14 obscure facts from the depths of WWII history. Even Mike might not know these.
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 …
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 …
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…
Miep Gies, an Austrian-born Dutch citizen, risked her life to feed and shelter the Frank family for two years in Amsterdam. After their arrest, she found Anne's scattered diary pages on the floor and kept them in a drawer, unopened, for months. After…
While Desmond Doss's story is known, fewer know about Richard T. Trask, a medic who treated over 200 wounded soldiers under fire on the Volturno River in Italy without ever firing a weapon. Or about T5 Sergeant Carl E. Nelson, a Native American medic…
Born in Moscow to an Indian Muslim father and a European-American mother, Noor Inayat Khan was a pacifist writer of children's stories rooted in Indian spiritual traditions before volunteering for the SOE's Special Operations Executive. She was the f…
Private Keith Gaze of the British 12th Parachute Battalion parachuted into Normandy on June 6, 1944, as part of Operation Tonga. During fighting shortly after landing in the early morning hours, he was shot in the head. His comrades, assuming him dea…
Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg arrived in Budapest in July 1944 and immediately began issuing 'Schutz-Pass' — protective passports that identified bearers as Swedish subjects awaiting repatriation. He created safe houses for Jews throughout the ci…
The Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program (MFAA) — the 'Monuments Men' — consisted of 345 men from 13 nations who recovered and returned more than 5 million artworks stolen by the Nazis. They found caches in salt mines, castles, and caves across…