The International Conference on World War II is the premier adult educational event bringing together the best and brightest scholars, authors, historians, and witnesses to history from around the globe to discuss key battles, personalities, strategies, issues, and controversies of the war that changed the world. Joining the featured speakers are hundreds of attendees who travel from all over the world to learn to connect with each other through engaging discussions, question-and-answer periods, book signings, and receptions throughout the weekend.
WATCH THE 15TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE'S SESSIONS
The 15th International Conference on World War II features a daylong, pre-conference symposium “Resistance! Life Under Occupation.” Two subsequent days of Conference sessions will explore an array of topics, including the WWII’s Battlefield Blunders, The Old Breed, K Company and Eugene Sledge, Asia Aflame, Women at War: Resistance, and featuring Richard Overy and Ben Macintyre and many more.
Pre-Conference Symposium: "Resistance! Life Under Occupation"
Thursday, November 17
8:00am – 8:05am
Symposium Welcome and Opening Remarks
8:05am – 9:15am
Resistance from Within: Germany and Austria
- Chair - Jason Dawsey, PhD
- German resistance - Nathan Stoltzfus, PhD
- Austria After the Anschluss – Guenter Bischof, PhD
9:15am – 9:35am
BREAK
9:35am – 10:50am
Living Under the Rising Sun
- Chair - Richard Frank
- Fighting in the Philippines – Ricardo Jose, PhD
- Indonesia Under Occupation – Ethan Mark, PhD
10:50 am – 11:15am
BREAK
11:15am – 12:30pm
Between Hitler and Stalin on the Eastern Front
- Chair - Jennifer Popowycz, PhD
- The Hidden Front: The Soviet Union – Rob Citino, PhD
- Uprising: Polish Resistance – Alexandra Richie, DPhil
12:30pm – 1:30pm
BREAK and LUNCH
1:30pm – 2:30pm
Fighting a Common Foe in Asia
- Chair - Allan Millett, PhD
- Chinese Nationalists and Communists: A “Unified” Effort – Xiaobing Li, PhD
- The OSS and Ho Chi Minh: Unexpected Allies – Dixee Bartholomew – Feis, PhD
2:30pm – 2:45pm
BREAK
2:45pm – 4:00pm
External Threat, Internal Struggles: Europe Under Occupation
- Chair - Mark Calhoun, PhD
- “Vivé La Résistance”: The French Fight – Sarah Bennett Farmer, PhD
- Italian Partisans: Victories and Reprisals – Jason Dawsey, PhD
4:00pm
Symposium Closing Remarks, Book signing, Conference Reception begins
Thursday, November 17, 2022
4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Conference Opening Reception
6:00 p.m. – 6:20 p.m.
Conference Opening
- Conference Opening Remarks – Stephen Watson, President & CEO, The National WWII Museum
- Presenting Sponsor Remarks – Krewasky Salter, PhD, President, Pritzker Military Museum & Library
6:20 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
- 15th International Conference on World War II Opening Session
- Blood and Ruins: The Last Imperial War, 1931-1945
- Richard Overy in conversation with Alexandra Richie, DPhil
Friday, November 18, 2022
8:30 a.m. – 9:45 a.m.
Losing at War: Battlefield Blunders and the Men who Made Them
- Chair - John Curatola, PhD
- James Holland
- Conrad Crane, PhD
9:45 a.m. – 10:15 a.m.
BREAK
10:15 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
Asia Aflame
- Chair – Richard Frank
- China’s War of Resistance – Xiaobing Li, PhD
- Famine and Forced Labor in Southeast Asia – Ethan Mark, PhD
11:30 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
BREAK and LUNCH
12:15 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Women at War: Resistance
- Chair – Steph Hinnershitz, PhD
- Women in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising – Elizabeth Hyman
- Empress of the Nile – Lynne Olson
1:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
BREAK
2:00 p.m. – 3:15 p.m.
The Old Breed, K Company and Eugene Sledge
- Chair - Richard Frank
- Devil Dogs: King Company, Third Battalion, 5th Marines: From Guadalcanal to the Shores of Japan – Saul David
- The Son of Sledgehammer – Henry Sledge
3:15 p.m. – 3:45 p.m.
BREAK
3:45 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
“I Was There:” WWII Veteran Conversation
- Chair – Michael Bell, PhD
- Z. Anthony Kruszewski, PhD, Polish Uprising 1944
5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Museum Open House
- Campaigns of Courage and Louisiana Memorial Pavilion
Saturday, November 19
8:30 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.
“Saving Freud: The Rescuers who Brought him to Freedom”
- Andrew Nagorski in conversation with Rob Citino, PhD
9:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
BREAK
10:00 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.
- Final Resistance – July 20th and Its Legacy in Germany
- Alexandra Richie, DPhil
- Levin von Trott zu Solz – Nephew of July 20th Plotter
11:15 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
BREAK
11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
A French Teenager in the Resistance
- A Conversation with Nicole Spangenberg and Steph Hinnershitz, PhD
12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
BREAK and LUNCH
1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad
- Interviewer – Marcus Cox, PhD
- Author – Matthew Delmont, PhD
2:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
BREAK with SNACKS
3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Masters of the Air, the Bloody 100th and John “Lucky” Luckadoo
- A conversation with veteran “Lucky” Luckadoo and Donald Miller, PhD
6:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
15th International Conference on World War II Closing Banquet Presentation
- Ben Macintyre – “Prisoners of the Castle: An Epic Story of Survival and Escape from Colditz, the Nazis' Fortress Prison”
Featured Speakers
Subject to Change
Richard Overy
Ben Macintyre
Alexandra Richie
Lynne Olson
Richard Frank
Rob Citino
Don Miller
John Morrow
Saul David
Allan Millett
Guenter Bischof
James Holland
Conrad Crane
Nicole Spangenberg
Sponsors
With Additional Support From
