In 1942, when the Nazis rounded up the children in his Warsaw Ghetto orphanage and sent them to the death camp at Treblinka, Janusz Korczak refused to leave their side. He was murdered alongside his pupils shortly after arriving at Treblinka. 

Interpreters and translators were the unspoken heroes of the Nuremberg Trials. Their work at Nuremberg was a groundbreaking development in simultaneous interpretation.

At America’s National World War II Museum, we have always looked to our collections and galleries to find sources of inspiration and leadership: from everyday citizens doing their part to help defeat a common enemy to frontline leaders making tough decisions and personal sacrifices in the face of unprecedented challenges.

Allied intelligence believed that most captured American officers were being held at the Hammelburg prisoner of war camp, Oflag XIII-B. This population likely included Patton’s son-in-law, Lieutenant Colonel John Waters, but there was no way to be sure.

On January 27, 1945, the Red Army entered the gates of Auschwitz in horrified awe of what they encountered. As they marched through the snow, they encountered stacks of frozen corpses and 7,000 frightened, exhausted prisoners in the barracks.