Migration was a prominent consequence of the war; as the scale of Nazi crimes increased, families left burned-down towns, and children were sent to safer areas. Out of 150 refugees who escaped Lodz, Poland, only a handful survived. They walked along the railway lines on the outskirts of Berlin, in the brutal cold, hoping to be picked up by a British train.
Some estimate that a total of 60 million Europeans became refugees during the World War II period. And the United Nations stat ed that by by 1951, more than five years after the fighting stopped, more than a million people still hadn’t found a place to call home.
Prisoners Of War
The German soldiers became as weary as their Allied counterparts, as the Second World War tore away beautiful places and innocent lives for so many years. As the battle wore on, many of them were captured. Over time, a number of these captured soldiers began to wonder if all the suffering was truly worth it. Was it time to stop fighting?
Here is a dramatic photo of some of the German captives, enclosed with twirling barbed wires. Private Helmut Roemer, one of those captured early on in battle, said in an interview with the BBC, “[we] were exhausted and we decided to hand ourselves over to the British, thinking, ‘Either they will shoot us or they’ll take us prisoner.’”
Landing Craft Infantry
This is a photograph of US Army soldiers, all bustling at a port in Southern England, boarding a Landing Craft Infantry. They are in the middle of their preparations for the big day. In fact, this was taken on the eve of D-Day, where they would soon cross English Channels and face their fears in pursuit of their main objectives, for being in the forefront of the war.
Most of the men in this photograph, taken on June 5th, are from the Engineer Special Brigade. You may readily identify them by the white symbol on their helmets. Behind the troops are barrage balloons. These silver objects were used as a defense against low-flying enemy aircraft.
War Dogs
Dogs have been used in human warfare since ancient times, serving as mascots, sentries, messengers, and even attackers. Both the Allied and Axis powers had large amounts of chemical weapons and countermeasures for use in the western front of World War II, but neither side wanted to be the first to use chemical weapons offensively, considering the inevitable counter response. Even so, both sides were prepared for chemical warfare, and because of their critical combat role, as were their dogs.
This photo from 1939 shows three Airedale dogs wearing their custom made gas masks at a Surrey kennel. The canines were being trained by Lt Col E. H. Richardson.
The Original Girl Power Movement
With the majority of the male population at war, "We Can Do It!" World War II posters encouraged American women to join the work force and contribute to the war effort. Five million women would enter the workforce between 1940-1945.
Here two women worker look cheerful as they paint the inside of a hatch on the deck of a submarine at the Electric Boat Co., in Groton, Connecticut, in October 1943. Later, the company would be known as General Dynamics Electric Boat, which produced more than 70 submarines and almost 400 PT boats during World War II.