1. Memories of Courage

The Holocaust is not only a story of destruction and loss; it is a story of an apathetic world and a few rare individuals of extraordinary courage.

• The "Righteous Among the Nations" Title and Program offered by the State of Israel
  through Yad Vashem, The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority
  
  • 'Righteous Gentiles'
    [This is the phrase used for those non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.
    At Yad Vashem Museum in Jerusalem, over 20,000 'Righteous Gentiles' are honored; with some 5,800 Poles.]
    
  • Who, exactly, is a Righteous Gentile?
    
• TO SAVE ONE LIFE
  The Story of Righteous Gentiles
  
• Catholic Heroes of the Holocaust
  
• Catholic Martyrs of the Holocaust
  
• Polish Righteous
  
  
  • 
    Henryk Slawik, a Polish Righteous Recognized in 1990
    of Saving Thousands of Jewish and Non-Jewish Lives from Hungary
    
  • Wartime Rescue of Jews by the Polish Catholic Clergy
    http://www.savingjews.org/docs/clergy_rescue.pdf
    

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• German anti-Nazi cleric, Cardinal Clemens August von Galen, heads for sainthood
  
• The Simon Wiesenthal Center Photo Album of the Righteous
  
• From Yad Vashem: Statistics and Some Profiles of the Righteous by Country
  
• From Yad Vashem: Solidarity and Rescue
  Romanian Righteous Among the Nation
  
  • Theodor Criveanu of Romania
    Awarded Posthumously by Yad Vashem
    The "Righteous Among the Nations" Title
    
• Bambili's Rigteuous Among The Nations website
  
  
  

• Khaled Abdelwahhab of Tunisia First Arab Nominated for the "Righteous Among the Nations" Holocaust Honor

• A List Of Holocaust Rescuers
  Courtesy of Florida Center for Instructional Technology,
  College of Education, University of South Florida, USA.
  

  O F B L E S S E D M E M O R Y

  # Joseph Andre was a Belgian abbot who helped rescue hundreds of Jewish children and encouraged them to remain in the Jewish faith. # Germaine Belline and Liliane Gaffney explain how they hid 30 Jews in Belgium. # Ivan Beltrami was able to use his position as an intern to protect Jews in a hospital infirmary. # Esther Bem relates how she and her family were hidden in an Italian village. # Marie Benoit was a French Capuchin monk who arranged for the rescue of thousands of Jews. # Bert Bochove describes at length how he and his wife Annie saved the lives of many Jews in Holland during the war. # Anna and Jaruslav Chlup cared for Herman Feder, a Jewish man who escaped from a train on its way to a death camp. # John Damski barely escaped execution while a Polish political prisoner. Upon release he helped many Jews in Poland to escape the ghetto, obtain false documents, and find work. # Jean Deffaugt, mayor of a French town on the Swiss border, aided Jews caught crossing the border. # Marc Donadille was a Protestant minister who rescued about 80 Jewish children in France. # Miep Gies was one of those who attempted to hide Anne Frank and her family. # Marie-Rose Gineste harbored Jews in Montauben, France. # The Gorniak Family hid Jews in their hayloft. # Marian Halicki hid a group of Jews in his workroom. # Hermann Friedrich Grabe used his position as a foreman to employ and protect many Jews. # Paul Gruninger was a Swiss official who disobeyed his government by allowing some thirty-six hundred Jews to cross illegally into Switzerland. # Emilie Guth and Ermine Orsi were French Protestants who hid Jews in the Le Chambon area of France. # Franciska Halamajowa hid Jews in her hayloft and cellar. # Adelaide Hautval was a French physician who defied the Nazis and assisted those in need at Auschwitz and Birkenau. # Esta Heiber tells how she was able to rescue 20 Jewish children in Belgium. # Father Jacques de Jésus was a Carmelite friar and headmaster of the Petit Collège Sainte-Thérèse de l ' Enfant-Jésus. His attempt to rescue four Jewish boys is remembered in the film Au Revoir les Enfants. # Father Jacques' stay in Mauthausen and Gusen camps is remembered at this site. # Antonin Kalina, a Communist political prisoner, was able to protect 1,300 children in Buchenwald. # Helen L. tells how an older Russian soldier's compassion helped save her life. # Barbara Szymanska Makuch chronicles her aid to Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland. The Nazis imprisoned her for her work in the underground. # Laura Margolis' relief efforts among the Jewish refugees in the Shanghai ghetto saved many lives. # Mihael Michaelov explains how he helped Jews in Bulgaria during the Holocaust. # Ellen Nielsen tells how she helped Jews escape by boat to Sweden. # Marion P., a Dutch rescuer, hid a number of Dutch Jews. (Photo, video, audio, and text) # Dimitar Peshev helped to rescue Jews in Bulgaria. # Mirjam Pinkhof worked with Joop Westerweel in Holland, finding refuge for German children who had been sent there by their parents for safety after Kristallnacht. # Tina Strobos tells the story of an active member of the Dutch underground. # Pastor Andre Trocme lead an effort in the French Protestant village of Le Chambon to save some 3,000-5,000 Jews.

