Franco’s Gamble: How Spain Stayed Out of World War II

This is how.

Netherlands' Nazi Collaboration Files Spark Privacy Debate | Focus on Europe

Oct 23, 2025 | The Dutch National Archives hold records on 425,000 people who collaborated with the Nazis. What should be done with the files?

How Cigarettes Took Over the World

Cigarettes were a prop for bored, scared and hungry soldiers in World War I and World War II.

World War II in Numbers: How a Fake Attack Triggered World War II / Der Zweite Weltkrieg in Zahlen: Wie ein vorgetäuschter Angriff den Zweiten Weltkrieg auslöste | Documentary

Jun 22, 2024 | On August 31, 1939, a 43-year-old man named Franz Honiok was arrested in Upper Silesia, drugged, and dressed in a Polish uniform. He was murdered near the Gleiwitz radio station to fake a Polish rebel attack. This staging served as a pretext for the Nazis to launch World War II, which would far surpass the horrors of World War I.

Considered the first global war in history, World War II resulted in fighting on every continent. At least 50 million people, both soldiers and civilians, lost their lives. We will never know the exact number of casualties, as the war period was characterized by total chaos and inadequate documentation.

Despite the horrifying statistics and estimates, these figures help us understand the scale and impact of the conflict. The numbers, in particular, illustrate why Hitler was so obsessed with conquering the oil fields in the Caucasus and why the Americans used the atomic bomb.
During the final months of World War I, no one would have imagined that the world would be facing an even greater conflict within a short period of time. But tensions grew rapidly, driven by the desire to create new empires. In Germany, this led to the rise of National Socialism, which ultimately led to the outbreak of World War II.

France 1942: When the Police Deported Their Own – Historical Documentary

Jul 16, 2025 | July 16, 1942: 13,000 arrests in 48 hours.

VÉL D’HIV (THE VÉLODROME D’HIVER): The Vélodrome d'Hiver (or "Vél d'Hiv") roundup was the largest French deportation of Jews during the Holocaust. It took place in Paris on July 16–17, 1942. Read about it here

‘My Great-grandfather Invented Rationing. Britain Would Be Healthier If We Brought It Back’

Jul 2, 2025

Living under Pétain: The Divided Memory of Vichy - Gestapo - History Documentary - AT

Oct 30, 2024 | When the people of Vichy recount the memory of the ephemeral capital of the "French State" from 1940 to 1944, the unsuspected force of the Pétain myth is revealed.

The new "French State" was born on July 10, 1940, in Vichy, in the Grand Casino theater. In a few days, the Hôtel du Parc, the Majestic, the Portugal, luxury establishments typical of pre-war Vichy, became the headquarters of a regime to which the small spa town would give its name. The terms of collaboration with the Nazi regime had been established as early as June. The hotels became ministries and parliamentary residences, before the Gestapo and its auxiliary, the Milice, set up their dungeons in Portugal and the Petit Casino.

On site, the filmmakers met men and women who, in their youth, were able to watch this sticky little world of the "National Revolution" live. Two of these witnesses, because they were Jewish, lived there as outlaws; one joined the resistance, another was among Laval's lawyers at his trial, a fifth was the daughter of a parliamentarian of the regime. Through their words, it is the history of collaboration and resistance that is written, with its ambiguities and its commitments.

Walks, greetings, hugs from chubby children… Pétain remains in the memory of many Vichy residents as a father and this documentary reveals the unsuspected strength of his myth in French memories. Remembering Vichy is mixing dreams, nightmares and reality, in the same way that Last Year at Marienbad, by Alain Resnais, makes us lose our footing in the troubled waters of memory. With this past that seems to await us in the peaceful alleys of the city, Bertrand de Solliers brings out the palpable unease caused by the era.

Last year in Vichy
Directors: Bertrand de Solliers, Paule Muxel
Producers: JULIANTO, ARTE FRANCE
All rights reserved ARTE

The Liberation of Paris | August 1944

May 16, 2022 | The liberation of Paris took place from 19 August 1944 until the German garrison surrendered the French capital on 25 August 1944. Paris had been occupied by the German Wehrmacht since June 1940.

