World War II

Jason Burt, of Clarksburg, Calif., got help from Grammy award-winning sound engineers to digitize and prepare recordings of his grandfather, Richard Burt, playing trumpet in the 746th Far East Air Force Band.

Music & Culture

A Grandson's Gift — A Spotlight — For His Grandfather's WWII Band

9:58am March 20, 2021

by Taylor Haney

The first time Jason Burt listened to his grandfather's World War II Army Air Force Band recordings after finding them in his attic, "it was like my own private concert with my grandpa."

Queue Listen Now

Military

Oldest Marine Dies in NC At 107

10:58pm January 17, 2021

by Associated Press

Dorothy Schmidt Cole, recognized last year as the oldest living U.S. Marine, has died at age 107.

Cpl. Waverly B. Woodson Jr. was an Army medic in an African American battalion who helped save scores of lives at Normandy on D-Day. On Tuesday, U.S. lawmakers introduced legislation to posthumously award him a Medal of Honor.

Senators Push For Medal Of Honor For Late Black Medic Who Saved Lives At Normandy

5:19pm September 09, 2020

by Eleanor Beardsley

Cpl. Waverly Woodson Jr., a member of an African American battalion, treated scores of soldiers wounded on D-Day but was passed over for the medal. Lawmakers and relatives have tried to change that.

Queue Listen Now

A marble plaque over the main entrance of the Vatican Archives reads in Latin "Secret Vatican Archive." The Vatican's library on Pope Pius XII and his record during the Holocaust opened to researchers in March.

Records From Once-Secret Archive Offer New Clues Into Vatican Response To Holocaust

3:09pm August 29, 2020

by Sylvia Poggioli

The Vatican has long maintained that Pope Pius XII did everything he could to save Jewish lives, but newly unearthed papers have renewed accusations of complicit silence against him.

A photograph shows Toyama, Japan, aflame after the U.S. attack on Aug. 1, 1945. Most of the city's population was left homeless.

World News

Opinion: 75 Years On, Remember Hiroshima And Nagasaki. But Remember Toyama Too

2:17pm August 01, 2020

A U.S. firebombing campaign targeted Toyama and other Japanese cities, killing 180,000 before the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, write geographer Cary Karacas and historian David Fedman.

A 93-year-old veteran of World War II observes a moment of silence at the Cenotaph war memorial in London, where British residents — like much of Europe — marked a subdued 75th anniversary of V-E Day.

V-E Day: Europe Celebrates A Subdued 75th Anniversary During COVID-19 Pandemic

5:04pm May 08, 2020

"Today, 75 years later, we are forced to commemorate alone, but we are not alone!" Germany's President Frank-Walter Steinmeier says, celebrating international unity in the post-war era.

An attendant opens the section of the Vatican archive dedicated to Pope Pius XII on Thursday. The March 2 unsealing of the archives of Pope Pius XII, the controversial World War II-era pontiff whose papacy lasted from 1939 to 1958, has been awaited for de

Vatican Opens Archives Of World War II-Era Pope Pius XII

2:44pm March 02, 2020

by Sylvia Poggioli

After decades of pressure from historians and Jewish groups, the Vatican on Monday began allowing scholars to access the archives of Pope Pius XII, who remained publicly silent during the Holocaust.

Queue Listen Now

Auschwitz survivor Alina Dabrowska, 96, shows her Auschwitz prisoner number tattoo at her home in Warsaw. She was sent to Auschwitz after she was caught by the Nazis helping the Allied forces in German-occupied Poland during World War II.

World News

75 Years After Auschwitz Liberation, Survivors Urge World To Remember

9:29am January 27, 2020

by Rob Schmitz

"People should look at this place and think about our moral responsibility," says Pawel Sawicki, a longtime guide at the Auschwitz museum in Poland.

Queue Listen Now

Pope Francis lamented that the Latin name Archivium Secretum — of the Vatican Secret Archive originally meant to convey that the archive was private — had come to connote something more sinister.

Pope Francis Decrees Name Change For Vatican Secret Archive

10:48am October 29, 2019

by Scott Neuman

The new name, Vatican Apostolic Archive, is meant to dispel the notion that the Holy See is hiding secrets in its ancient collection, the pope said.

Japan's Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako bow during a memorial service marking the 74th anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II at the Nippon Budokan Hall on Thursday in Tokyo.

World News

Japan's Emperor And Prime Minister Mark WWII Surrender In Contrasting Annual Rituals

11:26am August 15, 2019

by Scott Neuman

On the 74th anniversary of Japan's surrender, Emperor Naruhito expressed "deep remorse" for his country's wartime role. Meanwhile, Shinzo Abe sent offerings to a shrine that honors Japan's war dead.