There are plenty of ways to get information, but the most unpleasant method is torture. As you inflict pain on your victims, you force them to confess their carefully guarded secrets. It’s not the most honorable tactic, hinging solely on human suffering. That’s why most storytellers reserve it for villains or unsympathetic figures.

Certain works buck that trend by letting heroes partake in the torture. Writers typically use this tactic to paint the person as a darker protagonist than audiences are accustomed to. Along the same lines, they might want to show their characters’ degrading morals; constant misfortune pushes them to increasingly desperate means to get what they want. Whatever the circumstances, it’s always shocking to see the hero—someone you’re meant to root for—resort to such reprehensible acts.

Related: 10 Movie Warning Signs of a Psychological Breakdown

10 Batman

Several superheroes use brutal methods against crooks, but the most notorious is Batman. The Dark Knight relies on fear. If he can instill that fear in criminals, then they’re ready and willing to give up their fellow ne’er-do-wells. His gothic image and effective reputation are usually enough to get the job done, but braver souls sometimes need a little push.

The Caped Crusader employs all sorts of torture methods. He could dangle victims off rooftops, break their bones, or back up the Batmobile on their heads. The irony is that he holds an ironclad code not to kill, but you’d be surprised what you can live through. Batman’s expert knowledge of human anatomy lets him push these guys just far enough to get what he wants without causing any fatal damage. Such precision is what makes him so frightening, especially to superstitious and cowardly dregs.^[1]

9 Bryan Mills

Taken is the ultimate nightmare for parents, so it calls for an equally nightmarish hero. Bryan Mills is a retired CIA agent who now wants to be there for his daughter. When she falls victim to sex traffickers, he cuts a bloody path across Paris to find her. His dogged detective skills and combat experience make him a one-man fighting force, and he only gets scarier as he approaches his quarry.

When time is of the essence, Bryan makes people pay for wasting his. He finally catches up to the people who took his daughter, but determining her buyer means keeping their leader alive. Stabbing him with spikes and attaching them to jumper cables, Mills fashions a makeshift electroshock treatment. This vengeance doesn’t stop at strangers, though. After discovering his friend’s corruption, he shoots the guy’s wife and threatens to execute her unless he gets some info. Bryan doesn’t distinguish between targets. Like any good parent, he does whatever it takes to save his kid.^[2]

8 Joel Miller

Everyone makes compromises in a zombie dystopia. Joel Miller knows that better than most. In The Last of Us, this blue-collar guy eeks out an existence through dirty deals. Hurting people is on the table most days, as the alternative means being trampled or killed by other desperate survivors. Even by that low standard, though, he reaches a new level of depravity.

After a cannibalistic clan takes his surrogate daughter, Joel captures two members to learn her location. He begins with a brutal beating before moving on to knives. Stabbing his victim in the leg, he threatens to pop out the kneecap. The guy then has to mark the location on a map with the bloody blade. It’s amazing how far Joel goes when he has something to lose.^[3]

7 Jack Reacher

Jack Reacher is an imposing individual on any day. His immense size comes second only to his prowess as a soldier. His militaristic upbringing grants him unparalleled efficacy in melee combat, firearms, and conspiracies. He’s more than a match for any thugs who come his way, making mincemeat of foes in a straight-up fight. However, he’s arguably more intimidating when his enemies can’t fight back.

Reacher is great at causing pain. His extensive expertise on the human body tells him exactly which buttons to push. This knowledge results in torture scenes involving the most unexpected instruments. A particularly twisted example emerges when he pumps air into a catheter, threatening to burst the bladder of a hospitalized villain. You don’t expect such an unorthodox strategy, but that’s what happens when mixing killer know-how with a lack of patience.^[4]

6 Harry Callahan

Police officers combat criminals, but they can only go so far. Inspector Harry Callahan, aka “Dirty Harry,” brazenly defies those limits with his own brand of justice. He regularly kills and brutalizes crooks with little regard for ethics or procedure. He does whatever he feels is necessary to get the job done.

Viewers learn the extent of those measures when a serial killer—nicknamed “Scorpio”—begins plaguing the city. Harry relentlessly pursues the psycho, but botched police procedures result in more bodies piling up. Upon finally catching up to Scorpio, the furious detective shoots him in the leg and steps on the wound. He does this to learn the location of the killer’s next victim. The cruel twist is that said victim is already dead. Worse, the torture means that the information isn’t admissible in court. Of course, that doesn’t stop Harry from doing it again in subsequent films.^[5]

5 Anakin Skywalker

Star Wars fans mainly know Anakin Skywalker for turning to the Dark Side and becoming Darth Vader. However, he displays dark tendencies even as a Jedi. While he distinguishes himself through his combat prowess and Force affinity, he doesn’t always have the control to use these gifts responsibly. He lacks the emotional detachment instilled in Jedi at a young age, so he goes the extra mile to save others. That drive normally makes him a hero, but not to those who get in his way.

