Articles tagged as World War II | Smithsonian Magazine

The Dessen Bauhaus was home to ambitious movement that went far beyond blocky architecture.

Cool Finds

Harvard Just Launched a Fascinating Resource All About Bauhaus

The newly digitized collection is as ambitious as the art school it documents

August 23, 2016

Soon, saying that Nazi death camps were Polish could earn you three years in prison

August 18, 2016

Explorers believe the Nazis stashed an armored train full of gold and weapons in tunnels in Poland’s Owl Mountains

August 17, 2016

Children salute the American flag in 1915.

Cool Finds

The Rules About How to Address the U.S. Flag Came About Because No One Wanted to Look Like a Nazi

During the National Anthem, Americans are asked to put their right hands over their hearts. But why?

August 12, 2016

A lackluster track record and controversial comments led to a shift

August 10, 2016

While the role is ceremonial, abdication could mean a political battle

August 8, 2016

The man who designed the Nazi concentration camps switched easily between recording domestic life and mass murder

August 3, 2016

Antoine de Saint-Exupery in Montreal, Canada in May 1942.

Cool Finds

Amateur Historian Digs up Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Press Pass From the Spanish Civil War

The celebrated author of “The Little Prince” once covered the Spanish Civil War

July 6, 2016

Ask Smithsonian

What’s the Difference Between Invasive and Nonnative Species? Plus, More Questions From Our Readers

You asked, we answered

July 2016

Cool Finds

The Poster That Started the “Keep Calm” Craze is on Sale

Learn about the print that launched a thousand memes

June 29, 2016

Inside the quiet forests near what was once Ponar, Lithuania lie mass graves that contain up to 100,000 bodies. Now, archaeologists have discovered a tunnel that 80 survivors used to attempt to escape in 1944. Twelve succeeded.

New Research

Archaeologists Found a Hand-Dug Holocaust Escape Tunnel

The tunnel was dug by desperate prisoners using spoons

June 29, 2016

Ray Halliburton, 92, at his ranch in Luling, Texas

A Portrait of an American Hero and a Generation That Is Slowly Fading Away

Photographer Dan Winters shows us the modern-day life of an unheralded World War II veteran

Updated: June 27, 2016
Originally Published: January 2016

One of the board games in the collections of the Museum of World War II

How the Nazis “Normalized” Anti-Semitism by Appealing to Children

A new museum and exhibit explore the depths of the hatred toward Europe’s Jews

June 27, 2016

The Marines Have Confirmed That One of the Men in the Iconic Iwo Jima Photo Has Been Misidentified for 71 Years

Pvt. 1st Class Harold Schultz never publicly spoke about his role during his life

June 23, 2016

Reinhold Hanning a 94-year-old retired dairy farmer served as a guard at Auschwitz during World War II

June 17, 2016

Almost 16,000 items were forgotten for decades

June 10, 2016

The Castle Bravo test at Bikini Atoll was more than 1,000 times more powerful than the bomb the United States dropped on Hiroshima.

New Research

The Marshall Islands Are Becoming Less Nuclear

A new study finds that the abandoned nuclear test sites aren’t much more radioactive than Central Park

June 7, 2016

Merchant Mariners aboard a training ship working in the boiler room.

The Merchant Marine Were the Unsung Heroes of World War II

These daring seamen kept the Allied troops armed and fed while at the mercy of German U-boats

May 27, 2016

Ronald Reagan signing the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 that apologized for the internment of Japanese American citizens and permanent residents during World War II.

These are a few instances where the U.S. admitted it had done wrong

May 27, 2016

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: The Danube

The Hollywood Bombshell Who Invented an Indispensable War Technology

In 1942, Hedy Lamarr received a patent for frequency hopping, but was told to devote her efforts elsewhere

May 12, 2016