1945 Archives - HistorySensei

The Sodder Children: The Christmas Eve Fire and the Family That Never Stopped Searching

Raymond on September 12, 2026

On Christmas Eve 1945 a fire took the Sodder family home in West Virginia in less than an hour. Five of the children were never seen again, and not a single bone was ever found in the ashes. Their parents spent the rest of their lives certain the children had been carried off alive.

The Battle of Castle Itter: The Day American GIs and German Soldiers Fought the SS Side by Side

Raymond on August 12, 2026

In the final week of World War II, a handful of American GIs, a band of anti-Nazi German soldiers, and a castle full of France’s imprisoned elite made a stand together against the Waffen-SS. It is remembered as the strangest battle of the war — and the only time Americans and Germans are known to have fought as allies.