Maxim Chornyi

Independent World War II researcher and photographer from Ukraine

Since 2016 I have been documenting the places of the Second World War: how they looked then, what remains of them today, and why they still matter.

Every article is a long-form study of one location, photographed on site and rebuilt from memoirs, archival photographs and trial records. No editorial team, no sponsors.

  • 12countries explored on site
  • 70long-form studies
  • 150–200hours behind each study
  • 2.2 millionvisits since 2016
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Maxim Chornyi at the main gate of Auschwitz-Birkenau Most read study 198,385views Where was Schindler’s List filmed
Auschwitz-Birkenau, May 2018
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The places of World War II, then and now

War-Documentary.info is a close study of WWII locations and their legacy: concentration camps and ghettos, battlefields, the stops on Hitler’s path to power, and the memorials built after the war. It is not a news site and not an encyclopedia. Each article follows one place: what happened there, what you can still see today, and how to visit it.

Umschlagplatz in Warsaw today: Stawki Street, April 2019
Umschlagplatz in Warsaw in 1942: Jews gathered for deportation to Treblinka
Umschlagplatz, Warsaw Drag the line to compare

  • On site

    I travel to every location myself and photograph what remains: buildings, ruins, traces of the war and the memorials.

  • Then and now

    Archival photographs stand next to my own, taken from the same spot whenever the place allows.

  • Primary sources

    230 printed books on the war at home: memoirs, diaries, court records and period maps, checked against the work of historians.

    Selected books on World War II

  • For travellers

    Most studies end with practical notes: how to get there, what to look for, opening hours.

The walls and gate of the Mauthausen concentration camp
Mauthausen, Austria September 2017
Ghetto Heroes Square with its chairs memorial in Krakow
Kraków Ghetto, Poland May 2018
The unfinished Congress Hall on the Nazi Party Rally Grounds in Nuremberg
Congress Hall, Nuremberg August 2018
A deportation wagon on the ramp of Auschwitz-Birkenau
Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland May 2018
Pegasus Bridge at Benouville in Normandy
Pegasus Bridge, France July 2019
The courtyard of the Bendlerblock, memorial to the German resistance, Berlin
Bendlerblock, Berlin September 2019
The Shoes on the Danube Bank memorial in Budapest
Danube Bank, Budapest September 2021

12 countries scratched off my map

A country gets scratched off only after I have walked its WWII sites myself, from the beaches of Normandy to the ravine of Babyn Yar. Choose a country to see the studies it gave the site.

Map of Europe: the 12 countries where Maxim Chornyi has explored WWII sites

Ukraine

Since May 2016: Babyn Yar and the WWII sites of Kyiv, Dnipro and other places at home.

10 studies

  1. Wehrwolf (Werwolf): Hitler’s Headquarters in Ukraine
  2. Babi Yar (Babyn Yar) today: Archive Photos, Memorial Then & Now
  3. Kyiv WWII Memorial Complex: Ukraine in the Second World War
  4. Alfred Rosenberg in Kyiv, June 1942: Reichskommissariat Ukraine & Nazis
  5. Holocaust in Dnipropetrovsk (Dnipro) 1941–1943: German occupation
  6. German WW2 Cemetery near Kyiv: Wehrmacht Losses in Ukraine 1941-1944
  7. Bykivnia Graves: Stalin’s NKVD Mass Killings Near Kyiv
  8. Beyond Babyn Yar: Jewish cemetery, Pavlov Clinic, The Death match (1942)
  9. Syrets Camp, Kyiv: History, Topography & Today
  10. Darnytsia POW camp (Stalag 339) in Kyiv 1941-1943 Then & Now

Israel

September 2016: Yad Vashem and Oskar Schindler’s grave in Jerusalem, the journey that set me on the road.

Austria

September 2017: Vienna, Linz and Mauthausen. September 2021: Vienna again.

8 studies

  1. Adolf Hitler in Vienna 1906-1913: Every Address, Then and Now
  2. Hitler in Vienna, March 1938: The Anschluss Sites Then and Now
  3. Adolf Hitler in Leonding and Linz: Locations, Then and Now
  4. Vienna Flak Towers (Flakturm Wien): History & Photos
  5. Mauthausen Concentration Camp Today: 25 Locations then & now
  6. Monument Against War and Fascism in Vienna: History, Meaning and Guide
  7. The Holocaust in Vienna: From the Jewish Community of 1938 to the Aspangbahnhof
  8. The April 1938 Plebiscite in Austria: Hitler’s Second Visit to Vienna

Poland

May 2018: Kraków and Oświęcim. April 2019: Warsaw.

