Read The Righteous: The Unsung Heroes of the Holocaust Online
Authors: Martin Gilbert
The Righteous: The Unsung Heroes of the Holocaust (67 page)
Warsaw Ghetto Revolt (1943):
Warsaw Uprising (1944):
Warsaw Zoo: acts of rescue in
Washington D.C.: and a child’s future
Wawer (near Warsaw): sanctuaries in
Wawrzenczyce (Poland): a rescuer from
Wazschal, Thea: in hiding, Photo
Wdowinski, David: and a ‘humanitarian’ act
Weapons of the Spirit
(film): about the rescuers of Le Chambon
Weber (an SS man): protects Jews from Arrow Cross
Weber, Janek: rescued
Weberman, Raya: in hiding
Weelde (Belgium): an escape route through
Weidner, Gabrielle: caught, and killed
Weidner, John: organizes escape routes
Weidt, Otto: his Righteous acts, in Berlin
Weinberg, Rose Levin: saved; Photo
Weinberg, Ruth: recalls her rescuers in Rome
Weinbergowa (a Jewish woman): sheltered, while pregnant
Weinryb (a lawyer): given shelter
Weisbarth, Bracha: given shelter
Weiss family: saved by acts of rescue
Weiss, Shewach: and a saga of rescue
Weissblum, Simon: given sanctuary
Weith, Irmgard: a German rescuer
Wells, Leon (Leon Welickzker): in hiding; and a decent SS man
Wells, Stan: helps save a Jewish girl
Wertheim, Micha: saved, in hiding
Westerbork (Holland): internment camp at
Western Front (1914–18): a German veteran of, saves Jews
Western Galicia (Poland): acts of rescue in
Westerweel, Joop: leads a group of Dutch rescuers; tortured and killed
Westerweel, Wilhelmina: sent to a concentration camp
Wezembeck-Oppem (Belgium): Jewish girls in hiding in
‘White Angel of the Vilna Ghetto’:
White, Madeleine: recalls Sofka Skipwith’s Righteous acts
White Russians:
see
Byelorussians
‘Wieczorkowska’: a surname in hiding
Wiel, Alessandro and Luisa: Italian rescuers
Wielka Street (Warsaw): and a remarkable act of rescue
Wiener, Henry: in hiding with his family; later saved by Oskar Schindler
Wierzbica (Poland): rescuers in, executed
Wierzbicki, Michal and Anna: their act of rescue
Wiesel, Elie: and ‘wonderful Maria’ at Buna-Monowitz
Wikiel, Jan and Maria: rescue a Jewish couple
Wilde, Henry: recalls acts of kindness
Wilkes-Barre (Pennsylvania): two rescuers live in
Willegers, Bettina (later Elizabeth Browne): helps her mother’s rescue efforts; helps smuggle four Jews out of Holland
Willegers, Wilhelmina: a Dutch rescuer
‘Willems, Lily’: an assumed identity
Wilrijk (Belgium): two Jewish boys in hiding in
Wind, Halina: saved
Winston, Renate Schonberg: saved
Winterswijk (Holland): fifty-one Jews hidden in
Wisgardisky, Henia: in hiding; Photo
Wisnicki, Joseph: helped to leave Poland
Wiszumirsky family: rescue a Jewish woman
Wlodzimierz Wolynski (Poland): and an act of rescue
Wojtowicz, Tadeusz: a rescuer
Wojtyla, Karol (later Pope John Paul II): will not perform a baptismal ceremony
Wola Przybyslawska (Poland): Poles shot for hiding Jews
Wola (Warsaw): help to Jews in
Wolf, Bob and Myriam: send a testimony
Wolfson, Dr: helped by a German
Wolinski, Henryk: active in Council for Assistance to the Jews; Photo
Wolk, Dr Nathan: gives testimony about his rescuer
Wollheim, Norbert: testifies on behalf of a courageous British sergeant
Wolomin (Poland): rescuers in, warned
‘Woloszczuk, Alicija’: an assumed name; at her First Communion, Photo
Woloszynowicz, Henryk: his parents murdered for sheltering Jews
Wolski, Mieczyslaw: helps a Jewish historian
Woolfe, Richard: interviews British soldiers who rescued a Jewish girl
Woortman, Joop: a Dutch rescuer
Woortman, Semmy: a Dutch rescuer; with the Jewish girl she and her husband were hiding, Photo
World Jewish Congress: and a ‘legendary’ rescuer
Worms (Rhineland): a Jewish couple saved in, xix
Wortman, Joop: helps save a baby
Wroblewski, Stefan: helps save Jews
Wsola (Poland): ‘helpful’ Germans
Wurl, Private Gerhard: helps a Jewish boy
Wybenga, Peter (‘Uncle Piet’): a Dutch rescuer
Wyrzkowska, Antonina: saves Jews
Yad Vashem (Jerusalem): and the Righteous Among the Nations, xv, xvi, xviii; and the Avenue of the Righteous; and unknown rescuers; and ten British soldier-rescuers; its
Righteous Among the Nations
lexicon; locates 17,500 rescuers
Yahil, Leni: records rescue of Danish Jews
