In a period gripped by unimaginable conflict, quiet heroes from all corners of the world stood bravely in the face of war to help others through selfless acts of sacrifice.
Parting Words tells these incredible unknown stories, celebrating and honouring those who showed extraordinary human spirit in a time of terrible adversity.
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A Native American Corporal who, alongside 17 other Native American ‘codetalkers’, was responsible for bewildering intercepting German forces with an unbreakable code drawn from their native Comanche tongue.
Read MoreRuby Bradley was an imprisoned nurse in the Philippines during WW2, doing everything she could for other inmates and became known as ‘Angels in Fatigues’.
Read MoreA Japanese diplomat who defied orders and helped save thousands of lives by issuing Japanese visas to Lithuanian Jews so they could try to escape the Nazi Regime before it was too late.
Read MoreCoward by name, but certainly not by nature, Charles Joseph Coward helped save countless Jewish lives and was later able to testify against those responsible for the inhuman treatment of so many innocent people during the Second World War.
Read MoreDespite being shot through the breast, blinded in one eye and suffering trauma to a leg that meant it was hanging on only by a tendon, Cher Ami flew back to headquarters in just 25 minutes, saving the lives of 194 soldiers.
Read MoreDoris Miller responded heroically when the battleship, West Virginia, was attacked at Pearl Harbor. He manned anti-aircraft guns, despite having no formal training and attended to the wounded. For his bravery, he was the first African American to be awarded the Navy Cross.
Read MoreLike many women offering their services during the war, Eileen expected to be taken on first as a cook or a driver. But after revealing her aptitude for mathematics she was taken on as a special duties clerk, working in the Filter Rooms – the top-secret hubs of Britain’s air defence.
Read MoreAdolf Hitler’s pursuit of the ‘Final Solution’ was horrifying and relentless. But in Denmark, one man’s daring act of heroism ensured that thousands of Jews escaped the Nazi regime unharmed.
Read MoreIrena Sendler risked her own life to save around 2,500 Jewish children by smuggling them out of the Warsaw Ghetto, taking them to safe hiding places and found non-Jewish families to adopt them.
Read MoreAmerican socialite Julia Hunt Catlin Park Depew Taufflieb opened up her mansion to injured soldiers, turning it into a 300-bed military hospital. Julia remained and ran the hospital, using her own finances to help feed and treat the wounded who poured in from the front.
Read MoreAn unassuming Irish priest, Hugh O'Flaherty, helped not only Jews but also prisoners of war and others in Rome escape imprisonment and death following the German invasion.
Read MoreOne of the most decorated servicewomen of the war, Nancy Wake's ability to foil and evade her German enemy gained her the nickname of the 'White Mouse', working behind enemy lines with the French Resistance and Special Operation Executive.
Read MoreWilliam Coltman's Christian beliefs prevented him from taking up arms, but his feats of bravery without firing a shot were underlined when he ended the war as one of Britain's most decorated soldiers.
Read MoreIn Westminster Abbey lies the tomb of an ordinary man whose name will never be known. He represents not just the life of one, but of the hundreds of thousands of British and Commonwealth soldiers who died during the First World War.
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