Rutgers Faculty Research World War II

More than any other war involving Americans in the 20th century, World War II was a “citizens’ war” that engaged the entire country. First-person accounts of the men and women who lived through it are essential to understanding the conflict.

As veterans and other witnesses of the war pass from the scene, we are seeing a revived interest in World War II. Ken Burns’ PBS documentary highlights the value of preserving the personal accounts of one of the most important events in modern world history.

Rutgers University is a center of original research and scholarship focusing on the war’s impact on citizens throughout the United States and in Eastern Europe and Japan as well. As the World War II generation ages, Rutgers’ historians are capturing these personal histories using a variety of traditional and emerging methods of historical research resulting in a significant, growing archive of oral histories about World War II.

The Rutgers Oral History Archives is a collection of more than 700 oral histories. The archives’ award-winning website features 444 first-person interviews, nearly all of them gathered from men and women who served overseas or on the home front during the war. These testimonies describe the impact of war on society: the disruption of individual lives, the chaos of combat, and, on the home front, rationing, scrap drives, war bond drives, civil defense drills, and the loss of family members, neighbors, and friends.

In addition to historians, faculty from numerous other disciplines analyze, write, and teach about the World War II era. Much of their work is based on first-person, eyewitness accounts from a wide range of people directly affected by the war.

William O’Neill is professor emeritus of history. He specializes in the history of 20th century America, particularly America’s role in the century’s two world wars. He continues to teach U.S. History at Rutgers, focusing on the years 1914-1945.

Judith Gerson, co-edited a collection of essays on the Holocaust and its aftermath, integrating primary research on the Shoah, and commentaries on how that research contributes to ongoing inquiries in the social sciences. Gerson is an associate professor of sociology and women’s and gender studies and former fellow at the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, U. S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Paul Hanebrink, associate professor of history, teaches a popular undergraduate course in the history of the Holocaust. His research interests include modern East Central Europe, the history of nationalism and anti-Semitism as modern political ideologies, and the place of religion in the modern nation-state.

Jochen Hellbeck is an associate professor of history and historian of Russia working on a cultural history of the battle of Stalingrad using diaries, letters, and interviews to understand the meaning of that epic battle for the people who survived it and their descendants.



John W. Chambers III, professor of history, serves as the chair of the Rutgers Oral History Archives' advisory committee and draws from the archives in his scholarly work about World War II.

Paul Schalow, associate professor of Asian language and cultures, teaches an undergraduate course that uses Japanese literature written by survivors of the bombing of Hiroshima held in Rutgers’ East Asian Library.

Jeffrey Shandler, associate professor of Jewish studies, is an expert in Holocaust literature and how the Holocaust is remembered, especially in the United States, in broadcast media, film, museums, tourist productions, literature, and other forms of culture.