A top-secret D-Day map, a plaque that had been attached to Hitler’s private yacht, a piece of the first German plane brought down on British soil, wartime memoirs, precious items carried in sacks across Europe by families fleeing Nazi persecution, and harrowing letters written to loved ones from inside Nazi concentration camps.

These are some of the more than 25,000 items that make up a ground-breaking new online digital archive that brings to light thousands of items and stories from the Second World War, artefacts previously hidden away for decades in private collections and residences throughout the UK.

The ‘The Finest Hour’ digital archive project has over several months collected over 25,000 artefacts and the stories associated with them, all of which are free to view, share and reuse, via the project’s website, theirfinesthour.org, on June 6 to coincide with the 80th anniversary of D-Day.

Postcard written by Lucy Smetana's mother in Paris, written around the time the war broke out, September 3, 1939

The project, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, is based out of the Faculty of English at Oxford University. Hundreds of volunteers worked to organise over 70 free events in 2023 and early 2024 called “Digital collection days”, enabling some 2,000 members of the public to attend and submit their war-related stories and mementos to have them recorded and digitised.

Digital collection days took place in libraries, schools, colleges, museums, churches, mosques and synagogues across the entirety of the UK. Those who could not attend digital collection days in person were able to submit stories and photos via the project’s website.

Among the many items accessible to the public for the first time is a Honour Cross medal, sometimes known as the Hindenburg Cross, which was awarded to a Jewish German man who fought heroically for Germany in the First World War but who, despite a decorated military career and a thriving shop in downtown Berlin, was forced to flee Germany following Kristallnacht.

Other noteworthy items include a necktie that belonged to Chiang Kai-Shek, a photograph of Winston Churchill visiting troops in the desert, a photograph of Field Marshal Rommel in Derna off the North African coast, a lighter made out of a rifle cartridge.

Photograph of Willy Friedlander and his family

The project’s director, Dr Stuart Lee, said: “Very few families in Britain and across the Commonwealth were untouched by the war. We knew from previous projects that people have so many wonderful objects, photos, and anecdotes which have been passed down from family members and which are at risk of getting lost or being forgotten. We’re delighted that we have been able to preserve so many of these stories and objects and make them available to the public through our archive of memories.”

John Dominick

Letters written from inside Nazi concentration camps have been digitised too. One is written by Zofia Wasiak from Auschwitz when she was 21 or 22 years of age. She wrote a total of four letters from the camp, all in German instead of her native Polish, and all describing Auschwitz in a positive light, because all letters were written under duress and screened and approved by camp guards and German soldiers.

Other items to have been digitised include correspondence and postcards between two lovers who, deemed by the UK government as “enemy aliens”, were interned separately in different camps on the Isle of Man for a year.

Dr Matthew Kidd, the project’s manager, said thanks to the efforts of thousands of dedicated volunteers and contributors they have been able to create “a people’s archive of the Second World War that showcases both the extraordinary and everyday objects passed on by those who lived through the war.”