‘I lived in my car for five years so I could tell the story of WW2 veterans' (2024)

‘I lived in my car for five years so I could tell the story of WW2 veterans' (1)

Rishi Sharma lived in his car to afford to interview veterans (Image: Supplied/Rishi Sharma)

A historian has said he lived in a car for five years in a heroic attempt to tell the stories of World War Veterans.

Rishi Sharma, 25, is the founder of Remember World War 2, a not-for-profit organisation that records the experiences of allied military personnel who fought in the war.

In the seven years since he started his project, Mr Sharma has interviewed over 2,250 soldiers around the world from the USA to France, from the UK to Australia.

After years of hard work and thousands of miles, Mr Sharma’s project is now being supported by Little Dot Studios and British historian Dan Snow.

Express.co.uk spoke to Mr Sharma about his project and what drives him on his quest to preserve the testimonies of the personnel who shaped history.

‘I lived in my car for five years so I could tell the story of WW2 veterans' (2)

Rishi Sharma started his project in December 2016 as a way to say thank to those who served (Image: Supplied/Rishi Sharma)

On his living situation, Mr Sharma said he does so in order to maximise the amount of money he has to pay for travelling to each interviewee.

He said: “I sleep in the car. I have limited funding and I’ve never taken a salary, all the money that has been donated goes directly to the travel and getting these veterans on camera.

“I think it’s so important to impress that this is very much a personal passion, I’ve dedicated a lot to make these interviews happen. To afford the interviews I lived out the car full time.”

On why he decided to embark on this project, Mr Sharma said it all started from a very young age and a desire to say thank you to those who fought in the war.

‘I lived in my car for five years so I could tell the story of WW2 veterans' (3)

Rishi Sharma now has the backing of Little Dot Studios and Dan Snow (Image: Supplied/Rishi Sharma)

He said: “World War 2 veterans are my absolute heroes ever since I was a kid. I’ve always been interested. I read a book called Citizen Soldier by Stephen Ambrose, a compilation of veteran memoirs told in first person. I was so in awe of these young men and what they went through.

“It gave me such an appreciation for the luxuries that we have in modern society. I wanted them to know that because of what they went through some kid in Southern California gets to live a full and a free life and I wanted them to understand that. I attributed my existence to God and them.

“When you preserve someone on camera, you’re giving them the opportunity to live forever and there’s no generation that deserves that honour more than the greatest generation. It made me understand the power I have to document someone.

“When I graduated, I decided I wanted to keep doing this. I created a GoFundMe, but nothing happened, but eventually, after some news coverage I got some funding, and then I hit the road and that was in December 2016. I went five years without even going home, during [the pandemic] obviously I came back.”

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‘I lived in my car for five years so I could tell the story of WW2 veterans' (4)

Mr Sharma also explained why he wasn't interviewing German veterans (Image: Supplied/Rishi Sharma)

On why he is not interviewing German veterans Mr Sharma said he understands the complexities of the argument, but that his focus was on Allied forces.

He explained: “The reason I don’t focus on German or Japanese veterans as much as I appreciate the sentiment that history needs to be told from both perspectives is because not every single German was a Hitler-loving and Jew-hating person.

“So many of them were forced into the service but you can’t take away the fact that the power these testimonies hold, essentially, we are greenlighting that this person will get the chance to live forever.

“The way I look at it the six-year-old girl who knew nothing but the love of her mom and dad and shoved in a box car one day and killed at Auschwitz. Unfortunately, we as a society have forgotten about her, we don’t know her name, we don’t know anything about her."

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    Mr Sharma added: “If I was to interview some German veterans regardless of whether they were a concentration camp guard or fighting in Italy, they were still keeping that regime going the Germans were killing Jewish people and other people to the last minute.

    “I’m not here to revictimise those who have been forgotten because of senseless murders I’m here to honour and preserve the stories of those who were willing and all those who did die so that people might live today.

    “As much as I understand that history needs to be preserved from both perspectives I think the onus is on the German people if they want to document their own veterans.

    “I’m not saying don’t do it but I have limited time limited money and we need to focus on those who fought for the democratic way of life. There’s no group of individuals that deserve to be preserved forever more than the veterans of the allied countries.”

    Mr Sharma’s project is entirely self and crowdfunded, using a GoFundMe page to sustain the project and posting the videos on a dedicated YouTube channel.

    ‘I lived in my car for five years so I could tell the story of WW2 veterans' (2024)
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