Category Archives: Second world war

Hungary: portrait of pro-fascist wartime judge rehung in supreme court

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Return of Jenő Szemák’s portrait seen as ‘strong symbolic message regarding the current political climate in Hungary’

A portrait of a far-right judge who served Hungary’s fascist wartime government has quietly been returned to the walls of the country’s highest court.

One senior judge told the Guardian he was appalled by the decision to hang a portrait of fascist sympathiser Jenő Szemák in the supreme court, saying that it sent “a strong symbolic message regarding the current political climate in Hungary”.

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Pilgrims to Mussolini’s birthplace pray that new PM will resurrect a far-right Italy

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In Predappio, supporters celebrate victory of their first female prime minister Giorgia Meloni, leader of a party with neo-fascist origins

Dressed in a black sweater, with “Propaganda” written in bold white letters across the back, Marco, 32, and his two friends had travelled to Predappio from their home in the Marche region to pay their respects at the grave of Benito Mussolini before the impending 100th anniversary of the fascist dictator’s march on Rome.

The ornate Mussolini family crypt, located in the tiny San Cassiano cemetery of the Emilia Romagna town, has attracted thousands of admirers since it reopened on an all-year-round basis in March, with the daily flow increasingly more consistent since the late September general election victory for a coalition led by Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy, a party with neofascist origins, which was sworn into government on Saturday.

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Second world war ‘Ghost Boat’ emerges in California lake, puzzling officials

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The drought hit Lake Shasta coughed up a Higgins vehicle and experts are struggling to explain its presence

Waning water levels across the west – symptoms of the region’s record drought – have revealed yet another artifact.

Dubbed the “Ghost Boat” by officials, the rusted carcass of a second world war Higgins boat, used to transport troops into battle and on to beaches overseas, began to emerge from the shallows in Lake Shasta last fall. Levels have sunk low enough this year to excavate the craft fully.

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Germany to rebuild bridge over Rhine that collapsed during WW2

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Appeal for funds to rebuild bridge at Remagen destroyed after capture by US troops in final days of war

Officials in Germany have announced plans to rebuild a bridge over the Rhine that collapsed days after its capture by US soldiers in the final weeks of the second world war.

The bridge at Remagen, which featured in a 1969 film of the same name starring George Segal, Ben Gazzara and Robert Vaughn, focusing on the heroism of the allies’ final advance into Germany, could be standing again within a decade, town planners have said.

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Why Italy is on verge of electing its first far-right leader since second world war

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Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy draw on a vein of fascism in a country that – unlike Germany – has never had to confront its past

A hundred years after the rise of Italian fascism was heralded by Mussolini’s 1922 march on Rome, the country is on the verge of electing a party with its roots in neo-fascism.

With just over a week to go until polling day, the smiling face of Giorgia Meloni, the leader of the Brothers of Italy, is emblazoned on thousands of posters from the heel in the south to the Alps in the north.

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D-day tribute or theme park? Battle rages over Normandy plan

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Critics say €90m project would reduce allied landing to a money-spinning tourist attraction

A row has erupted in France over plans for a new D-day attraction near the landing beaches, which critics have likened to a Disney-style theme park.

The multimillion-euro project to retell the story of le débarquement of 6 June 1944 and the subsequent Battle of Normandy in a hi-tech 45-minute “immersive show” has sparked a furious war of words, with opponents describing it as disrespectful to those who died and their families.

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Last veteran of Belgian SAS dies aged 97

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Jaak Daemen helped liberate the Netherlands and capture the German admiral who succeeded Hitler

The last veteran of the Belgian SAS has died aged 97, marking the loss of another living link with the second world war in Europe.

Jaak Daemen, a founder member of the Belgian SAS, which was created in 1944 to carry out sabotage and intelligence gathering behind enemy lines, died earlier this month.

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Back from the depths: shrinking Lake Mead reveals second world war-era boat

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The Higgins landing craft, once 185ft below the surface, is now halfway out of the water as drought deepens

A sunken boat dating back to the second world war is the latest object to emerge from a shrinking reservoir that straddles Nevada and Arizona.

The Higgins landing craft that has long been 185ft (56 meters) below the surface is now nearly halfway out of the water at Lake Mead.

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Former Nazi camp guard, 101, convicted of complicity in murders

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Josef Schütz given five-year jail sentence in Germany but is unlikely to be put behind bars

A German court has handed a five-year jail sentence to a 101-year-old former Nazi concentration camp guard, the oldest person so far to go on trial for complicity in war crimes during the Holocaust.

Josef Schütz was found guilty on Tuesday of being an accessory to murder while working as a prison guard at the Sachsenhausen camp in Oranienburg, north of Berlin, between 1942 and 1945.

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Shipwreck of US destroyer ‘Sammy B’ becomes deepest ever discovered

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Second world war ship found broken in two at depth of 22,916 feet in Philippines at ‘hallowed war grave’

A US navy destroyer that engaged a superior Japanese fleet in the largest sea battle of the second world war in the Philippines has become the deepest shipwreck to be discovered, according to explorers.

The USS Samuel B Roberts, popularly known as the “Sammy B”, was identified on Wednesday broken into two pieces on a slope at a depth of 22,916 feet (6,985m), or about four miles.

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Pope Francis orders online release of second world war-era ‘Jewish’ files

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Vatican archive of 2,700 cases of requests for help by Jewish people renews debate on Pope Pius XII legacy

Pope Francis has ordered the online publication of 170 volumes of files relating to Jewish people from the recently opened Pope Pius XII archives, amid renewed debate about the legacy of the second world war-era pope.

