In this remarkable, historically significant book, Mordecai Paldiel recounts in vivid detail the many ways in which, at great risk to their own lives, Jews rescued other Jews during the Holocaust. In so doing he puts to rest the widely held belief that all Jews in Nazi-dominated Europe wore blinders and allowed themselves to be led like "lambs to the slaughter." Paldiel documents how brave Jewish men and women saved thousands of their fellow Jews through efforts unprecedented in Jewish history. Encyclopedic in scope and organized by country, Saving One's Own tells the stories of hundreds of Jewish activists who created rescue networks, escape routes, safe havens, and partisan fighting groups to save beleaguered Jewish men, women, and children from the Nazis. The rescuers' dramatic stories are often shared in their own words, and Paldiel provides extensive historical background and documentation. The untold story of these Jewish heroes, who displayed inventiveness and courage in outwitting the enemy--and in saving literally thousands of Jews--is finally revealed.
Other than the celebrated story of Oskar Schindler, there were other Germans who helped Jews survive the Nazi-orchestrated Holocaust, and close to 600 of them have been honored as Righteous Among the Nations by the Jerusalem Yad Vashem Holocaust Institute. This book details the rescue deeds of a large select group of German rescuers, either inside Germany or in other countries under German occupation. The author was the director for 24 years of a special department at Yad Vashem that dealt with honoring non-Jewish rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust.
Up to 1939, when Poland came under German domination, it was the center of the European Jewish world, filled with a large Jewish population that had lived on Polish soil for over nine centuries, and developed a vibrant self-sustaining social and religious community culture. During the German occupation of World War II, close to 3 million Polish Jews were exterminated. Poland was where the Nazis established most of their ghettos and all death camps. It was where the railroad tracks converged, bringing hundreds of thousand Jews from the remotest corners of Europe to feed the Nazi death machine. Thousands of Poles risked their lives to save Jews by mostly sheltering them, while most others were passive onlookers, fearful for their lives to get involved, and too many others collaborated with the hated enemy in eliminating Jews. Mordecai Paldiel, a historian of the Holocaust, examines the important role Jews played in Poland in the years before Germans occupied the country. He also examines the antisemitism that existed in Poland before the Nazis arrived. Just as important, he highlights the various responses of Poles as witnesses of the German extermination of Jews, including the thousands who, in spite of the dangers to themselves, did their utmost to save Jews from the German-orchestrated Holocaust.
A study of Christian clerics who have been declared "Righteous among the Nations" by Yad Vashem; the number at present is close to 600. Examines activities of rescuers country by country, e.g. Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland, other countries of Eastern Europe, and Italy. Aid given to persecuted Jews included protests against official antisemitism, intervention with authorities, sermons calling on congregations to help Jews, providing Jews with Christian identity papers, and hiding Jews. Stresses that the Churches did not abandon their anti-Judaic doctrines during the Holocaust, and many of the rescuers were known as antisemites before the war. Some of the clerics approved the early anti-Jewish measures of the occupiers or of the pro-Nazi governments, but protested when the deportations began. Examines the motives of the clerical rescuers, which involved compassion and a necessity to help the persecuted in the spirit of the parable of the Good Samaritan, as well as a deep respect for Jews and Judaism, which was especially typical of Protestants. Protestants in countries where they were a small and persecuted minority rendered more help to Jews during the Holocaust than the dominant Catholic or Orthodox populations. After World War II the Catholic and Protestant Churches acknowledged a measure of responsibility for the genocide of the Jews.
The Path of The Righteous by Mordecai Paldiel recounts the inspiring stories of several hundred "Righteous Among the Nations" - heroic gentile men and women, in virtually all the countries of Nazi-occupied Europe, who put themselves and their families at risk in order to save the lives of Jews fleeing the Nazi terror. Drawn from the files of Yad Vashem Memorial in Israel, these stories are a badly needed corrective to the pessimistic view of human nature which has become all too common in the Holocaust's aftermath. They prove that decency, morality, and altruism can survive even under the most horrendous of circumstances, and that some people will always be willing to act selflessly. It also serves to disprove the cruel lie being promulgated by some that the Holocaust never took place, or did not take place as described in eye witness accounts. The courageous individuals whose tales are recounted in this book are monuments to the nobility of the human spirit. They did what they did not for the sake of reward or prestige, but because they believed it was right. Some of them were pious Christians motivated by religion. Others were energized by feelings of intense compassion. Neither the threat of punishment nor ostracism by relatives and neighbors deterred them. Love for their fellow human beings was a higher value. The book contains a foreword by Rabbi Harold Schulweis, founding chairman of the Jewish Foundation for Christian Rescuers/ADL, and an afterword by Abraham H. Foxman, National Director of the Anti-Defamation League and a Holocaust survivor who was saved by his Polish nursemaid, poignantly express their recognition of and gratitude to the untold numbers of righteous gentiles, many of whom will never be known by us.
Seventy years after it took place, the Holocaust committed against the Jews of Europe during World War II continues to cast a giant shadow over humankind. Man's inhumanity to man is not a thing of the past. Genocidal action is still commonplace around the globe. Has humankind learned the lessons of the past? Is the human race doomed to live in a perpetual state of war and self-destruction? Explaining the Holocaust shows how, given the right circumstances, human beings can lose their humanity. Does that mean that the ethical teachings of the major religions are wishful thinking? This book tackles two questions that continue to be asked by people everywhere: Why did a highly civilized nation like Germany, in the middle of the twentieth century, commit the most heinous crime in all of human history? And if indeed there is a loving God who made a covenant with the people of Israel, why were millions of innocent, peaceful Jews dehumanized, starved, tortured, and systematically murdered? Explaining the Holocaust spares no one in discussing the enormity of the evil. But it also shows how the divine spark in human beings did not die during those years of darkness, and why we still have a glimmer of hope.
