Historical Heroes
Compassion Knows No Boundries
by admin on Oct.15, 2009, under Historical Heroes
A young German soldier in pain being treated by American GI.
This photo is touching. The wounded soldier is just a kid, and this photo does nothing to soften that reality. He’s someone son, sent out onto the battlefield to fight for someone else’s ideals, here wounded, in pain, and obviously scared. An American soldier, the enemy, is reaching out and taking care of him, helping him bandage his wounds. It’s good to see that, in the midst of the horrors of the battlefield, someone could spare a moment of compassion and see the human being behind uniform.
Irena Sendler
by admin on Oct.14, 2009, under Historical Heroes, Non-Combatant Heroes, Rescues
This women was amazing! I’ve gotta say, this inspires me. Irena Sendler risked everything in order to save Jewish children from the horrors of the Ghetto, and the fear of facing the concentration camps. By the time she was caught, she had managed to smuggle 2,500 children out of the Ghetto and into Polish families who were willing to take them in and protect them.
Irena Sendler was born in 1910 in Otwock, a town some 15 miles southeast of Warsaw. She was greatly influenced by her father who was one of the first Polish Socialists. As a doctor his patients were mostly poor Jews. In 1939, Germany invaded Poland, and the brutality of the Nazis accelerated with murder, violence and terror. At the time, Irena was a Senior Administrator in the Warsaw Social Welfare Department, which operated the canteens in every district of the city. Previously, the canteens provided meals, financial aid, and other services for orphans, the elderly, the poor and the destitute. Now, through Irena, the canteens also provided clothing, medicine and money for the Jews. They were registered under fictitious Christian names, and to prevent inspections, the Jewish families were reported as being afflicted with such highly infectious diseases as typhus and tuberculosis.
But in 1942, the Nazis herded hundreds of thousands of Jews into a 16-block area that came to be known as the Warsaw Ghetto. The Ghetto was sealed and the Jewish families ended up behind its walls, only to await certain death. Irena Sendler was so appalled by the conditions that she joined Zegota, the Council for Aid to Jews, organized by the Polish underground resistance movement, as one of its first recruits and directed the efforts to rescue Jewish children.
To be able to enter the Ghetto legally, Irena managed to be issued a pass from Warsaws Epidemic Control Department and she visited the Ghetto daily, reestablished contacts and brought food, medicines and clothing. But 5,000 people were dying a month from starvation and disease in the Ghetto, and she decided to help the Jewish children to get out. For Irena Sendler, a young mother herself, persuading parents to part with their children was in itself a horrendous task. Finding families willing to shelter the children, and thereby willing to risk their life if the Nazis ever found out, was also not easy.
Irena Sendler, who wore a star armband as a sign of her solidarity to Jews, began smuggling children out in an ambulance. She recruited at least one person from each of the ten centers of the Social Welfare Department. With their help, she issued hundreds of false documents with forged signatures. Irena Sendler successfully smuggled almost 2,500 Jewish children to safety and gave them temporary new identities.
Some children were taken out in gunnysacks or body bags. Some were buried inside loads of goods. A mechanic took a baby out in his toolbox. Some kids were carried out in potato sacks, others were placed in coffins, some entered a church in the Ghetto which had two entrances. One entrance opened into the Ghetto, the other opened into the Aryan side of Warsaw. They entered the church as Jews and exited as Christians. “`Can you guarantee they will live?’” Irena later recalled the distraught parents asking. But she could only guarantee they would die if they stayed. “In my dreams,” she said, “I still hear the cries when they left their parents.”
Irena Sendler accomplished her incredible deeds with the active assistance of the church. “I sent most of the children to religious establishments,” she recalled. “I knew I could count on the Sisters.” Irena also had a remarkable record of cooperation when placing the youngsters: “No one ever refused to take a child from me,” she said. The children were given false identities and placed in homes, orphanages and convents. Irena Sendler carefully noted, in coded form, the childrens original names and their new identities. She kept the only record of their true identities in jars buried beneath an apple tree in a neighbor’s back yard, across the street from German barracks, hoping she could someday dig up the jars, locate the children and inform them of their past.
