HungaryThe Holocaust in Hungary in 1944-1945 was not a German invention only, but an outcome of historical background, the coming of the Arrow Cross Party and the losing tide of the war
AustriaA detailed history of the infamous Anschluss of Austria in March-April 1938 and Adolf Hitler’s two visits to Vienna before the annexation plebiscite
FranceThe history of the French Jews during the Second World War and the German occupation, and the infamous July 1942 round up known as ‘Rafle du Vel’ d’Hiv’ (Velodrome d’Hiver roundup)
UkraineDarnytsia pow camp, also known as Stalag 339, was a model of mass destruction of captured soldiers in the East with at least 68,000 men who died here between 1941 and 1943
AustriaAspangbahnhof Memorial is evidently the most important Holocaust-related location in Vienna today, which commemorates the memory of 47,035 people deported from here
GermanyWhile trying to shy himself from the Nazi heritage and crimes, Heinrich Hoffmann was one of the creators of Hitler as a public person, and his history was tightly connected with Munich
GreeceWhile often overshadowed by the more discussed theaters of WW2, the occupation of Greece and Athens between 1941 and 1944 was a brutal experience and the example of brave Greek resistance.
FranceOmaha Beach today while looking lovely, still represents the bloody battles of 1944 and the Allied invasion of Normandy, that opened the so anticipated Second Front in Europe
FranceThe history of the fierce and extremely life-consuming battle for the city of Caen in June-July 1944 and the price in the lives of the French civilians
PolandThe August-October 1944 saw the largest anti-Nazi revolt in occupied Europe and the Polish Warsaw Uprising serves a commemoration to the new generations and many of its location have been preserved
PolandA meticulously detailed history of the Pawiak prison in Warsaw in 1933-1944 under the occupation of the Nazi Germany. Topography, victims, and legacy after WWII
PolandThe story of Jan and Antonina Zabinski serves new generation as a guiding star in a sense what does it mean to be human and take care of other people and animals amid war
GermanyThe tragedy of the Jewish community of Frankfurt was not unique for Germany but it does not make much difference for the victims of the Holocaust ghettoized, persecuted, and killed in Frankfurt Am Main between 1933 and 1945
UkraineA city of a half a million people before June 1941 with 100 000 Jews, Dnipropetrovsk suffered the brutal Nazi occupation until October 1941, resulting in the genocide of Jews and other civilians, POWs
UkraineWehrmacht lost at least 400 000 soldiers on the Ukrainian soil in 1941-1944 and the history of their commemoration is no less dramatic then the horrors of their invasion
UkraineBykivnia Graves outside Kyiv in Ukraine is the last resting place of 25 000 to 30 000 victims of Stalin’s Red Terror as well as almost 3000 of Polish pows executed in 1940 as a part of the Katyn crime
UkraineGerman colonialism in Ukraine was not the invention of the Nazis, yet the Third Reich did all its best to drain resources from the country which ahd already suffered from the Soviet occupation
SpainThe Spanish city of Almeria may seem too distant to speak about the Holocaust, yet a small memorial to the Mauthausen victims is a place of historical importance worth visiting
CzechiaThe movie takes the viewer across many historical ‘Hitler-related’ locations in Austria and Germany, while all primary filming was taken in the Czech Republic
GermanyThe Potsdam Conference was a turning point in European history after WWII and the site of the meeting of the ‘Big Three’ itself has significant importance
GermanyAmong the six giant flak towers only the remnants of one construction are still dominating the landscape of Berlin, as well as the Humboldthain park itself bears historical memory worth deepening in
GermanyEighty years after the end of WWII, a small open site next to the Berlin Philharmonie still bears the memory of hundreds of thousands of victims of the Nazi eradication of ‘life unworthy of life’
Germany‘Valkyrie’ movie with Tom Cruise is one of the most historically accurate films devoted to WWII and it was filmed across Berlin in a number of locations of historical importance
GermanyAlmost eighty years after July 20, 1944, the history of the German Resistance, Claus von Stauffenberg, and the sacral site in the center of Berlin still has so much to tell us
GermanyThe notorious Soviet War Memorial in Berlin park Tiergarten has its own long and dubious history on the heels of the Battle for Berlin in 1945
FranceThe cozy memorial site amid the Forest of Compiegne resembles the events of the two World Wars and its climaxes on the Western Front
FranceThe battle of Sainte-Mere-Eglise on June 6-7, 1944 is still among the most cited episodes of the D-day and WWII in general, which is worths detailed consideration.
