The Best World War II Movies and TV Shows on Free Services

What it's about: The true story of how businessman Oskar Schindler saved over a thousand Jewish lives from the Nazis while they worked as slaves in his factory during World War II.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Peacock) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: Based on the real life story of legendary cryptanalyst Alan Turing, the film portrays the nail-biting race against time by Turing and his brilliant team of code-breakers at Britain's top-secret Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, during the darkest days of World War II.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PlutoTV) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: A commanding officer defends three scapegoats on trial for a failed offensive that occurred within the French Army in 1916.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi & PlutoTV), stream on a subscription service (The Criterion Channel) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Google Play & 2 others).

What it's about: The Nazis, exasperated at the number of escapes from their prison camps by a relatively small number of Allied prisoners, relocate them to a high-security 'escape-proof' camp to sit out the remainder of the war. Undaunted, the prisoners plan one of the most ambitious escape attempts of World War II. Based on a true story.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (YouTube) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: When an armed, masked gang enter a Manhattan bank, lock the doors and take hostages, the detective assigned to effect their release enters negotiations preoccupied with corruption charges he is facing.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Peacock) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: It's the hope that sustains the spirit of every GI: the dream of the day when he will finally return home. For three WWII veterans, the day has arrived. But for each man, the dream is about to become a nightmare. Captain Fred Derry is returning to a loveless marriage; Sergeant Al Stephenson is a stranger to a family that's grown up without him; and young sailor Homer Parrish is tormented by the loss of his hands. Can these three men find the courage to rebuild their world? Or are the best years of their lives a thing of the past?

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PlutoTV), stream on a subscription service (Kanopy) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 2 services (iTunes & Microsoft).

What it's about: At the start of the First World War, in the middle of Africa’s nowhere, a gin soaked riverboat captain is persuaded by a strong-willed missionary to go down river and face-off a German warship.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (IMDb TV), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: It's a dreary Christmas 1944 for the American POWs in Stalag 17 and the men in Barracks 4, all sergeants, have to deal with a grave problem—there seems to be a security leak.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: A rule bound head butler's world of manners and decorum in the household he maintains is tested by the arrival of a housekeeper who falls in love with him in post-WWI Britain. The possibility of romance and his master's cultivation of ties with the Nazi cause challenge his carefully maintained veneer of servitude.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PlutoTV) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: A Russian and a German sniper play a game of cat-and-mouse during the Battle of Stalingrad in WWII.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PopcornFlix), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, Hulu & Epix), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Epix) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: In the Nazi-occupied Netherlands during World War II, a Jewish singer infiltrates the regional Gestapo headquarters for the Dutch resistance.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi, PlutoTV, Plex & 1 other) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: A graduate student and obsessive runner in New York is drawn into a mysterious plot involving his brother, a member of the secretive Division.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PlutoTV), stream on a subscription service (CBS All Access) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: Operation Market Garden, September 1944. The Allies attempt to capture several strategically important bridges in the Netherlands in the hope of breaking the German lines.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PlutoTV & YouTube), stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: A man working for the War Crimes Commission suspects that an important Nazi official has folded himself into a quaint Connecticut town.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PlutoTV & Plex), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, Starz, Epix & 3 others), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Starz & Epix) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Prime Video & Vudu).

What it's about: A hardcore US racist skinhead who, because of his intelligence, leads a gang dedicated to fighting the enemy: the supposed American-Jewish conspiracy for domination. However, he's hiding a secret: he's Jewish-born, a brilliant scholar whose questioning of the tenets of his faith has left him angry and confused, turning against those who he thinks have a tragic history of their own making.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video) & rent or buy from $1.99 on 2 services (Prime Video & Vudu).

What it's about: True story of Germany's most famous anti-Nazi heroine brought to thrilling, dramatic life. Sophie Scholl stars Julia Jentsch in a luminous performance as the fearless activist of the underground student resistance group, The White Rose. Armed with long-buried historical records of her incarceration, director Marc Rothemund expertly re-creates the last six days of Sophie Scholl's life.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi).

