In the summer of 1940, hundreds of Jewish refugees gathered outside the Japanese consulate in Kaunas, Lithuania. Many had already escaped Nazi-occupied Poland, but the war was spreading, and they were running out of places to go. Inside the consulate was a Japanese diplomat named Chiune Sugihara. The people waiting outside needed his help to … Read more
During World War II, Irena Sendler was working as a social worker in Warsaw, Poland, when Nazi Germany forced the city’s Jewish population into a sealed ghetto. Her job gave her access to places most people couldn’t enter. She used that opportunity to bring food, money and medical supplies to Jewish families struggling to survive … Read more
By 1943, Gino Bartali was one of Italy’s most famous cyclists. He had won the Tour de France in 1938 and twice claimed victory in the Giro d’Italia, earning a reputation for his extraordinary endurance on mountain roads. When German forces occupied much of Italy during World War II, Bartali found a very different use … Read more