This is a brief historical record of some key moments left by the Second World War.

World War II is one of the events that have marked history, and although almost 80 years have passed since it ended, we are still discovering some important vestiges, like the photographs we will present below.

Some of the most unsettling photographs from World War II that few people have seen
World War II was the most devastating conflict in human history. It is estimated that between 50 and 60 million people lost their lives during that period. The victims included both soldiers fallen in combat and civilians affected by the violence, bombings, and atrocities of the conflict. Here are some photographs that depict that dark moment in humanity:

Adolf Hitler and Helga Goebbels

Captured in 1936, this photograph shows Hitler with young Helga Goebbels. She and her siblings became part of history after their parents murdered them with cyanide in Hitler’s bunker in 1945.

Before and after the nuclear bomb

In August 1945, the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki shook Japan and forced its surrender. This is an aerial capture of Nagasaki, before and after the bombing. It is estimated that at least 74,000 people lost their lives.

The shadow

The atomic bomb that struck Hiroshima was named ‘Little Boy’. This photograph marks the exact spot where a man was at the moment the bomb fell, leaving his shadow forever.

War Prisoners

Reading the Daily Express, five British soldiers who were captured as prisoners of war were released after Japan’s surrender in 1945. The newspaper reads that those who escaped the atomic bomb were already beginning to fall victim to the “atomic plague”.

Istvan Reiner

A four-year-old boy smiles innocently in a portrait, unaware of the tragic fate awaiting him in the Auschwitz concentration camps.

Before their tragic end

A group of Jews prepared for execution. This photograph was taken in Ukraine when it was occupied by the Nazi army.