The Lost Ones

Zapomniani

The Lost Ones are stories of people who were born in the wrong place at the wrong time. Their individual fates give insight into big, dramatic events in world history.

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In 1924, a woman entered the capital of Tibet after having travelled thousands of kilometres on foot. It was the first time a foreigner had crossed the border of the sacred city. This mythical feat, one of many by Alexandra David-Néel, made the reputation of this explorer, writer, anarchist, feminist and traveller.

Alexandra David-Neel: An Adventurer in Tibet

Victor Lustig was a brazen liar who loved the high life. In 1925, he pulled off the biggest con of all - literally. Convincing a group of industrialists that he was selling the Eiffel tower for scrap metal, he skipped town with the downpayment in his pocket. But his life of crime eventually catches up with him. 

Victor Lustig, the Con Artist Who Sold the Eiffel Tower

Victor Lustig was a brazen liar who loved the high life. In 1925, he pulled off the biggest con of all - literally

Reporter, photographer, poet: Annemarie Schwarzenbach shone in the night sky of the 20th century, her life bright and brief. Horrified at the rise of facism and the outbreak of war, she fled to travel the world with her lover. Morphine and writing become her refuge. 

Annemarie Schwarzenbach, Literature's Fallen Angel

Horrified at the rise of facism and the outbreak of war, Annemarie Schwarzenbach fled to travel the world with her lover

He was both the most adored and the most feared of the Italian aviation aces during the Great War. Addicted to risk, he joined the utopian enclave of Fiume in 1919, with commander Gabriele d'Annunzio. Guido Keller, the dandy, the eccentric, took part in the spectacular and delirious experiment of creating a dream society.

Guido Keller: The Activist Aviator

He was both the most adored and the most feared of the Italian aviation aces during the Great War and he took part in the spectacular and delirious experiment of the Free State of Fiume.

Prospector Jakko Isola went to the icy wilderness of northern Finland in the hope of finding gold. What he found instead was inner peace in the beauty and tranquillity of the far North. That is until he finally did uncover gold…

Jaakko Isola's Cursed Gold

On the shores of the Red Sea he was known as the Sea Wolf.  The extraordinary story of the man who had been everything: Writer, sailor, privateer, arms and hashish dealer.

Henry de Monfreid

A talented tennis player winning the US and French Opens, Gottfried von Cramm was such a champion that Hitler wanted to make him the poster boy for the Nazis. But von Cramm had other ideas.

Gottfried von Cramm, The Nazi Tennis Darling

Homosexual and anti-Nazi, von Cramm was an outstanding tennis player detested by Hitler.

The Marchioness Casati was admired throughout Europe for her incredible parties and expensive tastes. She was an eccentric patron of the arts, and her face appears again and again in the works of all the notable painters of her day. But she would rip through her inheritance by the age of fifty and end up wondering the streets of London, going though rubbish bins.

Luisa Casati, the Ruined Marchioness

The Marchioness Casati went from living in a palace to eking out an existence on the streets of London

In 1930, New York was bewitched by a new sound, seemingly coming out of thin air: the theremin, invented by the Russian engineer Lev Sergeyevich Termen. He created the first electronic instrument in history, and won praise from both Lenin and Stalin. But he was a double agent, and things would turn sour fast.

Lev Sergueïevitch Termen's Magical Soviet Instrument

There's an instrument invented in the 1930s that you can play without ever even touching it - you just pull the notes out of the air, as if by magic

He was the Mozart of the mind. One of the greatest philosophers of the 20th century, Monsieur Chouchani was an enigma. He lived as a tramp with almost no possessions. He was self-taught, spoke ten languages, and inspired love and loyalty among the greatest and the best.

Monsieur Chouchani, the Vagabond Luminary

One of the greatest philosophers of the 20th century, Monsieur Chouchani was an enigma