The Second World War remains the largest and most devastating armed conflict of the twentieth century. By its intensity, its excess, and its global scale, it profoundly upheaved the world order. A total war extending to the four corners of the globe, it remains without equal in the number of victims and in the scale of the atrocities committed. It raises fundamental questions about human relations and the philosophical and political foundations of modern societies: totalitarianism and democracy, colonialism and the right of peoples to self-determination. Produced by Jean-Baptiste Mersiol, this anthology offers a chronological journey through a selection of the most striking sound archives of the war: radio broadcasts, news bulletins, reports, programs, and official communiqués. Sources in foreign languages have been translated into French and are performed by Sarah Eddy. The conflict unfolds through the speeches of the major figures of the time — Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Charles de Gaulle, Franklin D. Roosevelt — but also through the prism of contemporary news reports. A powerful immersion at the heart of History, revealing both the intensity of the conflict and the moral and metaphysical rupture engendered by its atrocities. Patrick FRÉMEAUX