FranceThe history of the village of Benouville, the Caen canal, and the Orne river goes far beyond the fateful events of June 6, 1944, and it is worth a detailed consideration
FranceThe city of Bayeux is the first French town liberated after D-Day and its history goes far beyond the initial phase of the Battle of Normandy
FranceA thoroughly detailed historical narration regarding Adolf Hitler’s only visit to Paris, France in June 1940 and the life of the city under Nazis
UkraineThe notorious Syrets concentration camp in Kyiv has historically received less attention than one is due by virtue of the fact, that up to 25 000 people perished here next to Babyn Yar Ravine
UkraineAt a time, when Babyn Yar ravine in Kyiv has become a destination point for historical pilgrimage, a number of sites in its vicinity are still rare known and appraised for a visit
UkraineEven 80 years after the dramatic events in the ravine of Babi yar in Kyiv, Ukraine, a number of issues are still to be clarified. The most recent scholarly unveils facts and debunk myths and distortions
PolandUp to 85% of the city center of Warsaw was devastated during WWII. Yet the bare figures do not include a dramatic and factless story of the devastation of Warsaw as it was brought into reality.
PolandWarsaw city was Alpha and Omega for doctor Janusz Korczak (Henryk Goldsmith). Let’s walk and research the preserved and vanished locations, related with the ‘Children’s Republic’.
PolandShortly after the devastation and partition of Poland, Adolf Hitler made his visit to a conquered city of Warsaw to view the so-called ‘Parade of Victory’ and to ride across the city
PolandLet’s walk beside the main Warsaw filming locations of the iconic ‘The Pianist’ movie by Roman Polanski. A story of Wladyslaw Szpilman as it depicted in cinema
PolandAfter almost 80 years, we could still trace and reveal the hiding places of the famous Polish pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman, which had become his survival shelters in Warsaw, Poland.
PolandHistorically detailed on-walk research of the sites beyond the infamous ‘UMSCHAGPLATZ’ in Warsaw. The history of the area and the surrounding buildings, which could be traced back in history.
GreeceThe historical journey along the streets of the city of Thessaloniki in Greece and the tragedy of the local Jewish community during the German occupation 1941-1943
ItalyHitler’s visit to Florence had become an apogee of the whole diplomatic trip to Italy back in May 1938 and of strengthening the alliance with fascist Italy and Benito Mussolini.
ItalyA historically detailed tour along the main sites and landmarks of Rome, which once witnessed a state visit of Adolf Hitler, hosted by Benito Mussolini and King Victor Emmanuel III.
UkraineAn extensively detailed historical walk along the former Hitler’s headquarters near the Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia. The ‘Wehrwolf’ military headquarters
GermanyThe historically-detailed tour along the sites of historical significance attributed to the life and death of Erwin Rommel in Ulm and Herrlingen back in 1944.
GermanyAn extensively detailed walking tour around the territory of the Dachau Memorial Site, a stimulus to ignore the bus ride and to walk 30 minutes deepening into the history of the place
GermanyThe final article in my MUNICH series would lead you along the preserved and perished locations of the Third Reich in Munich: Hitler’s homes and party headquarters.
GermanyThe history of the Nazi movement and the Rise of the Third Reich is closely connected to a number of public places in Munich, including the largest beer halls in Bavaria.
GermanyI will take you across all main locations of the 1923 Hitler’s failed Beer Hall Putsch, with historical insight into every site or building before, within, and after the Third Reich era until today
GermanyThe War Memorial in Munich’s Hofgarten, known as the ‘KRIEGERDENKMAL MEMORIAL’ honors the memory of the soldiers and victims of both the First World War and the Second World War
GermanyThe city of Nuremberg was once considered as the ‘most German city’ and a number of historical locations and buildings have been preserved or renovated after the War and are still accessible.
GermanyThe Palace of Justice in Nuremberg is way more than another tourist site, rather a historical landmark of the Second World War, with its Courtroom 600 and stations of the museum exhibition.
GermanyLet’s walk along the Nazi Party Rally Grounds in Nuremberg, a preserved historical landmark and the open-air museum of the Third Reich era with all its parade grounds and buildings.
Ukraine‘National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War’ in Kiev, Ukraine, has one among the biggest museum collections on the Second World World, estimated more than 400 000 items.
PolandThe enormously large territory of the former Auschwitz death camp includes a number of sites of historical importance, including those around ‘Stammlager’
An exhaustedly detailed 1000 page-volume biography of Adolf Hitler, written by Ian Kershaw, one of the most prominent historians of our times.
PolandA number of objects of the historical importance on the outskirts of the infamous Auschwitz Birkenau and beyond the camp fence. Rarely visited locations around the Museum.
Poland‘Deutsche Emailwarenfabrik’ became world-known because of the ‘Schindler’s list’ movie and host a three-floor historical exhibition on the German occupation of Kraków.
