War Survival Stories

A young paramedic at a music festival calls his mother to say he's coming home, but a sudden assault forces him to make a life-altering choice. The call that told his mother he was coming home This episode explores the story of Bar Kupershtein, a twenty-one-year-old paramedic and security guard at the Supernova music festival, and the profound decisions he made during a sudden assault. It delves into his family's history and the moments leading up to his disappearance. Person: Bar Kupershtein Date: October 6-7, 2023 Location: Supernova music festival, Negev desert Event: Hamas assault Family: Kupershtein - Bar Kupershtein was twenty-one years old, working security and as a paramedic at the Supernova music festival near Kibbutz Re'im. - He was the eldest of five children and the primary support for his family, as his father, Tal, was wheelchair-bound after a stroke. - Bar was a volunteer paramedic with Yedidim and a combat soldier in the IDF's Nahal Brigade. - In the predawn hours of October 7, Bar called his mother, Julie, to say he was packing up and coming home. - After the Hamas assault began, Bar made the decision to repeatedly go back under fire to save more people.

An American citizen is forced into a horse stall at Tanforan Racetrack, then an internment camp, until an acceptance letter offers a way out. The acceptance letter that let her leave Topaz and made a life possible This episode explores the life of Yoshiko Uchida, from her forced relocation during World War II to her prolific career as an author and artist. It examines how a single opportunity shaped her path and allowed her to build a lasting legacy. Person: Yoshiko Uchida Date: November 24, 1921 Location: Alameda, California Event: Japanese American internment Order: Executive Order 9066 - Yoshiko Uchida was born in Alameda, California, to Japanese immigrant parents who were both university graduates. - She was a student at UC Berkeley when the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor led to her father's questioning and the issuance of Executive Order 9066. - The Uchida family was ordered to the Tanforan Racetrack, a converted horse racing facility, and housed in a horse stall. - They were later moved to the Topaz War Relocation Center in Utah, where Yoshiko taught school inside the camp. - In 1943, an acceptance letter to a graduate program at Smith College provided Yoshiko with an exit pass from Topaz, while her family remained.

A baby born in a federal internment camp in the Arizona desert grows up to work in the White House. This is the story of Executive Order 9066. Executive Order 9066 opened the White House for a baby This episode explores the life of a woman born in a federal internment camp during World War II, tracing her journey from confinement to a career within the US government. It raises the question of how such a beginning shapes a life. Person: Doris Kazue Okada Matsui Date: September 25, 1944 Location: Poston, Arizona Order: Executive Order 9066 President: Franklin D. Roosevelt - On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the removal of anyone deemed a military threat from designated zones. - This order led to the removal of approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans, over 60% of whom were American citizens by birth. - Ten camps were built across seven states, with Poston in western Arizona becoming the largest, housing over 17,000 Japanese Americans. - Doris Kazue Okada was born in the Poston internment camp and spent her first 61 days there before her family's release. - She later married Robert Takeo Matsui, who also had a history with the camps, and she eventually volunteered for a presidential campaign in 1992.

A five-year-old boy is given a small bronze horse by his mother in a camp. Can this token of continuity become his reason to survive? A bronze horse gave a boy a reason to survive This episode tells the story of Aarnout Alexander Loudon, a Dutch boy interned during World War II, who later became a powerful figure in European industry. It explores how a simple object and a mother's determination shaped a life defined by resilience and the pursuit of influence. Person: Aarnout Alexander Loudon Date: 1942 Location: Dutch East Indies Event: Japanese internment camps Object: Bronze horse - Aarnout Loudon was five years old when he was interned in a Japanese camp near Batavia in 1942. - His mother, Henriëtte, gave him a small bronze horse with the instruction to carry it, a symbol of continuity and a connection to his absent father. - Aarnout's father, Hugo Loudon, was separated from his family and later died at sea when the Jun'yō Maru, a Japanese transport ship carrying prisoners, was sunk by an Allied torpedo. - After the war, Aarnout returned to the Netherlands, completed a law degree, and served in the horse artillery, a branch of the military named after the animal his mother gave him. - Aarnout Loudon went on to become a significant figure in European industry, building institutions and sitting on boards of major financial and industrial bodies.

A British baronet exchanges wedding vows in Berlin with Hitler as a witness, while in London, thousands fight to stop his uniformed movement. How did this political figure cross a line that could not be walked back? The crash that left a limp changed his life forever This episode explores the early life and political rise of Oswald Mosley, a man of extraordinary ability whose choices led to a state suspending its own rules. It delves into the documented account of how this promising political talent navigated crucial forks in his path. Person: Oswald Mosley Date: October 6, 1936 Location: Berlin, London Status: Member of Parliament Event: Wedding in Berlin - Oswald Mosley, a British baronet, married in Joseph Goebbels' Berlin home with Adolf Hitler present. - On the same afternoon, thousands in London protested Mosley's uniformed movement marching through a Jewish neighborhood. - Mosley was once the youngest Member of Parliament and was described as "dark, aquiline, flashing, with defiance in his eye and contempt in his forward chin." - He was expelled from Sandhurst for riotous retaliation before being commissioned into the Sixteenth Queen's Lancers. - A flying demonstration for his mother and sister resulted in a crash, leaving him with a permanent limp.