In all, the jars contained the names of 2,500 children …
But the Nazis became aware of Irena’s activities, and on October 20, 1943 she was arrested, imprisoned and tortured by the Gestapo, who broke her feet and legs. She ended up in the Pawiak Prison, but no one could break her spirit. Though she was the only one who knew the names and addresses of the families sheltering the Jewish children, she withstood the torture, that crippled her for life, refusing to betray either her associates or any of the Jewish children in hiding. Sentenced to death, Irena was saved at the last minute when Zegota members bribed one of the Gestapo agents to halt the execution. She escaped from prison but for the rest of the war she was pursued by the Nazis.
After the war she dug up the jars and used the notes to track down the 2,500 children she placed with adoptive families and to reunite them with relatives scattered across Europe. But most lost their families during the Holocaust in Nazi death camps. The children had known her only by her code name Jolanta. But years later, after she was honored for her wartime work, her picture appeared in a newspaper. “A man, a painter, telephoned me,” said Sendler, “`I remember your face,’ he said. `It was you who took me out of the ghetto.’ I had many calls like that!”
Irena Sendler did not think of herself as a hero. She claimed no credit for her actions. “I could have done more,” she said. “This regret will follow me to my death.” She has been honored by international Jewish organizations – in 1965 she accorded the title of Righteous Among the Nations by the Yad Vashem organization in Jerusalem and in 1991 she was made an honorary citizen of Israel. Irena Sendler was awarded Poland’s highest distinction, the Order of White Eagle, in Warsaw Monday Nov. 10, 2003, and she was announced as the 2003 winner of the Jan Karski award for Valor and Courage. She has officially been designated a national hero in Poland and schools are named in her honor. Annual Irena Sendler days are celebrated throughout Europe and the United States.
In 2007, she was nominated to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. At a special session in Poland’s upper house of Parliament, President Lech Kaczynski announced the unanimous resolution to honor Irena Sendler for rescuing “the most defenseless victims of the Nazi ideology: the Jewish children.” He referred to her as a “great heroine who can be justly named for the Nobel Peace Prize. She deserves great respect from our whole nation.”
During the ceremony Elzbieta Ficowska, who was just six months old when she was saved by Irena Sendler, read out a letter on her behalf: “Every child saved with my help is the justification of my existence on this Earth, and not a title to glory,” Irena Sendler said in the letter, “Over a half-century has passed since the hell of the Holocaust, but its spectre still hangs over the world and doesn’t allow us to forget.” (source)
Recently Reinstated Medal Posthumously Awarded
by admin on Oct.02, 2009, under Historical Heroes
OSLO — Norway on Friday awarded its highest military decoration for the first time in 60 years, posthumously honoring a soldier who was killed while helping the wartime government flee the country as German troops invaded in 1940.
Capt. Eiliv Austlid was awarded the War Cross with Sword, a medal that was recently reinstated after having been suspended since 1949.
Austlid fell to Nazi bullets as he led a small Norwegian unit in an attack on a German detachment in Dovre, central Norway, on April 15, 1940, the Defense Ministry said. The assault held up the Germans long enough to allow key members of the Norwegian government to escape.
The government officials eventually made it to England where they governed in exile throughout the war.
“Today’s award honors a man who showed personal valor and made a significant contribution on the battlefield with strategic import,” Defense Minister Anne-Grete Stroem-Erichsen said.
The decoration comes after Austlid’s role in the attack was revised.
Postwar reports suggested that he had acted recklessly, getting himself killed while doing little to protect his charges. But historians, relying partly on interviews with Austlid’s fellow soldiers, later found he had acted valiantly.
Recent media interest in Austlid’s story helped bring him to the attention of the Defense Ministry.
“The stories say he was a fool,” Defense Ministry adviser Asgeir Spange Brekke told The Associated Press. “But history shows that he in fact was a hero.”
The decoration, established in 1941 by King Haakon VII, was suspended in 1949 because it was seen as exclusive to World War II.
The government reinstated the award in June, after much deliberation about how best to honor the extraordinary achievements of Norwegian soldiers fighting in Afghanistan and other war zones.
