Podczas I wojny światowej Jean de Lattre de Tassigny toczył walki w sposób zasługujący na wyróżnienie - co przyniosło mu liczne honory. Jako najmłodszy generał Armii Francuskiej dowodził dywizjonem podczas upadku Francji w 1940 roku, a następnie pełnił służbę, piastując różnorakie stanowiska wojskowe. W listopadzie 1942 roku, podczas niemieckiej okupacji francuskiej "Wolnej Strefy", odmówił postępowania zgodnie z rozkazami Vichy zakazującymi oporu. W konsekwencji trafił do więzienia. U schyłku 1943 roku zbiegł i dołączył do sił zbrojnych Wolnej Francji jako jeden ze starszych dowódców. W sierpniu 1944 roku de Lattre de Tassigny dowodził "Armią B", stanowiącą francuską część Operacji Dragoon. To jego wojska wyzwoliły Marsylię i wraz z amerykańską 7 Armią przepędziły siły niemieckie w górę, do Lotaryngii. Zimą 1944/1945 roku dowodził francuską 1 Armią podczas walk w Lotaryngii oraz likwidacji przyczółka w Colmar. Podczas finalnej ofensywy alianckiej wobec Niemiec wojska de Lattre'a przemieszczały się w kierunku Dunaju. Jako przedstawiciel Francji generał de Lattre de Tassigny był obecny podczas bezwarunkowej kapitulacji nazistowskich Niemiec w Berlinie-Karlshort. Przed ceremonią skutecznie naciskał na aliantów, by uwzględnili Francję jako odrębną siłę akceptującą niemiecką kapitulację. W późniejszym okresie dowodził wojskami francuskimi w Indochinach. De Lattre zmarł na raka w 1952 roku. Po śmierci otrzymał tytuł Marszałka Francji.

France

Jean de Lattre de Tassigny

Niewiele jednak nadal wiemy o generale poruczniku Alexandrze Patch. Jeden z jego podwładnych, generał Lucian Truscott, chwalił go jako "człowieka o niezwykłej uczciwości; odważnego i kompetentnego przywódcę, a także altruistycznego towarzysza broni". Patch unikał przekleństw i troszczył się o swoich ludzi. W marcu 1944 roku powierzono mu dowództwo nad amerykańską 7 Armią podczas operacji desantowej w południowej Francji pod kryptonimem "Operacja Dragoon". 7 Armię tworzyło także wiele francuskich jednostek, które Patch chwalił za heroizm. Operacja zakończyła się sukcesem, a 7 Armia ruszyła w górę Doliny Renu, w pogoni za cofającymi się wojskami niemieckimi. W ciągu zaledwie jednego miesiąca Armia przebyła dystans przeszło 400 mil i wyzwoliła wiele miejsc, między innymi Marsylię, Lyon i Tulon. Zimą 1944-1945 Patch i jego armia walczyli z wojskami niemieckimi w Wogezach. Doświadczyli trudów Operacji Nordwind - jednej z ostatnich niemieckich ofensyw na Zachodzie. Po zatrzymaniu niemieckiego natarcia Patch i 7 Armia ponownie rozpoczęli ofensywę, odzyskując ziemie utracone podczas Operacji Nordwind. Przekraczając Ren, weszli do Niemiec. 29 kwietnia 1945 roku wojska pod dowództwem Patcha wyzwoliły obóz koncentracyjny Dachau.

Alexander M. Patch

At the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 Shalwa Loladze was in service with the Red Army. As a commander of a Soviet squadron his airplane was brought down above Ukraine in 1942. He was taken prisoner by the German Army. To avoid the terrible conditions of a German prisoner-of-war camp he decided to join the Georgian Legion which served the German Army. Here he became lieutenant of the Georgian 882nd Infantry Battalion. Because of different revolts of Georgian troops in Eastern Europe the German Army decided to station these troops in the West. The battalion of Loladze therefore arrived on Texel on 6 February 1945. 2 months later the battalion was told to fight the Allies on the Dutch mainland. According to the battalion a revolt was the only chance to prevent this. Led by Loladze they started their revolt on 6 April at 01:00 and in the early morning 180 German soldiers were killed. However, the tide would soon turn after German reinforcements reached the island. Five weeks later the battalion surrendered. During the revolt 565 Georgians, 120 local citizens and around 800 Germans died. Shalwa Loladze was one of them. He was shot in the back on 25 April. A large number of the Georgians are buried on the Georgian cemetery on Texel. After the war the surviving 228 Georgians returned to their own country.