Yanczewka (Poland): Jews sheltered in
Yankovsky, Karl: rescues Jews
Yaruga (Ukraine): Jews saved in
Yasha (a Polish girl): helps her mother save a Jewish boy
Yiddish language: and a Jewish girl in hiding; and a Jewish boy in hiding; and a collection of testimonies; and a baby girl in hiding; and a girl taken out of the Kovno Ghetto; and a Jewish girl in a Polish orphanage; spoken by a rescuer; spoken by a German rescuer
Yosselevska, Rivka: saved
Yugoslavia: round-ups in, xix; refugee children from, find sanctuary in Italy; refugees from, in Italy, smuggled into Switzerland;
see also
Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia and Slovenia Yula (a Polish woman): helps save a Jewess
‘Yvonne’: an assumed name, Photo
Zabinski, Jan and Antonina: help hundreds of Jews
Zablocie (Cracow): Schindler’s factory in
Zablocki (a Jew): liberated from prison
Zachmann, Fritz: his ‘compassion’
Zagreb (Croatia): a group of Jews saved in; Jewish refugee children in, find sanctuary in Italy; a Jewish doctor from, finds sanctuary in Italy
Zagurska, Adel, Zoya and Mihalina: save two Jews
Zaidel, Anna: in hiding, Photo
Zaklikow (Poland): nobility and bestiality in
Zakopane (Poland): a young girl found in, after the war
Zalewski, Jozef and Jadwiga: hide a Jewish girl
Zall-Herr (Albania): Jews hidden in
Zamboni, Guelfo: reports on Greek acts of rescue; helps Jews in Salonika
Zamosc (Poland): Council for Assistance to the Jews in
Zante (Greece): Jews of, sent to safety
Zarch, Maja (Maja Abramowitch): rescued
Zargani, Aldo: and ‘the house of the hidden Jews’
Zariz, Ruth: and the ‘indifferent’ citizens of Luxembourg
Zaslaw (Poland): rescue on the eve of deportation to
Zawadka (Poland): rescuers and rescued executed
Zawalow (Eastern Galicia): Jews rescued in
Zayneba, Susic: helps Jews
Zborow (Eastern Galicia): Jews sheltered near
Zborowski, Zissel (and her sons Eli and Mendl, and her daughter Tsila): in hiding
Zbrucz river: and a Jew in hiding
Zdolbunow (eastern Poland): a Righteous German in
Zdunska Wola (Poland): a Jew from, recalls a compassionate German guard
Zeelander, Juliette: in hiding
Zegota (Polish Council for Assistance to the Jews):
Zeimer, Harry: rescued
Zelent, Stanislaw (‘Stasiek’): a Polish foreman, helps Jewish prisoners in Majdanek
‘Zelent’s Sanatorium’: in Majdanek
Zellner, Anna: in hiding
Zellner, Dr Henri: and his wife’s escape to Sweden
Zemun (Serbia): a rescuer in, receives post-war help
Zeuner, Heinz: recalls a Righteous fellow-German
Zgierz (Poland): a Jewish family from, deported from Warsaw
Zhitomir (Russia): and a Russian rescuer
Zielinski family: shelters Jews
Zielonkowski, Mr: helps two Jewish girls leave Vilna
Zimmern, Beate: survives
Zimmern, Felice (Felice Zimmern Stokes): saved
Zimna Wola (Eastern Galicia): Jews in hiding in
Zingeris, Emanuelis: recalls ‘the spiritual people’ who saved Jews
Zipper, Mark and Klara: saved
Zloczow (Eastern Galicia): nine Jews from, saved
Zofiowka (Poland): survivors of, given shelter
Zog, King (of Albania): allows Jewish refugees to stay; overthrown
Zolkiew (Eastern Galicia): and two Ethnic German rescuers
Zoludzewicz (a Polish farmer): shelters Jews
Zucker (a Jewish woman): hidden in a stove
Zuckerman, Abraham: recalls Schindler’s infirmary; recalls a compassionate German truck driver
Zuckerman, Yitzhak: submits testimony on behalf of two Righteous Poles; given shelter; recalls a rescuer; reflects on Polish rescuers and blackmailers; and documents provided by Poles
Zun, Uros: helps save sixteen Jewish girls
Zur Kleinsmiede, Egbert: a rescuer
Zur Kleinsmiede, Tine: a rescuer; ‘Anyone would have done the same thing’
Zürcher, Peter (a Swiss citizen): in Budapest; averts a massacre; Photo
Zvielli, Alexander: contrasts Polish and Dutch rescuers
Zwartendijk, Jan: helps Jews
Zylberberg, Henrietta: her cruel fate
Zylberberg Michael: in hiding
Zwolinski, Titus and Luiza: rescuers
Zwonarz, Jozef: hides Jews
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gilbert, Martin, 1936–
The righteous: the unsung heroes of the Holocaust / Martin Gilbert.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p.) and index.
