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Horst Willner was a German U-boat commander. Between January and May 1945 he took part in a large naval evacuation operation bringing his family and a large number of civilians to safety with his U-boat.

Horst Willner was born in Dresden in 1919. He joined the Kriegsmarine (German Navy) in 1938 and commanded U-boats throughout the Second World War. In October 1944, he was given command of U-3505, a Type XXI submarine which was one of the most modern weapons of the German fleet.

In January 1945, the Red Army launched a large scale offensive aimed at East-Prussia. This resulted in a great wave of refugees among which were Willner’s wife, Ursula Menhardt, and their newborn daughter Barbara. Ursula and her daughter went to Gdansk where they boarded the Wilhelm Gustloff which was being used to evacuate the area. Just before the ship departed Willner picked up his family with the U-3505. By doing so, he saved his family’s life, as the Wilhelm Gustloff was attacked and sunk by a Soviet submarine, leaving only a few hundred survivors.

Willner’s decision to evacuate his family, as well as four female friends of his crew, was a clear violation of  ordersas civilians were forbidden aboard German submarines. The stowaways thus had to be brought on board in secret. Ursula and the other women dressed up as sailors, while the baby was hidden in a pillow inside a duffel bag. U-3505 departed Gdansk in March 1945 and headed towards Hela. Here Willner picked up around 50 boys from the Hitler Youth, between the age of 12 and 16. All passengers and crew eventually safely reached Travemünde.

Willner was ordered to bring the U-3505 to Kiel to await further orders. Here the U-boat was destroyed in an American air raid in April 1945. Willner survived this attack. After the war was over he worked for a German shipping company. He died in 1999 in Bremen.

Slávka Altmanová was born on 8 August 1923 in Volhynia. She witnessed the Soviet invasion in 1939 as well as the German invasion in 1941. In 1944, she joined the Czechoslovak 1^st Army Corps as a radio operator and signaller and fought against Nazi Germany alongside the Red Army.

Slávka Altmanová (née Ficková), was born on 8 August 1923 in the village of Semiduby in Polish Volhynia, (now Ukraine). Her native village was one of many traditionally Czech settlements in this region.

Slávka witnessed the terrible events of the Second World War. In 1939 Eastern Poland was invaded by the Soviet Union. Slávka’s family was temporarily displaced and several of her neighbours were deported to Siberia. In 1941, she witnessed the German invasion of Volhynia which was followed by the destruction of several villages and the annihilation of the Jewish population.

In 1944 the tide of the war had turned. The German invasion of the Soviet Union had failed and the Red Army once again entered Poland. When it reached Volhynia, Slávka joined the Czechoslovak 1^st Army Corps as a radio operator and signaller. Unlike in the armies of the Western Allies, women were allowed to serve in frontline units in the Red Army and Slávka fought in several major battles including the crucial Carpatho-Dukla operation on the Polish-Slovak border. She faced danger many times and saw many of her friends die, but she herself remained unscathed and participated in the triumphant arrival of the Army Corps in Prague.

After the war, Slávka settled down in Czechoslovakia. She was given a house that had belonged to the local German population, which had now been expelled. She started working as a dental nurse and after marrying in 1952, she moved to Pilsen, where she lives to this day. Because of her war experience, she had to fight both physical and mental health problems.

Richard Smola was born in Pilsen on the 3 June 1930. He witnessed the bombing of the city and its liberation by U.S. forces during the final stages of the Second World War. After the war he and his family faced persecution by the communist government.

Richard Smola witnessed the heavy bombings of Pilsen in the last years of the Second World War and was present when American soldiers liberated the city on 6 May 1945. Although Pilsen was liberated by American forces it would fall under communist rule along with the rest of the country after a communist coup.

Richard and many others remained thankful to the American soldiers who liberated their city. In 1948, he was part of a group of boy scouts and other citizens who tried to lay a wreath and flowers on the anniversary of the liberation in 1948. As this took place after the Communist party had come to power in February 1948, they were disrupted by the secret police. As an ardent amateur photographer, Richard made unique pictures of these events.

With the communist party in power, Richard and his family became targets of state persecution. His father was arrested on false charges and sentenced to a year of prison. Richard’s family was forced to temporarily move out of Pilsen under state organised Operation B – Bourgeoisie. During this action ‘politically unreliable persons’ were forced to leave larger cities and live in smaller towns in the countryside.

Richard studied mechanics in Pilsen, but his studies were interrupted by compulsory military service at the Auxiliary Engineering Corps. These were in fact forced labour units in which he had to serve between 1951 and 1954. After his release, he completed his university studies and worked for the Škoda Works.