A civilian fluent in French and German is recruited by the SOE to establish a resistance network in occupied France during WWII. His survival hinges on his ability to evade capture. A hacksaw blade frees a prisoner This episode details the early life and wartime experiences of Frank Pickersgill, a Canadian intellectual who became a secret agent. It explores the choices he made that led him into one of the most dangerous intelligence operations of World War II. Person: Frank Pickersgill Date: August 8, 1944 Location: Paris, France Organization: Special Operations Executive (SOE) Mission: Establish the Archdeacon resistance network - Frank Pickersgill, a classics graduate from Winnipeg, cycled across Europe in 1934, documenting his observations in letters home. - In 1938, he returned to Europe as a freelance journalist, meeting Jean-Paul Sartre in Paris and planning to translate his work. - After Germany invaded Poland in 1939, Pickersgill, a British subject in occupied France, was interned at Stalag 220, a civilian camp. - He escaped Stalag 220 by sawing through a window bar with a hacksaw blade smuggled in a loaf of bread. - In London, he turned down a desk job with the Canadian Army to join the Canadian Army Corps, subsequently recruited by the British SOE.

A Soviet aircraft designer builds a vertical take-off jet for the military - but who is he, really? The Red Baron: A Name, A Lie, A War This episode explores the enigmatic life of Robert Bartini, a brilliant Soviet aircraft designer whose origins remain shrouded in conflicting accounts. It delves into the various versions of his early life, from his birth city to his parentage, and how these shifting identities shaped his journey. Person: Robert Bartini Date: 1968 Location: Soviet Black Sea coast Topic: Soviet aircraft design - In 1968, a 71-year-old man began building a machine that violated engineering consensus, designed to take off vertically from open water and hunt American nuclear submarines. - Robert Bartini, the designer, spent ten years as a prisoner of the same state that later tasked him with this advanced project. - Bartini's epitaph in Moscow states he kept his oath to ensure "red planes flew faster than black ones." - His birthplace, Fiume in 1897, was a port in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, now known as Rijeka on the Croatian coast. - Bartini's parentage is contested, with accounts naming a nobleman, Baron Ludovico Orosdy, or his brother Philippe, as his biological father, and his mother drowning after his birth.

A Soviet bureaucrat's quiet notation in a file condemns a peasant priest to the Gulag, marking him as beyond mercy for his forbidden faith. The Notation That Sealed His Fate: Amnesty Was Refused This episode tells the story of Potapy Emelianov, a peasant priest whose journey to a forbidden faith led to his imprisonment in the Gulag. It explores the bureaucratic decision that sealed his fate and the circumstances that made him a target. Person: Potapy Emelianov Date: March 24, 1928 Location: Soviet Karelia Status: Imprisoned Case: Counterrevolutionary activity - Potapy Emelianov, born around 1889, came from a family of Old Believers, a community separate from the Russian Orthodox Church. - He was tonsured as a monk and given the name Potapy after being received into the Russian Orthodox Church around 1901. - Potapy encountered a library before 1918 and began reading Church Fathers, leading him to a theology of papal primacy. - On June 29, 1918, he formally professed his faith and became a Greek Catholic priest in communion with Rome. - By January 1927, he was the last remaining free priest of the Russian Greek Catholic Church in the Soviet Karelia before his arrest.

Born to Guyanese immigrants in working-class London, a young man joins the Conservative Party. His political journey takes an unexpected turn when a vacant seat in the European Parliament becomes available. A vacant seat moved Kamall into the European Parliament This episode explores the complex journey of Syed Kamall, from his family's origins as indentured laborers to his unexpected entry into the European Parliament. It delves into the forces that shaped his political philosophy and career. Person: Syed Kamall Date of birth: February 15, 1967 Place of birth: Hornsey Political party: Conservative Party Education: University of Liverpool, London School of Economics, City University London - Syed Kamall's family history traces back to indentured laborers from India transported to British Guiana in the 19th century. - His father migrated from Georgetown to London in the 1950s, settling in the working-class borough of Edmonton. - Kamall joined the Conservative Party at age twenty in 1987, despite not fitting the typical demographic for the party in his background. - He pursued parallel careers in academia, publishing a book on EU telecommunications policy, and local Conservative politics throughout the 1990s. - After multiple electoral losses, Kamall secured a seat in the European Parliament in 2005 when Theresa Villiers vacated her position to join the House of Commons.

A 12-year-old told school staff “to use it” about a knife; years later he entered a children's Taylor Swift workshop. How did that note shape every decision? The intake meeting note that said "to use it" let him walk In this episode, we follow the sequence of recorded moments and institutional choices that followed a boy from school hallways to Hart Street, tracing how words in files shaped responses over five years. What chain of decisions allowed those warnings to accumulate without stopping him? Date: 29 July 2024 Location: Hart Street, Meols Cop, Southport, Merseyside Person: Axel Muganwa Rudakubana Age at intake quote: 12 Diagnosis: Autism spectrum disorder (February 2021) - At a specialist school admission meeting in October 2019, a twelve‑year‑old told staff he brought a knife “to use it,” and the statement was recorded. - After bringing a knife to school approximately ten times and being expelled from Range High, he began at The Acorns School but was enrolled despite the admission note. - In December 2019 he returned to Range High with a hockey stick marked with names, assaulted a pupil, and was found with a knife; he pleaded guilty in February 2020. - The Acorns School excluded him after the conviction and switched to sending work home, leaving him without regular education or supervision. - In February 2021 he was diagnosed with autism; that diagnosis changed how institutions described risk and influenced subsequent referrals, including multiple Prevent referrals.