Witness History: World War Two history

In June 1940, France surrendered to Nazi Germany, leading to four years of occupation and the rule of a puppet government led by Marshal Petain. Henriette Dodd lived through the occupation and shares her memories with Witness. PHOTO: Marshal Petain (second left) with the Nazi leader Hermann Goering. (AFP)

In 1941, the deputy fuhrer, Rudolf Hess, flew out of Nazi Germany and landed in Scotland. Keen to study the psychology of the Nazi leadership, the British government sent a psychiatrist called Henry Dicks to examine Hess at a safe house in Surrey. Professor Daniel Pick, author of "The Pursuit of the Nazi Mind", retraces the encounter using BBC archive recordings and Dr Dicks' personal papers. The...

Throughout World War II, Myra Hess organised concerts in London's National Gallery. The lunchtime performances were intended to raise morale in the capital. Many other concert venues had been shut because of the Blitz. Photo: Myra Hess at the piano in 1944.

In February 1942 all Japanese Americans were ordered to internment camps. They were viewed as a threat to US security during World War II. Photo: A Japanese American family preparing to go to an internment camp. (Credit: Dorothea Lange/Hulton Archive/Getty Images.)

It is 70 years since senior Nazi officials met to plan the killing of European Jews. The meeting was organised by Reinhardt Heydrich. It took place in a villa in a prosperous suburb of Berlin. Photo: Getty Images News.

She was one of Germany's greatest battleships during World War II. But on Boxing Day 1943 she was sunk in the freezing waters of the Arctic. Norman Scarth is a Witness listener who was on board a British ship and watched her go down. Photo: Norman Scarth the young sailor.

On 29 September 1941, the organised massacre of Ukrainian Jews began. In the capital Kiev, most of them were taken to a place called Babi Yar, and shot. Raissa Maistrenko escaped the shooting as a three-year-old girl. Rabbi Alexander, Dukhovny's mother survived the Holocaust outside the city. Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

The trials of senior Nazis began in the autumn of 1945. Howard Triest was a German Jew who acted as a translator during their questioning. Photo: Getty Images

The scoop of the century on the eve of World War II. How a young British reporter witnessed the German military build-up just days before the invasion of Poland in 1939. We hear Clare Hollingworth's own account of a daring trip across the border. Photo: Clare Hollingworth in 1978. Credit: BBC

Through the BBC's Archive footage Alan Johnston pieces together the story of a Battle of Britain fighter pilot who was shot down during a dogfight and badly burnt before parachuting from his stricken aircraft. We hear how Richard Hillary then had to prepare to die as he drifted for hours in the North Sea. Photo: Press Association

During World War II, many British children were sent away from the cities to escape German bombs. Most went to the countryside but some went as far away as Australia. Helen Cuthbert (right) and her sister were sent to live with their aunt there.

When Italy joined World War II in June 1940, British-Italian men were rounded up and interned. Joe Pieri was just 21 years old and living in Glasgow when he was arrested and sent to a prison camp in Canada. Photo: Joe Pieri today.

A British soldier tells us of one extraordinary day on the beaches of 1940 Dunkirk during World War II. We hear of how he managed to work his way through the chaos and constant danger, and escape to England. Photo: Soldiers of the British Expeditionary Force lie on their backs on the beach at Dunkirk to shoot with their rifles at enemy aircraft, which are bombing the transport ships that have arri...

The Red Army took control of the German capital Berlin, in May 1945. The Soviet soldiers had a terrifying reputation and civilians in their path feared looting and violence. One German woman who survived that time tells her story. Photo: Associated Press This programme was scheduled for broadcast on May 2nd but postponed due to the death of Osama bin Laden.

On 8 May 1945, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill announced the end of the Second World War in Europe. Defeat for Germany meant great rejoicing in Britain. Alan Johnston spoke to people at the centre of celebrations that day including Australian bomber pilot Geoffrey Cornish and British sailor George Broomhead. These first-hand accounts are brought together with archive recordings in this pr...

The city of Krakow in Poland was home to a large Jewish community before World War II. But with the arrival of the Nazis many of its Jews were deported, or fled. Then in 1941 a Jewish ghetto was built. This programme begins with a deeply disturbing recollection. Photo: Dr Ludwik Zurowski

When Leningrad was cut off from the rest of Russia by German troops during World War Two, one third of its population died. Some were killed in the fighting, but most died of hunger. (Photo: Two women collect remains of a dead horse for food, during the siege of Leningrad) (Credit: World History Archive/TopFoto)

Over 10,000 Jewish children were brought to Britain from Nazi Europe in the months leading up to World War II. They travelled on trains which became known as the kindertransports. Listen to one little boy's story. His name is Oliver Gebhardt.

When Japanese bombers and fighter planes attacked the US fleet in the Pacific it came as a huge surprise to many. Listen to some archive recordings from the time.

The first trains full of Jewish children left Berlin in early December - heading for sanctuary in Britain. The Kindertransports only stopped with the outbreak of war in September 1939. They helped thousands of children from all over Nazi occupied Europe to escape the Holocaust. Children arriving at Liverpool Street station. Getty images.