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Google Earth Adds WWII-Era Photos to European Database

by Matthew Zuras on February 6, 2010 at 02:25 PM

Earlier this week Google released an updated version of Google Earth, with a new feature that allows users to look at its database of historic aerial photography. One of the more interesting aspects of this feature is to see the European Theater before and immediately after the destruction of World War II.

The available World War II-era cities include Warsaw, Poland, Lyon, France, Naples, Italy, and Stuttgart, Germany. These cities saw some of the heaviest urban destruction during the six year conflict, and comparing their pre- and post-war images with current photos is breathtaking -- if not a strong case for the anti-war movement. The most remarkable facet of these images is the ability to see how Europe was reconstructed after years of heavy bombing by the Allies and ground level terror by the Axis powers.

Pictured above are three photos comparing the same area of the Warsaw Ghetto, where nearly 400,000 people were interned in 1940. After a famed uprising in 1943, Hitler ordered the ghetto to be blown up, block by block. The middle photo shows the wasteland remaining after the Nazi pogrom.

While Google's WWII-era data is currently limited to a handful of cities, we expect to see more in the near future. We hope to see more war-ravaged cities added to the database, as it serves an important lesson about the physical cost of conflict. As insulated as we are in the United States from the scars left by battle, it's vital to remember the devastation of the past in order to more fully digest our actions in the present and future. [From: Wired]

Google Earth Historic Images

Tags: aerial photography, AerialPhotography, google earth, GoogleEarth, history, top, warsaw ghetto, WarsawGhetto, world war ii, WorldWarIi

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