The National World War II Museum in New Orleans

"As anyone who lived through that event will tell you, VE Day marked the beginning of the end of the war that changed the world," says The National World War II Museum President and CEO, Dr. Gordon "Nick" Mueller. "Following the successful D-Day landings at Normandy on June 6, 1944, it was a matter of time before the Allies achieved their ultimate victory."

The National World War II Museum started out modestly in 2000, a museum telling the story of the amphibious invasions in Europe and Pacific. But the fledgling National D-Day museum proved to be popular beyond expectations. Visitors flocked to learn more about the military plans, the development of the Higgins boat that made the landings possible, the stories of the soldiers, and the efforts of those on the homefront.

Perhaps it was renewed awareness of sacrifices and courage in World War II, but as interest in the Greatest Generation has grown, the role of the D-Day Museum also has expanded.

In 2004 with its designation by the U.S. Congress as the country's official WWII Museum came their mandate to expand the number of buildings and their exhibits to tell the entire story of World War II. And the museum name became the National World War II Museum.

The D-Day information is still there but there’s also the new Education Wing - E.J. Ourso Discovery Hall - and a new special exhibitions gallery. The exhibit "Real to Reel: Hollywood and WWII" that will remain on view through August 31st. It wasn’t only soldiers who went to war, major Hollywood stars joined the war effort. The exhibit, reached only by special stairs on the lobby level, includes mementoes, and a film montage of propaganda, newsreels, soldier training films, and documentaries, and more.

At the end of 2009, the museum opened the Solomon Victory Theater, Stage Door Canteen entertainment venue and The American Sector, a Chef John Besh restaurant. Together, these represent the next phase of the Museum’s ongoing $300 million expansion.

The centerpiece of the 70,000-square-foot expansion, the Solomon Victory Theater, screens the 4-D cinematic production Beyond All Boundaries – a 35-minute immersive journey from Pearl Harbor to VJ Day featuring breathtaking effects, rare archival footage and images, CGI animation and multi-layered projection.

Part of the unique appeal of the museum is its focus on the stories of people, a result of its unusual beginnings, the afternoon musings of two good friends.

"Stephen Ambrose, Ph.D. and current museum president Gordon Mueller, Ph.D. were history professors together at University of New Orleans and best friends," says Clem Goldberger Associate Vice President for Marketing & Communications. The WWII era was a scholarship interest of both men, and Ambrose had already begun collecting oral histories. "Both Mueller and Ambrose realized that personal recollections of the war was going to be the real treasure,"explains Goldberger. "Ambrose believed it wasn’t just the generals and master plans that won the war – it was the ‘citizen soldiers’ who fought on the battlefront and the teamwork and determination evident on the home front.”

As a result, the most personally moving and affecting parts weren’t the description of the military operations, although it is clear these were crucial complicated maneuvers, but the personal accounts and small exhibits of personal artifacts presented along with a brief written story. The personal accounts included that of Prudence Burrell, a black nurse who talks about the mud and the heat, humidity and malaria, and mosquitoes. And about an army so segregated that even the blood was labeled to indicate whether the donor was African-American. We hear the words of Hideo Obata, a Japanese soldier – “we were trained not to waste our bullets” while the Allied troops were so well supplied that “the bullets came like rain.”

The Oral History program is still a major initiative of the museum. "We have 3 or 4 historians who travel and we videotape in HD (High Definition) the stories of WWII participants," explains Goldberger, "and the collection continues to grow. In our expansion these oral histories will have high prominence in telling the story of the war that changed the world."