PolandLet’s walk an extensively detailed walking route around all the movie locations in Krakow, where Schindler’s list (1993) movie by Steven Spielberg was filmed. Krakow streets, Plaszow site, Auschwitz Birkenau
AustriaHistory of the “Vienna period” of Adolf Hitler’s life. Extensive tour along the sites in Vienna, where Hitler lived, used to walk, sell his paintings, spent his time
Detailed historical and movie analysis of the Leni Riefenstahl’s “Triumph of the Will” (Triumph des Willens). Infamous Nazi propaganda documentary movie, which glorified the 1934 Party Congress in Nuremberg and Hitler
PolandMy on-walk tour along the sites of the former Jewish Ghetto in Krakow, Poland. Preserved buildings of the Nazi Krakow during the Holocaust.
PolandI’ve visited Krakow and former Plaszow Concentration Camp (Plaszow forced labor camp) in May 2018 and performed and extreme walking and historical tour along the main sites.
Profound and modern study on the War in the West by James Holland is considered to be on the most authoritative studies within the years.
AustriaAdolf Hitler had lived in Linz and its suburb Leonding from 1899 until 1907. I’ve visited his school, home, graves of parents and other places.
AustriaPlaces in Austria famous because of the Anschluss in March 1938 and after-period of the Ennexation of Austria by the Germany. All the sites then and now
AustriaMauthausen Concentration Camp bear Linz is a historical monument of the Holocaust, remained today as a Memorial
Prominent historical research by brirish author Hugh Trevor-Roper on the Hitler’s last days in Spring 1945
AustriaMonument against War and Fascim in the very heart of Vienna honors victims of the Second World War, both military and civil
SlovakiaSlavin Memorial Complex in Bratislava honors memory of whose, who died for the liberation and independence of Slovakia
AustriaNazi Flak Towers in Vienna resemble the former war greatness of the Third Reich and the scale of the Second World War
Prominent Holocasut book “The Destruction of the European Jews” by professor Raul Hilberg, stiil well-known since first publication in 1961
I offer a unique perspective on WWII sites, then and now. My articles are not just for reading about battlefields, concentration camps, and former Nazi rally grounds. They also help you plan your own trips to the WWII sites that interest you most.
My first focus is on historical places associated with WWII, away from the battlefields. These include historic districts of European cities associated with important events and figures in European history. From places associated with Adolf Hitler in Vienna and Munich to buildings from the Third Reich in Nuremberg, routes taken by high-ranking officials, halls where Nazi leaders held conferences and delivered speeches, the graves of military commanders, and post-war museums. These articles explore the history from a broader perspective, looking at those who initiated and sustained the war, as well as those who became involved in it against their will. WWII museums and memorials around the world offer endless opportunities for further exploration.
Another important focus of my work is places associated with the Holocaust and war crimes. When visiting former Nazi concentration camps in Germany, Nazi extermination camps in Poland, and sites of mass executions in Ukraine, I go beyond the information found in books and visitor leaflets. My aim is to understand each place in its historical and geographical context, including what happened there after the war. Museums and memorials help us learn about the Holocaust and preserve physical evidence of Nazi crimes. Even when only grass, ruins, or a memorial plaque remain, there is still much to learn about the history of a place — and to share with others.
Another focus of my travels is WWII battlefields as they look today, military museums, monuments to soldiers and military leaders, and surviving WWII-era buildings. Unlike many organised tours, which are limited to a few standard stops, I try to explore each location in depth, examining its history, geography, and what remains today. My aim is to convey the scale of what happened, examine the surviving evidence, and consult as many sources as possible. I hope these articles will deepen readers' interest in military history.
Since 1945, thousands of books have been published on the Second World War, drawing on documentary collections, published diaries, captured military archives, court records such as the Nuremberg Trial proceedings, historical analyses, and encyclopedias. These books reflect the experiences and perspectives of those who witnessed, participated in, or suffered from the war, as well as the research of professional historians, journalists, and other writers. Their scope ranges from short, focused studies to multi-volume works. Many continue to be translated into other languages, reprinted, revised, and debated by historians.
Over the decades since 1945, thousands of documentaries about the Second World War have been produced. They vary in the quality of their footage, their selection of archival material, and the credibility of the experts they feature. A lifetime would not be enough to watch them all, but there is still time to explore some of the best-known works. WWII documentaries can be grouped in different ways, including by length. Not everyone is ready to sit through ten hours of military newsreels or interviews with WWII veterans. On my WAR-DOCUMENTARY blog, you will find in-depth reviews of some of the best-known and most frequently cited documentary films about the Second World War.
