Tag: 1940s
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Russian-born Princess Véra Obolensky Guillotined by the Nazis in Berlin. August 4, 1944.

On August 4, 1944, Russian-born Princess Véra Obolensky was guillotined by the Nazis at Ploetzensee prison in Berlin. She began working for the French Resistance in late 1940. Arrested in Paris in late 43, she was sentenced to death in Arras in May 1944 and then deported to Germany.
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Known Olympians Who Lost Their Lives During the Second World War.

Now that the Paris Olympics have started, here is a short piece on just some of the 403 known Olympians who lost their lives during the Second World War. Géo André was a French track and field star whose first Olympics were those of London in 1908 and who, despite being badly wounded in the…
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Yalta Conference, February 1945.
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin met at Yalta in February 1945 to discuss their joint occupation of Germany and plans for postwar Europe. Behind them stand, from the left, Field Marshal Sir Alan Brooke, Fleet Admiral Ernest King, Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy, General of the…
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July 26, 1943: ‘Battle of the Pips’.
Image: The battleship USS Mississippi pictured in 1945. A veteran of the First World War, she had been extensively modernized and served throughout the Pacific, primarily as a shore bombardment vessel.
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July 26,1944, Balabac Strait – Philippines
26 July 1944 Balabac Strait – Philippines On her third patrol, the US Navy submarine USS Robalo (SS-273) strikes a mine and rapidly sinks. Four of her crew managed to swim to Palawan Island. One of them is the skipper, Lieutenant Commander Manning Kimmel, the son of Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, commander of the Pacific…
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Madeleine Riffaud – July 23, 1944.
“Resistance is attacking those that are stronger than you. Terrorism is for the weak.” 80 years ago, on July 23, 1944. “I had to shoot a German NCO on the Solférino bridge in Paris.Well, he went down like a sack of wheat. He uttered no cry. Maybe he was a good guy, maybe he was…
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Ariadna Scriabina: French Resistance Hero
Toulouse, France – Saturday, 22 July 1944 Ariadna Scriabina (Knout) and two other French Resistance members go to 11 rue de la Pomme, an apartment used as a dead drop in the city of Toulouse. She is carrying false identification papers for other Resistance members. What they do not know is that French Milice is…
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Japanese Americans: Incarceration in World War II
During World War II, the United States forcibly relocated and incarcerated at least 125,284 people of Japanese descent in 75 identified incarceration sites. Most lived on the Pacific Coast, in concentration camps in the western interior of the country. Approximately two-thirds of the inmates were United States citizens. These actions were initiated by President Franklin…

