WW II

The fourth annual Fort Myers Fringe culminates, May 31, 2026, with a special closing performance of “Josephine: A burlesque cabaret dream play,” honoring the life of dancer, singer, actress, spy, and civil rights activist Josephine Baker. We will delve into the performance in a conversation with the show’s co-creator and star Tymisha Harris.

This region played a vital role in helping to save the United States and the Allies in World War II. This once-sleepy backwater became important to winning the war, because Germany dominated skies over Europe when America entered the conflict in late 1941. And Japan controlled the air over much of the Pacific.

National Spirit of ’45 Day is approaching, and a local ceremony is planned to honor the veterans.

Bob Hilliard was stationed in Europe at the end of World War II. After celebrating New Year’s Eve in Paris, he and a buddy spent the first ten days of 1946 on leave in London. Three years later, Hilliard wrote a musical based on that period in his life … and in the life of our nation. The script has resided in desk drawer for the past 75 years, but it comes to the stage of The Laboratory Theater of Florida on Saturday for limited run of five performances.

In this installment from the StoryCorps Mobile Tour visit to Fort Myers in March 2024, we hear sisters Jan Doetsch and Karla Doetsch Wheeler share memories of their parents who both served in the U.S. Marine Corps in World War II, and how they met in 1945 after the war ended.

"I Walked With Heroes" tells the story of a local WWII vet. Filmmaker Andre Degas joins us to talk about it.

"I Walked With Heroes" tells the story of a local WWII vet. Filmmaker Andre Degas joins us to talk about it.

As we mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Nazi-era concentration camps, a new exhibit at Florida Gulf Coast University’s Wilson G. Bradshaw…

The atrocities of the Holocaust are the focus of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day in late January, but the observation of Yom HaShoah in late…

Amnon Weinstein grew up in Tel Aviv surrounded by ghosts. His parents, Jews from Eastern Europe who moved to what in 1938 was known as Palestine, rarely…