The archive of 2,700 cases “gathers the requests for help sent to Pope Pius XII by Jewish people … after the beginning of Nazi and fascist persecution”, said the Vatican’s secretary for relations with states, Paul Richard Gallagher, in a statement.

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Kremlin mulls Nuremberg-style trials based on second world war tribunals

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Russia to seek to justify invasion of Ukraine by staging show trials of war prisoners, conflict scholars fear

The gloating began just days after the missiles began falling on Ukraine. “Get ready for Nuremberg 2.0,” one former Russian diplomat wrote in a WhatsApp message. Vladimir Putin’s invasion to “denazify” the country has always pointed toward a purge and show trials. Now Moscow may seize on that chance.

As Russia holds hundreds of prisoners from the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol, its proxies in east Ukraine have floated the idea of holding a “military tribunal” inspired by Nuremberg that observers say would reflect a mass show trial meant to justify Russia’s invasion to the world.

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Putin’s invasion of Ukraine brings shame on Russia, G7 leaders say

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Statement to mark 77th anniversary of end of second world war condemns ‘an attack on feeding the world’

Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has brought shame on Russia and the sacrifices its people made to defeat Nazi Germany in the second world war, leaders of the G7 group of leading western economies have said in a statement marking the 77th anniversary of the end of the global conflict.

The statement, made on Sunday after a video conference between the G7 leaders and the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, was intended as a rallying call by liberal democracies in advance of Russia’s 9 May Victory Day parade in Moscow.

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Ukraine will prevail as Europe did in 1945, Scholz to say in VE Day speech

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German chancellor will draw parallel with second world war defeat of Nazi dictatorship in TV address

Ukraine will prevail over Russia as freedom prevailed over the Nazi dictatorship in 1945, the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, will say in a TV address to mark the 77th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, in which he will accuse Vladimir Putin of falsifying history.

In the speech, which will be aired on German TV at 8.20pm CET (7.20pm BST) on Sunday, Scholz says the “legacy of 8 May” for his country must be to help to ensure that there will never again be genocide or tyranny in Europe.

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‘About time’: Māori Battalion veteran welcomes New Zealand effort to issue unclaimed war medals

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Defence force works to match medals with families of up to 500 men who served in decorated unit during second world war

New Zealand is working to get medals to the rightful homes of up to 500 men from the country’s Māori Battalion, who were not properly recognised for their service.

The Māori Battalion, also known as the “28th”, was one of New Zealand’s most-decorated units during the second world war, fighting in Italy, Egypt, Crete and north Africa, but many of the men who served never received their medals.

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Play about ‘great escape’ from German prison camp to be staged at Alexandra Palace

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The story of the real-life escape from Stalag Luft III in 1944 is to be told at the London venue used as an internment camp for ‘enemy aliens’ during the first world war

The story behind the audacious 1944 escape from the Luftwaffe’s Stalag Luft III prison camp is to be retold in a new play at London’s Alexandra Palace, which was itself used as an internment camp for German, Austrian and Hungarian “enemy aliens” during the first world war.

Tom, Dick and Harry will recount the breakout of 76 allied airmen from the camp at Sagan in Germany (now Żagań in Poland) which inspired the 1963 film The Great Escape, featuring an all-star cast and a thrilling though fictitious motorbike exploit for Steve McQueen. The play is written by Theresa Heskins, Andrew Pollard and Michael Hugo with Heskins also directing.

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Woman who drew up Schindler’s lists during Holocaust dies at 107

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Mimi Reinhardt was in charge of compiling names of Jews to work in German industrialist’s factory

The woman who drew up lists of people for the German industrialist Oskar Schindler that helped save hundreds of Jews during the Holocaust has died aged 107.

Mimi Reinhardt, who was employed as Schindler’s secretary, was in charge of drawing up the lists of Jewish workers from the ghetto of the Polish city of Kraków who were recruited to work at his factory, saving them from deportation to Nazi death camps.

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Anne Frank: Dutch publisher recalls book on diarist’s betrayal after critical report

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The book named a Jewish notary as a main suspect in exposing the family’s hideout to the Nazis, prompting widespread backlash

The Dutch publisher of a discredited cold case investigation into the betrayal of teenage Jewish diarist Anne Frank said it was recalling the book following a critical report on its findings.

The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation by Canadian bestselling author Rosemary Sullivan has been widely criticised by experts since its release in January.

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Ukraine president asks Jewish people around world to speak against Russia

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Nazism is born in silence, says Volodymyr Zelenskiy, after missile struck close to Holocaust memorial site

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has appealed to Jewish people across the world to speak out against the Russian assault on his country, a day after a missile hit close to a Holocaust memorial site in the capital, Kyiv.

The missile strike on Tuesday hit Kyiv’s television tower, reportedly killing at least five people. The tower is located close to the memorial site of Babyn Yar, the ravine where Nazi soldiers massacred up to 150,000 people during the second world war, including more than 30,000 Jews, who were shot there in the autumn of 1941 after the Nazi takeover of Kyiv.

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Love in a time of terror: the tragic couples who married at a Dutch Nazi transit camp

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‘Aunt Annie’ was killed in the Holocaust – but not before marrying her sweetheart in captivity. Now her great-niece has found 260 other couples who did the same

Saskia Aukema knew little about her great-aunt Annie, who was murdered during the Holocaust. All she knew was that Annie had declined to go into hiding like her siblings, and continued working as a hospital nurse, even after the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands began in May 1940.

“That was the family story: this was the woman who didn’t hide and chose to be with her patients. That was all I knew… this line, this one sentence,” she told the Observer.

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