Every day, the Sonderkommando was forced to operate the gas chambers and crematoria as more and more train cars full of European Jews arrived in Auschwitz-Birkenau.
The USS Benevolence was one of three hospital ships in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945. The ship served as a haven and first stop in rehabilitation for thousands of Allied POWs.
Severely damaged by Japanese torpedoes at Pearl Harbor, USS West Virginia returned to service in October 1944. When the Japanese surrendered on September 2, 1945, she was in Tokyo Bay, a symbol of the resilience of the United States Navy.
“How sad it is to think of the touching veneration with which thousands and thousands of people have stood gazing at these pictures. . .and to see them now in unknown hands, victims, they too, of a war that uproots and beats down everything.” -Cesare Fasola