As if it happens now

10th of March, 1933: To-day Herr Göring, the Prussian Commissioner for the Ministry of the Interior, issued an order to the Storm Troops calling for stricter discipline, and asking them to refrain from acts of violence, but the order does not yet appear to have had the desired effect.

16th of March, 1933: The Nazi Terror goes on. The following letter has been received here from a private correspondent in Berlin, for whose good faith and trustworthiness the recipient of the letter vouches:– These Storm Troops (Hitler’s followers) are arresting Communists in their homes or on the streets. They take them into their Nazi barracks in order to torture them, as is being told us by eye-witnesses. In the Nazi barracks they whip the Communists and break their fingers in order to get from them confessions and addresses.

13th of November, 1933: All Germans rounded up to vote. The first official result from a town came from Neuss, where 36,256 votes were cast in the Reichstag election – that is, 98 per cent. Of these 35,583 went to the Nazi party. This would indicate that as compared with the last election nearly 20,000 supporters of the other parties had gone Nazi.

1st of October, 1938: An Anglo–German pledge. We, the German Fuehrer and Chancellor and the British Prime Minister, have had a further meeting today, and are agreed in recognising that the question of Anglo-German relations is of the first importance for the two countries and for Europe. We regard the agreement signed last night and the Anglo-German Naval Agreement as symbolic as the desire of our two peoples never to go to war with one another again.

4th of September, 1939: The Ultimatum. War Against Hitlerism. At War (leader). Britain at war with Germany:

The Admiralty, which was already in control of all British shipping, has now adopted the convoy system.

The banks will be closed to–day, but will reopen to–morrow. The Stock Exchange remains closed for the present.

All cinemas, theatres, and other places of entertainment are to be closed until further notice. Sports gatherings, indoor or outdoor, which involve large numbers of people congregating are prohibited. Church and all other places of public worship will not be closed.

President Roosevelt, in his broadcast to the United States last night, declared, “America will remain a neutral nation.” He disclosed that the proclamation of neutrality was already being prepared.

3rd of September, 1942: Terror still growing. How the Jews in France were rounded up. The plight of the French Jews was relieved to some extent by help and sympathy shown to them by their non–Jewish countrymen. Some were enabled to escape and numbers of children were given shelter and smuggled later into unoccupied territory, in spite of the danger involved. Others who evaded arrest are trying desperately to reach unoccupied France, and there is an almost uninterrupted stream of fugitives towards the demarcation line.

The Second World War, as reported by The Guardian. This is an archive of absolutely compelling stuff. Whereas photos and archive footage give us an idea of the horrors of occupied Europe and the troops’ advance, domestic contemporary reporting creates a first–hand collision between the events themselves and the country which must make sense of them. I’d say that even if you’re not interested in the war, a lot of this will hold your attention.