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.

2024 agency numbers estimate fewer than 0.5% of Americans who served in the war still living. 

The invasion of Tarawa marked the first major action by American forces in the Central Pacific. Waves of Marines were badly mauled as they struggled to cross reefs and assault the beach. 

The Nuremberg Laws transformed the definition of Jewish identity from religious to racial, stripping rights and paving the way for the Holocaust.

Despite facing resistance and discrimination, more than 150,000 women served in the Women's Army Corps during World War II, performing vital noncombat roles and paving the way for women's permanent inclusion in the US military.

In the midst of the Battle of the Bulge, the Germans launched Operation Nordwind, a lesser-known but significant offensive in Alsace in January 1945.

In August 1943, Jewish prisoners revolted against their Nazi captors at the Treblinka death camp. This act of resistance provides crucial insight into the horrors of the death camp and Operation Reinhard.

Days after Pearl Harbor, Nazi Germany declared war on America. But why did Hitler choose to draw the United States directly into the European conflict?

In her December 8, 1941, My Day column, Eleanor Roosevelt reflects on the moment she learned of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor and other locations, describing the nation’s shift from uncertainty to resolve. 

In Hitler’s Winter, Anthony Tucker-Jones explores the Battle of the Bulge, the last major German offensive in the West. 

The 17th 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 and the George P. Shultz Forum on World Affairs.

If the American forces could break through the Hürtgen Forest, there was a chance they could reach the Rhine near Cologne, threatening the German industrial region along the Ruhr River and possibly even force a crossing.