  O F B L E S S E D M E M O R Y

  
  

• Twelve Jesuit Priests Awarded with "The Righteous Among the Nations" Title Roger Braun (1910-1981) - France Pierre Chaillet (1900-1972) - France Jean-Baptist De Coster (1896-1968) -- Belgium Jean Fleury (1905-1982) -- France Emile Gessler (1891-1958) -- Belgium John B. Janssens (1889-1964) - Belgium Alphonse Lambrette (1884-1970) -- Belgium Emile Planckaert (1906-2006) - France Jacob Raile (1894-1949) -Hungary Henri Revol (1904-1992) - France Adam Sztark (1907-1942) - Poland Henri Van Oostayen (1906 -1945) -Belgium Credit: Rev. Vincent A. Lapomarda, S.J., College of the Holy Cross, MA, USA. <webapps.holycross.edu/departments/library/website/hiatt/righteous.htm>

  
  
• Rescuers Speech
  
• Three Great Acts of Heroism and Humility
  
  

 

 

2. Two Countries, Denmark and Bulgaria, that Stood Out and Made a Difference

The Holocaust and Denmark --A Country of Blessed Memory Five Pictures from the German-occupied Denmark that speak volumes... Denmark was the only Nazi-occupied country that managed to save 95% of its Jewish residents. Following a tip-off by a German diplomat, thousands of Jews were evacuated to neutral Sweden. This is one of the great untold stories of World War II: In 1943, in the German occupied Denmark, the Danes found out that all 7,500 Danish Jews were about to be rounded up and deported to German death camps. The Danish people made their own decision: it's not going to happen ... The Rescue of Danish Jews Denmark was the only occupied country that actively resisted the Nazi regime's attempts to deport its Jewish citizens. On September 28, 1943, Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz, a German diplomat, secretly informed the Danish resistance that the Nazis were planning to deport the Danish Jews. The Danes responded quickly, organizing a nationwide effort to smuggle the Jews by sea to neutral Sweden. Denmark During the German Occupation The Rescue of the Jews of Denmark by the Danish People More on the Rescue of the Danish Jews Rescue in Denmark Two Rescuers of the Danish Jews Danish Holocaust Rescuer Knud Dyby: One of the Righteous Knud Dyby, Danish Rescuer    When Germans would ask what illness the Jews were suffering from, sympathetic [Danish] nurses would reply, "German measles." Holocaust Witness Downplays Heroics --------> See also the book: "Boats in the Night: Knud Dyby's involvement in the rescue of the Danish Jews and the Danish Resistance" by Martha Loeffler [1999, Lur Publications] Preben Munch-Nielsen, Danish Rescuer of Jews Tells story of Simple Humanity "We didn't recognize Jews as Jews, but as Danes" --Preben Munch-Nielsen The Danish Boat The National Museum of Denmark /Museum of Danish Resistance: Pictures of the Rescue of the Danish Jews in Oct. 1943 .

