Born in Hungary in 1921, Hannah Szenes (Senesh) immigrated to Mandate Palestine in 1939 and joined the British Army as a paratrooper in 1943. She parachuted behind German lines and crossed into Nazi-occupied Hungary in June 1944 to aid partisan units. She was captured and tortured for several months and executed by firing squad on November 7, 1944 at the age of 23.
The longest-serving president in U.S. history whose term (1933–1945) included World War II. During his presidency, Roosevelt, also known as FDR, faced unprecedented crises, including the Great Depression, the rise of fascism and World War II. The U.S. entered World War II only after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Roosevelt was re-elected three times and died during his fourth term, shortly before the end of World War II.
Hitler’s mistress from at least 1935. Braun and Hitler married on April 29, 1945, one day before they committed suicide in a bunker in Berlin as the Soviet army closed in on the city.
Before serving as 34th president of the United States (1953-1961), Dwight Eisenhower commanded U.S. troops in the U.K., Allied troops in North Africa, and led the Allied invasion of continental Europe at Normandy during World War II.
Italian nationalist and founder of Italian Fascism, Mussolini became prime minister of Italy in 1922 and, following a successful coup in 1925, ruled the state as a fascist dictator until 1943. He officially allied Italy with Hitler's Germany in 1939, forming the Axis. Under Mussolini, Italy adopted policies that persecuted Italian Jews, but generally did not cooperate with the mass murder or the deportation of Jews from territories under Italian control. Mussolini was removed from power and arrested in 1943, having lost the confidence of his party as the Italian military position in the war weakened. He was assassinated by Italian partisans in 1945.