Spange Brekke noted that the reinstatement also allows for retroactive conference.
“We are opening for old cases from World War II and the Korean War and every other conflict that Norwegian troops have been included in up to today,” he said.
The Defense Ministry has yet to decide on a date for the award ceremony. It’s also not clear which of Austlid’s family members will be presented with the medal.
There are two other cases currently under consideration for the War Cross, Spange Brekke said. He said both cases involve Norwegian troops in Afghanistan, but declined to give details because they involve sensitive special forces operations. (source)
If the persons of importance were able to get away without harm, then why wouldn’t any man involved in the operation not be touted as a hero? Especially one who lost his life defending them? Well, at least Austlid is finally getting the respect that he deserves. I suppose sometimes valor can be mistaken for recklessness. But if an action looks like it will benefit the group, these brave people often have to take that opportunity without having the time to discuss it with their peers. It’s a shame that this man’s name wasn’t associated with heroism for all these years. His descendants can be proud of him. He gave his life to save others.
“Mad Jack” Churchill
by admin on Sep.22, 2009, under Historical Heroes
Ok, wow. Why haven’t I heard of this guy before? He was a machine! They sure broke the mold when they made him, then threw out that mold. “Mad Jack” Churchill certainly marched to the beat of his own drummer.
So yeah, he’s the guy in front carrying a freakin’ sword. That’s right. Leading a charge with a sword. In a war that had advanced projectile weaponry to a horrific point that hadn’t even been dreamed of only a few years before. According to him, “any officer who goes into action without his sword is improperly dressed”.
I’ll let Wikipedia tell you all about him.
He resumed his commission after Poland was invaded, and volunteered for the Commandos after fighting at Dunkirk. Churchill was not sure what Commando Duty entailed, but he signed up because it sounded dangerous. In May 1940, Churchill and his unit, the Manchester Regiment, ambushed a German patrol near l’Epinette, France. Churchill gave the signal to attack by cutting down the enemy Feldwebel (sergeant) with his barbed arrows, becoming the only known British soldier to have felled an enemy with a longbow in the course of the war.[2]
A longbow, for heaven’s sake. First he signs up for something simply because it sounded dangerous, then signals battle by shooting someone with a longbow. Can it even get better than that?
He led two companies in Operation Archery, the raid on the German garrison at Vågsøy, Norway on December 27, 1941. As the ramps fell on the first landing craft, Churchill leapt forward from his position playing The March of the Cameron Men on bagpipes,[2] threw a grenade, and began running towards the bay.
For his actions at Dunkirk and Vaasgo, Churchill received the Military Cross and Bar. He received the Distinguished Service Order in 1943 for capturing the battery at Salerno, while commanding Number 2 Commando. Leading from the front, Churchill infiltrated the town with only a corporal in support. He kidnapped a sentry and forced him to make his comrades surrender. Churchill and the riflemen walked out of town with 42 prisoners and a mortar squad.
It did get better. He rode into battle playing bagpipes, and he doesn’t miss a measure when he chucks a grenade back at the opposing party. Then he and one other guy capture almost 50 men. Heck, I can’t even capture a decent photo with an auto-focus camera!
In 1944, he led Number 2 Commando in Yugoslavia, where they supported the efforts of Tito’s partisans. The commandos raided the German-held island of Brač and assaulted Hill 622. Only Churchill and six others managed to reach the objective. A mortar shell killed or wounded everyone but Churchill, who played “Will Ye No Come Back Again?” on his pipes as the Germans advanced. He was knocked unconscious by grenades and was flown to Berlin for interrogation after being captured. He was placed in Sachsenhausen concentration camp.
No words. Too awesome.
In September 1944, he and an RAF officer crawled under the wire through an abandoned drain and set out to walk to the Baltic coast; they were recaptured near the coastal city of Rostock, only a few miles from the sea. In late April 1945 Churchill was transferred to Tyrol together with about 140 other prominent concentration camp inmates, where the SS left the prisoners behind.[3]
He escaped from Niederdorf, Italy in April 1945 and walked 150 miles to Verona, Italy where he met an American armoured column.
