fact
BMW used prisoners from concentration camps like Dachau to build their cars and plane engines during the second world war. By the end of the war, almost 50% of the 50,000-person workforce at BMW consisted of prisoners from concentration camps. 00
In 1944 Dutch Resistance members dressed as German SD (intelligence agents) went into Leeuwarden prison, and walked out with 39 prisoners, and all vanished into the city. No shots were fired, and the Germans never caught anyone. 00
Prisoners in the female-only concentration camp Ravensbruck purposefully sewed socks with thin heels and toes so German soldier’s feet would get sore. 00
HMS Thetis has the rare and unwanted honor of a submarine to have twice sunk and killed her crew. She sank during trials in 1939, drowning 99 men, before being raised and renamed. Sunk again during battle in 1943, her entire second crew was also lost. 00
When the D-Day forces landed, Hitler was asleep. None of his generals dared send re-enforcements without his permission, and no-one dared wake him. 00
The US considered dyeing Mt. Fuji black in WWII as psychological warfare against the Japanese. 00
Canada was so nice to their POW’s during World War 2 that almost 20% of them requested to stay after the war. 00
A German U-boat mysteriously disappeared in 1945 and the sole survivor of its crew, who missed the voyage due to illness, found out about the fate of his shipmates in 1999 by watching a NOVA episode about the submarine. 00
Two German soldiers were trapped in an underground food and supply warehouse for 6 years after retreating troops dynamited the entrance. Polish workers removing rubble discovered them in 1951. 10