What it's about: As the Allied forces approach Paris in August 1944, German Colonel Von Waldheim is desperate to take all of France's greatest paintings to Germany. He manages to secure a train to transport the valuable art works even as the chaos of retreat descends upon them. The French resistance however wants to stop them from stealing their national treasures but have received orders from London that they are not to be destroyed. The station master, Labiche, is tasked with scheduling the train and making it all happen smoothly but he is also part of a dwindling group of resistance fighters tasked with preventing the theft. He and others stage an elaborate ruse to keep the train from ever leaving French territory.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi & PlutoTV) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: With the help of government-issued pamphlets, an elderly British couple build a shelter and prepare for an impending nuclear attack, unaware that times and the nature of war have changed from their romantic memories of World War II.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi) & rent or buy from $0.99 on 1 service (Prime Video).

What it's about: Secret agent OSS 117 foils Nazis, beds local beauties, and brings peace to the Middle East.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PopcornFlix), stream on a subscription service (Fandor, Hoopla & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $1.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Google Play & Vudu).

What it's about: At a track near Rome, shoeshine boys are watching horses run. Two of the boys Pasquale, an orphan, and Giuseppe, his younger friend are riding. The pair have been saving to buy a horse of their own to ride...

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Vudu) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Prime Video & Vudu).

What it's about: This movie tells the story of Omar Mukhtar, an Arab Muslim rebel who fought against the Italian conquest of Libya in WWII. It gives western viewers a glimpse into this little-known region and chapter of history, and exposes the savage means by which the conquering army attempted to subdue the natives.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 1 service (iTunes).

What it's about: On 9 April 1940, German soldiers arrive in the city of Oslo. The King of Norway faces a choice that will change his country forever. The King's Choice is a story about the three most dramatic days in Norway's history, the royal family's escape and King Haakon's difficult choice after Nazi Germany's invasion of Norway.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi, PlutoTV & Vudu), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Google Play & 2 others).

What it's about: A World War II submarine commander finds himself stuck with a damaged sub, a con-man executive officer, and a group of army nurses.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PlutoTV), stream on a subscription service (The Criterion Channel) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Prime Video & Vudu).

What it's about: In a touring Shakespearean theater group, a backstage hand - the dresser, is devoted to the brilliant but tyrannical head of the company. He struggles to support the deteriorating star as the company struggles to carry on during the London blitz. The pathos of his backstage efforts rival the pathos in the story of Lear and the Fool that is being presented on-stage, as the situation comes to a crisis.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi & PlutoTV), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video & Starz) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: A bombardier in World War II tries desperately to escape the insanity of the war. However, sometimes insanity is the only sane way to cope with a crazy situation.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Plex, PopcornFlix & Crackle), stream on a subscription service (CBS All Access) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: Set in 1944 France, an American Intelligence Squad locates a German Platoon wishing to surrender rather than die in Germany's final war offensive. The two groups of men, isolated from the war at present, put aside their differences and spend Christmas together before the surrender plan turns bad and both sides are forced to fight the other.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi, PlutoTV & IMDb TV), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video & Hoopla) & rent or buy from $1.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Google Play & Vudu).

What it's about: Nazi skinheads in Melbourne take out their anger on local Vietnamese, who are seen as threatening racial purity. Finally the Vietnamese have had enough and confront the skinheads in an all-out confrontation, sending the skinheads running. A woman who is prone to epileptic seizures joins the skins' merry band, and helps them on their run from justice, but is her affliction also a sign of impurity?

