28 obscure facts from the depths of WWII history. Even Mike might not know these.
Like the ancient Greek soldier who returned from Thermopylae, Polish tank commander Colonel Stanislaw Szczęsny Grzmot-Skotnicki (his actual surname, 'Grzmot' meaning 'Thunder') led the 9th Lesser Poland Uhlans through the September 1939 campaign. Whe…
London stockbroker Nicholas Winton organized the rescue of 669 Jewish children from Czechoslovakia in 1939. He chartered trains, forged documents, found British foster families - all independently. His wife discovered the truth in 1988 in a scrapbook…
Nicholas Winton was a London stockbroker who organized the rescue of 669 mostly Jewish children from Czechoslovakia on the eve of WWII. He chartered trains, forged documents, and found British foster families — all on his own. The operation was kept …
When Germany invaded Poland, the Polish cryptologists who had broken Enigma were evacuated east. Three of them — Rejewski, Rozycki, and Zygalski — made it to France and continued working from PC Bruno, a chateau near Paris. When France fell in 1940, …
Portuguese consul Aristides de Sousa Mendes issued visas and passports to over 30,000 refugees fleeing France in 1940, including up to 10,000 Jews, in direct violation of Portugal's Circular 14 which forbade issuing visas to Jews. He personally told …
Brigadier John Malcolm 'Mad Jack' Churchill fought throughout WWII armed with a longbow, a Scottish broadsword, and bagpipes. He sounded the bagpipes to lead his men into battle in France. He killed an enemy with his bow and arrow (possibly the last …
Japanese consul Chiune Sugihara in Kaunas, Lithuania in 1940 disobeyed Tokyo and issued transit visas to thousands of Jewish refugees. He wrote visas by hand for 18-20 hours daily. When ordered to leave he continued at the train station - writing his…
When Chiune Sugihara was ordered evacuated by Tokyo from Kaunas, he had hundreds of desperate Jewish refugees pounding on his door for visas. He kept writing visas until the very moment his train pulled out of the station. He wrote his last visa whil…
Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat stationed in Kaunas, Lithuania, issued transit visas to over 6,000 Jewish refugees fleeing the Holocaust — directly disobeying orders from Tokyo. He wrote visas by hand for 18-20 hours per day, his hands blistered…
Polish social worker Irena Sendler smuggled 2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto. She buried their real names in glass jars under an apple tree. The Gestapo broke both her legs but she refused to name anyone. She escaped execution when a br…
Irena Sendler, a Polish social worker, smuggled approximately 2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto between 1940 and 1943. She used toolboxes, body bags, and even dogs trained to bark when she passed to create distractions. Children were giv…
Spanish diplomat Eduardo Propper de Callejon issued visas in occupied Paris to Jewish refugees in defiance of Franco's government and German authorities. Working as Third Secretary at the Spanish Embassy, he processed hundreds of visas for Sephardic …