Unknown Heroes
Men and women who performed acts of extraordinary courage that history nearly forgot.
10 articles
Unknown Heroes
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…
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…
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 pla…
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…
Unknown Heroes
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 …
Unknown Heroes
The 400 German POWs Who Fought for America
Afrika Korps prisoners volunteered for a secret US intelligence unit in the Pacific
In the summer of 1943, German-speaking prisoners of war captured from Rommel Afrika Korps in North Africa were offered an unprecedented choice: spend the rest o…
Unknown Heroes
The Wehrmacht Officer Who Refused to Execute Jewish Prisoners
A German Major refuseded orders to liquidate a ghetto and was demoted to private for his conscience
In August 1942, Major Heinrich Gerlach was stationed in the occupied town of Bialystok. Gerlach was a decorated veteran of the First World War who had been reca…
Unknown Heroes
The American GI Who Adopted a Japanese Orphan from Hiroshima
A farmer from Oklahoma found a baby in the rubble and carried her home across the Pacific
On September 15, 1945, Sergeant James Morrison of the 25th Infantry Division was on patrol near the ruins of Hiroshima when he heard a baby crying. He followed …
Unknown Heroes
The Boy Who Refused to Leave His Dead Brother's Post
A 14-year-old German refugee who became one of the most decorated American soldiers of the war
In September 1944, near Richecourt, France, a skinny 14-year-old boy in an oversized German uniform approached the American 90th Infantry Division. He was Fritz…
Unknown Heroes
The Man Who Saved a City: Irena Sendler and the Children She Saved
Ira Hirschmann rescued thousands of refugees from the Balkans while Washington looked away
Ira Hirschmann was an American businessman from New York who, in 1944, was appointed by the War Refugee Board to oversee refugee operations in Turkey. By the ti…