Anakin doesn’t hesitate to inflict pain and terror on his enemies. If prisoners have a critical piece of information, then he uses the Force to choke them into giving it up. This approach obviously goes against the Jedi’s code, but it’s usually more effective than their traditional methods, especially in wartime. That mindset of the end justifying the means is what leads Skywalker down the path to evil.^[6]

4 Furiosa

The post-apocalyptic wasteland of Mad Max robs countless people of their humanity. Furiosa is one such soul. Although she’s originally from an oasis, a roving band of marauders takes her prisoner. The leader, Dementus, then kills her mother before bartering the child off. Over the next several years, Furiosa quietly matures into a deadly road warrior. When she clashes with Dementus again, he takes her man and her arm in horrific fashion. Luckily, her cunning finally defeats the wannabe overlord.

After using other wasteland factions to wipe out his gang, Furiosa pursues Dementus through the desert. At first, she sadistically toys with him by slicing his canteen and haunting him from a distance. Eventually, though, she reveals herself before chaining him up and beating him to within an inch of his life. For the final bit of cruel irony, she uses an acorn from her oasis to plant a tree with him at the center, essentially making him into an emaciated human fertilizer while he’s still alive. “Purposeful savagery,” indeed.^[7]

3 Ragnar Lothbrok

The Norsemen may have been settlers and explorers, but they never lost their roots as warriors. Even the sharp-minded Ragnar Lothbrok falls back on those old instincts. While he spends most of the Vikings series charting a path forward for his people, his violent side comes out when people threaten his family. Such is the case with Jarl Borg. Seeking revenge for a past insult, he seizes Ragnar’s village and tries to kill his wife, children, and brother. His reign doesn’t last long, though.

Ragnar quickly captures Borg and resolves to kill him. It’s not a simple beheading, however. Instead, he subjects his prisoner to the Blood Eagle. This torturous ritual involves cutting his back open, hacking his ribs apart, and pulling his lungs out. If he suffers without screaming, then he can enter the Norse afterlife of Valhalla. That prospect is easier said than done, as the Blood Eagle is among the most excruciating executions ever devised. Suffice it to say Ragnar gets his revenge and then some.^[8]

2 Lisbeth Salander

As the eponymous Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Lisbeth Salander is already an intense individual. Her abusive upbringing makes her a cold and distant outcast. That misery comes to a head when her guardian sexually assaults her in a merciless manner. The scene is utterly traumatizing, but Lisbeth doesn’t stay down for long.

In her own way, the vengeful hacker makes the act more scarring for the perpetrator. Not only does Salander commit the same act on him with a metal instrument, but she also blackmails him with footage of the original encounter. She uses this leverage to secure her freedom and financial security. For the final insult, she tattoos a “Rapist Pig” label on his chest. Rather than simply kill her abuser, she squeezes him for all he’s worth. What an oddly pragmatic approach to torture.^[9]

1 Barbie

You’d never expect torture from a family franchise like Toy Story, least of all from a dainty toy like Barbie. That said, Toy Story 3 pushes her to desperate measures. She initially buys into the paradise of Sunnyside Day Care, thanks in part to the romantic salesmanship of one resident, Ken. Unfortunately, the place soon turns into a brutal prison, so the toys must work together in an elaborate escape.

Barbie’s role in this plan is to find out a key piece of info from Ken. After tricking him into modeling clothes for her, she ambushes him and ties him up with a paddleball. She then subjects him to the unspeakable torture…of watching her rip his vintage outfits. It may not harm him physically, but the mere sight is enough to hurt his soul. Maybe that’s the most brutal torture of all.^[10]

Roman civilization grew by destroying hundreds of others. In this process, many brave men and women challenged the almighty Roman army in the name of freedom, and even the Romans expressed their admiration for their deeds and courage. Today, many of these names are still considered a symbol of independence, determination, and national pride.

10 Pyrrhus Of Epirus

In 280 BC, as Rome was conquering Southern Italy, the Greek city of Taras (modern-day Taranto) called for the aid of Pyrrhus (c. 319–272 BC), a Greek commander and king of the city of Epirus in present-day Northwest Greece.