A history and analysis of the program by the Yad Vashem Holocaust Institute, in Jerusalem, on behalf of the State of Israel, of honoring non-Jewish rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust
Deals with those embassy and consular workers throughout German-occupied Europe who, through granting visas to Jews or obtaining consular protection for them, rescued thousands of lives. Most of these diplomats acted contrary to their governments' policies of non-admission of Jews and infringed on instructions given to them or at least the spirit of these instructions, thereby risking their careers and sometimes their lives. Arranged according to the countries where these diplomats were accredited: Germany, Austria, Lithuania, France, Denmark, Hungary, and others. Ch. 7 (pp. 111-200), "Budapest: The Apocalypse", deals with events in Budapest in 1944, when diplomats of various countries, by concerted efforts, granted visas and consular protection to ca. 25,000 Jews. Dwells especially on the activities of Frank Foley, Jan Zwartendijk, Sempo Sugihara, Luiz Martins de Souza Dantas, Aristides de Sousa Mendes, Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz, Carl Lutz, Raoul Wallenberg, Giorgio Perlasca, and Angelo Rotta.
The Path of The Righteous by Mordecai Paldiel recounts the inspiring stories of several hundred "Righteous Among the Nations" - heroic gentile men and women, in virtually all the countries of Nazi-occupied Europe, who put themselves and their families at risk in order to save the lives of Jews fleeing the Nazi terror. Drawn from the files of Yad Vashem Memorial in Israel, these stories are a badly needed corrective to the pessimistic view of human nature which has become all too common in the Holocaust's aftermath. They prove that decency, morality, and altruism can survive even under the most horrendous of circumstances, and that some people will always be willing to act selflessly. It also serves to disprove the cruel lie being promulgated by some that the Holocaust never took place, or did not take place as described in eye witness accounts. The courageous individuals whose tales are recounted in this book are monuments to the nobility of the human spirit. They did what they did not for the sake of reward or prestige, but because they believed it was right. Some of them were pious Christians motivated by religion. Others were energized by feelings of intense compassion. Neither the threat of punishment nor ostracism by relatives and neighbors deterred them. Love for their fellow human beings was a higher value. The book contains a foreword by Rabbi Harold Schulweis, founding chairman of the Jewish Foundation for Christian Rescuers/ADL, and an afterword by Abraham H. Foxman, National Director of the Anti-Defamation League and a Holocaust survivor who was saved by his Polish nursemaid, poignantly express their recognition of and gratitude to the untold numbers of righteous gentiles, many of whom will never be known by us.
In this remarkable, historically significant book, Mordecai Paldiel recounts in vivid detail the many ways in which, at great risk to their own lives, Jews rescued other Jews during the Holocaust. In so doing he puts to rest the widely held belief that all Jews in Nazi-dominated Europe wore blinders and allowed themselves to be led like “lambs to the slaughter.” Paldiel documents how brave Jewish men and women saved thousands of their fellow Jews through efforts unprecedented in Jewish history. Encyclopedic in scope and organized by country, Saving One’s Own tells the stories of hundreds of Jewish activists who created rescue networks, escape routes, safe havens, and partisan fighting groups to save beleaguered Jewish men, women, and children from the Nazis. The rescuers’ dramatic stories are often shared in their own words, and Paldiel provides extensive historical background and documentation. The untold story of these Jewish heroes, who displayed inventiveness and courage in outwitting the enemy—and in saving literally thousands of Jews—is finally revealed.
A study of Christian clerics who have been declared "Righteous among the Nations" by Yad Vashem; the number at present is close to 600. Examines activities of rescuers country by country, e.g. Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland, other countries of Eastern Europe, and Italy. Aid given to persecuted Jews included protests against official antisemitism, intervention with authorities, sermons calling on congregations to help Jews, providing Jews with Christian identity papers, and hiding Jews. Stresses that the Churches did not abandon their anti-Judaic doctrines during the Holocaust, and many of the rescuers were known as antisemites before the war. Some of the clerics approved the early anti-Jewish measures of the occupiers or of the pro-Nazi governments, but protested when the deportations began. Examines the motives of the clerical rescuers, which involved compassion and a necessity to help the persecuted in the spirit of the parable of the Good Samaritan, as well as a deep respect for Jews and Judaism, which was especially typical of Protestants. Protestants in countries where they were a small and persecuted minority rendered more help to Jews during the Holocaust than the dominant Catholic or Orthodox populations. After World War II the Catholic and Protestant Churches acknowledged a measure of responsibility for the genocide of the Jews.
Seventy years after it took place, the Holocaust committed against the Jews of Europe during World War II continues to cast a giant shadow over humankind. Man's inhumanity to man is not a thing of the past. Genocidal action is still commonplace around the globe. Has humankind learned the lessons of the past? Is the human race doomed to live in a perpetual state of war and self-destruction? Explaining the Holocaust shows how, given the right circumstances, human beings can lose their humanity. Does that mean that the ethical teachings of the major religions are wishful thinking? This book tackles two questions that continue to be asked by people everywhere: Why did a highly civilized nation like Germany, in the middle of the twentieth century, commit the most heinous crime in all of human history? And if indeed there is a loving God who made a covenant with the people of Israel, why were millions of innocent, peaceful Jews dehumanized, starved, tortured, and systematically murdered? Explaining the Holocaust spares no one in discussing the enormity of the evil. But it also shows how the divine spark in human beings did not die during those years of darkness, and why we still have a glimmer of hope.
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