JANINE DE GREEF, aged 95
Along with all of her family she was a key member of the Comet Line, getting Allied airmen out of Belgium at great risk to herself.
DAVID DUSHMAN, aged 98
Fencing played a big part in his life. He was the man who liberated Auschwitz – and went on to coach the USSR fencing team in the Olympics.
BEPPE PIRODDI, aged 82
An Italian playboy in the 1960s he was part of a group known as The Four Musketeers. He had affairs with rich women and had celebrity friends, as long as connections with royals and the Mafia.
SERGIO COSTA, aged 72
The Costa family emigrated from Italy to England and started a coffee business. Sergio became CEO and turned the business into the multi-million pound generating Costa Coffee.
YURI AVERBAKH, aged 100
A qualified engineer who became a Chess Grandmaster and referee, as well as being a noted writer on chess. He was the first ever centenarian Chess Grandmaster.
MIKHAIL VASENKOV, aged 79
A Russian KGB officer, he was trained as a sleeper. He lived in Peru, then as a college professor in the USA before being caught by the FBI. He was then involved in the biggest spy swap ever.
ROSSANA BANTI, aged 96
Red in name, red in dress, red in politics, Rossana was one of the “Terrible Girls of Rome”, in the Italian Resistance during the war. Later she was part of the SOE – code number 007. In later life she was a television producer.
JEAN-PIERRE ADAMS, aged 73
Born in Senegal he had a troubled upbringing in France. He then became an international footballer before a minor operation went wrong and he ended up in a coma for 39 years.
VLADIMIR SHATALOV, aged 93
Shatalov survived the Siege of Leningrad as a child. He became a pilot in the Red Air Force before brilliantly manipulating his way into the Soviet Space Programme as a cosmonaut. He went into space on three occasions.
INGE GINSBERG, aged 99
After escaping the Holocaust, Inge fled over the mountains to become a spy, a songwriter, a poet and a trader on the stock exchange. She then became a Heavy Metal star, entering the Eurovision Song Contest.
HUBERT GERMAIN, aged 101
Hubert saw action in the Battle of Bir Hakeim and also in the Battle of El Alamein. He was made a Companion of the Order of Liberation and died in October 2021.
MIMI REINHARD, aged 107
An inmate of a concentration camp, Mimi worked in the office as a secretary. She was forced to type up a list of inmates to work in a factory owned by Oskar Schindler – and the rest is history.
ROGER HASSENFORDER, aged 90
Known as the Crown Prince of Cycling, Roger survived an eventful childhood in the Alsace, but only just. He grew up to be one of cycling’s greatest names – and certainly the most eccentric.
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