The Netherlands

Sjalwa Loladze

As a member of the 761st Tank Battalion, Sergeant Ruben Rivers arrived at Omaha Beach in France on 10 October 1944. Here, his unit became part of General George Patton’s 3rd Army. Rivers was 26 years old and known for his bravery. On 19 November he led a peloton of Sherman tanks to the occupied village Guébling. Arriving in the village under enemy fire, Rivers’ tank struck an anti-tank mine. Despite having an open bone fracture on his leg, he refused any morphine the medical team tried to give him.Soon after, he even took command of another thank. Over the following days Rivers fought without morphine and with a swollen and infected leg. On 19 November, the Black Panthers again tried to break through the lines at Guébling, but German troops were waiting with anti-tank guns. Rivers ordered his tank to get out of cover and to attack the enemy so that his comrades could retreat. His plan worked, but Rivers’ tank was blown up.Rivers’ actions were an example for the entire 761st Tank Battalion. After the war, like many other African-American soldiers, he did not gain the recognition he deserved. It wasn’t until 1997 that President Bill Clinton awarded his family his Medal of Honour. Rivers is one of only seven African-Americans to be awarded the Medal of Honour for his actions during the Second World War.

Ruben Rivers

George Dukson, born in French Equatorial Africa (now Gabon), decided to join the French army in Europe immediately after the Second World War broke out. Shortly before the French capitulation, he was taken prisoner by the German army. and after spending two years in a German prisoner-of-war camp he successfully escaped.Dukson returned to France, entering the underground resistance movement in Paris and where he played an important role in the resistance. During the liberation of the city of Paris, he rose through the ranks to gain the command over a group of resistance fighters. With just a few revolvers and grenades, Dukson and his comrades succeeded in capturing a German tank. On 21 August he was hit in his arm by a bullet, but Dukson kept fighting until Paris was liberated.On 26 August General Charles de Gaulle, leader of the Free French Forces, marched with his troops in a victory parade through the city. At the request of the Allies, only white soldiers had been involved with the liberation of the city, therefore the parade was therefore also white, despite a huge part of the French army existing of non-white people. However, George gained a spot in the parade and is seen near General de Gaulle in several pictures.After the Liberation of Paris, Dukson started to trade on the black market, until he was arrested. He was shot as he attempted to flee from his arrest and died from his wounds on 11 November 1944.

George Dukson

Noor Inayat Khan urodziła się w Moskwie, w Nowy Rok 1914 r. jako córka Amerykanki i Hindusa, który był potomkiem sułtana Mysore w Indiach. Po wybuchu I wojny światowej w 1914 roku rodzina przeniosła się do Londynu, a następnie do Francji w 1920 roku. Tutaj Inayat Khan skupiła się na graniu muzyki i pisaniu opowiadań dla dzieci.Po kapitulacji Francji w 1940 roku rodzina uciekła do Londynu, gdzie Inayat Khan dołączyła do Pomocniczych Sił Powietrznych Kobiet w listopadzie 1940 roku. Tutaj szkoliła się na radiooperatora. Pod koniec 1942 roku została zwerbowana do Special Operations Executive (SOE) i pomimo braku doświadczenia została zrzucona do Francji 17 czerwca 1943 roku. Było to spowodowane niedoborem szpiegów i faktem, że płynnie mówiła po francusku.We Francji Inayat Khan została radiooperatorem sieci lekarzy SOE w Paryżu. Celem tej sieci było wspieranie francuskiego ruchu oporu przeciwko niemieckiemu okupantowi. Inayat Khan utrzymywała kontakt między ruchem oporu a SOE w Londynie, niestety wielu członków zostało wkrótce aresztowanych z powodu infiltracji przez Sicherheitsdienst (agencję wywiadowczą nazistowskich Niemiec).Mimo to Inayat Khan starała się utrzymywać kontakt z Londynem przez całe lato. W październiku została zadenuncjowana przez pewną Francuzkę, a następnie aresztowana przez Gestapo, niemiecką tajną policję państwową. Sicherheitsdienst wiedziało, jak rozszyfrować zakodowane notatki Inayat Khan, co doprowadziło w efekcie do aresztowania kilku innych osób. Inayat Khan była przetrzymywana w więzieniu Pforzheim w Niemczech przez dziesięć miesięcy, po czym została przeniesiona do obozu koncentracyjnego Dachau. Tutaj była torturowana przez dwa dni. Wraz z trzema innymi szpiegami SOE została stracona 13 września 1944 roku.

