35+ Must-Watch World War 2 Movies for Kids & Teens

Historical fiction movies are a great way to bring events & time periods ‘alive’. But what movies about the second world war are worth watching?

Historical fiction movies, often inspired by real events, are an easy way to help kiddos visualize a time period, see themselves “on the ground” of major events, or simply humanize a distant time and a distant group of people in a way that books may not do.

They also give us a glimpse of the horrors of war — and not just in a graphic way. In the best Holocaust movies, we see the difficult decisions ordinary citizens made that while helping Jewish people, also put their own families at risk. We see soldiers save their brothers in arms, knowing that they are giving up their own lives. We see citizens under a dictator wrestle with speaking up vs. trying to stay under the radar.

Even younger children can begin to wrestle with complex decisions (at a kid-appropriate level), which makes them a great way to introduce kids to the time period.

World War 1 may have made a larger impact on history, but World War 2 is what we want to watch on the big screen.

While some historians argue that World War 1 made a larger impact on the world long-term, World War 2 is what garners our attention and, thus, has inspired far more movies than World War 1. Streaming services are full of suggestions. Movies like Saving Private Ryan and Schindler’s List are obvious choices, but there are so many other great World War II movies available to stream on Netflix & elsewhere.

The very nature of the topic, unfortunately, the number of kid-friendly war movies is pretty slim. I’ve separated these suggestions into two lists. Those rated PG-13 and up, I put into the teens/adult category regardless of how ‘heavy’ the subject matter.

(You know your kids best, so some of these war films may be fine for younger kiddos. Darkest Hour, Life is Beautiful, and Dunkirk may be movies worth previewing for older kids. Conversely, there may be movies in the teens/adult section that are too intense for your middle school or high school students.)

Most of these movies are available to stream. Aren’t we lucky to live in a time where we don’t have to hit the local video store?! Streaming services included: Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ HBOMax, Hulu & Netflix. Some of the videos on Amazon Prime are rentals rather than included in Prime Video streaming.

Family-Friendly World War 2 Movies

Since all of these movies are rated G, PG, or Not Rated, these movies can be enjoyed by everyone in the family. While the storylines may not engage everyone, the storylines & content should be appropriate.

• Bedknobs & Broomsticks (Disney+, 1940 England) — When young Charlie, Carrie, and Paul move to a small village during World War II, they discover their host, Miss Price, is an apprentice witch! Although her early attempts at magic create hilarious results, she successfully casts a traveling spell on an ordinary bedknob. When they fly to the fantastic, animated Isle of Naboombu to find a spell that will save England!
• Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler (Prime Video) — The story of Irena Sendler, a social worker who was part of the Polish underground during World War II and was arrested by Nazi forces for saving the lives of nearly 2,500 young Jewish refugees all children by smuggling them out of the Warsaw ghetto.
• The Devil’s Arithmetic (Prime Video; The Holocaust) — A 16-year-old American girl with an apathetic view towards her Jewish family history finds herself pulled through time into 1941 and a Nazi occupation of a small Polish village.

• A League of Their Own (Prime Video) — American troops head off to war & women step up to play ball. The all-female baseball league, made up of several teams, balances the demands of life on the Homefront while their country and, in some cases, their family are at war.
• Miracle at Midnight (Disney+, Denmark & the Holocaust) — The true-life story of one Danish family that risked their lives to save thousands of their Jewish countrymen.
• A Bridge Too Far (Prime Video) — Late in 1944, the Allies had the upper hand in the European land war. A combined British and American paratrooper force plans to take a highway leading from the Netherlands into Germany, so that British ground troops can go behind enemy lines.

• The Only Way (Prime Video, The Holocaust) — A Jewish family tries to escape from Denmark in October 1943 during the German occupation.
• The Sound of Music (Disney +) — The classic Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical, this is the story of the governess who won the heart of the Von Trapp family. Her courage led them across the Alps in their 1938 flight to freedom.
• Molly: An American Girl on the Homefront (Prime Video) — World War II comes home to Molly, a 9-year-old girl, when her father is stationed overseas.
• The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (Disney+, Prime Video) — During the World War II bombings of London, four English siblings are sent to a country house where they will be safe. One day, Lucy finds a wardrobe that transports her to a magical world called Narnia. After coming back, she soon returns to Narnia with her siblings. There, they join the magical lion, Aslan, in the fight against the evil White Witch, Jadis. This movie is based on the book series Chronicles of Narnia.