Pyrrhus answered Taras’s call and crossed the Adriatic with his army. His military talent defeated the Romans in two battles. In doing so, Pyrrhus paid a high price, exhausting his military resources.

By 275 BC, Pyrrhus understood that it was pointless to carry on the fight against an enemy with access to a seemingly inexhaustible supply of manpower. Pyrrhus returned home, Rome gained control of Southern Italy, and ever since, the expression “Pyrrhic victory” has been used to refer to a successful accomplishment earned at far too high a cost.

9 Hannibal

Polybius (Histories, 3.11) tells us that Hamilcar called his son, Hannibal (247–c. 183 BC), “by the hand and lead him to the altar, where he commanded Hannibal [ . . . ] to swear that he would never be a friend of the Romans.” Hamilcar was a Carthaginian commander who fought during the First Punic War. Although the Carthaginians lost that war, they were determined to rebuild their empire.

Hannibal led Carthage’s vengeance against Rome during the Second Punic War. From Carthago Nova (present-day Cartagena), he marched with his army, famous for having many war elephants, north to the Pyrenees and then crossed the Alps, sweeping everything in his path as he entered into Roman territory. Battle after battle, his legendary military campaign threatened the growing Roman republic, but his defeat at Zama (North Africa) in 202 BC by the Roman general Scipio Africanus brought Hannibal’s retaliation to an end.

Hannibal returned to Carthage. He went into exile in 195 BC and died around 183 BC. Ancient sources are contradictory about the time and circumstances of his death.

8 Mithridates VI

Mithridates VI (132–63 BC) ruled a small but wealthy realm on the Black Sea in present-day Turkey. His father was assassinated, and his own mother posed a threat to his life. He went into exile but returned as a grown man several years later. With the support of many tribes, he reclaimed the crown and murdered many members of his family, who had plotted against him.

Between roughly 115 BC and 95 BC, his kingdom tripled its size. Rome and Mithridates fought a “cold war,” confronting each other indirectly through diplomacy, propaganda, and political conspiracies. In 89 BC, the Roman consul Manius Aquillius went to war against Mithridates. The following year, Mithridates coordinated the murder of about 80,000 Roman men, women, and children in about a dozen Asian cities. The war lasted until 63 BC, when Mithridates lost both it and his life not by the sword, but by the betrayal of his own son, Pharnaces.

7 Jugurtha

As the illegitimate son of Masinissa, the king of Numidia (North Africa), Jugurtha (c. 160–104 BC) had to make his way into the throne. In 118 BC, he decapitated one of the heirs to the crown. The other heir, Adherbal, fled to Rome, where he asked the Senate for help.

Jugurtha played the Roman system by bribing everyone he could and buying as much time as he could. He captured the city of Cirta in 112 BC. In 109 BC, Rome sent an army led by Metellus, a fine commander who was also incorruptible and indifferent to Jugurtha’s gold. The Romans, with the aid of the king of Mauritania, finally defeated and captured Jugurtha after six years of war.

Plutarch (Life of Marius, 12) wrote that Jugurtha was pushed naked into the Tullianum, a pit-like dungeon that had formerly been a water cistern. Some versions say he was strangled; others say he died of starvation.

6 Spartacus

Spartacus (c. 111–71 BC) was a Roman slave of Thracian origin who escaped from a gladiator training camp in 73 BC. He took 78 other slaves with him and profited from the unhealthy inequalities of Roman society by recruiting thousands of other slaves and destitute country folk. Frontinus (Stratagems: 1.5.22) reported that Spartacus’s army would attach dead bodies to stakes outside their camp and equip them with weapons to give the impression that they were more numerous and better organized than they were.

Spartacus’s revolt lasted two years and was crushed by the Roman general Crassus. Plutarch (Life of Crassus, 11) reports that during his last attack, Spartacus launched himself at Crassus and almost killed him: “Through the midst of arms and wounds, he [Spartacus] missed him [Crassus], but killed two centurions who attacked him together.”

Spartacus was killed, but his deeds turned him into a legend. Around 5,000 of his men fled north after the defeat, and over 6,000 were crucified.

5 Vercingetorix

Years of brutality perpetrated by Julius Caesar in Gaul persuaded Vercingetorix (c. 82 BC–46 BC) that the Gallic tribes had to either unite against Rome or die trying. He tried to convince the council of his native town to fight the Romans, but he was expelled. He went to the countryside, raised a force against Gergovia, and took the power.

