Articles tagged as World War II | Smithsonian Magazine

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

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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

Rudolf Hess, at right, was a Nazi leader when he flew to Scotland in May of 1941.

Will We Ever Know Why Nazi Leader Rudolf Hess Flew to Scotland in the Middle of World War II?

The remarkable tale of insanity, espionage, and conspiracies remains unanswered after 75 years

May 10, 2016

Amateur historians have called into question the identity of a soldier in Joe Rosenthal’s 1945 Pulitzer prize-winning image

May 3, 2016

The Grand Entrance Hall to the Thames Tunnel has been restored and reopened to the public.

Cool Finds

Historic Sites of the London Underground Will Soon Open for Visitors

See Churchill’s blitz bunker and the first underwater tunnel ever built

April 15, 2016

During World War II, Anne O’Hare McCormick wrote an editorial in the New York Times that urged people to pay attention to Hungary's Jews.

You can help historians learn how newspapers in the U.S. documented the persecution of European Jews

April 11, 2016

Two watercolors by Egon Schiele, "Self-Portrait With Red Hair And Striped Oversleeves" and “Seated Boy With Folded Hands,” are being returned to the family of their original owner.

After nearly 20 years of fighting, the Leopold Museum in Vienna has agreed to return the watercolors

April 8, 2016

Were American-run newspapers during World War II full of news by Nazis?

New research suggests a backscratch agreement that traded access for control

April 1, 2016

The HMNZS Bellona in April 1947, just before the crew mutinied.

Cool Finds

Following WWII, New Zealand’s Navy Was Rocked With Peaceful Mutinies

More than 20 percent of the Royal New Zealand Navy was discharged for protesting low pay

April 1, 2016

Tom Randle plays Macheath, or “Mack the Knife,” in a production of Benjamin Britten’s The Beggar’s Opera.

Cool Finds

The Strange Career of “Mack the Knife”

As old Macheath is inducted into the National Recording Registry, here’s a look back at his long musical life

March 24, 2016