falasta

Here's the story my new hero: Witold Pilecki, a key member of the Polish military underground resistance during WWII. He voluntarily decided to infiltrated Auschwitz and became the key source of information about the atrocities occurring their during the War. Here's some information on him:

Cracked.com article

Wikipedia

Also, do you know the story behind Dr. Livingston? (I didn't, until recently). He originally went to Africa as a medical missionary, but was born in abject poverty in industrial Scotland--while working as a piecer in a cotton mill (a horrifically backbreaking and extremely dangerous job) as a *child* (and I mean that literally) ten hours a day, he taught himself how to read and write at home and got into medical school. All his time in Africa was devoted to finding ways to end the Slave Trade--he though if he could find a water route to the ocean, colonization would bring economic stability, eliminating the dependence on selling slaves. What Stanley (of "Dr. Livingston, I presume" fame) brought back with him was Livingston's treatise on the horrors of slavery. It eventually became instrumental in stopping the export of slaves out of the African continent (by that time most were going East, toward Indonesia, etc.).