Explore the Collection

In total the collection comprises over 7,000 objects, 500,000 documents, including letters, diaries, log books, leaflets, pamphlets, magazines and photographs, 3,500 posters and 7,500 books. The documents include the famous and infamous: an original copy of the Versailles Treaty of 1919 to the Munich Agreement of 1938; the letters written by Eisenhower and Rommel to their wives on D-Day. The objects range from uniforms and military equipment to the more personal items that belonged to members of the Resistance, families on the home fronts or prisoners of war.

Explore some of the highlights of the collection online.

Germany in the 1920’s

After Germany’s shocking defeat in World War I the state faced serious unrest and the threat of disintegration.

Rise of Nazism

The question of how Hitler and the Nazi Party rose to power is answered by a trove of period artifacts on display in the museum, some of which can be explored online.

German Military

The German Military section stresses the traditions and symbolism that the Nazis created for their armed forces, and examines the country's military might.

Enigma

The museum displays six different Enigmas, the German code machines used during the war. Although deemed totally secure by the Nazis, the German codes were being deciphered by the British early in the war, giving the Allies a major tactical victory in the area of military intelligence.

Munich Conference

The Munich agreement of 30 September 1938 was British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's attempt to deflect war with Nazi Germany.

Fall of France

On May 10, 1940, German forces began advancing toward France, invading the Netherlands and Belgium along the way. By May 15, French Prime Minister Paul Reynaud told Churchill, “We have been defeated. We are beaten; we have lost the battle.”

Battle of Britain

When Churchill refused Hitler's demand that Britain not interfere in his plans to conquer Europe, he sent the Luftwaffe over the English Channel to attack in July 1940. The ensuing fight, named the Battle of Britain, took place entirely in the air.

Churchill

Britain's wartime prime minister, Winston Churchill, is probably the most highly regarded leader of the 20th century.

Resistance

While some citizens of conquered nations accepted Nazi rule, others did not, and they placed themselves at great personal risk to subvert and resist the occupiers. The Allies helped Resistance groups in many ways.

Occupied Europe

By the summer of 1940 huge areas of Europe had been occupied by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. The museum collections focus on those countries occupied by the Nazis, especially France.

Holocaust

Under the cover of the war, six million Jewish men, women and children, were systematically murdered in a deliberate act of the German state.

Pearl Harbor

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor of 7 December 1941 stunned the USA and Roosevelt declared war the next day.

America Enters the War

After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor of December 7, 1941, the US entered the war, fighting on two fronts: in North Africa and into Europe in the east, and in the Pacific to the west.

North Africa

World War II spread to North Africa in 1940 when Italian forces attempted to seize the Suez Canal, a strategically important waterway that allowed ships to sail between Europe and South Asia without having to pass around Africa.

Italy

Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini gave the Axis powers its name when he suggested that the rest of Europe would rotate around the “axis” of Germany and Italy.

The Soviet Union

The Soviet Union holds the distinction of having fought on both Axis and Allied sides of World War II. It signed a non-aggression pact with the Nazis in 1939 and invaded Poland two weeks after Germany.

D-Day

The D-Day invasion was one of the most complex and risky gambits in the history of warfare. It involved more than 150,000 British, American, and Canadian troops attacking the French coast of Normandy from the land, sea, and air, starting after midnight on June 6, 1944.

Liberation

Western Europe was liberated by the armies of the western Allies following the landings on the Normandy beaches of 6 June 1944. The military campaign was hard-fought.

German Collapse

The inexorable advance of the Allied armies into the Germany heartland - the Soviet Red Army from the east and the western Allied armies from the west - made the eventual defeat of Nazi Germany inevitable.

Rising Sun

Displayed in this area are items that illustrate the militaristic atmosphere in Japan in the years before the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Pacific Front

Artifacts relating to the Pacific Front are less abundant, but the museum has managed to collect a decent number of important pieces.

Iwo Jima

The Allied invasion of Iwo Jima, a name that translates as “Sulfur Island,” was among the fiercest and bloodiest battles of the war.

Atomic Bomb

Harry Truman's order to drop atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in early August 1945 was one of the most controversial events of the entire war.

Japan Surrenders

Following the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, the Japanese High Command understood that surrender was the only rational option.

Prisoners of War

The museum tells the story of World War II's POWs with a range of artifacts that include a handwritten note from Royal Air Force pilot and double amputee Douglas Bader, as well as maps, diaries, cartoons, drawings, and even a chess set that an American POW made by hand out of wood.

German War Trials

After the end of World War II, the Allies placed high-ranking Nazi officials on trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity at Nuremberg, Germany.

Japanese War Trials

The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE) was convened to try the Japanese officials who had committed atrocities.