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This article was published on June 7, 2010

History goes digital: World War II archives to move online


History goes digital: World War II archives to move online

Bletchley Park, the UK codebreaking centre that helped win World War II, is to publish its entire archive online; a move that could have some very interesting consequences.

The BBC reports that the archive, consisting of wartime communication transcripts, communiques, memoranda, photographs, maps and more is to be digitised in a major project, the first phase of which will take three years.

As well as opening up this huge, fascinating archive to a wider audience, the move will make research much easier. It will be much faster to trace links between documents and uncover the previously untold stories of World War II. sorting through documents will be possible in minutes, instead of days as at present. Among the intriguing questions hoped to be answered include: Why was Spain dealing in diamonds with German-allied countries like Japan?

Photographs in the collection include a collection of pictures taken of Adolf Hitler shortly after he was the subject of an  assassination attempt.

[Image credit: Alison Wheeler]

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