Showing results for "Witnesses of War" in Politics & Social Sciences

At the Australian war crimes trials that followed World War II, one prosecution witness stood out: Warrant Officer Bill Sticpewich. During his three years in the infamous Sandakan POW camp, Sticpewich had seen hundreds of fellow prisoners die of starvation, sickness and overwork. Of more than 2400 Allied prisoners at Sandakan at the start of 1945, only six survived. It was Sticpewich's meticulous evidence that sent Sandakan's commandant and his murderous henchmen to the gallows. But to his fellow prisoners Sticpewich was not a war hero.

Experience the thrilling firsthand account of the Great Locomotive Chase of 1862, captured just a year after the daring events unfolded. During the early days of the American Civil War in April 1862, Union volunteers, led by civilian James J. Andrews, embarked on a bold mission to sabotage the Confederate army by targeting the Western and Atlantic Railroad. They commandeered a train named The General from Big Shanty, Georgia, sparking a high-stakes pursuit by Confederate forces on foot and by locomotive. This gripping narrative details the audacious raid and its far-reaching consequences, ...

Autumn 1945 saw the start of the Nuremberg trials, in which high ranking representatives of the Nazi government were called to account for their war crimes. In a curious yet fascinating twist, witnesses for the prosecution and the defense were housed together in a villa on the outskirts of town. The Witness House reveals the social structures that allowed a cruel and unjust regime to flourish and serves as a symbol of the blurred boundaries between accuser and accused that would come to form the basis of postwar Germany.

In spring 2008, inspired by the Vietnam-era Winter Soldier hearings, Iraq Veterans Against the War gathered veterans to expose war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq. Here are the powerful words, images, and documents of this historic gathering, which show the reality of life in Afghanistan and Iraq.