The Allied Forces eventually poured into Nazi Germany and freed it from Hitler’s regime
- but they didn’t act alone.
The Nazis had been resisted, sabotaged, and exposed from all corners.
Few of these fighters were uniformed soldiers.
Most were civilians.
And these eleven unlikely warriors became the Nazis' worst nightmare.
#11.
Swingjugend
Can you liberate a town from an oppressive government through the power of dance?
It’s easy when the worst you’re up against is a cranky pastor who banned the prom - less
so when you’re up against brutal Nazi soldiers.
But that didn’t stop the Swingjugend, a group of teenage and college-aged Germans
in the late 1930s.
They were mostly upper-class and educated, and they loved American culture.
Hitler sought to force conformity and a military aesthetic on Germany’s youth, and he viewed
these freewheeling dancers as a threat.
So naturally, they kept dancing.
As the Nazi forces cracked down and closed most of Germany’s dance halls, the Swingjugend
went underground.
They spoke in English, making their plans harder for the authorities to follow.
Eventually, the government declared the group illegal in 1941, and the leaders were sent
to concentration camps - as were any found dancing after the order.
The teenagers were sent to the youth concentration camp of Moringen, but the movement was never
stomped out completely and many German teens never embraced Nazism.
After all, you can’t stop the beat.
Hitler also found out the hard way that the pen is mightier than the sword.
#10.
“Fritz” Gerlach
As the Nazis took control in 1933, many ordinary Germans were skeptical about their ruthless
new leader.
But the oppression hadn’t reached them yet, so they figured - what’s the worst he can
do?
But one journalist, “Fritz” Gerlach, knew better.
The trained historian had been involved in liberal student groups and was a staunch opponent
of antisemitism, and starting in the 1920s he served as editor of one of the biggest
newspapers in Munich.
And he used his position tirelessly to warn the citizens of Germany that Hitler was dangerous.
And when it became too dangerous to speak out, he refused to stop.
Hitler officially seized power in January 1933, and he wasted no time targeting his
enemies.
Gerlich’s words, calling Nationalism a philosophy that would lead to tyranny and war, spread
far - and Hitler wouldn’t stand for that.
It would be less than two months before Gerlich was arrested, and he was sent to Dachau - the
prison camp that would become one of Germany’s most notorious institutions.
But he wouldn’t stay there long - just over a year later, the brutal purge known as the
Night of the Long knives occurred, killing many of Hitler’s imprisoned enemies.
Gerlich was one of the many casualties, but his words were impossible to disappear, and
the world’s awareness of Hitler’s brutality would only increase thanks to him.
This next agent of resistance opposed the Nazis with a velvet glove.
#9.
Hanna Solf
In her early years, Hanna Solf was a charmed woman.
She married the powerful Wilhelm Solf, the Governor of German-occupied Samoa, when she
was barely 20, and spent years in a tropical paradise.
But in 1928 the family moved back to Berlin - just as the Nazis were beginning to move
closer to power.
The family was comfortable and not threatened by the regime, but when Wilhelm died in 1936,
Hanna could be silent no longer.
She and her friend Elisabeth von Thadden were determined to resist, and they had a secret
weapon.
Tea Parties
They were, after all, harmless society ladies.
They would host gatherings of intellectuals who were no longer able to speak out publicly
against the Nazi regime, and the so-called “Solf Circle” became instrumental in helping
those targeted by the Nazis flee the country.
But they were eventually infiltrated by a Nazi spy, and the entire Solf Circle was deported
to Ravensbruck to face execution.
While von Thadden was executed, Hanna Solf and her daughter were saved by the Red Army,
with Solf living until 1954.
No one was safe in Nazi Germany, not even men of God - but that didn’t stop this next
one.
#8.
Bishop Clemens August Graf von Galen
Much of Hitler’s regime was dedicated to targeting people for their ethnic background
or their political views, but they weren’t the only victims.
Hitler was obsessed with the superiority of the German bloodline, and as such he viewed
the sick and disabled as undesirable.
When 1939 rolled around, Hitler announced Operation T-4 - a brutal series of sanctions
that were designed to eliminate the disabled population of Germany.
Parents were encouraged to abandon their disabled kids for elimination.
Religious figures around the country were horrified.
And for at least one, it was too much to tolerate.