In 52 BC, Vercingetorix took Cenabun (present-day Orleans), where he massacred many Romans and seized all the provisions. Most Gallic tribes joined him, but they were no match for the highly organized Roman army, so Vercingetorix instructed to always fight the Romans from an advantageous land position. If that wasn’t possible, his army would retreat and burn all the land, leaving nothing behind and depriving the Romans of supplies.

His last stand against Rome was during the siege of Alesia. Vercingetorix came to Caesar asking for mercy, hoping to prevent more Gallic casualties. Some Gallic tribes were allowed to leave, but many soldiers were turned into slaves. Vercingetorix was kept in Rome as a prisoner for six years and finally put to death.

4 Boudicca

Boudicca (c. AD 33–c. 60) was the queen of the Iceni, an eastern Brittonic tribe. When the king died, the Romans tried to seize the kingdom, and the Iceni joined their queen and triggered a rebellion. Some neighboring tribes joined them, and together, they launched an attack against the city of Colchester, where many Romans were massacred.

From there, they marched to London, the heart of Roman commerce in Britain, and burned it to the ground. Cassius Dio (History 62.7) describes the gruesome retribution of Boudicca: Most distinguished women were hung up naked, their breasts cut and sewed to their mouths “in order to make the victims appear to be eating them.”

Boudicca’s rebellion was ended by the Roman general Suetonius in the Battle of Watling Street. Suetonius engaged the rebel force in a narrow field, neutralizing Boudicca’s numerical advantage. Boudicca retired to her homeland, where she finished her life by drinking poison.

3 Shapur I

Shapur I (r. 240–270) was a Sassanid ruler determined to regain the territories that his Persian ancestors had lost, most of which were under Roman control. Shapur captured Syria and its capital Antioch, one of the greatest cities controlled by Rome. The Romans struck back and recaptured some of the lost territories, but they left other battle fronts open.

Emperor Valerian offered terms to Shapur in person, along with his senior officers. Shapur took them all captive, and Sasanian sources claim that Valerian was used as a human mounting block for Shapur to ascend to his horse and then killed. His skin was filled with straw and displayed as a trophy.

Both sides were closely matched, and the result of Shapur’s war against Rome was inconclusive. Shapur died of illness around 270, before Rome could avenge Valerian.

2 Alaric I

In 395, Alaric I (c. 370–410) was named king of the Visigoths, a powerful tribe established in the former Roman province of Dacia (present-day Hungary, Romania, and Slovenia). The Visigoths had been Rome’s allies, but the treatment they got from the Romans made the reconsider their position. Alaric led the Visigoths against Rome, plundering many cities on the way. In 408, they laid siege to the city of Rome itself.

The Romans tried to attack Alaric, and two more sieges followed. During the third siege, someone opened the gates of the city. On August 24, 410, the Visigoths sacked Rome. It was not a violent act; the Visigoths were merely looking for plunder.

Alaric then marched south to Calabria with the intention of invading Africa, the source of the grain supply upon which the Romans depended, but a sudden illness put an end to his life. The course of the Busento River was diverted, and Alaric’s body was buried in the riverbed. The river’s course was restored to protect his resting place.

1 Attila The Hun

When Attila (c. 406–453) became the ruler of the Hunnic people, he doubled the tribute that Rome paid the Huns and imposed several additional conditions that looked more like extortion than a deal. In 447, Attila invaded parts of the eastern empire. Rome bribed one of Attila’s lieutenants to murder his master. The plot failed and upset Attila, who would neither forgive nor forget.

Theodosius died in AD 450, and Attila was informed he would never receive one more penny from Rome. Attila invaded several cities in the western half of the empire. With the support of the Visigoths, Aetius, a Roman general, engaged Attila in the Battle of the Catalunian Plains in 451. Both sides were closely matched: Attila and his force left and marched toward Rome.

Attila’s anticlimactic end came two years later: He was found dead, choked in his own blood after celebrating his wedding.

History rarely tells two sides of a story. We hear about our victories and the brave men and women who won them, but the heroes of the other side are usually scraped off and forgotten.

SEE ALSO: 10 Places That Look Nothing Like You Think

There were good and decent people among our nations’ enemies. Their leaders have may have committed atrocities, but these people led lives of courage of decency and left behind stories of true heroism—stories that history erased because they fought for the wrong side.

10 Norman Bethune

Dr. Norman Bethune is almost completely unknown in his home country of Canada. In China, however, he is a household name.

