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Poland has agreed to return to Greece 76 Greek Jewish artifacts to be displayed in the Jewish Museum of Greece in Athens, the Greek Culture Ministry has announced. The ministry had filed a formal request for the repatriation of the historical artifacts before Lina Mendoni, the Greek Minister of Culture who, while attending the Informal Council of EU Culture Ministers, met with her Polish counterpart Hanna Wroblewska in Warsaw to finalize the deal. The artifacts, currently housed at the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, Poland were discovered in Lower Silesia and hold deep historical and emotional significance for Greece’s Jewish...

An American soldier who was killed during World War II has been accounted for nearly 80 years after his death. Last week, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced that it had identified the remains of Glenn H. Hodak, a 23-year-old corporal in the United States Army Air Forces from Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania. Hodak was accounted for on September 25, 2024.

The Battle of Okinawa, code named Operation Iceberg, was World War II's largest and bloodiest battle in the Pacific Theater. The landings on the Japanese island by joint U.S. and Allied forces took place 80 years ago, April 1, 1945, lasting until June 22, 1945. It was the last major battle of the war. Army Lt. Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr., who commanded the Tenth Army, led the invasion. The Tenth Army was a composite unit comprising the Army's 7th, 27th, 77th and 96th infantry divisions, the 1st, 2nd and 6th Marine divisions, as well as a joint Army/Marine Corps...

Images of "Enola Gay," the aircraft that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima in Japan are among those targeted by the U.S. military in an initiative to eliminate content related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). They are among a number of photos unrelated to DEI that have been mistakenly flagged, including those from an Army Corps of Engineers dredging project in California, seemingly because an engineer in the image had the last name "Gay." Why It Matters The military is set to remove thousands of photos and online posts in the DEI purge following an executive order issued by...

WASHINGTON — Paul Goffin has spent much of his adult life solemnly remembering the American Army Soldiers who fought to free his home country, Belgium, during World War II. Yet, it wasn’t until Goffin retired in 1990 from the World Bank in the Washington, D.C., area that he could dedicate serious time to help recognize the men who fought during the Battle of the Bulge, the largest and deadliest conflict of the war. “They represented everything,” said Goffin, now 100, during an interview at his northern Virginia home. "They brought back the freedom which we didn't have, the hope for...

If you are not Finnish, you may not be aware of the Winter War which saw Finland fighting an invading Soviet army between November 1939 and March 1940. Finland’s oldest war veteran who survived two invasions by Russia died aged 108 It was an ill conceived plan by the Stalin led Soviet Administration which saw the small Finnish army stand against a much larger Soviet invading force but with the Soviet losses being much more significant than expected. In the end, a Peace Treaty was agreed which saw the end of the invasion, although Finland gave up 9 per cent...

Zanet Nachmia, the last Holocaust survivor from the city of Ioannina, Greece died shortly before her 100th birthday the Jewish Museum of Greece announced on Wednesday. Nachmia was born in Ioannina in 1925, one of the six children of Haim Nachmias, who ran a taverna, and his wife Revekka (née Mordechai), and grew up within the walled Kastro, opposite the synagogue. She attended primary school at the Alliance Israélite Universelle until the fifth grade, when she left to help her mother with the chores of their large household. On March 25, 1944, the entire Jewish community of Ioannina, including Nachmia...

The Germany President pictured here with his Greek counterpart flew to Crete on Thursday to apologize for the German atrocities in Crete. Credit: German Presidency President of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier has asked the people of Kandanos in Crete for forgiveness on behalf of Germany for the massacres committed by the German Wehrmacht during the Second World War. “We cannot undo the suffering. We will never be able to properly make up for it. But we must keep its memory alive to ensure that what happened once does not happen again”, he said at a commemoration ceremony. Visiting Kandanos on Crete...

The panel said there is no evidence that the works, which are held in the collection of Bremen Kunsthalle, were lost as a result of Nazi persecutionGermany’s advisory panel on Nazi-looted art has rejected a claim by the heirs of George Grosz for two of his paintings held in the collection of the Bremen Kunsthalle, saying there is no evidence to support the claimants’ view that they were lost as a result of persecution. The panel said there is no doubt that although Grosz was not Jewish, he “suffered individual persecution under the National Socialists due to his political...

Before they were known as the “Lost Battalion,” the 1st Battalion was a part of the 36th Infantry Division fighting in Europe during World War II. After a bungled strategic decision sent them deep into German territory in Southern France, the Battalion was surrounded. For six days, the 275 soldiers remained trapped with dwindling air-dropped supplies as the Germans threatened to wipe them out and repelled repeated rescue attempts on the ground. Germany's leader himself is said to have taken a personal interest in seeing the Battalion completely destroyed. In a last ditch effort, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team was...

