European Heroes

[Aunt Hilda]

Irena Sendler (15 February 1910 – 12 May 2008) was a Polish Roman Catholic nurse/social worker who served in the Polish Underground during World War II, and as head of children's section of Żegota, an underground resistance organization in German-occupied Warsaw. Assisted by some two dozen other Żegota members, Sendler smuggled some 2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto and then provided them with false identity documents and with housing outside the Ghetto, saving those children during the Holocaust.

The Nazis eventually discovered her activities, tortured her, and sentenced her to death, but she managed to evade execution and survive the war. In 1965, Sendler was recognized by the State of Israel as a Righteous among the Nations. Late in life she was awarded Poland's highest honor for her wartime humanitarian efforts. She appears on a silver 2009 Polish commemorative coin honoring some of the Polish Righteous among the Nations.

[Mans not hot]

During World War II, he volunteered for a Polish resistance operation to get imprisoned at Auschwitz in order to gather intelligence and escape. While in the camp, Pilecki organized a resistance movement and as early as 1941, informed the Western Allies of Nazi Germany's Auschwitz atrocities. He escaped from the camp in 1943 after nearly 3 years of imprisonment. Pilecki took part in the Warsaw Uprising in August 1944.[1] He remained loyal to the London-based Polish government-in-exile and was executed in 1948 by the Stalinist secret police Urząd Bezpieczeństwa on charges of working for "foreign imperialism", thought to be a euphemism for MI6.[2] Until 1989, information on his exploits and fate was suppressed by the Polish communist regime.[2][3]
As a result of his deeds, he is considered as "one of the greatest wartime heroes".[1][4][5] In the foreword to the book The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery[6] Michael Schudrich, the Chief Rabbi of Poland, wrote as follows: "When God created the human being, God had in mind that we should all be like Captain Witold Pilecki, of blessed memory."[7] In the introduction to that book Norman Davies, a British historian, wrote: "If there was an Allied hero who deserved to be remembered and celebrated, this was a person with few peers".[7] At the commemoration event of International Holocaust Remembrance Day held in the US Holocaust Memorial Museum on 27 January 2013 Ryszard Schnepf, the Polish Ambassador to the US, described Pilecki as a "diamond among Poland’s heroes" and "the highest example of Polish patriotism".[5][8]

[Shkembe Chorba]

Hristo Stoichkov Stoichkov (Bulgarian: Христо Стоичков Стоичков), sometimes Stoitchkov; born 8 February 1966 in Plovdiv) is a retired Bulgarian footballer. He is regarded as one of the best footballers of his generation[1] and the greatest Bulgarian footballer of all time.[2][3] Nicknamed The Dagger (Камата), The Dog (Кучето), The Modern Left (Модерния ляв). At Barcelona he earned the Spanish nickname 'El Pistolero' which translates to 'the gunslinger'. He was a member of the Bulgaria national team that finished fourth at the 1994 World Cup, of which he was the top scorer with 6 goals. Apart from his footballing talent, he was notable for his on-pitch temper. His awards include the European Golden Boot, the Ballon d'Or, the World Cup Golden Boot and the World Cup Bronze Ball.

[Aunt Hilda]

Ona Šimaitė (1894 – 1970) of Lithuania, a librarian at Vilnius University, used her position to aid and rescue Jews in the Vilna Ghetto.

Entering the ghetto under the pretext of recovering library books from Jewish university students, she smuggled in food and small arms (helped by Kazys Boruta, amongst others) and other provisions and smuggled out literary and historical documents, and also served as a mail carrier for the ghetto inhabitants, connecting them with the outer world. She also found people who would forge documents for Jews, and smuggled Jewish children out of the ghetto to families she found who agreed to hide them.

In 1944, the Nazis arrested and tortured Šimaitė. She was then deported to the Dachau concentration camp and later transferred to a concentration camp in the South of France. She remained in France following her liberation.

[Aunt Hilda]

Ryszard Jerzy Kukliński (June 13, 1930 – February 11, 2004) was a Polish colonel and Cold War spy for NATO. He passed top secret Warsaw Pact documents to the CIA between 1971 and 1981. The former United States National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzeziński has described him as "the first Polish officer in NATO."

[Aunt Hilda]

Lech Wałęsa (born 29 September 1943) is a Polish politician, trade-union organizer, and human-rights activist. A charismatic leader, he co-founded Solidarity (Solidarność), the Soviet bloc's first independent trade union, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, and served as President of Poland between 1990 and 1995.

[101DT]

Sir Alexander Fleming, FRSE, FRS, FRCS(Eng) (6 August 1881 – 11 March 1955) was a Scottish biologist, pharmacologist and botanist. He wrote many articles on bacteriology, immunology, and chemotherapy. His best-known discoveries are the enzyme lysozyme in 1923 and the antibiotic substance penicillin from the mould Penicillium notatum in 1928, for which he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945 with Howard Florey and Ernst Boris Chain.

[Rudel]

Otto Von Bismarck, one of the greatest Balance of Power politicians in Western History.

Balanced power so hard that he indirectly provoked WWI.

Charles Martel
Don't know if it has been posted before

The war against the Saracen raiders is anecdotal. The great role of Charles has been the pacification of our kingdom after the Merovingian power collapsed on itself.
Pushing the Muslims back was first and foremost a way of bring Aquitaine (and partially Provence) back into the Frankish fold, as Eudes (who called Charles to help him) had been conspiring against the Franks, and was the one who brought the Muslims our side of the Pyrenees.

Thanks to Charles, peace and authority was brought back and it gave way to the Carolingian dynasty (latter known to civilize such barbarian nations as the Germans, the Spaniards of the Italians).

great mention.

Roland tends to be overlooked nowadays, unfortunately.

Well, he remains known in France because the song of Roland and the overall Matter of France (Medieval literature, mostly in French, revolving around the exploits of Charlemagne and his courts ; although that can include the wider range of French chivalry epics) is of tremendous importance within the national culture, but it hasn't had the international popular resurrection of the Matter of Britain (or Brittany, depends on the translation) during modern times (that's the adventures of the knights of the Round Table, for those who wouldn't know). Not even talking about the Matter of Rome, which has been completely forgotten after the birth of Classic studies and Humanism.

[tiffin]

Isambard Kingdom Brunel, FRS (/ˈɪzəmbɑrd bruːˈnɛl/; 9 April 1806 – 15 September 1859), was an English mechanical and civil engineer who built dockyards, the Great Western Railway, a series of steamships including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship and numerous important bridges and tunnels. His designs revolutionised public transport and modern engineering.

Some of his masterpieces:

Paddington Station


SS Great Western


Great Britain


Royal Albert Bridge

[Rudel]

Eight hundred years ago, day for day, was born Louis IX of France, later known as Saint Louis. King of France, Shield of Christendom, Supreme Legislator.