Dr. Bethune was a lifelong socialist. Before universal health care came to Canada, he ran a free health clinic to ensure that the poor could still get help. But in 1937, when Japan invaded China, he realized where he was needed most. So he flew halfway around the world to meet Mao Tse-tung and offer his services.

In China, Dr. Bethune trained doctors, introducing new, lifesaving medical ideas to a part of the world they’d yet to reach. He went to the front lines to work as a surgeon, saving the lives of countless Chinese soldiers and citizens. By the end, he was one of China’s main medical advisors.

When Dr. Bethune died of an infection, he was a national hero. There are statues in his honor in China, and several hospitals bear his name. Mao himself wrote a tribute to the doctor which, to this day, is still required reading for most Chinese high school students. He wrote that Dr. Bethune was a model for all of humanity, saying, “We must all learn the spirit of absolute selflessness from him.”

9 John Rabe

John Rabe was a Nazi, through and through. He fully believed in Hitler, declaring of the Nazi war machine: “I am behind the system 100 percent.” But despite it all, he saved 200,000 lives.

Rabe was the leader of the Nazi Party in Nanking when the Japanese invaded. The Japanese urged him to flee when their army rolled in, but Rabe wouldn’t leave. He had already lived in China for 30 years, he explained. His children and grandchildren were born there, and he would stand by the Chinese until the end.

When the atrocities of the Rape Of Nanking began, Rabe set up the International Safety Zone to protect as many Chinese civilians as he could. He sheltered more than 200,000 refugees near his home, saving them from the brutal abuse the Japanese inflicted on Nanking.

Rabe would patrol the streets of Nanking, trying to stop Japanese soldiers from raping Chinese women. He would hold his swastika high, threatening them with his authority as a Nazi to keep them off. He represented an abhorrent party and a dangerous ideology, but to thousands of Chinese survivors, he was a hero. Several boys born in Nanking were given the name “Rabe” in his honor.

8 Matvey Kuzmin

Matvey Kuzmin was 83 years old when the Nazis came to his home. He was nothing more than an aging Russian peasant, but now, he found himself before the barrel of a German gun. The Germans wanted information. Kuzmin, they said, must tell them where the Soviet army was located, or he would die.

Kuzmin told the Nazis he would show them, but he had a plan. He sent his grandson off to warn the Soviets that the Nazis had arrived and to prepare an attack. He then led the Nazis to the town of Malkino. The Nazis followed him, unaware that an ambush was waiting.

When the Soviet army attacked, the Germans realized that they had been duped. A Nazi officer shot Kuzmin on the spot. Kuzmin died, but because of his sacrifice, the German unit was captured, and the Soviet Union won an early battle against the advancing fascist army.

7 An Yong-Ae

An Yong-ae was a nurse during the Korean War. She tended to wounded North Korean soldiers, patching up and cleaning their wounds from the safety of a military hospital.

When the warning went off that an US air raid was coming her way, she was ordered to take shelter. An, however, refused to run. There were men in the hospital who couldn’t walk and who wouldn’t be able to get away. She helped as many people out as she could and then rushed back in to help more.

When the bombs fell, An was still in the hospital. She died in the devastation. But because of her sacrifice, dozens of injured men made it out alive.

6 Dwarkanath Kotnis

Norman Bethune wasn’t the only doctor who traveled to China. Dr. Dwarkanath Kotnis and a team of four other doctors left their homes in India to join Mao’s communist army as well. The other four went home when their time was up, but Dr. Kotnis stayed in China, determined to help.

Dr. Kotnis worked as a surgeon and treated hundreds of wounded soldiers. He moved up the ranks quickly, and after Dr. Bethune’s death, he became the director of the newly named Dr. Bethune International Peace Hospital.

His most incredible moment came in Yunan in 1940. Wounded soldiers were rushing in faster than the hospital could handle. Dr. Kotnis, determined not to let a man he could save die, performed surgery for 72 hours straight without sleeping.

Dr. Kotnis would die in an epileptic seizure before he saw the end of the war. Today, though, there are statues honoring him in China, commemorating a man who gave his life for the cause of another nation.

5 William Morgan

William Morgan was the only American in Fidel Castro’s rebel army. One of his friends, who had been caught smuggling weapons to Castro’s rebels, had been tortured and killed by Fulgencio Batista’s soldiers. Morgan wanted revenge. In 1957, he flew over and joined the rebellion.