Brigadier Miroslav Štandera was a Czech fighter pilot who fled Czechoslovakia after Nazi Germany occupied the country in 1939. He flew combat missions for the French Air Force and the Royal Air Force. In 1949, following the persecution of ‘western’ combat pilots by the Communist government he fled Czechoslovakia again.

Brigadier Miroslav Štandera was born in Prague on 5October 1918. In 1936, he attended the military school of air force cadets and successfully joined the Czechoslovak Air Force. He was mobilised in 1938 when Nazi Germany annexed the Sudetenland but did not see any fighting.

After the demobilisation of the Czechoslovak army and the establishment of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia in March 1939, he fled across the border to Poland. Together with other soldiers he sailed across the Baltic Sea to France. He joined the French Foreign Legion and was sent to the German-French theatre of war in May 1940. During his fourth flight, Štandera was shot down near Troyes. He soon left the hospital, escaped to the port of Narbonne and managed to board a ship to Liverpool. After arriving in England, he served with the Czechoslovak 312^th Fighter Squadron of the Royal Air Force (RAF) until 1943, when he was transferred to the 68^th RAF Nocturnal Fighter Squadron. On 6 June 1944, he participated in the invasion of Normandy.

After the war, Štandera returned to Czechoslovakia and served mainly in Pilsen. However, as a ‘western’ combat pilot, he was soon dismissed from the army. In 1949, he learned about his impending arrest and again fled to England where he re-joined the RAF.

After the fall of the Iron Curtain, Štandera permanently returned to Pilsen in 1994. He died on 19 February 2014 at the age of 95. He is the holder of numerous honours and decorations, including the Order of Merit and the Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk.

Miluše Axamitová was born in 1929 near the city of Pilsen. She lived through the German occupation and witnessed Allied air raids during the last years of the war. Pilsen was liberated by Allied forces but later fell under Soviet control which brought new oppression for Miluše and her husband.

Miluše Axamitová (née Hesová), was born in the village Zemětice in the Pilsen region in 1929. During the last years of the Second World War, she studied at the Teacher institute in Pilsen. Here she witnessed several Allied air-raids conducted on the town and its military factories. One of these raids took place shortly before Christmas 1944 and destroyed not only the Škoda factory and local Gestapo seat, but also many public buildings. The air raid also cost many lives. In the shelter of the health insurance company, where Miluše stayed, a provisional hospital to treat the wounded was established.

After the war, she taught at several grammar schools in Western Bohemia. In 1949, while teaching in Kdyně, she met Antonín Axamit. The couple fell in love and started making preparations for their wedding. It was at this point that Antonín was sentenced to fifteen years’ imprisonment for alleged treason, because he helped three college students escape across the border. Miluše waited ten years for him while he was being held in several infamous communist prison camps. In 1960, Antonín was released on amnesty and the couple got married.

Miluše continued to teach in the grammar school in Plzeň-Litice until her retirement in 1984. She has two daughters who were not permitted to study due to their father´s past and also because of their undisguised Christian faith. In 1989 after the Velvet Revolution, Czechoslovakia became an independent and free democracy. Antonín became a member of the Confederation of Political Prisoners. Due to his weak health he was often represented by his wife, who cooperates with the confederation until this day.

Michal Brummel was born on 27May 1933. His father came from a wealthy Jewish family, his mother was a Catholic from Austria. Michal lost several family members in the Holocaust but he survived because he was classified as ‘mixed-race’ by the Nuremberg laws instated by the Nazis.

Michal Brummel was born to a Jewish father and a Catholic mother on 27 May 1933. Because of this he was classified as being of ‘mixed race’ in accordance with the Nuremberg Laws. These racist laws implemented by the Nazi party stipulated which people were considered to be Jewish by the Nazis. Because of this Michal was not allowed to attend school, but he escaped the deportations that many of his family members fell victim to. Michal stayed in Pilsen throughout the war and witnessed the bombing of the city as well as its liberation by American forces.

The story of Michal and the broader story of the Second World War in Pilsen can be exemplified by the house of Michals uncle Jan Brummel which was built by the famous modernist architect Adolf Loos. Jan and his wife were Jewish and were deported to Nazi concentration camps during the war. Their house was ‘’Aryanised’’ which meant it was given to non-Jewish citizens.

After the war, both Jan and his wife miraculously returned to Pilsen having survived the concentration camps and death marches. The house in Husova street returned to its owners. In 1962, the communist government confiscated the house but Michal’s aunt and mother were allowed to live there until the 1980s. Michal himself lived in the house from 1945 to 1964.

