Holocaust Heroes
He who saves one life, it is as if he saved an entire world.– Babylonian Talmud
The Righteous by Martin Gilbert is a record of the very best and the very worst of human behaviour. These are remarkable stories of ‘Unsung Heroes of the Holocaust’ who risked their lives to save Jews during the 1940s. Schindler’s List is well known, but here are 500 similar acts of courage in helping Jews (which carried the death penalty in Nazi-occupied countries). Many of the stories come from the ‘Righteous Among the Nations’ archive which lists 19,000 non-Jews who risked their lives.
Anti-Semitism was rife in many parts of Europe and the Nazis were assisted by local populations in murdering tens of thousands of Jews, in addition to the concentration camps. The heroes in the book are clergy, farmers, businessmen, families, royalty, city officials, and soldiers. It’s estimated that to save one Jewish life required at least 10 people working in a fragile chain of courage.
Another remarkable book about saving Jewish lives in WW2 is Life in a Jar – The Irena Sendler Project by Jack Mayer. It’s the story of Irena Sendler who rescued 2,500 Jewish children in Nazi-occupied Poland – a forgotten piece of history uncovered by three high school girls in rural Kansas in 1999. Irena smuggled children out of the Warsaw ghetto where the Nazis imprisoned 450,000 Jews. The Kansas girls turned the story into a play which has had international impact.
This moment is the ultimate revenge on Hitler. Protestant kids, celebrating a Catholic rescuer of Jewish children for the Warsaw ghetto, performing in a Jewish theatre…and they are being filmed by German television.’ – Chief Rabbi of Poland