Throughout his time fighting in the Cuban Revolution, Morgan was dogged by suspicions that he might be a CIA spy. As the war raged on, though, he proved himself. He trained Cuban soldiers and fought alongside them until he had command of six men of his own. Soon, he had a whole column and then command over a whole territory.

By the end of the war, Morgan had worked his way up to the top rank of comandante. He and Che Guevara were the only foreign soldiers to achieve that rank. The two worked together to capture Santa Clara at the end of the war. Batista fled Cuba 12 hours after their victory.

Morgan believed that Castro was going to turn the country into a capitalist democracy. When that didn’t happen, he was upset—and he didn’t hide it. In 1960, his complaints got him sent in front of a firing squad. The US had taken away his citizenship for helping a foreign army, and he had no way to escape. As payment for his sacrifice, William Morgan was put to death.

4 Lev Kopelev

As a Ukranian Jew, Lev Kopelev had every reason to want to see the Nazis suffer. But when he joined the Red Army on their march to Berlin in 1945, he found himself on the other side, protecting German women.

The Soviet army was brutal to women in Berlin. Kopelev saw his men-in-arms violently raping women, attacking the old and young alike, and he couldn’t stand idly by. He started pulling his colleagues off of them.

“Don’t disgrace yourself!” he told one who was assaulting a Polish woman. “Don’t you have a mother, a sister? Have you thought of them?” “Get out of my way!” the soldier yelled back. “I need a woman! I spilled my blood for this!”

Kopelev’s efforts to protect German women soon turned into a full protest. The Soviets didn’t appreciate his moral stance. They arrested him, and he spent nine years in prison on charges of “compassion toward the enemy.” When he was finally released, though, his writing became one of the best records of what had happened.

3 Alexander Matrosov

Alexander Matrosov was only 19 years old when he met his end. He was fighting alongside the Soviet army to repel the advancing German army.

In 1943, he and his unit were attacking Germans stationed in a Russian village. Nazi machine gun fire was so heavy that the Soviets couldn’t even move. Instead, they held back, throwing grenades and taking out the machine guns one by one.

Matrosov, according to the story, threw the last grenade. The last gunner stopped firing, and unable to see through the dust, the men assumed he’d got him. The Soviets charged forward—only to find out that Matrosov had missed. The machine gun opened fire.

The young boy, determined to save his comrades, jumped on top of the machine gun and used his own body to clog it. He was riddled with bullets and died, but he saved his comrades and became a legend in the Soviet Union.

2 Isao Yamasoy

Captain Isao Yamasoy (real surname “Yamazoe”) arrived in the town of Dulag in the Philippines in 1943. He was a Japanese soldier, and he was there as an occupying enemy—but he left as a Filipino hero.

Despite Japan’s reputation for brutality in World War II, Captain Yamasoy insisted that his men treat the locals with respect. He did not permit his men to abuse them, not even the prisoners. Instead, he tried to improve relations between the soldiers and the civilians. He set up morning calisthenics activities, athletics, and cultural shows for both Japanese and Filipino alike.

When Captain Yamasoy got word that a Filipino guerrilla unit was planning to attack his garrison, he was worried about civilian casualties. He contacted the guerrilla unit and asked them to meet him outside of town so that no innocents would get hurt in the battle. They agreed but ambushed him on the way, believing they were getting rid of one more tyrant.

After Captain Yamasoy died, though, a new commander took over. All of Yamasoy’s programs were canceled. The commander used torture and forced the civilians, including children, to do slave labor on airfields.

Realizing they’d killed a good man to bring on a bad one, the people of Dulag mourned his death. Today, there is a shrine to his memory in the city, dedicated to the one man from the enemy army who treated them like human beings.

1 Richard Sorge

Without Richard Sorge, the Allies very well might have lost World War II. He was a Soviet spy who managed to become Germany’s ambassador to Japan, which put him in an incredible position to collect information.

As early as 1939, Sorge found out that Japan and Germany were plotting an attack against Russia. He reported to Stalin, who acted on the information by sending diplomats to Germany. His information led to a pact that held back the invasion of the USSR for two years.

In 1941, Sorge warned Stalin that Hitler was going to betray him in June. Stalin didn’t believe him until it happened. When the Nazis rolled into Russia, though, he realized Sorge’s value.

Stalin ordered Sorge to find out if Japan was going to join the assault. They wouldn’t, Sorge reported, unless the Nazis made major gains early on. The information gave Stalin the confidence to move his whole army against the Nazis and leave himself vulnerable to Japanese attack.