As the Pacific War was still ongoing Churchill was sent to Burma, where the largest land battles against Japan were still raging, but by the time he reached India, Hiroshima and Nagasaki had been bombed, and the war abruptly ended. Churchill was said to be unhappy with the abrupt end of the war, saying: “If it wasn’t for those damn Yanks, we could have kept the war going another 10 years!”
We will never see a man such as he again. Talk about one in a million.
D-Day Remembered
by admin on Sep.03, 2009, under Historical Heroes, Tribute
This past June was the 65th anniversary of the storming of Normandy Beach, often known as D-Day. A ceremony was held on Saturday, June 6th with American President Barrack Obama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the Canadian and British prime ministers and Prince Charles in attendance. This blog, hosted through the Denver Post, has more beautiful and poignant photos from that day, along with the days of planning proceeding it.
Interview With A WWII Veteran
by admin on Aug.26, 2009, under Historical Heroes
Here is an interesting read. It is an interview of Mr. Matti Hyry from the Finnish Army describing some of his experiences in World War II. As I have mentioned previously in this blog, I think it is really important for us to hear these first hand experiences, especially when talking about our past wars. For many of us, those wars are nothing but a bunch of dry statistics that we memorize for a few tests, then promptly forget. The text in our history books can do nothing to really show what happened in the past. It’s hard for those experiences to be real and alive to us. But hearing these accounts and seeing the pictures taken of these past soldiers can help breathe life into the stories. They help us realize that people just like you and me really did cross oceans and countries to place themselves in harm’s way, and experience things no person should ever have to experience.
Here is the written interview. It’s a little long, but if you have the time, it really is interesting.
Anti-Air Defense
by admin on Aug.24, 2009, under Historical Heroes
This man really saw war in all its grit and gore. In one portion of this article, it mentions that his team arrived on Normandy Beach 3 days after D-Day. I know it would have been a nightmare to be there on D-Day (and I’m not trying to lessen those soldiers’ sacrifice on that day), but I can’t imagine having to look on that gruesome scene three days later.
August 12, 2009 – Brandon Twp. – World War II Army Private Mathew Mersino claims he was just a regular soldier.
However, ask thousands of Great Britain residents enduring the relentless Nazi air-raids via the low altitude V-1, or Buzz, Bombs that terrorized their cities and perhaps his wartime duties were anything but average.
A Detroit native and 1941 Oxford High School graduate, Mersino was drafted in January 1943. He was trained at Fort Eustis, Va., Camp Pickett, Va., and Camp Davis, N.C.there he was trained on 90 mm anti-aircraft guns.
In October 1943, Mersino departed Fort Shanks, N.J. aboard the converted luxury liner-troopship Monarch of Bermuda for Liverpool, England, as part of the 405 AAA Artillery.
Mersino saw his first V-1 bomb near South Hampton as the Germans were pounding England over the English Channel with the “vengeance weapon,” or “Vergeltungswaffe” as it came to be known.
Mersino was in England and joined thousands of Allied forces when they crossed the English Channel during the June 6, 1944 D-Day invasion on the beaches of Normandy, France.
“We went in on June 9, D-Day plus three,” said Mersino. “We landed at Normandy and came in with artillery on our way to Sainte-Mère-église, France. On the way, there were remains of the German army including cement pill boxes and guns left behind. One of the few advantages the Allied troops had when they landed was that the big German guns could not swing left or right enough to hit the troops. They actually shot over their heads. The beaches still had blood and remains scattered around—we did not stay there long and moved inland.”
Mersino’s gunnery group focused on the V-1 bombs destined for England as they flew over France.
“The Germans would send those over by just aiming them west at targets. We hit 260 V-1 bombs before they could do damage,” said Mersino. “We were very good shots with our 90 mm gun—I don’t think we ever missed. I had the task of identifying planes by silhouettes against the sky. There was always the risk of hitting our own planes as they flew over.”
Mersino would be radioed the direction the V-1 was coming and coordinate the gunners when to fire.
The 405 AAA Artillery moved into Antwerp, Belgium and liberated the city.