WW2 Movies in Black & White

There’s something about watching older black & white movies that makes everything seem both more and less intense. Since PG-13 wasn’t a rating at the time these movies were produced, their PG rating may be PG-13 in today’s world.

• Casablanca (HBOMax; Africa ) — The classic movie, starring Humphrey Bogart & Ingrid Bergman, is set in French Morrocco. A nightclub owner discovers his old flame is in town with her husband, a famed rebel. With Germans on his tail, Bergman asks Bogart to help them escape.
• Bridge on the River Kwai — British POWs are forced to build a railway bridge across the river Kwai for their Japanese captors in occupied Burma. At the same time, the Allied forces are planning a daring commando raid through the jungle to destroy it.
• The Longest Day (Prime Video; D-Day) — In 1944, the U.S. Army and Allied forces plan a huge invasion landing in Normandy, France. Despite bad weather, General Eisenhower gives the okay, and the Allies land at Normandy. With much effort and lost life, they get off the beach, traveling deep into French territory. A young Sean Connery, John Wayne & Henry Fonda star in this legendary movie.

WWII Movies for Teens & Adults

• All the Light We Cannot See (Netflix) — In the final days of WWII, the paths of a blind French girl and a German soldier collide. 
• Defiance (Hulu) — In 1941, Nazi soldiers are slaughtering Eastern European Jews by the thousands. Three brothers manage to escape and take refuge in the forest where they played in childhood. They turn their daily struggle for survival into a battle against Nazi Germany. As news of their exploits spreads, others join the fray, willing to risk their lives for even brief freedom.
• Forgive Us Our Trespasses (Netflix) — Targeted by Nazis as they hunt down and murder people with disabilities, a boy with a limb difference makes a daring decision while running for his life.

• The Pianist (Prime Video) — A brilliant pianist in Warsaw witnesses the restrictions Nazis place on Jews in the Polish capital. His family is rounded up, forced to live in a ghetto, then shipped off to the Nazi labor camps.
• The Tuskegee Airmen (HBO Max) — The ‘fighting 99th’ was the first squadron of African-American U.S. Army Air Corps combat fighter pilots in WWII. When they began training, few, if any, in the Army wanted them there. They had to prove that they were stronger, tougher, smarter and better fliers than most white pilots…and they did!
• Will (Netflix) — Two young police officers find themselves torn between collaboration and resistance as they navigate the Nazi-occupied Antwerp during World War II.

Holocaust Films

As a family, we aren’t as cautious about movies as many families. But there’s something about Holocaust movies that just hit me differently and, thus, are ones I am more cautious about. Perhaps it’s just my own discomfort at seeing the inhumanity of it all

• My Best Friend Anne Frank (Netflix) — Based on the real-life relationship between Anne Frank and Hannah Goslar, from Nazi-occupied Amsterdam to their harrowing reunion in a concentration camp. This movie would make a great follow up or comparison activity after reading/watching Anne Frank’s story.
• The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (Prime Video) — The eight-year-old son of the commandant at a concentration camp begins an innocent but forbidden friendship with a Jewish boy on the other side of the camp fence ending in a startling and unexpected consequence.
• The Photographer of Mauthausen (Netflix) — A Catalán prisoner at a Nazi concentration camp uses his office job to steal photo negatives of the atrocities committed there. Based on true events.
• Life is Beautiful (Prime, Apple) — A gentle Jewish-Italian waiter meets a schoolteacher, and wins her over with his charm and humor. Eventually, they marry and have a son. Their happiness is abruptly halted when Guido and Giosue are separated from Dora and taken to a concentration camp. Determined to shelter his son from the horrors of his surroundings, Guido convinces Giosue that their time in the camp is merely a game.

World War 2 Battle Movies

War movies have long been a favorite of my boys & husband. The only one of these movies that my boys haven’t seen is Hacksaw Ridge. (Circumstances, not because we’re screening it.)