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PlutoTV), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, Hoopla & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: Lore leads her four younger siblings across a war-torn Germany in 1945. Amidst the chaos she encounters a mysterious refugee who shatters her fragile reality with hatred and desire.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi), stream on a subscription service (Fandor, Hoopla & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $1.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: The gruesome Nazi Zombies are back to finish their mission, but our hero is not willing to die. He is gathering his own army to give them a final fight.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi, PlutoTV, Plex & 2 others), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video & Hoopla) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: Budapest in the thirties. The restaurant owner Laszlo hires the pianist András to play in his restaurant. Both men fall in love with the beautiful waitress Ilona who inspires András to his only composition. His song of Gloomy Sunday is, at first, loved and then feared, for its melancholic melody triggers off a chain of suicides. The fragile balance of the erotic ménage à trois is sent off kilter when the German Hans goes and falls in love with Ilona as well.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi) & stream on a subscription service (Kanopy).

What it's about: In 1943, while the Allies are bombing Berlin and the Gestapo is purging the capital of Jews, a dangerous love affair blossoms between two women - one a Jewish member of the underground, the other an exemplar of Nazi motherhood.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi & PlutoTV) & stream on a subscription service (Hoopla).

What it's about: A victim from World War II's "Death Railway" sets out to find those responsible for his torture. A true story.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi & PlutoTV) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: Set in a dugout in Aisne in 1918, a group of British officers, led by the mentally disintegrating young officer Stanhope, variously await their fate.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Vudu), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, Hoopla & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $0.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Google Play & Prime Video).

What it's about: An Hungarian youth comes of age at Buchenwald during World War II. György Köves is 14, the son of a merchant who's sent to a forced labor camp. After his father's departure, György gets a job at a brickyard; his bus is stopped and its Jewish occupants sent to camps. There, György find camaraderie, suffering, cruelty, illness, and death. He hears advice on preserving one's dignity and self-esteem. He discovers hatred. If he does survive and returns to Budapest, what will he find? What is natural; what is it to be a Jew? Sepia, black and white, and color alternate to shade the mood.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi) & stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video).

What it's about: Nazi hunter Ezra Lieberman discovers a sinister and bizarre plot to rekindle the Third Reich.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi, PlutoTV, Peacock & 2 others) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Google Play & 2 others).

What it's about: An unsettling feeling overwhelms a small Hungarian town when two orthodox Jews arrive with a mysterious trunk. As residents begin to speculate on the purpose of the visit of these two strangers, order starts to crumble in town with some pursuing devious plans and others finding remorse in their hearts.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi & Vudu), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, Hoopla & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Google Play & Vudu).

What it's about: At the end of World War II, a National Guard infantry company must set up artillery observation posts in a strategic area. Lt. Costa (Jack Palance) knows that Capt. Cooney (Eddie Albert) is in command only because of the "connections" he made stateside. Costa has serious doubts concerning Cooney's ability to lead, and when Cooney sends Costa and his men out on a dangerous mission -- and refuses to reenforce them -- all hell breaks loose.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Google Play & 2 others).

What it's about: In the early days of World War II, a German U-boat is sunk in Canada's Hudson Bay. Hoping to evade capture, a small band of German soldiers led by commanding officer Lieutenant Hirth attempts to cross the border into the United States, which has not yet entered the war and is officially neutral. Along the way, the German soldiers encounter brave men such as a French-Canadian fur trapper, Johnnie, a leader of a Hutterite farming community, Peter, an author, Philip and a soldier, Andy Brock.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi), stream on a subscription service (The Criterion Channel & Hoopla) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 2 services (iTunes & Prime Video).

What it's about: Based on a real-life story, this drama focuses on a small group of Allied soldiers in Burma who are held captive by the Japanese. Capt. Ernest Gordon (Ciaran McMenamin), Lt. Jim Reardon (Kiefer Sutherland) and Maj. Ian Campbell (Robert Carlyle) are among the military officers kept imprisoned and routinely beaten and deprived of food. While Campbell wants to rebel and attempt an escape, Gordon tries to take a more stoic approach, an attitude that proves to be surprisingly resonant.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi & Peacock), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video) & rent or buy from $1.99 on 2 services (Prime Video & Vudu).