ISBN: 978-1-4299-0036-2
1. Righteous Gentiles in the Holocaust. 2. World War, 1939–1945—Jews—Rescue. 3. Holocaust, Jewish (1939–1945) I. Title.
D804.65.G45 2003
940.53'1835'0922—dc21
2002027306
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1
Haggadah Supplement
, The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous, New York, 2001.
2
Recollections of Renée Lindenberg (later Kuker), Hidden Child conference, Jerusalem, notes of the proceedings, 14 July 1993.
3
Remarks by Abe Foxman, Hidden Child conference, Jerusalem, notes of the proceedings, 14 July 1993.
4
Yitzhak Arad,
Ghetto in Flames
, page 444.
5
Yitzhak Arad,
Ghetto in Flames
, page 196.
6
Letter to the author, 14 October 2001.
7
Ella Adler, letter to the author, 20 September 2001.
8
Benek (Baruch) Sharoni, ‘Man’s Humanity to Man’,
Mizkor
, October 2000.
9
Benek Sharoni, letter to the author, 20 June 2001.
10
Professor Gerta Vrbova, letter to the author, 18 January 2002.
11
Dr Maurits de Vries, letter to the author, 12 January 2002.
12
Professor Edgar Gold, letter to the author, 5 November 2000.
13
Henry R. Huttenbach,
The Destruction of the Jewish Community of Worms
, page 69.
14
Elisabeth Maxwell, ‘The Rescue of Jews in France and Belgium During the Holocaust’,
The Journal of Holocaust Education
, Summer/Autumn 1998.
15
Si Frumkin, editorial,
Graffiti for Intellectuals
magazine (Los Angeles), 3 July 2000.
16
Babylonian Talmud, Tractate
Sanhedrin
, folio 37a.
1
The story of these diplomats, who together enabled as many as twenty thousand Jews to leave Europe before the Holocaust began, is the subject of the exhibition ‘Visas for Life’, prepared by Eric Saul, which has been widely shown in the United States, Canada, Britain and Europe since 2000, and is part of my forthcoming book
‘Knights of the Spirit’: The World’s Response to Hitler’s Persecution of the Jews, 1933–1941.
2
Szymon Datner,
Walka i Zaglada Bialystockiego Ghetta
, pages 10–14.
3
Yad Vashem Righteous Among the Nations Archive, file 1011.
4
Letter of 30 June 1964, Yad Vashem Righteous Among the Nations Archive, file 1011.
5
Letter of 3 October 1975, Yad Vashem Righteous Among the Nations Archive, file 1011.
6
Jan Tomasz Gross,
Neighbours: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne
.
7
‘A letter from Grondowsky…’, Yad Vashem Righteous Among the Nations Archive, file 1011.
8
Frank Fox, ‘A Skeleton in Poland’s Closet: The Jedwabne Massacre’,
East European Jewish Affairs
, volume 31, number 1, 2001.
9
Bronka Klibanski, ‘In the Ghetto and in the Resistance: A Personal Narrative’, in Dalia Ofer and Lenore J. Weitzman (editors),
Women in the Holocaust
, New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1998, page 184.