Bishop Clemens August Graf von Galen was known for his anti-Nazi views, and had previously
spoken out against their racist views.
But even as oppression of the Catholic church increased, von Galen became more vocal about
the targeting of the disabled.
It turned many Catholic figures against the Nazis, and Hitler’s unofficial truce with
the current Pope meant targeting the Bishop of Munster would have been a bridge too far.
Ultimately, while the targeting of the disabled continued until the end of the war, Operation
T-4 ended in 1941 - and Von Galen lived to see Germany liberated before his death in
1946.
He wasn’t the only Catholic figure to resist the Nazi regime.
#7.
Gertrud Luckner
Born in Liverpool to German parents, Gertrud Luckner lived in Germany since she was a small
child - and she was horrified to see her country descend into fascism.
A devout pacifist, she soon joined the German Catholics’ Peace Association, a group responsible
for helping many Jewish Germans escape the country before it was too late.
And while many Germans still saw Hitler as a mere eccentric, she was warning that he
was a genocidal madman - and on November 9th, 1938, she would be proven right.
Kristallnacht was a brutal warning sign - but for many, it was too late.
As restrictions on Jews tightened, Luckner and her fellow pacifists organized to help
them buy food.
When the deportations began, they hid Jewish neighbors wherever they could and helped them
escape when possible.
But the Nazis were monitoring her actions, and in 1943 she was arrested on one of her
travels.
She was sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp, but the Nazis didn’t execute her.
She was held as a political prisoner and survived the war - but her will was undeterred.
After the war, she promoted cooperation between Jews and Christians, was honored for her work
by Israel, and remained a strong peace activist until her death in 1995.
Sometimes, hope can survive in the darkest places.
#6.
Stanislawa Leszczynska
The German occupation of Poland was notoriously brutal, and Leszczynska worked as a midwife
until she and her family were forcibly relocated when her street was converted to part of a
Jewish ghetto.
She helped the residents of the ghetto, delivering them food and documents - and wound up sharing
their fate when she was caught.
She was deported to the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp along with her daughter
and countless Jewish prisoners.
There, she met the infamous Dr. Mengele, and her experience in birth led to her being drafted
by him to report on birth conditions in the camp.
It would lead to an opportunity for salvation.
She worked as a midwife at the camp, and was horrified to learn that the infants were to
be drowned after birth.
She sabotaged this effort, tattooing Jewish babies who looked sufficiently German so they
would be taken away and adopted out by German families.
It’s estimated that she saved as many as five hundred children, and saved the lives
of countless mothers by treating them after birth.
She survived the war and continued working as a midwife, dying in 1974 - and a campaign
is ongoing to make her a Roman Catholic saint.
She wasn’t the only health care worker to oppose the Nazis - but none made a bigger
impact than this next one.
#5.
Nancy Wake
Nancy Wake was making history from her early life in New Zealand, becoming one of the first
women of Maori descent to marry a European.
She lived in France with her husband when the country fell to the Nazis, and she was
horrified by their brutality.
While she was a trained journalist and certainly not a warrior, she felt the need to take action.
Working as an ambulance driver, she eventually fell into the company of Captain Ian Garrow’s
secret escape line, and they realized Wake had a unique advantage.
She was really, really good at escaping.
Working as a courier, her unassuming and feminine appearance made her less likely to be suspected
by the Nazis.
But they were soon on her trail, and she had to flee France.
Tragically, her husband back in France was killed - but that just made her more determined.
She would return to France to train warriors in the resistance and personally lead a branch
of 7,000 members.
She would continue her mission after the war, even briefly becoming a British intelligence
officer.
One of the most highly decorated women in World War II history, she would become famous
for once killing an SS sentry with her bare hands - and would live to the age of 98 after
the war.
We suspect Death was a bit nervous to try to take her.
But few of World War II’s warriors willingly stared death in the face like this man.
#4.
Witold Pilecki.
Witold Pilecki was already a veteran when the Nazis invaded Poland, having served in
the Polish-Soviet war when he was still a teenager.
He had become a military officer, but the army was completely overwhelmed by the German
war machine.
He refused to evacuate with his fellow soldiers to France, and instead joined the Polish resistance.
He and a large number of his men were eventually captured and sent to the Auschwitz concentration
camp, but debates remain as to the circumstances of his capture.