After the fall of the communist regime the house was given back to Michal. He began a long and complicated renovation process to bring the house back to its original state. After the renovation had been completed, Michal opened the house to the general public in 2015.

William McBurney fought in the Battle of the Bulge as a member of the U.S. 761^st Tank Battalion. As an African-American soldier, he endured racism and discrimination throughout his military training and career. William fought for the liberation of the European people from Nazism, but also for the liberation of the African-American people from racial injustice on the home front.

William McBurney was born in New York and voluntarily enlisted in the American Army in 1942 at the age of eighteen. He later testified that he was neither afraid nor excited to go to war but felt it was what he was supposed to do.

Initially, William wanted to be a pilot. His father warned him that “a black man would never fly an airplane,” but William did not believe him and volunteered to go into service to be a pilot anyway. He was not accepted as a pilot and was eventually assigned to the 761^st Tank Battalion. One of William’s experiences with segregation in the army was when captured German soldiers were allowed to eat in the same cafeteria as the white U.S. soldiers. In contrast, black U.S. soldiers had to go to another location to eat.

The 761^st battalion – also known as ‘The Black Panthers’ – fought side-by-side with Patton’s 3^rd Army in the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944. While the unit contributed to the defeat of Nazi Germany, William later declared that according to him and his companions, they achieved something even more critical: they demonstrated that they were just as good as white men. Many of the white infantry soldiers they had fought alongside with, eventually learned to treat them as they would any other soldier. Through their accomplishments on the battlefield, the 761^st Tank Battalion changed the opinion of at least some of their white countrymen.

Warren Gamaliel Harding Crecy joined the U.S. Army when he was 19 years old. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge as a member of the 761^st Tank Battalion, nicknamed ‘The Black Panthers’ after their distinctive logo.

The U.S. 761^st Tank Battalion was a segregated unit consisting of African American soldiers and black and white officers. Fighting against Nazi-Germany – an enemy known for its racist believes – the members of the 761^st themselves experienced racism and discrimination throughout their military service.

In September 1944, the 761^st Tank Battalion was deployed to Europe and assigned to the U.S. Third Army under General George Patton’s command. The unit fought in Northern France in October 1944, and in the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944. It spent the final months of the war on German soil.

Warren Crecy was known as ‘Iron Man’ and ‘the baddest man in the 761^st’. He was given these nicknames for his bravery in combat and the fact that he inflicted more casualties among the enemy than anyone else in the battalion. After the war ended, Crecy remained in Germany and was assigned several tasks, including prison officer during the Nuremberg Trials. In 1952 he served in the Korean War for three months until he was badly wounded. Crecy never fully recovered from these wounds, and they meant the end of his military career. He was granted a medical retirement at the rank of major and received the Army Commendation Medal along with a citation for meritorious service. He also received the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart with three Oak Leaf Clusters. Crecy died in 1976 at the age of 53 and was buried with full military honors. In his hometown, a street was named after him at the Naval Air Station.

Suzanne Grégoire was an ardent communist activist. She dedicated her life to women’s rights and female activism. During the Nazi occupation of Belgium, Suzanne inspired thousands of women who felt encouraged by her words to join the resistance against the Nazis.

Suzanne Grégoire was born in Geraardsbergen into a working-class environment. Both her parents were communist militants, and from a young age, Suzanne started reading communist literature and joined her parents at party meetings.

When Suzanne was in her twenties, she became a full-time militant for the Communist Party. As a Belgian woman, she did not possess the right to vote. Nevertheless, Suzanne occupied several positions of high political responsibility. She became a city councilor in her hometown, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, and leader of the Party’s national women’s movement. Her political experience, broad network, and ideological conviction would serve her well in her resistance work during the Second World War.

During the Nazi occupation of Belgium, Suzanne published a clandestine paper to mobilize women for the resistance: La Voix des Femmes (The Voice of Women). In this paper, she called upon women to protest against the lack of food and to demand the release of their imprisoned husbands and sons. Suzanne was the driving force behind several illegal manifestations and strikes by women in 1941 and 1942. These protests undermined the authority of the Nazi occupier. For many participants, they were the first step towards other resistance activities.

In March 1943, Suzanne was arrested by the Gestapo and deported to the Ravensbrück concentration camp. She survived her captivity and, after returning to Belgium in the summer of 1945, she immediately resumed her responsibilities for the Communist Party. In 1946, she became one of the first women to be elected to the Belgian Parliament. Suzanne would remain a loyal communist militant for the rest of her life.