The documentary archive

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Historium Library 47 documentaries indexed

Historium Documentary

Yamato, Shinano and HMS Barham: Three Wartime Disasters

Yamato, Shinano and HMS Barham were lost under very different circumstances. Yamato was overwhelmed by American carrier aircraft on its final mission in April 1945. Shinano, converted from…

5:02

Historium Documentary

Che Guevara’s Failed Revolution in Congo

In 1965, Che Guevara joined a Cuban mission supporting rebels in the Congo. He entered a conflict shaped by the country’s post-independence crisis, external intervention and divisions…

1:27

Historium Documentary

The Disturbing Private Life of Adolf Hitler

Images of leisure inside Hitler’s circle can seem startling when placed beside the destruction associated with his regime. Surviving home movies and photographs show informal gatherings,…

1:23

Historium Documentary

HMS Barham Explosion Caught on Camera in WW2

HMS Barham was a British battleship that had served in the First World War before returning to combat in the Second. On 25 November 1941, the German submarine U-331 attacked it in the…

1:35

Historium Documentary

Che Guevara’s Fatal Journey | From Algeria to Congo

Che Guevara’s 1965 speech in Algiers presented a demanding idea of solidarity between socialist countries and poorer nations. In the months that followed, he left his public roles in Cuba…

2:08

Historium Documentary

Why Opposition Leaders Stay After Electoral Defeat

Repeated electoral defeat does not always end a political career. This video compares opposition figures including Raila Odinga, Hakainde Hichilema, Ranil Wickremesinghe, Gennady Zyuganov…

2:37

Historium Documentary

Five Political Leaders Who Shaped the Twentieth Century

Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Mustafa Kemal Atatürk confronted different political crises. This video brings them together as an editorial…

2:36

Historium Documentary

Switzerland and Nazi Germany: Neutrality and Cooperation

Switzerland remained outside direct participation in the Second World War, but neutrality did not place it outside the conflict’s economy or moral choices. Trade, financial transactions…

5:25

Historium Documentary

The Tragic True Story of the Radium Girls

In the early twentieth century, luminous paint made watch and instrument dials readable in darkness. Some workers applied the paint using a method that involved shaping brush tips with…

2:57

Historium Documentary

Léo Major and the Liberation of Zwolle

Léo Major’s name is closely linked to the liberation of Zwolle in the Netherlands in April 1945. A reconnaissance mission, the death of his fellow soldier Wilfrid Arsenault and Major’s…

1:43

Historium Documentary

Yokosuka MXY-7 Ohka: Japan’s Piloted Rocket Weapon

The Yokosuka MXY-7 Ohka was a specialized Japanese attack weapon whose intended flight ended in a collision with an enemy ship. The combat-used Model 11 combined a large explosive charge…

1:59

Historium Documentary

Yamato: The World’s Largest Battleship Sunk in WWII

Yamato represented the Imperial Japanese Navy’s investment in enormous battleships and heavy guns. Yet its final mission in April 1945 unfolded in a war increasingly shaped by aircraft,…

1:35

Historium Documentary

The Day Che Guevara Challenged America in New York (1964)

On 11 December 1964, Che Guevara addressed the United Nations General Assembly as Cuba’s representative. His speech placed the revolution’s arguments about sovereignty, intervention and…

1:10

Historium Documentary

Irma Grese: Camp Crimes and the Belsen Trial

Irma Grese was among the camp personnel tried by a British military court in 1945 in the proceedings commonly known as the Belsen trial. The case considered crimes at Bergen-Belsen and…

1:11

Historium Documentary

The Chicxulub Asteroid That Changed Earth's History

About 66 million years ago, a large asteroid struck the region now occupied by Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. The Chicxulub impact left evidence in rocks and sediments and is associated with…

1:01

Historium Documentary

Why Jews Were Forced to Smile in a Nazi Camp

The Nazi propaganda film made at Theresienstadt presented selected scenes of work, culture and social activity inside a ghetto. That appearance depended on control over what could be…

2:09

Historium Documentary

Vladimir Putin: Political Image and the Rise to Power

Vladimir Putin became acting president of Russia on 31 December 1999, when Boris Yeltsin announced his resignation. The transfer of authority came after Putin had already risen to the…

0:37

Historium Documentary

Aerocar: Moulton Taylor’s Flying Car of 1949

Moulton Taylor’s Aerocar was a working attempt to combine an automobile with an aircraft. The original example first flew in 1949. Its flying components could be detached for road use,…

0:33

Historium Documentary

Titanic | The Most Famous Ship in History Is Vanishing

The wreck of Titanic has changed since it was located in 1985. Corrosion, biological activity and the failure of weakened structures have altered recognizable parts of the ship. Repeated…

0:48