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The Museum of World War II is a not for profit museum devoted to World War II located in Natick, Massachusetts, a few miles west of Boston. Formed over a period of more than 50 years by its founder, Kenneth W. Rendell, one of the world's premier dealers in autographs, letters and manuscripts, who has earned international renown as an authenticator of historic artifacts, the Museum's collections document in detail the events of the war, from the signing of the Versailles Treaty, which ended World War I, to the Nuremberg and Tokyo war crimes trials, which brought the Second World War to its close. The Museum's goal is to preserve the reality of the history of World War II and to provide an educational experience of the lessons to be learned. On display are over 7,000 artifacts as well 103 mannequins outfitted in complete uniforms and military equipment. Every piece is authentic, from documents with the handwriting of Roosevelt to the actual uniforms worn by concentration camp prisoners. The collections include highly important wartime letters, documents, and manuscripts of all the major political and military leaders, as well as the papers of officers and soldiers of all ranks, concentration camp inmates, and civilians. Adolf Hitler, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Sir Winston Churchill, Dwight D. Eisenhower, George S. Patton, Bernard Montgomery, Joseph Stalin, Erwin Rommel, Benito Mussolini, Joseph Mengele, Adolf Eichmann, Raoul Wallenberg, and Anne Frank's family are all represented in original letters. It has been described by London's Imperial War Museum as " containing the most comprehensive display of original World War II artifacts on exhibit anywhere in the world." Rendell has commented, "If a visitor is overwhelmed with the enormity and the complexity of the war, I have achieved my goal." ==Highlights== Documents and manuscripts of particular importance include: Original copy of the announcement of the Treaty of Versailles with Hitler's handwritten earliest anti-semitic rage, Hitler's draft of the Munich Agreement with his notations as well as Neville Chamberlain's; the first message alerting the Navy of the attack on Pearl Harbor; Complete German plans for the invasion of England; General Patton's letter to the Sultan of Morocco announcing the American landings and threats of destruction; Montgomery's address to the troops before El Alamein; Patton's annotated map for the invasion of Sicily; the complete plans for the D-Day invasion in Normandy; and Douglas MacArthur's draft of the Japanese surrender terms. Among the significant artifacts are Hitler's SA (''Sturm Abteilung'' or Storm Trooper) shirt; his first sketch for the Nazi flag; his reading glasses; Patton's battle helmet; Montgomery's beret; and copies of ''Mein Kampf'' belonging to Hitler, President Roosevelt, and General Patton. There are also six different Enigma code machines, including the ten-rotor T-52, of which only five are extant; an American Sherman tank from the North African campaign, a German Goliath tank from Normandy, and one of the very few surviving original landing craft (LCVP) from the Pacific. The Collections, which are arranged chronologically and geographically, include artifacts, manuscript and printed material in the following areas: * Germany in the Interwar Period * Adolf Hitler and the Rise of Nazism * The German Military * The Munich Agreement and the Fall of France * Winston Churchill * The Battle of Britain * The Resistance Movement * Occupied Europe * The Holocaust * Pearl Harbor and the American Home Front * The U.S. War Effort * The Italian Front * The Russian Front * D-Day: The Invasion of Normandy * The Rising Sun and the Aggression in the Far East * The Pacific Front * Iwo Jima * Prisoners of War * Everybody's War * German Collapse and Surrender * The Atomic Bomb * The Nuremberg War Trials * The Surrender of Japan * The Tokyo War Trials * Cold War Espionage 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Museum of World War II」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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