10
‘Name: Lisa Dawidowicz’, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Photo Archive, Worksheet ID4381.
11
Yaffa Eliach,
There Once Was a World
, pages 59, 617, 619, 683, 685.
12
‘Nikolai Vavrusevich: An Expression of Gratitude and a Story of Moral Courage’, single-sheet information page, Jewish Foundation for the Righteous, New York.
13
Somini Sengupta, ‘Tearful Reunion for Friends Who Defied the Nazis’,
New York Times
, 28 November 1997.
14
Yad Vashem Righteous Among the Nations Archive, file 2145.
15
Shmuel Spector,
The Holocaust of Volhynian Jews, 1941–1944
, page 197; Yad Vashem Righteous Among the Nations Archive, file 392.
16
Yad Vashem Righteous Among the Nations Archive, file 2655.
17
Letter of 6 November 1992, Yad Vashem Righteous Among the Nations Archive, file 2655. Many years later David Prital edited the annual publication
The Jews of the Soviet Union
, which played a prominent part in the campaign to allow Jews to emigrate from the Soviet Union.
18
Dubrovitsa Memorial Book, page 541, quoted in Shmuel Spector,
The Holocaust of Volhynian Jews, 1941–1944
, page 241.
19
Yad Vashem Righteous Among the Nations Archive, file 2656.
20
Yad Vashem Righteous Among the Nations Archive, file 3122.
21
In 1967 Kalenczuk planted a tree in the Avenue of the Righteous, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, Yad Vashem Archive; Arieh L. Bauminger,
Roll of Honour
, pages 82–83.
22
Testimony of Rivka Yosselevska, Eichmann trial, Jerusalem, 8 May 1961, session 30.
23
Jack Kagan and Dov Cohen,
Surviving the Holocaust with the Russian Jewish Partisans
, pages 57–59.
24
Jack Kagan, in conversation with the author, 18 March 2002.
25
Jack Kagan and Dov Cohen,
Surviving the Holocaust with the Russian Jewish Partisans
, page 166.
26
Wila Orbach, ‘The Destruction of the Jews in the Nazi-Occupied Territories of the USSR’,
Soviet Jewish Affairs
, volume 6, no. 2, 1976, London: Institute of Jewish Affairs.
27
Letter of Emma Sandrigaylo (
née
Babich) to the Israeli Ambassador to Belarus (formerly White Russia), 20 January 1994, Yad Vashem Righteous Among the Nations Archive, file 7252.
28
Letter of Emma Sandrigaylo to Yad Vashem, 7 October 1994, Yad Vashem Righteous Among the Nations Archive, file 7252.
29
Reuben Ainsztein,
Jewish Resistance in Nazi-Occupied Eastern Europe
, page 483.
30
Dovid Katz, “‘Radin’s Last Jew” Recalls Nazi and Soviet Horrors’,
Jewish Chronicle
, 7 November 1997. Radin is the Yiddish rendering for Radun.
31
John and Carol Garrard, ‘Barbarossa’s First Victims: The Jews of Brest’,
East European Jewish Affairs
, volume 28, no. 2, 1998/9, pages 38–40.
32
Letter to Yad Vashem, 1973, Yad Vashem Righteous Among the Nations Archive, file 819. Smolar published his memoirs in Hebrew as
My Struggle for Survival
(Tel Aviv: Moreshet, 1978). I am grateful to Professor Yehuda Bauer for drawing my attention to his story.
33
‘Protocol’, 7 January 1981, Yad Vashem Righteous Among the Nations Archive, file 819.
34
Testimony by Moshe Smolar, Yad Vashem Righteous Among the Nations Archive, file 819.
35
Richard Vanger, manuscript, ‘I want to put on record…’, sent to the author, November 2001.
36
‘Righteous Among the Nations—per Country & Ethnic Origin,’ 1 January 2002, Yad Vashem Department for the Righteous Among the Nations (list sent to the author on 29 January 2002).
37
Yad Vashem Righteous Among the Nations Archive, file 8698.
38
Testimony of Ludmila (Dvorkina) Lurie, 25 April 1993, Yad Vashem Righteous Among the Nations Archive, file 6437.
39
‘Priest Aleksey Aleksandrovich Glagolyev…’, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Photo Archive, Worksheet 67018, citing the Babi Yar Society.
