Posted on 07/22/2026 5:08:27 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Narrated by Dan Aykroyd, World War II: Saving the Reality tells the story of Kenneth W. Rendell, an individual who owns the largest private collection of World War II artifacts in the world.
Dan Aykroyd Reveals One Man's Incredible WWII Collection
World War II: Saving the Reality | 55:10
Stash - War & Military | Free Movies
14.4K subscribers | 351,107 views | May 22, 2026
(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...
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YouTube transcript reformatted at textformatter.ai *may* follow.
"In mid-2018, the bulk of the collection was sold to Ronald Lauder with the idea of moving the collection to a new facility near Washington D.C. In mid-2019, the Natick facility was closed at the insistence of Lauder. The collection was safely moved, but its ultimate fate is unknown."Kenneth W. Rendell collection
The International Museum of World War II (1999-2019)
(Wikipedia)
I am digitizing my dad’s WW2 letters and memorabilia. He had a camera during the war during Operation Torch, Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
I hope it gets a permanent home, and never winds up in the hands of the Smithsonian.
Excellent!
My local military air museum could use some of those artifacts!
If you’re ever in Alabama and enjoy unusual history, don’t miss the **Berman Museum of World History** in Anniston. It’s one of those incredible places that somehow remains relatively obscure despite housing thousands of artifacts collected by Farley and Germaine Berman, both of whom had intelligence backgrounds during World War II.
The museum’s most famous exhibit is **Adolf Hitler’s personal silver tea service**, but that’s just the beginning. You’ll also find Napoleon artifacts, medieval armor, elaborate spy gadgets, disguised weapons (including guns hidden in flutes and pens), and treasures from around the world. When people asked Farley Berman how he acquired some of these remarkable items, his legendary reply was: **”That’s a good question. Next question.”**
If this museum were in Washington, D.C., it would probably be packed every day. Instead, it’s tucked away in Anniston, Alabama, making it one of America’s best hidden museum gems. If you like history, espionage, or just wonderfully odd collections, it’s well worth the detour. ([This is Alabama][1])
[1]: https://www.thisisalabama.org/visit-alabamas-version-of-the-smithsonian/?utm_source=chatgpt.com “Visit Alabama’s version of the Smithsonian - This is Alabama”
Yup, and it would do a lot of people good to be able to see 'em!
One of my jr high students brought in his dad’s war diary. He served on USS Bennington (CV 20). They had trouble reading his handwriting. (Being a jr high teacher I am fluent in crummy cursive.)
So I copied out the whole thing on my computer, including explanations of things like what a Betty was. His details of Okinawa, including the progress of the battle from his point of view is fascinating. The evolution of his spelling of the island’s name is also pretty cool.
He described kamikaze attacks he experienced. His ship job was storekeeper but his battle station was as a talker relaying information of the attacks.
I suggested to the family that they donate his diary to some historical site, like the museum at Pensacola, but they declined.
Thanks!
I own a Mauser 98 my father got in WWII. It was made in 1944. I could never get it to feed reliably from the 5 rd magazine. I tried all kinds of ammo but it simply would jam. I had it ramped by a gunsmith with no improvement.
A superior gunsmith found the problem. The underside of the top of the magazine was never deburred. It seems late in the war production was so hurried some poor draftee was issued a rifle not fit for battle. Now deburred, it shoots and feeds like a dream.
Thanks for this broad-stroke memory of those days -- everything was all quite familiar from my readings and testimonies of personal acquaintances along the way, even those from the Wehrmacht and Japan's Army.
One of the lesser-known but very effective Pacific war commander was LTG Robert L. Eichelberger(click here), under whom the forces of the Pacific, beginning in New Guinea, transformed the Army's hesitancy approach into the very aggressive boldness that helped bring the island-to-island campaign much more rapidly to term than at the start. I read the history of his experiences, well written and stimulating -- not unlike that of Patton in the ETO.
This article eceived with much gratitude to you for it.
What I’d like out of Anniston armory is another M1 Garand as chealpy as the one I got from them 30 yeas ago, juat as it was issued in 1943 then stored after its service was completed.
Eichelberger was lesser known because he was “smothered” (only term that fits) by glory hungry MacArthur. Same with Gen. Walter Krueger.
The reason why this museum is relatively obscure is because this guy was a high-level US government spook (deep state?) at the end of WWII. Stationed in Europe. He had access to over seas transportation. He stole so much stuff from Europe, he probably should have been executed. But in the fog of war he got away with it. He even ended up with a (real) beheading ax from the tower of London. So a cloud of controversy surrounds the museum to this day.
I have lived in Europe for years. There is no museum like this in the world.
He was my favorite performer of the original SNL guys. Glad about the way he squared himself away after Belushi’s death.
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