Students tour the D-Day exhibit at the National WWII Museum in New Orleans on June 22, 2014. Photo by Matthew Hinton

1945: To the Bitter End

Top scholars and historians from around the planet gather in New Orleans Thursday through Saturday for the International Conference on World War II at the National WWII Museum. The conference is streamed live online starting Thursday. To see and hear speakers examine the war’s final chapter – “1945: To the Bitter End” – visit www.ww2conference.com online.

The 2015 conference continues a 70th anniversary series of talks led by best-selling authors, historians and veterans who fought in World War II. This year’s event features a Thursday Holocaust Symposium that includes a firsthand account from U.S. Army 82nd Airborne Division veteran T. Moffatt Burriss. Oral histories from World War II veterans will also be presented throughout the event.

A keynote address by Dr. Gerhard Weinberg, internationally acclaimed authority on Nazi Germany, is set for Thursday evening, following the Holocaust Symposium.

Friday’s conference sessions include presentations on the Battle of the Bulge, Iwo Jima, Kamikaze attacks on Okinawa and “Saving Italy: The Race to Rescue a Nation’s Treasures from the Nazis” by author Robert Edsel, president and founder of the Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art.

Also presenting during the conference are Pulitzer Prize-winning author Rick Atkinson; historian Dr. Donald Miller, who has guided numerous History Channel and PBS documentary programs about World War II; and Dr. Richard Frank, whose book about the end of imperial Japan has been described as one of the top books in English about World War II.

The conference wraps up Saturday evening with the George P. Shultz Forum on World Affairs where Dr. Efraim Zuroff gives a presentation titled “Operation Last Chance: One Man’s Quest to Bring Nazi Criminals to Justice.”

The American Legion has long been a promotional supporter of the 6-acre National WWII Museum, founded in 2000, which has expanded in numerous ways over the last decade and a half to include new exhibit pavilions, exhibits, travel programs, restoration projects and special events. One of the nation’s most visited museums, it is regarded as state-of-the-art educational institute and one of the world’s best museums on military and war history.

Visit www.nationalWW2museum.org to learn more.