Noor Inayat Khan

Edgard Tupët-Thome was born in Bourg-La-Reine on 19 April 1920. After obtaining his school diploma, he quitted his further education in order to join the French Armed Forces in October 1938. During the German invasion of Western Europe, Tupët-Thomé fought in Lorraine and Belgium. Along with the other Allied armies he was pushed back to Dunkirk. Here he helped with the embarking of the British Expeditionary Force before he was taken prisoner. During his transfer to Germany he managed to escape. After he had escaped, Tupët-Thomé joined the French resistance. He managed to reach England via Spain and joined the Free French Forces led by Charles de Gaulle. He was dropped in France to gather information in December 1941. Even though he was wounded during his parachute jump he stayed for six months to fulfill his tasks. He finally returned to England to let his wounds be treated in May 1942. After he was recovered, he became an instructor for French commando units in Saint-Pierre and Miquelon. In August 1943 Tupët-Thomé joined the British Special Air Service and half a year later he became second-in-command of the French 3rd Parachute Chasseur Regiment. Together with his regiment Tupët-Thomé landed in France in August 1944 where they took part in the liberation of several villages. His last mission took place in the Netherlands on 7 April 1945 and was part of Operation Amherst. The goal of the paratroops was to take bridges and other important locations in Drenthe and Groningen, to pave the way for the liberation of these areas. After the war Edgard Tupët-Thome received several medals including la Légion d’honneur. He died at the age of one hundred in Hôtel National des Invalides on 9 September 2020.

Edgard Tupët-Thomé

Sophie Scholl urodziła się w 1921 roku w Forchtenbergu, małym miasteczku w Wirtembergii, którego burmistrzem był jej ojciec. W 1932 r. jej rodzina przeprowadziła się do Ulm. Kiedy Sophie miała dwanaście lat, dołączyła do Ligi Młodych Dziewcząt (Bund Deutscher Mädel), hitlerowskiej organizacji młodzieżowej dla dziewcząt i została przywódczynią grupy. W wyniku aresztowania jej rodzeństwa za zakazaną działalność w ruchu wolnej młodzieży w 1937 r., coraz bardziej odrzucała i potępiała narodowy socjalizm.&nbsp;​Mając nadzieję na uniknięcie obowiązkowej Służby Pracy Rzeszy (Reichsarbeitsdienst), Sophie rozpoczęła szkolenie na nauczycielkę przedszkolną. Mimo to wiosną 1941 r. została powołana do Służby Pracy. Doświadczenie przymusowego podporządkowania i braku wolności, a także jej intensywne zainteresowanie tematami literackimi i religijnymi, wzmocniły jej sprzeciw wobec nazistowskiego reżimu.&nbsp;​Sophie Scholl miała wielki talent artystyczny i rozważała podjęcie studiów artystycznych. Jednak w maju 1942 r. zaczęła studiować biologię i filozofię w Monachium i została włączona do kręgu przyjaciół swojego brata. Nawiązali kontakty z pisarzami, filozofami i artystami. Pytanie, jak zachowywać się jako chrześcijanka w rezczywistości dyktatury nazitowskiej, było jednym z jej głównych problemów. Ponieważ jej partner Fritz Hartnagel był oficerem w wojsku, często dyskutowali o tym, czy wojnę da się usprawiedliwić.&nbsp;​Latem 1942 r. Sophie musiała odbyć pomocniczą służbę wojskową w fabryce nitów w Ulm. W tym czasie jej ojciec przez trzy miesiące przebywał w więzieniu, ponieważ wypowiedział się krytycznie o Hitlerze. W listopadzie, po powrocie na uniwersytet, Sophie wprowadziła się do mieszkania razem ze swoim bratem Hansem. Od tej pory aktywnie działała w grupie oporu. Kupowała koperty i znaczki na dużą skalę, brała udział w powielaniu i dystrybucji dwóch ostatnich ulotek konspiracyjnych w Monachium, w tym zawiozła 3000 ich egzemplarzy pociągiem kolejno do Augsburga, Ulm i Stuttgartu.&nbsp; &nbsp;​18 lutego 1943 r., kiedy Sophie i Hans Scholl rozdawali szóstą ulotkę Białej Róży na Uniwersytecie Monachijskim, zostali aresztowani. Cztery dni później Sąd Ludowy (Volksgerichtshof)&nbsp;skazał ją na śmierć wraz z bratem oraz ich przyjacielem Christophem Probstem. Tego samego popołudnia zostali ścięci w więzieniu Monachium-Stadelheim.