What it's about: At the start of World War I, Paul Baumer is a young German patriot, eager to fight. Indoctrinated with propaganda at school, he and his friends eagerly sign up for the army soon after graduation. But when the horrors of war soon become too much to bear, and as his friends die or become gravely wounded, Paul questions the sanity of fighting over a few hundreds yards of war-torn countryside.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PlutoTV & IMDb TV), stream on a subscription service (Kanopy) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 1 service (Prime Video).

What it's about: Agent Jackie is hired to find WWII Nazi gold hidden in the Sahara desert. He teams up with three bungling women (the 3 stooges?) who are all connected in some way. However a team of mercenaries have ideas on the ownership of the gold. A battle / chase ensues as to who gets there first. Lots of choreographed Kung-Fu and quirky Chan humor.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PlutoTV), stream on a subscription service (CBS All Access) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: Max is a handsome young man who, after a fateful tryst with a German soldier, is forced to run for his life. Eventually Max is placed in a concentration camp where he pretends to be Jewish because in the eyes of the Nazis, gays are the lowest form of human being. But it takes a relationship with an openly gay prisoner to teach Max that without the love of another, life is not worth living.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi), stream on a subscription service (Hoopla & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $1.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Google Play & 2 others).

What it's about: Eyal, an Israeli Mossad agent, is given the mission to track down and kill the very old Alfred Himmelman, an ex-Nazi officer, who might still be alive. Pretending to be a tourist guide, he befriends his grandson Axel, in Israel to visit his sister Pia. The two men set out on a tour of the country during which, Axel challenges Eyal's values.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi), stream on a subscription service (Kanopy) & rent or buy from $4.99 on 1 service (iTunes).

What it's about: Five young German friends promise to meet again after WW2 ends, but soon their naive wishes of peace and happiness will become a long and tragic nightmare.

Where to Watch: 3 episodes (100%) are available to watch free online (Tubi). 3 episodes (100%) are available to stream on a subscription service (Hoopla). 3 episodes (100%) are available to rent or buy from $4.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: During an unfortunate series of events, a friend of Kung Fury is assassinated by the most dangerous kung fu master criminal of all time, Adolf Hitler, a.k.a Kung Führer. Kung Fury decides to travel back in time to Nazi Germany in order to kill Hitler and end the Nazi empire once and for all.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (YouTube) & rent or buy from $4.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Prime Video & Vudu).

What it's about: A feature documentary about the people and the planes that helped win World War War II. Through people personally connected to the events, the film investigates the story of how the Spitfire, its stable-mate, the Hawker Hurricane and its great adversary, the Messerschmitt 109 came into being during the huge advances in aviation in the interwar period—and then how the pilots fared in combat, three miles up in the skies over Europe, Africa and Asia.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi, PlutoTV & Plex), stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Google Play & Vudu).

What it's about: After World War II, Antonia and her daughter, Danielle, go back to their Dutch hometown, where Antonia's late mother has bestowed a small farm upon her. There, Antonia settles down and joins a tightly-knit but unusual community. Those around her include quirky friend Crooked Finger, would-be suitor Bas and, eventually for Antonia, a granddaughter and great-granddaughter who help create a strong family of empowered women.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PlutoTV), stream on a subscription service (Hoopla & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: Belle and Sebastian is set high in the snowy Alps during the Second World War. The resourceful Sebastian is a lonely boy who tames and befriends a giant, wild mountain dog, Belle – even though the villagers believe her to be ‘the beast’ that has been killing their sheep.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video & Hoopla) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Google Play & 2 others).

What it's about: On a rainy London night in 1946, novelist Maurice Bendrix has a chance meeting with Henry Miles, husband of his ex-mistress Sarah, who abruptly ended their affair two years before. Bendrix's obsession with Sarah is rekindled; he succumbs to his own jealousy and arranges to have her followed.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PlutoTV) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: World War II was not just the most destructive conflict in humanity, it was also the greatest theft in history: lives, families, communities, property, culture and heritage were all stolen. The story of Nazi Germany's plundering of Europe's great works of art during World War II and Allied efforts to minimize the damage.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi & Vudu), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video & Fandor) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Prime Video & Vudu).