The Forgotten Soldiers: Sami Shah uncovers a century-old family murder for SBS Audio – Writer and comedian Sami Shah is turning a mystery from his own family history into The Forgotten Soldiers, a new four-part SBS Audio podcast.
All four episodes will be available on Remembrance Day, Wednesday 11 November 2026. The series begins with a photograph of Shah’s smiling great-grand uncle, Rifatullah Shah, wearing a military uniform.
For Australian listeners, the personal investigation opens a broader chapter of wartime history. It examines the service of more than one million men from undivided India during the First World War, including Indian-born soldiers who served alongside Australian and New Zealand troops.
A family account challenged by military records
A family book recorded that Rifatullah died in a skirmish. When Shah checked the surviving military records, however, he discovered a very different explanation: his great-grand uncle had been murdered.
That revelation sends him through archives and histories linked with India, Egypt, Germany, Britain and Australia. The resulting series combines true-crime investigation, family memory and military history as Shah tries to establish what happened more than a century ago.
Recovering an overlooked wartime history
The investigation places one man’s fate inside the much larger contribution of soldiers from the Indian subcontinent. Their service was central to the Allied war effort, yet many individual stories have faded from public memory.
Shah said the size of that forgotten history only became clear as the project developed.
When I started this project, I didn’t fully understand the scale of what’s been forgotten.
Over a million soldiers were a part of the war and we don’t even remember anymore. And within that great multitude was my ancestor, whose story turned out to be much more unique than I was ready for.
Sami Shah, writer and comedian
The podcast also connects that global history to the ANZAC story. Indian-born soldiers served among troops from Australia and New Zealand, giving the series a direct Australian dimension beyond Shah’s own life here.
How to listen to The Forgotten Soldiers
The Forgotten Soldiers consists of four episodes, all released on 11 November. Listeners can find the series through the SBS Audio app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, LiSTNR, SBS On Demand and other major podcast platforms.
For more TV Central SBS news, head here. Listen to all four episodes through the official SBS Audio page for The Forgotten Soldiers.
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