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History of World War II

A research guide for History 328: Axis and Allies, The History of World War II

World War II Primary Sources

The library has many primary sources for research in military history.  In addition to digital collections such as historical newspapers, you can find thousands of books in the collection that are personal narratives and other first hand accounts related to World War II.  Searching the Library Catalog will help you identify printed sources. 

Primary sources provides direct or firsthand evidence about an event, person, object or place.  These sources are created by participants or witnesses to an event at the time it occurred, and their experiences can be recorded later in the form of an autobiography, memoir or oral history. 

Secondary sources, on the other hand, provide a more critical analysis of an event, person or object.  They often interpret primary sources and refer to secondary sources created by other authors to help formulate a less personal account.

On this page are recommended sources and websites to find primary sources for military history with documents on World War II and related events.

These key search terms help identify primary sources:

  • autobiographies
  • correspondence
  • diaries
  • interviews
  • law and legislation
  • letters
  • memoirs
  • papers
  • personal narratives
  • sources
  • speeches
  • statistics
  • treaties


Examples of search terms used to find WWII primary sources:

  • World War 1939-1945 diaries
  • World War 1939-1945 personal narratives
  • World War 1939-1945 personal narratives American
  • World War 1939-1945 personal narratives British
  • World War 1939-1945 personal narratives German
  • World War 1939-1945 sources

Documents Relating to World War II

Law and Diplomacy in World War II

Military and Historical Statistics

Other Related WWII Collections

Digital Collections

Historical Newspapers