Bulgaria -- A Most Significant and Complex Case of the Holocaust

King Boris III --a Hero or a Villain of the Holocaust? King Boris III (left) in a peril game of defiance and compromise with Hitler: that led saving almost all of his 50,000 Bulgarian Jews at the expense of some 12,000 Jews from Macedonia and Thrace

In 1945, the Jewish population of Bulgaria was still about 50,000, its prewar level. Next to the rescue of Danish Jews, Bulgarian Jewry's escape from deportation and extermination represents the most significant exception of any Jewish population in Nazi-occupied Europe. [USHMM] During the war, German-allied Bulgaria did not deport Bulgarian Jews. Bulgaria did, however, deport non-Bulgarian Jews from the territories it had annexed from Yugoslavia and Greece. [USHMM] The Bulgarian people rallied support for the Jews under the leadership of King Boris III, whose personal defiance of Hitler and refusal to supply troops to the Russian front or cooperate with deportation requests set an example for his country. [ADL]    Salvation of Bulgarian Jews during WW II: Collection of Materials King Boris III Honored by the United States Congress On the Ambivalence of How the Deeds of King Boris III Need to be Observed  [In July of 2000, Israel makes the decision that all the monuments in its Bulgarian Forest be removed.] Two Bulgarian Clergymen Named as Righteous Among the Nations for saving Jews during the Holocaust: Bishop Stephan, the Head of the Sofian Church, and Bishop Kiril, the Head of the Plovdiv Church Bulgarian clergymen honored as Righteous Reference Material On the Saving of Bulgarian Jews from the Holocaust: From Martin Gilbert's Book "The Holocaust" (1985; Holt, Rinehart & Winston) From Internet Selection of Collected Materials .

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3. Names of Some True Heroes of the Holocaust:

3A). Raul Wallenberg and Oscar Schindler --Two Legendary Rescuers of Jews

Another Photo of Raoul Wallenberg at his desk in Budapest. Raoul Wallenberg at his office in Budapest.	One Man Can Make a Difference: Raoul Wallenberg Raoul Wallenberg and the Rescue of Jews in Budapest A Hero for Our Time A Hero Without a Grave The Collection of the Five Commemorative Stamps Honoring Raoul Wallenberg: from Israel, Sweden, The United States, Argentine, and Uruguay The Raoul Wallenberg Stamp issued by the Government of Israel's Postal Service in 1983 Holocaust Hero Honored on an United StatesPostage Stamp Profile of a Leader: The Wallenberg Effect Remembering Raoul Wallenberg Homage to Raoul Wallenberg Through Images	To see an enlarged Schutz-Pass, please click in here.
"Here is a man who had the choice of remaining in secure, neutral Sweden when Nazism was ruling Europe. Instead, he left this haven and went to what was then one of the most perilous places in Europe. And for what? To save Jews. He won this battle and I feel that in this age when there is so little to believe in -- so very little on which our young people can pin their hopes and ideals -- he is a person to show the world, which knows so little about him. That is why I believe the story of Raoul Wallenberg should be told ..." -- Attorney Gideon Hausner, Prosecutor of Adolf Eichmann.
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	Oskar Schindler: One of a Kind Oskar Schindler: An Unlikely Hero Oscar Schindler Stories Oscar Schindler Stories and KZ camp at Plaszow Schindler's List Teaching Guide The Later Years of Oskar Schindler Holocaust Survivors from the Schindler's List
. 3B). Nicholas Winton of UK, Jan Karski of Poland, and Zerah Warhaftig, a founding father of modern Israel --Saviors of Thousands of Jewish Lives
Nicholas Winton, the Schindler of Britain 'Britain's Schindler' Knighted
	Jan Karski [Jan Kozielewski] (1914-2000) --a young Roman Catholic Pole that tried to stop the Holocaust ... Jan Karski: A Hero of the Holocaust Jan Karski, a World War II Polish Resistance Hero, Dies at 86 (July 13, 2000)
A Rare Historic Photograph: Sugihara with Warhaftig [Courtesy of Visas For Life Foundation] (not to be confused with Eric Saul's Bogus "Visas For Life" Exhibit Project)		Zerah Warhaftig: Thousands of Jews Saved An Appreciation on Zerah Warhaftig

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3C). Varian Fry and Martha & Rev. Waitstill Sharp --the Only Americans Recognized by Yad Vashem as Heroes of the Holocaust

3D). Diplomats that Made a Difference

Most, but not all, of Europe's consulates turned Jews away.