Germany

Sophie Scholl

Claude Mademba-Sy was born on 11 December 1923 in Versailles. His father, Abdel Kader, was the first black commander of a colonial infantry battalion of the French Army. Mademba-Sy did not grow up in France, but spent the first years of his childhood dependant on where his dad was stationed, on Madagascar, as well as in Mali and Senegal.After his father died Mademba-Sy spent several years in an orphanage after which he went to live with his mother, who had remarried, in Tunisia. After the German Army invaded Tunisia in November 1942, nineteen year old Mademba-Sy voluntarily joined the Free French Forces. As part of the French 2nd Armoured Division led by General Philippe Leclerc, he arrived on Utah Beach in Normandy on 1 August 1944. He hereafter played a role at the liberation of Paris and Strasbourg and the capture of Berchtesgaden, Adolf Hitlers’ country retreat in the Alps.It was extremely unusual that Mademba-Sy, as a black soldier, was present at the liberation of Paris, because at the insistence of the Allies it was the intention that only white troops would be present. However, since Mademba-Sy was born in Versailles he had the French nationality and because of this he was part of a white French unit which meant he could attend.After the war Claude Mademba-Sy stayed active in the army and he was one of the founders of the Senegalian army in 1960. He also fought for better appreciation of French colonial troops and for a raise for their pensions. He died at the age of 90 in France on 9 April 2014.

Claude Mademba-Sy

Ibrahim Asem was born on 7 January 1924 in Damascus in Syria, which was a protectorate of France at that moment. After France capitulated in 1940, Vichy France took control over Syria. This changed in July 1941, when the British Army and the Free French Forces took over the area. It was under these circumstances that Asem joined the Free French Forces in September 1942, after which he became part of the British Special Air Service (SAS) in 1943. On the night of 7 to 8 April 1945, he was dropped in Drenthe for Operation Amherst together with 701 other French parachutists. The mission of these parachutists was to make contact with the resistance, secure bridges and above all cause confusion and unrest among the German Army. This to make sure the Canadian troops could liberate the northern part of the Netherlands quickly. In different small groups the parachutists were dropped all over Drenthe. However, the group of Asem ended up in the wrong place and broke up on their way to the right destination. In order to escape from the sight of German troops, Asem and six other soldiers hid in a barn. The next day Asem and his group were discovered by German soldiers and a fire fight broke out. The straw roofing of the barn was shot on fire and collapsed. Three French soldiers were burned alive because of this. Three other parachutists, including Asem, were shot dead behind the barn. Just one Frenchman managed to escape.

Asem Ibrahim

Roscoe Brown was born on 9 March 1922 in Washington D.C. With his father being a dentist and his mother a teacher, Brown grew up in an intellectual climate and performed well at school. After he finished his studies with excellent results, he decided to join the American Air Force in 1943.As an African American, Brown ended up at the flying school in Tuskegee, Alabama. Just like the other parts of the American Army, the Air Force was segregated during this time. The flying school in Tuskegee was founded as an experiment to prove that African Americans were not capable of flying airplanes. However, it proved the contrary.The Tuskegee Airmen turned out to be great pilots and would form escort squadrons in Europe. Divided between different squadrons in the 332nd Fighter Group, the Tuskegee Airmen performed important tasks in Europe. Besides attacking different ground targets by themselves, their main task was protecting Allied bombers against the German fighters. Brown finished his training and was sent to Europe in August 1944. As part of the 100th Fighting Squadron he flew a total of 68 missions, with his most successful flight taking place on 24 March 1945. During a very long escort mission with the goal of bombing a German tank factory in Berlin, he shot down a German jet-fighter. Because of this Brown is known as one of the three jet-killers.After the war Brown went back to school to obtain his Master’s degree and later his PhD. He became, amongst other things, a professor at New York University and later director of Bronx Community College. Roscoe Brown died at the age of 94 on 2 July 2016.

Roscoe Brown

Born on 2 October 1916 in Chicago, Joe attended the University of Chicago before being drafted into the U.S. Army’s 69th Infantry Division in December 1941. As the youngest son of Jewish-Russian parents originally from Kiev, Polowsky spoke fluent Russian. On 25 April 1945, as part of a reconnaissance platoon led by Lieutenant Albert Kotzebue, they became the first Americans to meet Soviet soldiers on the Elbe River near Torgau – a symbolic meeting representing the closure of the Eastern and Western Fronts. The photo of this meeting circulated around the world and still stands today as a potent symbol of the end of the war. Making an oath of peace in Torgau, he dedicated the rest of his life to that mission. He tried in vain to have the United Nations declare 25 April "Elbe Day" - a day for world peace. In 1955, Polowsky visited Moscow together with Soviet veterans for the tenth anniversary of the Elbe meeting. In 1960 and 1961, he returned to Torgau on Elbe Day to speak at the Soviet-American Encounter Monument. Despite many efforts, he was never able to return to East Germany after a 1961. Instead, he led an annual vigil on the Michigan Avenue Bridge in Chicago. Polowsky last wish was to be buried in Torgau. He died on 17 October 1983. Overcoming the political hurdles and after gaining permission from the State Council Chairman Erich Honecker, his funeral was held on 26 November 1983 and became an international media event with American and Soviet veterans and other government officials from the USA, USSR, and East Germany. With his final wish, he succeeded in setting an example that, for a brief moment, brought East and West closer together during the Cold War.   In Torgau today, a peace run past his burial place and the Polowsky Peace Rose Garden at Torgau’s castle commemorate him.