Was he simply caught - or did he allow himself to be caught?
While in the camp, he became a secret resistance fighter while imprisoned.
He barely avoided being shot, and took every opportunity to sabotage the Nazis and steal
food for his fellow prisoners.
He collected information on the camps and reported it back to his superiors when he
was able to escape from the camp in 1943 while working the night shift.
It became the first comprehensive report on the brutal conditions of the Nazis camps,
and Witold returned to duty and fought in the Polish resistance until the end of the
war.
But tragically, he would not be able to continue that legacy for long after the war.
He was captured while spying for the Polish government-in-exile by the communist authorities
in 1947, and executed a year later.
Many of the most heroic figures of the war were the ones most in danger.
#3.
Vera Atkins
Growing up in Romania as Vera May Rosenberg, the Jewish woman watched with fear as the
Nazis gained power.
In 1937 - not long before the start of World War II - she decided to move to Britain, and
her education and skills in language let her befriend many diplomats.
As tensions ramped up, she was recruited by Britain’s top spymasters to collect intel
on Nazi Germany, and that meant she would have to head back into enemy territory - a
mission she accepted.
And it would only be the beginning of a successful spy career.
One that would send echoes through the world - and Hollywood.
Atkins became the head of the British spy agency’s F division, which was tasked with
infiltrating France.
She was a master at blending in thanks to her European roots, and managed to survive
the war.
Her involvement in evacuating Poland’s Enigma code breakers helped the Allies win the war,
and after the Nazis fell she was key in helping track down many of the regime’s worst war
criminals.
The unassuming woman acted more like a secretary than the skilled spy she was - which leads
many to believe she was the inspiration for the character of Moneypenny in Ian Fleming’s
James Bond series.
Few heroes, though, were more unlikely than the next one.
#2.
Virginia Hall
If you’re looking for a spy, you’re probably not going to guess it was the mousy-looking
woman with the wooden leg.
That’s exactly what Virginia Hall was betting on.
Having lost her leg in a hunting accident as a young adult, the American woman worked
as a consular clerk in Poland in the 1930s.
She was turned down for a position as a diplomat because they didn’t hire the disabled, so
she resigned - and went abroad to work for Britain’s spy agency, the Special Operations
Executive.
She was soon deployed to France, only the second female agent to ever be deployed to
the occupied country.
Her exploits there would be the stuff of legend.
Nazi-occupied France was a dangerous place, but Hall knew how to get intelligence.
She befriended a brothel owner for intelligence, helped downed pilots escape back to England,
and even liberated people from a prison camp.
“The limping lady” became one of the most wanted people in Vichy France, and she was
eventually forced to flee after organizing a jailbreak of twelve captured agents.
She went on the lam, walking across the Pyrenees to neutral Spain where she was arrested.
The Americans organized her release, and she continued in the spy game - eventually becoming
one of the first women ever hired by the CIA.
But some heroes come from the most unlikely places.
#1.
Chiune Sugihara
The Japanese and Germans were close allies, their alliance lasting the duration of the
war, so Japanese diplomats had a special status.
Chiune Sugihara was an educated man, fluent in Russian and German, and he was a fast-rising
diplomat in the years before the war.
He would be appointed as vice-consul at the Japanese consulate in Lithuania in 1939, ordered
to report on Soviet and German actions in the region.
He cooperated with Polish intelligence, but it would be less than a year before the Germans
rolled in and conquered Lithuania.
And Sugihara had a choice to make.
When the Germans occupied a country, the Jewish residents quickly found themselves under fire.
Countless refugees tried to flee, but it was near impossible to find a place to take them.
While the Japanese government had strict regulations for visas to come to Japan, Sugihara ignored
those orders.
He began granting visas to Japan for Jewish refugees, working around the clock signing
them and ultimately saving at least 2,200 people and maybe many more - all the while
defying his superiors and risking his own life had he been caught.
While he and his family survived the war, it would ruin his career in the Foreign ministry,
and it would be decades before his actions were properly acknowledged.
But before his death in 1986, he would be acknowledged by Israel as one of the Righteous
Among the Nations.
For more on resistance to the Nazis, check out “How a Soldier Single-Handedly Liberated
an Entire German Occupied City” or watch “What Actually Happened to Nazi Leaders
After World War 2?” for more on the bad guys.