STORIES
Lifesaver
DONATE

WWII Heroes

by Denver from Cornwall

A hero is someone who can see wrong and cannot be convinced otherwise, who would be willing to take action and face greater forces despite the possible consequences, a person who will not give up until things turn for good. The greatest examples of these types of people are the everyday heroes from World War II. There are simply too many heroes to mention in this article so instead I will name the 3 heroes who really seemed to persist in their mission even after the obstacles they had to face. These heroes are; Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz, Oskar Schindler, and Irena Sendler

Georg Duckwitz
Georg Duckwitz

The first hero is Georg Duckwitz. Duckwitz was a German official. In 1932, he joined the Nazi party and worked for a man named Alfred Rosenberg. It was only in 1939 that he was assigned to the German embassy. Unlike most other Nazis, Georg wasn't against the Jews; instead he wished to rescue them. The first part of Georg's plan was to go to Sweden to see if the neutral Swedish would take in Jewish refugees. When they accepted, Georg revealed the Nazi's plans to them. Denmark's underground then smuggled out approximately 99% of its Jewish population. They used multiple clever tricks to sneak past the guards and Duckwitz' role in the plan was never discovered. In my opinion, Georg is a hero because he risked his job and possibly his life to set up a plan like this and free many Jewish people.

The second hero I'd like to mention is one of the most commonly known World War II heroes, mainly from his well known movie, Schindler's list, Oskar Schindler. At the start of the war, Oskar Schindler saw possible profit from having Jewish workers in his factories so he employed over a thousand Jews. In the beginning, Schindler was only in it for the money, but soon that turned into motivation to keep them safe and in his factories. Soon later he had no regard for his money and became a shield for his workers. Oskar had to pay large bribes to Nazi officials to keep his Jewish workers in his factories. When Nazi began to take over, he spent most of his fortune buying from the black market and bribing officers to keep his workers in good hands inside of a concentration camp. I believe Schindler is a hero because he was determined to save all of his Jewish workers, using all of his power as a German and his fortunes to save lives that most others didn't care about. The Jews believed in Oskar to keep them safe and he refused to let them down.

The Warsaw Ghetto
The Warsaw Ghetto

Finally, my last World War II hero is Irena Sendler. Irena was part of the Polish underground. She had a forged nurse's identity card which she used to gain access to the Warsaw Ghetto. She drove in everyday and took Jewish children with the permission of the parents and hid them in her vehicle. Irena also rode with a dog trained to bark at the Nazis to cover the noises from the children and keep the officers away from the vehicle. She would give the children to Polish foster parents with fake documents. She was later caught and brutally beaten. Both her arms and legs were broken and she was sentenced to death afterwards. Thanks to some friends, she escaped and kept sneaking children out of the Ghetto. This is a perfect example of determination; she would not give up because she believed the children's lives were more important than her own.

In conclusion, I chose these 3 heroes because of their persistence and determination to make their country a better place. What makes them heroes is that they weren't afraid to think differently than everyone else, they believed that what the Nazis were doing was wrong and they tried their best to save innocent lives. The one thing I have in common with these people is that I can see when something is wrong and peer pressure doesn't affect my judgement.

Page created on 3/5/2014 12:00:00 AM

Last edited 3/5/2014 12:00:00 AM

The beliefs, viewpoints and opinions expressed in this hero submission on the website are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the beliefs, viewpoints and opinions of The MY HERO Project and its staff.