History - Primary Sources: WWII & Holocaust

The Civilian Public Service was an alternative service option for conscientious objectors during WWII. This website's database provides details on all 12,000 men who served in CPS and info on more than 150 CPS camps in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Secondary-source essays provide background to rosters, photographs, etc. Site also provides many recommendations for further reading. (Mennonite Central Committee and the Center on Conscience and War)

FBI documents on WWII topics, including Tokyo Rose, General MacArthur, Wernher VonBraun, detention, and more. (Note: Dates in the list of topics/files indicate when documents were put online, not when the content was originally created.) (Federal Bureau of Investigation)

Photos of life in Hawaii during World War II. (Univ. of Hawaii)

In response to the humanitarian crisis in Prague in 1939, the Universal Unitarian Service Committee (UUSC) was founded to work on establishing food and clothing distribution centers, hospitals, and homes for children. This digital collection includes approximately 257 boxes worth of UUSC material from 1939-1967. (Andover-Harvard Theological Library, and U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum)

Links researchers to archival materials consisting of descriptions and often images of records related to cultural property that was stolen, looted, seized, forcibly sold, or otherwise lost during the Nazi era. Covers a broad range of cultural property from artworks to books and libraries, religious objects, antiquities, archival documents, carvings, silver and more. (U.S. National Archives and various international organizations)

Collection details NCWC's work with veterans of the First and Second World Wars in the U.S. (1927, 1942-46) Largely photographs of social events, religious events, etc. Many images feature African American soldiers and children, as well as interracial groups and events. (Catholic Univ. of America)

Comprehensive record of what life was like at the German prison camp. Includes POW's stories, photos, poetry, art, roommates, newspaper, accounts of the evacuation, as well as links on the guards and interrogators. Also provides the six extant issues of the POW newspaper POW WOW, Prisoners of War - Waiting on Winning, which was intended to be destroyed after reading.

Eighteen rare public health films from the WWII era, covering topics such as personal cleanliness, sexually transmitted diseases, tropical diseases, and the stress of war. All films include searchable transcripts and commentaries. All films are in the public domain and may thus be used without concerns for copyright infringement. (National Library of Medicine)

Includes images, oral histories, and other historical materials related to missilery history, women's military history, WWII, Cold War, Desert Storm, aviation, automobiles, and the army in space. Also includes an archive of the Redstone Rocket "unofficial authorized" newspaper, 1950s and 1960s. (Redstone Arsenal, AL, U.S. Army)

Men and women participating in all theaters of operations. Experiences recounted nclude German and Japanese POW camps, Japanese-American relocation centers, Pearl Harbor attack, Bataan Death March, and more. (Univ. of Florida)

156 hours of audio and 3,400 transcribed pages of interviews conducted 1974-1981 with 22 survivors and 2 American witnesses. Also provides lesson plans and activities. (Wisconsin Historical Society)

Documents one university's response to the attack by implementing new policies, for example, military credit for students recruited midsemester and mandatory nursing training for all female students. (Indiana Univ.)

Photos by Bob Landry, a Life photographer who made it to the scene not long after the attacks. (TIME Magazine)