We do not usually give so much space to the work of men we admire so little. So began a remarkable editor’s note to LIFE’s readers in an April 1970 issue of the magazine, introducing a photographer ...

On Sept. 1, 1939, one week after Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact, more than a million German troops—along with 50,000 Slovakian soldiers—invaded Poland. Two weeks later, ...

I went on holiday to Germany, in July 1939. Staying at Berchtesgarden. My bedroom window in the hotel overlooked Hitler's house, the Berghof. One day at breakfast, I was approached by three SS ...

Born from the defeat of World War One, the new German government, the Weimar Republic, faced a series of challenges economically, politically, socially and internationally. What challenges were faced ...

On 1 September 1939, the British ambassador in Berlin issued an ultimatum to the German government urging it to cease all aggressive activities in Poland and withdraw. Two days later, at 10.00am, this ...

German-American Bund leader Fritz Kuhn promises to make Germany and America great once more at a rally at Irving Park and Narragansett on June 18, 1939. Credit: Chicago Daily Times It might seem ...

In Part 2 of this alternate history series, we ask: could today’s Polish military defend 1939 Poland against the German invasion? With modern weapons, strategy, and mobility, how would the outcome of ...