Hidden History of World War II
Discover the obscure stories, forgotten heroes, and lesser-known facts that the history books missed. Names that will never appear on a Google search. Moments that changed the war — and almost nobody remembers.
From the Archive
Featured stories from the hidden record
Touching Story
The Masonic Lodge That Saved 500 Jewish Masons in Amsterdam
Dutch Freemasons used their lodge registry to identify and rescue Jewish Brothers from deportation
When the Nazis began deporting Dutch Jews in 1942, a group of Freemasons in Amsterdam realized that hundreds of Jewish Masons appeared on the membership registry of the Grand Orient of the Netherlands…
The Holocaust
The Mason Who Smuggled 200 Jews Out of Germany Through Switzerland
A German Freemason drove his furniture truck across the border 47 times to rescue Jewish families
Friedrich Muller was a 52-year-old furniture dealer and Freemason from Freiburg, a German city on the Swiss border. When the Nazi regime began rounding up Jewish citizens in 1938, Muller did something…
Unknown Heroes
The Nisei Soldier Who Carried His German Captain to Safety
A Japanese-American medic from Hawaii refused to leave a wounded German officer on the battlefield
Private First Class Kenji Tanaka was a Nisei soldier from Honolulu who served as a combat medic with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team in Italy. His parents were incarcerated at the Manzanar internment…
Unknown Heroes
The Mormon General Who Planned the Invasion of Normandy
A Latter-day Saint from Utah was one of the most important architects of D-Day and never took credit
Major General Orval J. Cox was a Mormon from Salt Lake City who served as a logistics officer for the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force in the planning of Operation Overlord, the invasio…
The Holocaust
The Vatican Courier Who Smuggled Letters from Auschwitz
A priest carrying diplomatic papers secretly carried messages from Auschwitz prisoners to their families
In the autumn of 1942, a young priest named Father Luigi Rava was assigned to deliver diplomatic mail between the Vatican nunciature in Berlin and the Holy See in Rome. His papers gave him immunity fr…
Unknown Heroes
The Twins Separated at Auschwitz Who Found Each Other 60 Years Later
Two brothers were torn apart at the ramp in 1944. They did not know each other existed until a DNA test in 2006
In May 1944, a 14-year-old boy named David was deported from his hometown in Hungary to Auschwitz along with his family. When the train arrived at the ramp, the SS guards separated the passengers into…
Latest Dispatches
Recently added to the archive
Moving Story
The Masonic Lodge That Saved 500 Jewish Masons in Amsterdam
Dutch Freemasons used their lodge registry to identify and rescue Jewish Brothers from deportation
When the Nazis began deporting Dutch Jews in 1942, a group of Freemasons in Amsterdam realized that hundreds of Jewish Masons appeared on the membership registr…
The Mason Who Smuggled 200 Jews Out of Germany Through Switzerland
A German Freemason drove his furniture truck across the border 47 times to rescue Jewish families
Friedrich Muller was a 52-year-old furniture dealer and Freemason from Freiburg, a German city on the Swiss border. When the Nazi regime began rounding up Jewis…
The Nisei Soldier Who Carried His German Captain to Safety
A Japanese-American medic from Hawaii refused to leave a wounded German officer on the battlefield
Private First Class Kenji Tanaka was a Nisei soldier from Honolulu who served as a combat medic with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team in Italy. His parents were…
The Mormon General Who Planned the Invasion of Normandy
A Latter-day Saint from Utah was one of the most important architects of D-Day and never took credit
Major General Orval J. Cox was a Mormon from Salt Lake City who served as a logistics officer for the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force in the pla…
The Vatican Courier Who Smuggled Letters from Auschwitz
A priest carrying diplomatic papers secretly carried messages from Auschwitz prisoners to their families
In the autumn of 1942, a young priest named Father Luigi Rava was assigned to deliver diplomatic mail between the Vatican nunciature in Berlin and the Holy See …
The Pope Who Saved the Jews of Rome: The Secret of Castel Gandolfo
Pius XII ordered the doors of every Catholic institution in Rome opened to shelter Jewish refugees
On October 16, 1943, the Nazis conducted the largest roundup of Jews in the history of Rome. Over 1,000 men, women, and children were seized from their homes an…
The Twins Separated at Auschwitz Who Found Each Other 60 Years Later
Two brothers were torn apart at the ramp in 1944. They did not know each other existed until a DNA test in 2006
In May 1944, a 14-year-old boy named David was deported from his hometown in Hungary to Auschwitz along with his family. When the train arrived at the ramp, the…
The Mother and Son Who Found Each Other After 51 Years
A Polish woman gave up her newborn during the war. He was adopted by an American family. They reunited in 2002
In the winter of 1944, a Polish woman named Maria was hiding in the attic of a farmhouse near Krakow, eight months pregnant. She had escaped from the ghetto in …
Moving Story
The Soldier Who Brought His Enemy Home
An American GI carried a dying German soldier to his hometown in Bavaria and told his family he had tried to save them
Corporal William Hayes of the 101st Airborne was fighting in Bavaria in April 1945 when his unit was pinned down by a German machine gun nest in the village of …
Forgotten Heroes
Men and women whose courage history nearly forgot
Antoni Wronecki
Master Mason / Carpenter • Poland
Hid 32 Jewish families, 87 people, beneath the floor of a Masonic lodge for 742 days using Masonic symbols as a shield against the Gestapo.…
Chiune Sugihara
Consul General • Japan
Saved approximately 6,000 Jewish refugees by issuing transit visas against the orders of his own government -- the Japanese Schindler.…
Irena Sendler
Social Worker • Poland
Smuggled approximately 2,500 Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto -- more than Oskar Schindler saved.…
Jan Karski
Home Army Courier • Poland
Smuggled himself into the Warsaw Ghetto and Belzec death camp, then told Roosevelt everything -- nothing changed.…