Winston Churchill's aristocratic daughter-in-law and confidante Pamela Harriman is considered "the greatest courtesan of her era". Decades after her death, she still divides opinion – was she a smart power player, or "shameless" and "repellent"? You could call her by her six names: Pamela Beryl Digby Churchill Hayward Harriman – a British aristocrat who ended up a Washington power player and the US ambassador to France, having touched many famous lives in 20th-Century politics and culture. When she was just 20, her father-in-law Winston Churchill engaged her as "his most willing and committed secret weapon" (as a new biography puts...

TOKYO -- An unexploded U.S. bomb from World War II that had been buried at a Japanese airport exploded Wednesday, causing a large crater in a taxiway and the cancellation of more than 80 flights but no injuries, Japanese officials said. Land and Transport Ministry officials said there were no aircraft nearby when the bomb exploded at Miyazaki Airport in southwestern Japan.

BOLIVAR, Mo. (KY3) - At the peaceful Parkview Residential Facility in Bolivar. Inside every door, there’s a great story. “Pretty soon the school bell rang,” resident Bill Pool said, “knew right then, gonna be tardy again.” Inside Bill’s room is a book full of his poems. It sits right next to the shadowbox full of World War II medals. “I think he’s a great man,” Bill’s daughter Carolyn George said. “He still has love,” Bill’s other daughter, Jeanie Price added. Bill Pool enlisted in the Army in 1941 and, after basic training, was off to the heart of the ground...

Likely the last major anniversary with veterans, now it’s on the living to pay tribute to the soldiers who fought the war, rebuilt the towns, then left.The eyes of the world are falling on the beaches at Normandy, France, as leaders mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day. For most nations whose troops risked and sacrificed their lives at the landings, the beaches are far away in time and place. But locals are resolved to carry on eternal salutes to their liberators.World War II touched every continent, and even the greatest armada ever assembled — while a huge set piece —...

The Nazi occupying forces massacred civilians in Crete. Credit: Bundesarchiv, CC BY-SA 3.0 de/Wikipedia Greek scientists have recently identified 18 people who were executed by the Nazis in Crete through DNA analysis. In the Battle of Crete during the World War II occupation of Greece, the German forces faced substantial civilian resistance. The inhabitants of Adele, a prosperous lowland village in the northeastern part of the Rethymnon regional unit, resisted fiercely and had formed an armed resistance group. As a consequence, the German forces surrounded the village on June 2, 1941, and arrested 18 male civilians (including two fathers with...

The final resting place of an iconic U.S. Navy submarine that was sunk 80 years ago during World War II was located 3,000 feet below the ocean's surface, the Naval History and Heritage Command said Thursday. The USS Harder – which earned the nickname "Hit 'em HARDER" – was found off the Philippine island of Luzon, sitting upright and "relatively intact" except for damage behind its conning tower from a Japanese depth charge, the command said. The sub was discovered using data collected by Tim Taylor, CEO of the Lost 52 Project, which works to locate the 52 submarines sunk...

The last surviving Triple Ace pilot from World War II is gone. Brigadier General Clarence E. “Bud” Anderson of Auburn died at about 5:30 p.m. Friday, May 17, daughter Kitty Burlington confirmed Saturday in a call with the Auburn Journal. Anderson decided two weeks ago to stop dialysis treatment, Burlington said. Anderson earned Triple Ace status in World War II with 16¼ kills, two probable kills, two damaged aircraft and one enemy aircraft destroyed on the ground. Over 116 combat missions, Anderson’s two “Old Crow” P-51 Mustangs were never hit by even a single enemy bullet. “He’s kind of a...

A dying Marine veteran was finally handed his high school diploma while receiving hospice care after dropping out to fight in World War Two over eight decades ago. Richard Remp, a 98-year-old marine veteran in hospice care, left school at 17 years of age to serve in World War II, before later continuing his service in Korea and Vietnam. But on Friday he was finally handed the high school diploma he had longed for all these years but never received. Remp told local San Antonio NBC affiliate NEWS4SA: 'On behalf of myself and the Marine Corps, I thank you very...

The sole living survivor from the sinking of the USS Arizona during the Pearl Harbor attack that brought the US into World War II has now died. Lou Conter, who lived in Grass Valley, was 20 years old at the time of the attack on Dec. 7, 1941. There were 2,403 Americans killed in the attack – including 1,177 of Arizona's crew. Conter was one of the only 335 officers and crewmen who survived. Over the years, Conter shared his experiences and visited Hawaii for remembrance ceremonies. "Minute it happened, we sounded general quarters and they were in there and...

Lou Conter, the last living survivor of the USS Arizona battleship that exploded and sank during the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, has died. He was 102. Conter passed away on Monday at his home in Grass Valley, California, following congestive heart failure, his daughter, Louann Daley said, adding she was beside him along with two of her brothers, James and Jeff. The Arizona lost 1,177 sailors and Marines in the 1941 attack that launched the United States into World War II. The battleship’s dead account for nearly half of those killed in the attack.