The war that brought us Nazi Germany, Japanese War Crimes, the Shoah, the Rape of Nanking, and of course, Atomic Bombs, joy. With all of this horror though, comes the amazing, uplifting, wonderful stories you'll find below. I've separated them by which side of the war they fought on, Allied or Axis Powers, for further clarity.
And because I know it may cause some controversy, I've listed the entries based on the country they were from during the war and not necessarily which side they fought for. I don't want anyone to accuse me of thinking Hans and Sophie Scholl approved of what the Nazis were doing to their country, but they were German so...
As mentioned with our page on World War I, many people lived through both world wars, and actively participated in both, so you'll see some names appear on both lists.
Entries:
Allies (Great Britain, France, United States, China, Soviet Union, and Individuals):
- Abba Kovner, Founder of the Actual Avengers (Yes, Really)
- Alan Turing, If You're Reading This on a Computer, Thank Alan
- Dr. Albert Brown, The Oldest Survivor of the Bataan Death March at the Time of his Death
- Aleksandra Samusenko, Tank Commander For the Soviet Union
- Amy Elizabeth Thorpe, Spy for the Americans and British Agents
- Andree Borrel, SOE Agent
- Anna D Allen, Served in the WAVES During the War
- Anna May Wong, Created Propaganda Films in Order to Support United China Relief
- Major Annie Fox, The First Female Recipient of the Combat Purple Heart
- Ariadna Scriabina, Resistance Fighter in Occupied France
- First-Lieutenant Major Audie Murphy, Before he was an Actor, He was a Soldier
- Audrey Hepburn, Before she was an Actress, she was a child spy
- Augusta Chiwy, Volunteer Nurse During the Battle of the Bulge
- Sir Barnes Wallis, I Wish I was Remembered for Inventing Something Called a Bouncing Bomb
- Beatrice Shilling, Aeronautical Engineer Who Fixed the Spitfires and Hurricanes
- Benehakaka Kanahele, He Received a Purple Heart for Valor Thanks to his Bravery During the Ni'ihau Incident
- Sergeant Benjamin Ferencz, The Only Still-Living Judge from the Nuremberg Trials
- Bessie Stringfield, Motorcycle Dispatch Rider
- Flight Lieutenant Bill Goldfinch, What Would You Do If You Were Imprisoned in a Dreary Old Castle?
- Ltc. Charity Adams Earley, The First African American Officer in the Women's Army Corps
- Charlotte von Nassau-Weilburg, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg
- Commander Chick Parsons, The Man Who Made General MacArthur's Triumphant Return to the Philippines a Success
- Chien-Shiung Wu, Theoretical Physicist Who Worked on the Manhattan Project
- Christine Granville, SOE Spy
- Private First-Class Desmond Doss, The First Conscientious Objector to Receive the Medal of Honor
- Doris Bohrer, Allied Spy With the OSS
- Capt. Dorothy Stratton, Commanding Officer of the United States Coast Guards' SPARs
- Earl Olsen, He Did Everything He Could to Save Joe Kennedy Jr
- Sergeant First-Class Edward Allen Carter Jr, You Cannot Sum Up All he Did in This Small Space
- Eileen Nearne, SOE Agent who Survived Torture from the Gestapo
- Elaine Harmon, Served as a WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilot)
- Eleanor Roosevelt, The Longest Serving First Lady in United States' History
- Elizabeth II, Before She was Queen, She was an Army Mechanic
- Etta Schureman Jones, Teacher Turned Japanese Prisoner of War
- Eugene Lazowski, Faking an Epidemic in Order to Save Thousands of Lives? Check
- Evelyn McHale, Subject of LIFE Magazine's "A Beautiful Suicide" Photograph; She Served as a WAC in World War II
- Florence Finch, Allied Spy/Enlisted in the Coast Guard
- Corporal Frank Buckles, The Last Living Survivor of World War I (From the US), He was Also a POW during World War II
- Freddie Oversteegen, Dutch Resistance Fighter
- Colonel Gail Halvorsen, The Berlin Candy Bomber
- Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, She Served in the US Navy from 1943 to 1986 (And Her Record While In is Remarkable!)