That move might just have been the reason that the USSR managed to hold off the Nazis, and that moment in history might just have been the reason why the Nazis didn’t win the war. Without Richard Sorge, the Allies may well have lost the war.

As the controversy about public statues to Confederates continues, some have said it makes no sense and serves no purpose to allow these monuments to stand. Others have said this just isn’t done and that in no other case does one allow statues of their enemies to be out in public like this. At best they should be stuck in a museum somewhere.

So the question is, are there times when such statues are allowed to remain out in the open for all to see? Statues of those one fought against and spilled blood fighting and died to defeat? And if so, why? Do these serve some purpose?

SEE ALSO: 10 Monuments More Controversial Than The Confederate Statues

10 Muslims in Spain

Spain was invaded and occupied by Muslims in 711AD. The occupiers were eventually driven back out of Spain, but only after around 800 years of on and off war and the terrible things that happen in war.

We might be surprised, then, that they not only allow statues of their once Muslim overlords. They also spend time and money maintaining them. Statues not only of the peaceful thinkers among their occupiers, like Averroes, but also of the rulers and military leaders, the people who were killing them, like Almanzor and Abd-al-Rahman-I.

So why do they do this? In part, it’s simple. Money. The history of Spain is interesting and it attracts tourists. But it might also be that this is part of a nation’s healing process. After enough time goes by, you want reminders out there of your history, of how you got to where you are, and part of that process includes putting up monuments to your enemies.^[1]

9 George Washington in England

From Olde England’s perspective, Washington was enemy number one. Not only did he lead the revolution that began the process of ending colonialism, but he had learned his military skills while serving as an officer in the King’s militia! What a traitor!

So why would anyone put a statue of George Washington up in England. Because, there he currently stands, in London, England. The heart of the capital of the country that he led a long hard war against. (A civil war, too!). Why would they do this?

Well, sometimes one’s enemy becomes one’s friend. The United States crossed the ocean to help England win WWI. Afterwards the state of Virginia offered the Washington statue to London as a gift, and England graciously accepted and set the statue up for all to see. (And perhaps they suspected they might need help from the United States again?) Also, since Washington had vowed after the American Revolution to never again step foot in England, they even honored his wish by standing the statue on some good old Virginia sod. Or—so the story goes.^[2]

8 Native Americans

The European colonies in North America fought numerous battles against the native peoples they found there in what we now call the American Indian Wars. These wars lasted for centuries.

Despite years of terrible war, statues honoring Native Americans have been put up in many public places around the United States. For example, a statue stands in Pilgrim Memorial State Park in Plymouth, Massachusetts to honor the Wampanoag chief who helped the Pilgrims when they arrived centuries ago. Utah, noting the sculptor was born in the Beehive State, put up a replica of the statue outside of their capitol building.

In 1911, a 48 foot tall, 270 ton statue was erected in Illinois. The statue, believed to be the world’s second-largest concrete monolithic statue, is informally called Black Hawk, the Native American leader in an Indian war fought in the area. Recently the statue, which stands in Lowden State Park, was showing its age, so people anted up hundreds of thousands of dollars to restore honor to their once enemy.^[3]

7 Gandhi in England

Mahatma Gandhi was another traitor to England. He was born in another English colony—India. After he studied law in London and they admitted him to the bar in the 1880s, he paid them back by leading another revolution against them. This was at least peaceful, at least on the part of those who were in revolution.

But again, in London there stands a monument to the great man who helped further the process of setting the sun on the English Empire. What a forgiving people. Maybe if you want to be honored in England you need to lead a revolt against them?^[4]

6 Mussolini in Italy

Mussolini founded Fascism in Italy. He led the Black Shirts to do terrible things to the Italian people. He even inspired Hitler who took the whole Fascist thing and really ran with it.

At the end of WWII, Mussolini wasn’t killed by the Allies, but instead by fellow Italians. And then his body was mutilated and hung naked upside down in Milan’s public square. Clearly, they really didn’t like him. Fascism was made illegal in Italy, but there was a problem. Mussolini and the Fascists had erected tons of statues to themselves during their reign.

Italy is famous for its statues. And they have a very long history. And they understood that sometimes you regret the loss of statues later on. So, what to do with the Fascist monuments?

