The 16th International Conference on World War II, a program of the Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War and Democracy at The National WWII Museum, was presented by the Pritzker Military Foundation on behalf of Pritzker Military Museum & Library, with additional support from The Gen. Raymond E. Mason Jr. Distinguished Lecture Series on World War II Endowment Fund.

Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass, was the Nazi dictatorship’s declaration of war against German and Austrian Jews in November 1938.

The Operation 85 project aims to identify unknown servicemen who perished aboard the USS Arizona during the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Before her historic protest in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Rosa Parks was a Home Front worker at Maxwell Airfield.

In a series of high-stakes strategic conferences in late 1943, the Allies made several key decisions that shaped wartime strategy, while reflecting the changing balance of power between the Allied nations and foreshadowing the postwar emergence of the bipolar world.

Operation Clipper, an offensive to reduce the Geilenkirchen salient in Germany, highlighted the value of specialized tanks in a combined US-British operation.

Mark Stepelton flew in some of the most dangerous environments of the war by escorting bombing aircraft over occupied Europe and conducting air interdiction missions, striking enemy targets deep behind the lines. 

In October 1943, SS leader Heinrich Himmler gave two speeches, showing the full depravity of the exterminationist mindset.

The creation of ghettos during World War II was a key part of Nazi plans to brutally persecute, separate, and eventually liquidate Europe’s Jewish population.

From the beginning, this was to be a different kind of war—a war not only of conquest but also of annihilation. 

In a lesser-known operation that presaged the horrors of the deadly Battle of Hürtgen Forest, the XIX Corps broke through the Siegfried Line north of Aachen, Germany, in October 1944.

“No greater fighting combat team has ever deployed for battle,” General Douglas McArthur noted after the war of the 158th Infantry Regiment “Bushmasters,” which was made up predominantly of Mexican Americans and members of the Pima and Navajo tribes from Arizona.