- Greta Zimmer Friedman, One of the Subjects of the Iconic VJ Day Photograph
- Hannah Szenes, SOE Paratrooper
- Private Harold Baumgarten, He was Wounded Five Times in Thirty-Two Hours After Landing at Omaha Beach
- Hattie McDaniel, She was More Than Just a Groundbreaking Actress
- Helen Purviance, Served in the Salvation Army for Several Decades
- Irene Drummond, Head Nurse Killed in the Bangka Island Massacre
- Iva Toguri D'Aquino, Accused and Found Guilty of Being Tokyo Rose
- Captain Jacklyn H Lucas, Captain America's Got Nothing on This Badass
- James Doohan, Before He was Scotty, He was Wounded Six Times During the War
- Jan Żabiński, The Warsaw Zoo Owner and Polish Resistance Fighter
- Jean Paul, War Bride and Advocate for the Indigenous People of Canada
- Jeannette Rankin, She was the Only Member of US Congress to Vote Against War for Both World Wars
- Lieutenant Colonel Jeff Cooper, Before Becoming a Leading Firearm Safety Instructor, He Served in Both World War II and Korea
- First Lieutenant Joachim Rønneberg, Commander of Operation Gunnerside
- Lieutenant Colonel John Malcolm Thorpe Fleming Churchill, He Chose to Fight the War With Bagpipes, a Broadsword, and a Longbow
- John Glenn, Before he Stepped on the Moon, He Flew Fifty-Nine Combat Missions During the War
- Josefina Guerrero, The Leper Spy
- Julia Child, Before she was a Chef, She Worked For the Precursor to the CIA
- Julien Bryan, He Dared to Video-Record Life Inside Nazi Occupied Berlin
- Kathleen (Kennedy) Cavendish, She was the Most Scandalous of All the Kennedy Children
- Lela Karagianni, Leader of a Greek Resistance Movement
- Lucie Aubrac, French Resistance Leader
- Lydia Litvyak, Soviet Air Force Pilot
- Lyudmila Pavlichenko, Deadliest Female Sniper in History
- Maria Goeppert Mayer, Theoretical Physicist Who Worked on the Manhattan Project
- Marie-Claude Vaillant-Couturier, French Communist Politician
- Marina Raskova, Pilot and Creator of Three Female Fighter Pilot Regiments
- SSGT Mariya Oktyabrskaya, Her Self-Bought Tank was Called Fighting Girlfriend
- Maude E Steane, One of Eight Canadian Women Confirmed Killed in Action During World War II
- Maxine Dale, Served in the Women's Army Corps During the War
- Capt. Mildred H McAfee Horton, Director of the WAVES During the War
- Mildred Fish-Harnack, The Only American Civilian Woman to be Executed by the Nazis
- Minnie Vautrin, Missionary Who Was Haunted by the Things She Witnessed During the Rape of Nanking
- Nadezhda Popova, Night Witch
- Nancy Wake, The Most Decorated Servicewoman from the War
- Nicholas Winton, Organizer and Leader of the Kindertransport
- Noor Inayat Khan, SOE Agent
- Odette Sampson Hallowes, SOE Agent
- Perla Ovitz, One of the Seven Dwarfs of Auschwitz
- Raoul Wallenberg, He Saved Somewhere Around 100,000 Hungarian Jews
- Ray Chavez, He was the Oldest Survivor of the Attack on Pearl Harbor at the Time of His Death
- Richard Overton, He was the Oldest World War II Veteran from the US at the Time of His Death
- Rita Levi-Montalcini, Physician with the Allied Health Service
- Rose Valland, She is Credited with Saving Hundreds of Europe's Plundered Works of Art
- Roza Shanina, Soviet Sniper With 59 Confirmed Kills
- General Seth McKee, He was the Highest-Ranking Survivor of D-Day at the Time of His Death
- Lieutenant Simo Häyhä, Possibly the Deadliest Sniper of All Time
- Sergeant Sylvester Antolak, Brave Doesn't Even Begin to Describe Him
- Lance Corporal Tatyana Baramzina, Soviet Sniper
- Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt Jr, He was the Only General to Land at Utah Beach on D-Day
- Tuvia Bielski, He Saved His Fellow Jews by Hiding In a Forest
- Violette Szabo, Allied Spy and Loving Mother and Wife
- Virginia Hall, Allied Spy in World War II
- Vivian (Bullwinkel) Statham, The Only Survivor of the Bangka Survivor Massacre
- Lieutenant Wilford Willy, He Died Alongside Joe Kennedy Jr
- Willem Arondeus, Gay Artist and Resistance Fighter
- Captain Witold Pilecki, He Volunteered to Become a Prisoner in Auschwitz
Axis Powers (Germany, Italy, Japan and Individuals):
- Albert Göring, Evil is Not a Familial Trait
- Sergeant-Major András Toma, The Last POW from World War II to be Released (In 2000)
- August Landmesser, He Fought for What was Right, Wouldn't You?
- Clara Petacci, Mussolini's Mistress
- Coco Chanel, Before She was Known for Her Little Black Dress, She was Having an Affair with a Nazi
- Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, The Desert Fox
- Eva Braun, The Wife of One of History's Most Reviled Men
- Georg Rauch, Unlikely Warrior
- Hans Scholl, Founding Member of the White Rose Resistance Movement
- Helmuth Hübener, The Youngest Person Ever Executed by Germany's "People's Court"
- Second Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda, The Last World War II Soldier to Surrender (In 1974)
- Margot Wolk, The Last Surviving Food Tester for Hitler
- Oskar Schindler, He Saved Thousands of Lives Thanks to his Now Famous List
- Sadako Sasaki, The Real Girl Behind Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes
- Sophie Scholl, Member of the White Rose Resistance Movement
- Stephanie von Hohenlohe, She was a Princess by Marriage, and a Nazi Spy
- Tsutomu Yamaguchi, He Survived the Bombings of Both Hiroshima and Nagasaki
- Corporal Werner Dreschler, He was Murdered While Supposedly Under the Protection of the US Army
- Wilhelm Krützfeld, He was a Berlin Police Officer Who Ordered the Protection of a Jewish Synagogue During Kristallnacht
- Yang Kyoungjong, The Only World War II Soldier to Have Fought on Three Sides