mont...

#Biography

Vincenzo Dapino

Vincenzo Cesare Dapino was the first commander of the First Motorized Group, a unit of the Italian Royal army that took ...

#Biography

Werner Kruger

Werner Krüger was a German soldier serving with the 9th SS-Panzerdivision Hohenstaufen. In September 1944 he and his tan...

#Biography

Wilhelm Keitel

Wilhelm Keitel served as chief of the Supreme Command of the Wehrmacht from 1938 to 1945. He loyally supported Hitler’s ...

#Biography

General Dwight David Eisenhower

General Dwight D. Eisenhower was placed at the head of the allied forces responsible for the landings in France in June ...

#Biography

General George S. Patton

United States General George Patton made his reputation in North Africa and Sicily. The Germans feared his skill and bra...

#Biography

Bernard Law Montgomery

Bernard Montgomery was one of the most renowned Allied generals. He gained great popularity after his victories in North...

#Biography

Philippe Kieffer

Only rarely do military units assume the name of their commanders. The Commando Kieffer owes its name to a banker born i...

#Biography

Siebren Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema

Siebren Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema was born in the former Dutch East Indies and moved to The Hague with his parents in the...

#Biography

George John Lionel Maduro

George John Lionel Maduro moved to The Hague from Willemstad (Curaçao) at the age of 10. When the war broke out, he was ...

#Biography

Joachim Peiper

The 18-year-old Berliner Joachim Peiper enlisted the SS in October 1933 and was soon assigned to the elite of this force...

#Biography

Helene Palm

Helene Palm’s family was unwilling to evacuate their ancestral village of Vossenack, but the fighting made it impossible...

#Biography

Stanisław Maczek

A philosopher by education, a tankman by calling. Soldiers adored him, for he cared about their lives. Dutchmen and Belg...

#Biography

Josef Brettschneider

Josef Brettschneider took part in the Battle of Berlin as a young lieutenant. In a hopeless situation, he had to fight w...

#Biography

George Erskine

It was on 10 September 1944 that British Major-General George Erskine (1899-1965) arrived in Brussels. He stayed there u...

#Biography

Joseph Van de Meulebroeck, Mayor of Brussels

Joseph Van de Meulebroeck (1876-1958), who was dismissed from his position by the occupier in the summer of 1941, reache...

#Biography

Josef Grohé

On 13 July 1944, the military administration which had been in place since 28 May 1940 and headed by General von Falkenh...

#Biography

René Noël

"The" resistance fighter from Mons-Borinage, and much more Obviously, one individual cannot by him- or herself sum up th...

#Biography

Jean de Lattre de Tassigny

Jean de Lattre de Tassigny commanded the French ‘Army B’, later the 1st Army, which took part in the liberation of Franc...

#Biography

Alexander M. Patch

After driving the Japanese out of Guadalcanal in 1943, General Patch commanded US Seventh Army from the landings of Oper...

#Biography

Sjalwa Loladze

Lieutenant Shalwa Loladze was a Georgian soldier fighting for the Soviet Union at the beginning of the Second World War....

#Biography

Ruben Rivers

During the Second World War the U.S. Armed Forces were segregated based on race. The 761st Tank Battalion, known as the ...

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