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A multimedia resource on WW2 history brought to you by the award winning historian and filmmaker Laurence Rees. More about us

  • WW2 PODCAST LAUNCHED

    WW2 - THE KEY QUESTIONS
    WW2 - The Key Questions, answered by Laurence Rees, is now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

  • Laurence Rees' Blog

    Hitler and Stalin
    A selection of the previews of Laurence Rees' new book on Hitler and Stalin.

  • Expert interviews

    World class historians
    Many of the greatest WW2 experts in the world are interviewed at length, exclusively for WW2History.com.

  • Video

    PLAY
    4:07

    Holocaust

    1944

    Development of Auschwitz 5
    1944 was to be the year in which Auschwitz overtook all the other killing facilities in the Third Reich and became the site of the largest mass murder in the history of the world.

  • Testimony

    LISTEN
    8:17

    Pacific

    1940

    Japanese soldier in China
    He was sent, in 1940, to take part in the Japanese war against the Chinese. As a former soldier of the Imperial Army he gives a graphic description of the horrendous atrocities he saw committed by the Japanese.

  • Key Moment

    READ
     

    Holocaust

    1943

    Himmler’s Posen speech
    In the Golden Hall in Posen, Poland, Himmler talked openly to SS leaders about the nature of the extermination of the Jews. ‘It is a page of glory in our history,’ he said, referring to the mass killing of the Jews, ‘that has never been written and is never to be written.’

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More information on Laurence Rees

  • Laurence Rees

    Laurence Rees is an acclaimed historian and filmmaker who has specialised in writing books and making TV documentary series about the Second World War for thirty years. In 2006 he won the British Book Award for history book of the year for 'Auschwitz: the Nazis and the 'Final Solution''. His many television awards include a BAFTA, a Grierson Award, a Broadcasting Press Guild Award, a BANFF festival award, an International Documentary Award, a Broadcast Award and a George Foster Peabody Award.
    Read Laurence Rees’ full biography

  • "Rees knows a vast amount about the Second World War and his judgments can seldom be faulted."
    Sir Max Hastings, Sunday Times.

    "Scholars across the world owe a considerable debt of gratitude to Laurence Rees for his immense and unique contribution to historical understanding."
    From the citation awarding Laurence Rees an Honorary Doctorate, University of Sheffield

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