Human Stories
Love, loss, sacrifice, and the personal side of global war
The Christmas Truce That Wasn't Supposed to Happen in the Hürtgen Forest
In the frozen Hürtgen Forest during the Battle of the Bulge, a German woman sheltered both American and German soldiers on Christmas Eve and made them leave their weapons outside.
The Letter That Crossed Enemy Lines: A Love Story in the Ruins of Stalingrad
A German soldier's final letters home from Stalingrad were never sent. They were found decades later and revealed a man who had stopped believing in the war and wanted only to hold his wife again.
The Soldier Who Carried a Sword and Bagpipes onto the Beach at D-Day
Lieutenant Colonel Jack Churchill went into battle with a Scottish broadsword, a longbow, and bagpipes — and maintained that "any officer who goes into action without his sword is improperly dressed."
Chiune Sugihara: The Japanese Diplomat Who Saved 6,000 Jews
Against direct orders from Tokyo, the Japanese vice-consul in Lithuania hand-wrote transit visas for 18 hours a day for weeks, saving approximately 6,000 Jewish refugees from the Holocaust.
The Piano Player of the Warsaw Ghetto: Wladyslaw Szpilman
A Polish-Jewish pianist survived the Warsaw Ghetto by hiding in the ruins of the city, nearly starving to death — and was saved by a German officer who asked him to play Chopin.