15 studies

  1. Where was Schindler’s List filmed
  2. Krakow Ghetto today
  3. Where was the Pianist filmed
  4. Plaszow Concentration Camp in Krakow Then & Now
  5. Oskar Schindler’s Factory (Deutsche Emailwarenfabrik) in Krakow Today
  6. Hitler in Warsaw, 1939: The Motorcade Route, Then and Now
  7. Outside Auschwitz I: The SS Zone, the Commandant’s Villa and the Sites Today
  8. Warsaw Ghetto Then and Now: What Survived
  9. Sites Beyond the Birkenau Fence: the Judenrampe, the Little White House
  10. The History of the Warsaw Zoo: Jan and Antonina Żabiński in WWII
  11. Wladyslaw Szpilman in Warsaw: Every Hiding Place Then and Now
  12. Warsaw Uprising 1944 Locations: Then & Now
  13. Umschlagplatz Warsaw: Deportation Site Then and now
  14. Janusz Korczak in Warsaw: Orphanages, Addresses, Monuments
  15. Pawiak Prison Museum in Warsaw, 1939-1944

Germany

August 2018: Nuremberg, Munich, Ulm, Heidelberg and Frankfurt. September 2019: Berlin and Potsdam.

17 studies

  1. Nazi Beer Halls in Munich: Where Hitler Spoke, Then and Now
  2. Munich Beer Hall Putsch Locations: the 1923 Route, Then and Now
  3. Erwin Rommel in Herrlingen: The House, the Grave and the Village Today
  4. Hitler’s Apartments in Munich and the NSDAP Headquarters, 1913–1945
  5. Nuremberg Rally Grounds Then and Now
  6. Nazi Sites in Nuremberg: Third Reich Buildings, Then and Now
  7. Soviet War Memorial in Tiergarten: Battle of Berlin 1945
  8. Kriegerdenkmal im Hofgarten: Munich War memorial – History & guide
  9. Nuremberg Trials Location: Palace of Justice, Courtroom 600 & Prison
  10. CECILIENHOF PALACE: THE POTSDAM CONFERENCE
  11. Bendlerblock Berlin: July 20, 1944 and the German Resistance
  12. Where Was VALKYRIE Filmed? Berlin & Potsdam Locations
  13. Tiergartenstrasse 4 Berlin: Aktion T4 HQ & Euthanasia Memorial
  14. Dachau Concentration Camp today: sites beyond the memorial
  15. Photographer Heinrich Hoffmann: His Munich Studios Then and Now
  16. Berlin Flak Towers: The Humboldthain Flakturm, Then and Now
  17. Frankfurt Holocaust Memorial at Börneplatz

Hungary

September 2021: Budapest and the Danube embankment.

From a bookshelf to twelve countries

Ten years of the project in six chapters, played like a short film. Pause it whenever you like, or choose a chapter on the bar below.

  1. Chapter 1 of 6

    April 2016

    A review that needed a home

    After reading William Shirer’s The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, I wrote a long review and realised it needed a site of its own. On 17 April 2016 I registered war-documentary.info, and on 2 May that review became its first article. In its first years the site wrote about documentaries and books, for readers at home in Ukraine.

  2. Chapter 2 of 6

    May and September 2016

    The first places

    In May I explored my first WWII site in depth: Babyn Yar in Kyiv. In September, in Jerusalem, I found Oskar Schindler’s grave and spent a day at Yad Vashem. There I promised myself to see Auschwitz and the Warsaw Ghetto.

  3. Chapter 3 of 6

    September to November 2017

    The first journey, and the English edition

    From 18 to 25 September I travelled through Slovakia and Austria: Bratislava, Vienna, Linz, Mauthausen. The trip brought the first location studies, and with them an English edition of the site. My first English article, on 20 October, reviewed Raul Hilberg’s The Destruction of the European Jews; on 3 November the Vienna Flak Towers study found its first readers abroad.

  4. Chapter 4 of 6

    2018

    Kraków, Germany and Italy

    In May I kept the promise made in Jerusalem: Kraków, Płaszów and Auschwitz. In August came my first trip to Germany, to Nuremberg, Munich, Ulm, Heidelberg and Frankfurt. In October, Rome and Florence, in the footsteps of Hitler’s state visit of 1938.

  5. Chapter 5 of 6

    2019

    The year on the road

    Thessaloniki and Athens in February, Warsaw in April, Paris, Normandy and Compiègne in July, Berlin, Potsdam and Prague in September, and Almería in December. From this year on, my growing library of memoirs, diaries, trial records and period maps carries every study.

  6. Chapter 6 of 6

    Since 2021

    Budapest, the war, and today

    In September 2021 I walked the Danube embankment in Budapest and returned to Vienna: my last journey abroad before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Since then I research the WWII past of my own country and rework every study with new sources. Today the site holds 70 studies, and my shelf 230 books on the war.

Maxim ChornyiIndependent World War II researcher

Write to me

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