One example of a solution is in a small Italian town where the local government for decades after the war used a fascist-era building with a massive bas-relief of Mussolini. It includes the nice fascist-y slogan (in Italian): “Believe, Obey, Combat.” In 2011, the national government ordered the town to do something about this. There were those who wanted to destroy the monument, but others who saw value in preserving the historic work. So, as a compromise, they now superimpose a quote on the monument—an LED-illuminated inscription by a German Jewish philosopher: “Nobody has the right to obey.”^[5]

5 Soviets in Bulgaria

The Soviets, like most totalitarian regimes, liked to erect statues of themselves all over the place. In Sofia, Bulgaria, for example, they put up a statue of themselves liberating Bulgaria from Nazi occupation (or was it of themselves occupying Bulgaria?!) After decades of occupation, Bulgaria threw off their Soviet overlords and joined the European Union and NATO.

You might think maintaining an old Soviet era monument in your capital would be out of the question. But they actually have left it stand. And it’s proving to be a bit of a problem since people keep vandalizing the statue, to the dismay of Russia. But this isn’t just random vandalizing, its people adding their own message. A message all the more powerful as a contrast to the underlying implicit message in the original—of Soviet domination.

The statue has been painted pink, covered in the colors of the Bulgarian flag, and perhaps most famously, the Soviet soldiers were painted as Western icons – Ronald McDonald, Santa, superheroes like Superman and Robin (Batman was apparently busy off fighting crime elsewhere).^[6]

4 Memorials in the U.S. to our World War Enemies

In 1935, Germany erected a POW memorial at the Chattanooga National Cemetery to honor German Soldiers who died in American POW camps during World War I. There are 78 German POWs buried there, including 22 German sailors who died in Hot Springs, NC, and dozens of German POWs who died in Georgia. Their remains were reburied in secret and the local papers were only told about it the next day.

There’s also a German POW monument in Utah. The German War Memorial to the Victims of War was erected in memory of the German’s who died while interred at Fort Douglas during WWI. Dedicated on Memorial Day, May 30, 1933, it includes the names of 21 German POWs who died 1917-1918. The memorial is now a monument for POWs of WWII as well – since 20 German, 12 Italian, and 1 Japanese WWII POWs were added to those buried there.^[7]

3 Italian Fascist Monument in Chicago

In Chicago stands an ancient roman column, a monument gifted to Chicago by Mussolini to honor his air commander, Italo Balbo. The gift was made in 1933, to honor a flight of 25 seaplanes that flew from Italy to Chicago (with some stops along the way). The column stands on a pedestal with words exalting fascism.

It not only remained during WWII, but stills stands today. In all the recent anti-monument fervor it was almost taken down, but then support from the local Italian community saved the monument. Some have argued that the one being honored, Italo Balbo, while yes he was a fascist, was also anti-Nazi and was against the racial laws. And, the feat the monument honors, the 1933 flight from Italy to Chicago, was still an accomplishment worth honoring.^[8]

2 Vichy France Leader Honored in NYC

What kind of enemy do people hate the most? How about someone who turns on their own country during a war? That’s what Henri Philippe Petain did. After becoming a war hero in WWI, he was honored in NYC with a ticker tape parade. During WWII, however, the hero turned traitor and collaborated with the Nazi’s, helping them to round up tens of thousands of French Jewish people for extermination.

In 2004, New York City decided to install plaques to immortalize everyone who had been honored with ticker tape parades. Since Petain had been so honored, he got a plaque. In light of all the monument destruction going on in the U.S., the Petain plaque was reviewed by a commission for possible removal. The commission found that it was clear some ticker tape parades were for people we would no longer call heroes, especially by modern standards. But “removal of the vestiges of past decisions risks leading to cultural amnesia.”^[9]

1 Communist Leader Vladimir Lenin In Seattle

For decades the United States was involved in a tense scary Cold War of brinkmanship with communist USSR, with both sides building up their militaries, including thousands of nuclear weapons, and proxy wars fought around the world.

But in a Seattle neighborhood stands a 16-foot tall bronze sculpture of one of the great icons of Communist Russia—Vladimir Lenin. The statue was rescued by an American veteran who mortgaged his house to save it from a Russian statue graveyard.

Like the Soviet statue in Bulgaria, people have had fun with the Lenin statue, decorating it in various ways. Someone painted his hands red, once he was given a tutu, and another time he was covered in Christmas lights.

Fremont’s website notes, “If art is supposed to make us feel, not just feel good, then this sculpture is a successful work of art. The challenge is to understand that this piece means different things to different people and to learn to listen to each other and respect different opinions.” Yes – that seems to sum this all up nicely.^[10]

About The Author: I’ve written a bit for Cracked.com, and have a little writing blog at jackrloun.wixsite.com/scritchandscrawl.