The Paranoia That Cost Hitler World War II | Warlords: Hitler vs Stalin | Timeline

Oct 12, 2017 | The personalities and spectres of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin loom large in the events of the twentieth Century. They were similar in some respects and yet very different in others.

The first in a series that examines the interaction of the leading protagonists of WW2, this program looks in some depth at the nature of the relationship and interaction of these two ‘warlords’.

The use of primary materials and memoirs as sources gives the psycho-historical analysis some substance. You can sign up to History Hit, a history documentary service, at a huge discount using the code 'TIMELINE' here.

Smoking Unopened Original WW2 Cigarettes from the Third Reich | Reupload

Hier befindet sich eine Dokumentation über die Herstellung von Zigaretten in Dresden. – Mark

As I have said before, I have given up smoking; in fact, tomorrow, November 10, it will be seven months since I smoked my last cigarette. But I must say those cigarettes look very tempting! They were surely of excellent quality.

Even when I started smoking, back in the day, cigarettes were of a much higher quality than the inferior cigarettes they sell today. These days, the only thing about cigarettes that is high is the price of them! That, of course, is because of governments practising extortion on smokers by taxing them so highly in the vain hope of making people healthier.

I should add that I am rather surprised that those cigarettes are still smokeable after all this time! When I smoked, I found that the best place to store cigarette to keep them fresh for as long as possible was in the freezer. That's a trick I learnt many years ago whilst working in the Middle East, where, due to the hot dry weather, tobacco dries out very quickly if left in the open air. If stored in the freezer, however, they last forever; and are smokeable directly when taken out of the freezer (because they contain no moisture). – Mark

World War II and the Holocaust

May 7, 2020 • The Holocaust was the state-sponsored, systematic persecution and annihilation of European Jewry by Nazi Germany and its collaborators, between 1933 and 1945. Jews were the primary victims - six million were murdered. Roma (Gypsies), physically and mentally disabled people and Poles were also targeted for destruction or decimation for racial, ethnic, or national reasons. Millions more, including homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Soviet prisoners of war, and political dissidents also suffered grievous oppression and death under Nazi tyranny.

The Invasion - The Outbreak of World War II

This extra-long episode reconstructs how Hitler's invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 triggered a chain of events sparking a global conflagration. Hitler’s Poland Campaign unleashed a “Blitzkrieg” lasting six weeks only. However, it was a war of unprecedented brutality resulting in a tremendous suffering of the Polish people in the long run. Sheds light on some of their lives telling almost forgotten stories.

How Europe Prepared for WW2 | Impossible Peace | Timeline

When WW2 became inevitable. While all of Czechoslovakia is annexed, the curtain goes up on what will become the world's first truly global and total war.

The Unlikely Romance of a Black Nurse and a German POW in World War II

In this edition of Maryville Talks Books, author Alexis Clark and host Paul Schankman have a conversation about her remarkable new "stranger than fiction" book, Enemies in Love, which tells the true story of a black nurse and a German Prisoner of War, who fell in love during World War Two, and eventually married. Though their story began more than 70 years ago, it feels very relevant today as America continues to wrestle with issues of racism and hate.

Enemies in Love: A German POW, a Black Nurse, and an Unlikely Romance »

Projections of Life: Jewish Life before World War II

Rare, intimate home movies—depicting family life, birthday parties, vacations, and more—provide a glimpse into the lives of Jewish individuals who were soon swept into the destruction of the Holocaust.

The Secret Jews of Berlin | World War 2 Documentary | Timeline

It is commonly assumed that most Jews in Germany during the Second World War were exterminated, worked to death or saved ‘Schindler style’ by Gentiles.

A surprisingly high number from one city defied the odds and saved themselves. The Jews who survived in Berlin were vibrant, devious, clever and very, very lucky. Five of them tell their stories and reveal their survival techniques. Cantankerous, egotistical and irresistible, the outstanding spirit that helped them survive is still undimmed. This programme is more than just a wartime human interest story. It seeks to show that not all wartime Jews were passive, obedient victims. They were real people who knew how to fight back.

The Century: America's Time - 1941-1945: Homefront

World War II Documentary

France's Wartime Past Takes Centre Stage in Presidential Campaign

World War II in Color: A New World Order – Documentary