United States

Joseph “Joe” Polowsky

In the summer of 1939, the United Kingdom was on the verge of war with Nazi Germany. Because male farm workers were send to the front, the British government decided to establish the Women’s Land Army (WLA). These women became known as Land Girls and replaced the men on the land in order to avoid a food shortage. Between June 1939 and November 1950 over 200,000 women signed up for the WLA. Coming from all walks of life, they played a critical role in increasing Britain’s food production.Daphne Mary Banks, born on 11 May 1922 in Slough, was a Land Girl. In the summer of 1939 she decided to quit her office job in order to join the newly-formed WLA. Driven by patriotism and supported by her parents she went down to the recruiting office in Portland Terrace, Southampton. At that time Daphne’s knowledge of farming mostly came from magazines she had read.As a Land Girl Daphne worked at several farms in the county of Hampshire. On these farms she performed several tasks, from fertilising the fields to trimming hedges. Daphne’s main task was looking after the cows. She fed them, milked them and moved them around the farm. During her stay at the different farms, Daphne always had a private billet in the farmhouse of the family she worked for.After the war, Daphne met her husband and left the WLA. They married in 1947. She had great memories of her WLA days and always recalled them as being some of the best of her life. She died on 14 March 2019.

United Kingdom

Daphne Mary Banks

Lee Miller was born in Poughkeepsie, New York in 1907, where from a young age her father introduced her to photography. After a successful modelling career in the late 20’s Miller decided to go behind the camera herself. During the 30’s she worked in Paris, New York, Caïro and London.At the outbreak of the Second World War, Miller was living in London and working for Vogue. She ignored the plea of her friends and family to return to the United States. When the male photographers of Vogue were send to the front, Miller was offered the position of photographer. One of her first series was photographing women who were active in the army or worked as nurses.As the war proceeded Miller started to do more fieldwork which lead to her being appointed as one of the few female photographers of the U.S. Army. She arrived in Normandy in July 1944, a month after the allied invasion had begun. Her first task was photographing the American nurses near Omaha Beach. During the following months she accompanied the Allied troops who liberated Europe. She was present during the siege of St. Malo, the liberation of Paris and the Alsace region. Miller also produced impressive pictures of the concentration camps Buchenwald and Dachau, alhough her most iconic photo remains the one she took of herself in the bath of Hitler’s apartment in Munich.After the war, Miller had a difficult time processing what she had seen at the Front. She spoke little about it. Her son only discovered much of her work in boxes in the attic, after her death in 1977.

Lee Miller

From 1941 Eugene Pinte, nicknamed Athos, operated out of a small farm in a town called La Gaubertie in the region Aixe-Sur-Vienne. Pinte was in command over several resistance groups in the west of Haute-Vienne. The farm functioned as command centre and from there messages were sent and received. It was also the gather point for supplies that arrived from England via parachute. Pinte insisted his family helped as well. Even his youngest son, Marcel Pinte, became involved in the resistance.Born on 12 April 1938 in Valenciennes, in the northern part of France, the six-year-old Marcel was appointed an important task. As a courier he delivered secret messages to different resistance leaders. Because he was only a small boy, German troops didn’t suspect him. In August 1944, Eugene Pinte had gathered a group of over 1200 men around him. Together with other groups of the French Forces of the Interior (FFI) they surrounded German troops around Limoges and tried to stop a German breakthrough. They won this battle.However, for Marcel it didn’t end well. On the early morning of 19 August, one of the sten guns of the resistance fighters went off by accident. Marcel was hit and died. Marcel was buried on 21 August, just before the liberation of Limoges. A large group of resistance fighters was present, including leaders of different movements. During the last drop of supplies on the farm the parachutes were black instead of white. The British did this to honour Marcel. Posthumously Marcel was promoted to FFI sergeant and became the youngest resistance fighter of France.

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