“We took German prisoners all the time. I felt sorry for many of the Germans as we took them back to the American POW camps. Many of the German prisoners spoke English and told me the German Secret Service (SS) would stand behind the German army with guns and shoot them if they ran. They were forced into combat.”
Mersino served as a guard at a German POW camp and a prisoner carved a V-1 bomber out of wood.
“The war was over when he carved the V-1 for me,” he said.
“After the war ended, I was stationed near Marseilles, France where they had formed a baseball team. We played lots of games there and drew fans in to watch before many went home.”
Mersino returned home to Oxford in November 1945, and married Faye Sutton on July 16, 1949 at St. Joseph Catholic Church, Lake Orion. The couple raised seven children and have 24 grandchildren and 23 great-grandchildren. (source website)
POW “Trojan Horse”
by admin on Aug.14, 2009, under Historical Heroes
In 1943, authorities at a German POW camp in Poland discovered that three prisoners were missing. A considerable space separated the prisoners’ huts from the perimeter fence, so at first it wasn’t clear how they’d escaped.
But the three inmates had something in common — all three had exercised during the day on a vaulting horse in the yard. On investigating, the Germans discovered a 100-foot tunnel leading from that spot to an opening beyond the fence.
The truth became clear. Each day, the prisoners had carried the horse to the same spot with a man hidden inside. While they exercised, the hidden man had used a bowl to lengthen the tunnel, then hid again in the horse as it was carried back inside. The Germans had used siesmographs to detect tunneling, but the prisoners’ vaulting had masked the sounds of their digging.
All three escapees — Eric Williams, Michael Codner, and Oliver Philpot — reached neutral Sweden and were reunited with their families. (source)
Wow. That is really fascinating. POW’s really had to stretch their imaginations to come up with plans and ideas of escape. What really gets me is how long term some of these plans are. Often the escapes involve digging their way out, and usually they are only able to dig maybe a few ounces a day or risk being discovered when you’re trying to dispose of the evidence. At that rate, it must feel like forever until the prisoners finish their tunnels.
The Last “Great Escape Survivor”
by admin on Aug.13, 2009, under Historical Heroes
THE frail pensioner takes an age to shuffle from his electric wheelchair to the bench in the gardens of his nursing home.
At 96 years old Jack Harrison’s body may be deteriorating, but his mind isn’t.
The former RAF pilot is the last man standing from one of the most famous incidents of World War II – The Great Escape.
That’s when inmates tunnelled their way out of Stalag Luft III prisoner of war camp in 1944 right under the noses of their Nazi guards.
Their actions were later immortalised in the screen classic The Great Escape starring Steve McQueen, James Garner and Richard Attenborough.
And since Jack’s comrade Alex Lees – who helped scatter dirt dug from the tunnels in the camp’s gardens – passed away earlier this year, Harrison is now the only survivor of the most audacious prison break in history.
Read on to hear of the whole account.
We all know parts of the story at the very least. Many are huge fans of the exciting film portrayal. But somehow it’s that much more amazing to hear the perspective straight from one of the survivors.
“But the main purpose wasn’t just to escape. It was to outfox the Germans.
“It was a huge moral victory. It humiliated Hitler and gave the Nazis a bloody nose.”
Rare Never-Before-Seen WWI Photos
by admin on Aug.10, 2009, under Historical Heroes
Old photographic plates were discovered and saved by two men, Bernard Gardin and Dominique Zanardi. The amount of plates equaled to over 300, and they were in good enough condition to develop. The developed photos offer a new glimpse of what it might have been like to be a soldier on the front in World War I. The photos appear to have been taken by a local person, supposed a farmer. These photos are unusual since most photos taken of soldiers were either taken right before they shipped out or, if they were extrememly lucky, sometime after returning home. The men in these recently discovered photos are in the field during the war, most likely right before the battle of the Somme.
These photos provide a parallel to the mass graves discovered near Fromelles. Perhaps even some of the individuals in the photos lie in those graves. Follow this link to read the article and learn more about this fabulous find. Or click here if you just want to see the photos. Truly incredible. It really makes these people’s lives come to light.
