Global World War II Monuments s is a free, mobile optimized web application that explores the history of the World War II and how it has been remembered by individuals, communities, and nations across the world. It lets you explore how we've remembered people, places, and moments that shaped the war, how men and women experienced the conflict, and how societies have remembered World War II in subsequent years. Expect to find monuments and interpretations that challenge your understanding of the past and present. Monuments are not history; rather they reflect how we have remembered the past at different moments in time. They reveal who we have been, and who we are now, even as they reveal how our understanding of World War II has changed.

Why Global World War II Monuments?

World War II touched every corner of the globe and changed the course of world history. Characterized by acts of courage, goodness, cowardice, and evil, as well as countless deaths, the war transformed human societies across the globe. Not surprisingly, during the war, and in the years and decades afterwards, communities erected informal and then formal monuments to honor the dead and to interpret the war for the living. Those memorials--in all their forms--reflect how societies have struggled to remember and to make sense of the war. They reveal not only the war, but its memory, as well as contemporary issues and politics within communities and among them--on a global scale. In taking on this global effort, the curators seek to build a diverse range of interpretive contexts through which to look at the memory of World War II. Those contexts will reveal shared values, historical change, politics, and conflicts among and between nations and communities. By moving beyond a single national tradition, Global World War II Monuments will expose the deeply complex international issues that continue to shape our historical memory of the War. Also, the approach here, grounded in public history, is by definition grounded in community (we take public submissions!) and shared authority over the past. In addition, this approach is transdisciplinary and embedded in the best practices of historians, including an appreciation for scholarly literature, excellent sources, and transparent research methods.

Who are the Curators?

The curators of Global World War II Monuments are students in the World War II Studies Program that is a collaboration between the School of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies at Arizona State University (especially its public history program) and the National World War II Museum in the United States. Our team of graduate students and program graduates is committed to building a publicly engaged and collaborative effort to interpret and to share monumental stories in collaboration with broader communities of educators, veterans, and the organizations that care for and maintain monuments to the war.