Erin Faith Allen | WWII Historian & Founder of Fortitude Research
“Erin Faith Allen doggedly and painstakingly pours through personal letters,
military archives, and family interviews to bring forgotten stories to life.
The soldiers and civilians she researches were never truly gone.
They were waiting for Erin to give them the historical triage they deserve.”
- Vincent P. Pankoke, FBI Special Agent (ret.) and Director of Investigation, Anne Frank Cold Case Project,
contributor to the New York Times Best Seller, The Betrayal of Anne Frank.
ABOUT ERIN
At the grave of PFC Curtice L. Mathews Jr., 222nd Infantry Regiment, 42nd ‘Rainbow’ Division, at the Lorraine American Cemetery in France.
I’m Erin Faith Allen, and I work at the intersection of evidence and the human experience of war. My research restores the lived reality behind military records, field reports, battlefield maps, eyewitness testimony, civilian accounts and personal documents.
The result is a form of wartime reconstruction that honors fact, context and the psychological truth carried by veterans, survivors, and their descendants. My approach combines forensic precision, human depth, emotional intelligence, psychological truth, and archival rigor.
These principles guide every investigation, whether I am retrieving primary documents at the National Archives, curating a personalized tour for a family, analyzing operational movements, reconstructing the details of a wound received on the battlefield, restoring the story of a displaced civilian woman, or bringing clarity to a narrative that has been fragmented by time.
"Erin Faith Allen is the kind of researcher who pursues the truth of a story even when the truth is uncomfortable, who protects the trust of the families who have entrusted her with their most private materials, and who understands that the stories she is telling carry a moral weight that demands precision, patience, and care.
These are not common qualities. They are the qualities that produce work that endures."
- Lorissa Rinehart, author of First to the Front: The Untold Story of Dickey Chapelle, Trailblazing Female War Correspondent
Over the past decade, my work has supported hundreds of families seeking clarity, answers, and restoration in the historical record. This has included multi-year WWII reconstructions, manuscript refinement for publication, family-commissioned wartime histories, German and U.S. archival sourcing for publication, documentary development, and institutional research, including the ability to read and translate Sütterlin, the handwriting used in German records of the period.
I have been a recipient of the Amber Grant for Women in Business, and a Rainbow Division Veterans Foundation grant for research.
It was a privilege to be made Honorary Citizen of Schweighouse-sur-Moder, France, alongside my friend Lockered ‘Bud’ Gahs who was a liberator of the town, for my dedication to preserving the town’s WWII history.
I am currently completing One Day Over the Rhine, a full-scale reconstruction and family-commissioned book that documents converging lives during Operation Plunder in the final days of the war.
My research is sought by families, filmmakers, authors, museums, and large-scale historical initiatives that require precision, narrative coherence, and investigative persistence.
"Erin Faith Allen is both a tenacious, detail-focused researcher and a wonderful storyteller who possesses a unique eye for the human condition. Her years of devoted work have helped keep alive the memory of WWII's "Rainbowmen" -- the soldiers of the 42nd "Rainbow" Infantry Division, US Army.
It has been my personal privilege to collaborate with Erin on several history-themed projects. I can say that she relentlessly pursues the facts wherever they lead -- even to the hellscape of a Nazi Concentration Camp. Erin knows what's important, and always explains why it's important."
- Patrick J. Chaisson, 42nd Inf. Div. Combat Veteran (OIF III) and Historian Emeritus, Rainbow Division Veterans Foundation
