The Jew who taught Hitler public speaking

Erik Jan Hanussen (1889-1933), whose real name Hermann Steinschneider, was an Austrian Jewish performer and entertainer who reached some fame with his many acts as a mentalist, hypnotist and occultist. In the 1920s, he became sympathetic with the SA (a paramilitary wing of the Nazi party) despite his own Jewish background.

The war hero who looked like a pirate

Adrian Carton de Wiart (1880-1963) was a Belgian-born military officer who served for the British in the Boer War, the First World War and the Second World war. Known for his extremely filthy language and ability to lead from the front, he was wounded so many times that he kept his own pyjamas in the hospital.

The African kid in Nazi Germany

Hans Massaquoi (1926-2013) was the son of a Liberian diplomat and a German nurse. He grew up with his German mother and in 1933, when Hans was 7, the extremely racist Nazi party assumed power.

The smart special forces lady

Odette Sansom Hallowes (1912–1995) was a French woman who married an Englishman in 1931 and moved to England. When World War 2 broke out, she followed a public request by the Admirality to take pictures of the French coast. Her pictures must have impressed someone as she was quickly hired by the British army.