• Band of Brothers (Netflix, Prime Video, HBOMax, Hulu) — This series, originally broadcast on HBO, tells the story of Easy Company, 506th Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, U.S. Army. Based on interviews with survivors of Easy Company, as well as soldiers’ journals and letters, this 10-part series chronicles the experiences of these young men who knew extraordinary bravery and extraordinary fear. Based on the book written by Stephen Ambrose.
• The Pacific (Netflix, Prime Video, HBOMax, Hulu) — Based on the accounts of Marines in World War II, this 10-part (fictional) documentary series follows the intertwined journeys of three U.S. Marines in the Pacific Theater. From their first battle against Japan on Guadalcanal, across the sands of Iwo Jima and the horror of Okinawa, to their ultimately triumphant return after V-J Day. Brought to you by the same producing team of “Band of Brothers,” including Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg.

• Dunkirk (Hulu, The Battle of Dunkirk evacuation) — In May 1940, Germany advanced into France, trapping Allied troops on the beaches of Dunkirk. Under air and ground cover from British and French forces, troops were slowly and methodically evacuated from the beach using every serviceable naval and civilian vessel that could be found. At the end of this heroic mission, 330,000 French, British, Belgian, and Dutch soldiers were safely evacuated.
• Hacksaw Ridge (Netflix & Prime Video) — The true story of Pfc. Desmond T. Doss who won the Congressional Medal of Honor despite refusing to bear arms during WWII on religious grounds. Doss was drafted and ostracized by fellow soldiers for his pacifist stance but went on to earn respect and adoration for his bravery, selflessness, and compassion after he risked his life — without firing a shot — to save 75 men in the Battle of Okinawa.
• Narvik (Netflix) — Against the backdrop of the WWIl battle known as Adolf Hitler’s first defeat, a Norwegian soldier returns home and learns a shocking truth about his wife.

Look for the Helpers

When the horrors of war are overwhelming, the famous Mr. Rogers quote is aptly applied. “When I was a boy, and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” And in this list, you’ll find those helpers.

• The Book Thief (Hulu) — While subjected to the horrors of World War II Germany, young Liesel finds solace by stealing books and sharing them with others. In the basement of her home, a Jewish refugee is being protected by her adoptive parents.
• The Monuments Men (Netflix) — During World War II, a group of art curators, historians and scholars form a ragtag team with one mission: recover stolen art before Hitler destroys it.
• The Resistance Banker (Netflix) — Risking his family and future, a banker in occupied Amsterdam slows the Nazi war machine by creating an underground bank to fund the resistance.

• Robbing Mussolini (Netflix) — At the end of WWIl, a ragtag group of resistance fighters plans an impossible heist: to steal Mussolini’s treasure from Milan’s fascist headquarters.
• Woman in Gold (Netflix; post-WWII) — Six decades after fleeing the Nazis in World War II, Maria Altmann sets out to reclaim her family’s stolen artwork with help from a young lawyer.
• Zookeeper’s Wife (Netflix) — The time is 1939 and the place is Poland, the homeland of Antonina Zabinski and her husband, Dr. Jan Zabinski. When their country is invaded by the Nazis, Jan and Antonina and their Warsaw Zoo are forced to report to the Reich’s newly appointed chief zoologist, Lutz Heck. The Zabinskis covertly begin working with the Resistance and put into action plans to save the lives of hundreds from what has become the Warsaw Ghetto.

WWII Movies Set in England

• A Call to Spy (Prime Video; female spies in England) — At the dawn of WWII, a desperate Churchill orders his new spy agency to train women for covert ops. Together, they help to undermine the Nazi regime and turn the tide of the war.
• Darkest Hour (Netflix & Prime Video; Winston Churchill) — The fate of Western Europe hangs on Winston Churchill in the early days of World War II. The newly appointed British prime minister must decide whether to negotiate with Hitler or fight on against incredible odds. During the next four weeks in 1940, Churchill cements his legacy as his courageous decisions and leadership help change the course of world history.
• The Imitation Game (Netflix; code-breaking) — During World War II, a mathematician leads a team of cryptanalysts as they work feverishly to break the Germans’ notorious Enigma code.
• Operation Mincemeat (Netflix) — Two British intelligence officers hatch an outlandish scheme to trick the Nazis and alter the course of World War II. Based on a true story of deception.

What movie have I missed?