Anti-Worlds

A Jewish family says goodbye to a young boy through a wire fence...

A Jewish family says goodbye to a young boy through a wire fence at the Lodz Ghetto before they were deported to the Chelmno extermination camp. Lodz, Poland. September 1942

Recently discharged Japanese soldiers wait for their free train...

Recently discharged Japanese soldiers wait for their free train in Hiroshima. Hiroshima, Chūgoku region, Honshū, Japan. September 1945.

American soldiers attend Mass in the bombed cathedral of...

American soldiers attend Mass in the bombed cathedral of Cologne. Germany. March 1945.

Dead Imperial Japanese soldiers who defended the stronghold lie...

Dead Imperial Japanese soldiers who defended the stronghold lie at the feet of U.S. Marines following the American invasion of Iwo Jima. 2 March 1945.

Allied British, American and Soviet soldiers mock Adolf Hitler...

Allied British, American and Soviet soldiers mock Adolf Hitler atop his balcony at the Reich Chancellery. May 1945.

Canadian Army Major William Ewing salutes at the funeral of 55...

Canadian Army Major William Ewing salutes at the funeral of 55 members of "A" Company of The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada who were killed in combat. The funeral was also attended by most of the Dutch townspeople. Ossendrecht, Netherlands. 26 October 1944. 

Italian prisoners of war captured in Libya by British forces,...

Italian prisoners of war captured in Libya by British forces, arrive in London. The soldier in the foreground is still wearing his Africa Corps cap. 2 January 1942.

A curious Italian woman inspects the kilt of a Scottish soldier...

A curious Italian woman inspects the kilt of a Scottish soldier near the Coliseum after the liberation of Rome. 1944.

U.S. Navy nurses are rescued from the Japanese Los Baños...

U.S. Navy nurses are rescued from the Japanese Los Baños Internment Camp in the Philippines. The raid at Los Baños  on 23 February 1945 was executed by a combined U.S. Army Airborne and Filipino guerilla task force, resulting in the liberation of 2,147 Allied civilian and military internees. Los Baños, Laguna, the Philippines. March 1945. 

United States Army Lt. Florie E. Gant tends a wounded German...

United States Army Lt. Florie E. Gant tends a wounded German patient at a POW hospital in England. 7 October 1944.

An American soldier, a casualty of the Battle of the Philippine...

An American soldier, a casualty of the Battle of the Philippine Sea, lies on a cot in a makeshift hospital in a cathedral in Leyte, the Philippines. The soldier is waiting for treatment for a bullet wound to his stomach. 23 July 1945.

Jews in Lublin, Poland who had hidden themselves in a basement...

Jews in Lublin, Poland who had hidden themselves in a basement are rounded up by German soldiers before the creation of the Lublin Ghetto. December. 1940.

A group of German trümmerfrauen ("ruins women" or...

A group of German trümmerfrauen ("ruins women" or "rubble women") begin the arduous task of trying to piece Berlin back together again, brick by brick. With hundreds of cities having suffered significant bombing and firestorm damage through aerial attacks and ground fighting, and with many men dead or prisoners of war, this monumental task fell to a large degree on women. Berlin. June 1945.

Members of the Japanese Imperial Army pose for a photograph...

Members of the Japanese Imperial Army pose for a photograph during the Battles of Khalkhin Gol. After the Japanese had set up he puppet state of Manchukuo in 1931, they began to contest the borders with Mongolia and the Soviet Union, leading to a serious of battles along the Khalkha River in Mongolia and northern Manchuria. After a four month series of battles against the allied Soviet and Mongolian militaries, the battles resulted in total defeat for the Japanese Sixth Army. May 1939.

A crowd of people surround a weeping and humiliated French woman...

A crowd of people surround a weeping and humiliated French woman after the liberation of France. The woman had a romantic relationship with a German soldier during the occupation. The French Resistance shaved her head and she was then paraded through the city streets for citizens to mock and berate her for her wartime activities. Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône, France. 1944. Image captured by American photographer Carl Mydans.

Pfc. Luther Woodward, a member of the Fourth Ammunition Company,...

Pfc. Luther Woodward, a member of the Fourth Ammunition Company, U.S. Marine Corps, admires the Bronze Star awarded to him for "his bravery, initiative and battle-cunning". The award was later upgraded to the Silver Star for his combat actions on Guam. In December 1944, Pfc. Woodward followed footprints near an ammunition dump he had been posted to guard, finding six Japanese soldiers hiding in a hut. He opened fire, killing one and wounding another before the remaining soldiers fled. Woodward returned to his unit and with the addition of five more U.S. Marines, set out to find the Japanese soldiers. Woodward then shot and killed another Japanese soldier, and a comrade wounded another. 11 January 1945. 

Members of the 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handschar...

Members of the 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handschar read a propaganda pamphlet that extols Islam, while discredits Judaism. The SS Handschar was composed largely of Bosnian Muslims who opposed the fascist, ultra-nationalist Croatian Ustaša movement. Yugoslavia (Bosnia and Herzegovina). 1944.

After the liberation and evacuation of surviving inmates at...

After the liberation and evacuation of surviving inmates at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp by British and Canadian forces, a corpse clad in the striped inmate uniform lies in a barracks corner. Bergen-Belsen, Lower Saxony. May 1945.

A German woman commits suicide during the Battle of Berlin. With...

A German woman commits suicide during the Battle of Berlin. With the continuation of the war, the imminent defeat of Germany, and fear of Red Army reprisals, suicide rates in Germany skyrocketed to an astronomical scale towards the end of the war. Berlin. April 1945.

Above: Bamse (Norwegian for "cuddly bear", or...

Above: Bamse (Norwegian for "cuddly bear", or "teddy bear"), a St. Bernard who was adopted in Oslo in 1937 by Captain Erling Hafto of the Norwegian whale catcher ship Thorodd. At the onset of the war, the Thorodd was drafted into the Royal Norwegian Navy and Bamse was enrolled as an official crew member on 9 February 1940. Bamse quickly went from being the ship's mascot to being the mascot of the entire Free Norwegian Forces and a patriotic symbol of Allied Norway. In battle, he would stand on the front gun tower of the boat, and the crew made him a special metal helmet and he was known for several acts of bravery and heroism. After his death of heart failure in 1944 while the ship was in port in Scotland, he was awarded the PDSA (sometimes known as the "animals' George Cross") for gallantry and devotion to duty, the only World War II animal to have received this honor.

Below: Norwegian sailors hold aloft a Norwegian flag whilst visiting the grave of Bamse in Montrose, Scotland where he was laid to rest. He was buried with full military honors, and his funeral was attended by hundreds of Norwegian sailors, Allied servicemen, Scottish schoolchildren and townsfolk from Montrose and Dundee.