40
Wila Orbach, ‘The Destruction of the Jews in the Nazi-Occupied Territories of the USSR’,
Soviet Jewish Affairs
, volume 6, no. 2, 1976, London: Institute of Jewish Affairs.
41
‘Righteous Among the Nations—per Country & Ethnic Origin’, 1 January 2002, Yad Vashem Department for the Righteous Among the Nations (list sent to the author on 29 January 2002).
42
Jewish Foundation for the Righteous, website: www.jfr.org.
43
Jewish Foundation for the Righteous, website: www.jfr.org.
44
Operational Situation Report, USSR, no. 156, 16 January 1942, International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, Document NO-3405.
45
‘Righteous Among the Nations—per Country & Ethnic Origin,’ 1 January 2002, Yad Vashem Department for the Righteous Among the Nations (list sent to the author on 29 January 2002).
46
Information obtained in Riga by Aba and Ida Taratuta, Leningrad, and sent to the author, 1985.
47
Material in the Yad Vashem Righteous Among the Nations Archive, file 207. Lipke and his wife received the designation Righteous in 1966.
48
Jeffrey Goldberg, ‘Latvia’s Empty Gesture’,
Forward
, 27 February 1998.
49
Sam Kiley, ‘Secret Witness Tells of Nazis’ Boasts’,
The Times
, 3 January 2000.
50
Maja Abramowitch,
To Forgive But Not Forget: Maja’s Story
, pages 48–49.
51
Isidor Levin, ‘Uku Masing (11.8.1909–25.4.1985)’ Yad Vashem Righteous Among the Nations Archive, file 507.
52
Katia Gusarov, ‘Valentina and Valik, Rescued from the Wreckage’,
Yad Vashem Quarterly Magazine
(Jerusalem), volume 25, Winter 2002.
1
Yad Vashem Righteous Among the Nations Archive, file 6.
2
Wladyslawa Choms, quoted in Kazimierz Iranek-Osmecki,
He Who Saves One Life
, page 50.
3
Letter of 21 May 1952, seeking funds to enable Mrs Choms to emigrate to the United States. In the event, the government of Israel invited her to Jerusalem. Yad Vashem Righteous Among the Nations Archive, file 6.
4
Philip Friedman,
Roads to Extinction
, pages 246–48.
5
‘Report to Sir Martin’, sent to the author by Zwi Barnea on 14 May 2001.
6
Dr Leon Chameides, letter to the author, 30 January 2001.
7
Bracha Weisbarth, letter to the author, 20 March 2001.
8
‘Anita plays in the parsonage yard of Father Michael Kujata’, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Photo Archive, Worksheet 09316.
9
Recollections of Felicia Braun, in Wiktoria Sliwowska,
The Last Eyewitnesses: Children of the Holocaust Speak
, pages 263–66.
10
‘Irene Gut Opdyke poses with Jewish forced labourers…’, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Photo Archive, file 89819, citing Gay Block and Malka Drucker,
Rescuers: Portraits of Moral Courage in the Holocaust
; Paldiel,
The Path of the Righteous
, pages 210–11. See also Irene Gut Opdyke,
In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer
.
11
Paldiel, ‘A Last Letter and a Precious “Bundle”’,
Yad Vashem Quarterly Magazine
(Jerusalem), volume 26, Spring 2002.
12
‘Double Testimony’ of Dr Kamila Landau and Maria (Maryla) Charaszkiewicz, Yad Vashem Righteous Among the Nations Archive, file 1028.
13
‘Dawid Tennenbaum…dressed as a Christian girl…’, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Photo Archive, Worksheet 60282.
14
Halina Gartenberg, letter to the author, 12 March 2002.
15
Donia Rosen,
The Forest My Friend
. New York: Bergen-Belsen Memorial Press, 1971; Yad Vashem Righteous Among the Nations Archive, file 144.
16
Philip Friedman,
Roads to Extinction
, page 300.
17
Sara Rosen, letter to the author, 16 January 2002.
18
Testament by Baruch Milch, Archives of the Jewish Historical Institute, Warsaw.
19
Testimony of Halina Zipora Preston (
née
Wind), Yad Vashem Righteous Among the Nations Archive, file 1379.
20
Testimony of Halina Zipora Preston (
née
Wind), Yad Vashem Righteous Among the Nations Archive, file 1379.
21
David Preston, ‘Horrors of Nazis recalled’,
Columbia Missourian
, 23 April 1978.