Holocaust Rescuers

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Holocaust Rescuers

• He Who Saves One Life Saves the World Entire
• Rosemary Conroy 2009

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Do not romanticize history to engage students
interest.

• Less than one-half of one percent of the total
  population (non-Jews) under Nazi occupation
  helped rescue Jews.

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A small number of individuals had the courage to
help by providing

• Hiding places Escape routes
• False papers Food
• Clothing Money
• Weapons Support

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Factors which impeded rescue

• Fear/threat of punishment
• Collective responsibility
• Anti-Semitism of local population
• Public executions/hangings
• Deportation to concentration camps
• On the spot shootings
• Degree of Nazi control over government
  bureaucracy.

• Occupied population was struggling with fear,
  hunger, loss of family members, etc.
• Inability of victims to blend into
  community-degree of assimilation affected chance
  of rescue

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Characteristics of Rescuers

• Nechama Tec, Professor of Sociology at the
  University of Connecticut, has identified six
  characteristics and conditions that Holocaust
  rescuers share.

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Rescuers did not blend into their communities.

• Rescuers seemed to be less controlled by their
  environments.
• These individuals seemed more inclined to act on
  their own principles.

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Rescuers are independent people and they know it.

• They do what they feel they must do.
• They have a clear sense of what is right and the
  right thing to do is to help others.
• They viewed Jews and other victims not as the
  enemy, but simply as human beings.

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Rescuers have a long history of doing good deeds.

• Most had a value system that had been instilled
  and internalized in childhood that emphasized
  tolerance and altruism to others.
• Many rescuers had suffered illness, loss, or
  separation as children combined with a nurturing
  caretaker and this later encouraged
  identification with, and increased sensitivity
  to, the suffering of others.

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Rescuers do good deeds automatically.

• Because they have done the right thing for a long
  time, it doesnt seem extraordinary to them.
• Doing good is part of their lifes fabric.

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Rescuers choose to help without rational
consideration.

• They did not hesitate to help.
• An early education in values, especially
  tolerance, exposure to altruistic role-models,
  and exposure to helping others made virtue a
  habit.

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Chiune Sugihara

• Saved an estimated 3,400 Polish Jews trapped in
  Lithuania in the summer of 1940 by issuing
  Japanese visas for travel across Russia to Japan.
  He issued visas despite the risk to his career
  and to his family.

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Oskar Schindler

• A German war profiteer, Schindler succeeded in
  saving 1,100 Jews who worked in his factory in
  Poland. He used bribery and charm to keep his
  workers safe.

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Feng Shan Ho

• I thought it natural to feel compassion and to
  want to help. From the standpoint of humanity,
  that is the way it should be.

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Chinas Oscar Schindler

• Chinese diplomat
• Saved thousands of Jews early in WWII
• Acted against orders of his superior
• Issued visas to Jews to Shanghai
• They did not need visas for Shanghai but it got
  them out
• Exact number he saved unknown, but he issued over
  2000 visas in 6 months

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Le Chambon-sur-Lignon

• The inhabitants of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, a
  Protestant village in southern France saved the
  lives of thousands of Jews- a large percentage of
  whom were children- and other refugees escaping
  Nazi persecution. An estimated 5,000 people were
  saved.

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Irena Sendler

• As a Polish Catholic social worker, working for
  Zegota, Sendler organized the rescue effort of
  2,500 Jewish babies and children from the
  Nazi-controlled Warsaw Ghetto in 1942 and 1943.

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Raoul Wallenberg

• Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat, is credited
  with saving 100,000 Jewish men, women,and
  children from death at the hands of Adolph
  Eichmann in Budapest by issuing protective
  passports.

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Kindertransport

• An extraordinary rescue operation in which 10,000
  Jewish children were sent from German held lands
  to foster families in Great Britain.

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Danish Rescue

• A collaborative effort by Danish citizens to
  ferry 7,220 Danish Jews and 680 non-Jewish family
  members safely to Sweden.

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Aristedes de Sousa Mendes

• De Sousa Mendes was the Portuguese Consul in
  Bordeaux, France in 1940. He violated his
  governments orders and issued visas to Jewish
  refugees. He is believed to have saved some
  30,000 people, 10,000 of whom were Jews.

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Varian Fry

• Fry was an American working for the Emergency
  Rescue Committee. He made it possible for
  approximately 1,000 Jews to escape from France.

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Bielski Brigade

• After the murder of their family by the Nazis in
  Belarus, the Bielski brothers escaped to the
  nearby forest. This Jewish partisan unit saved
  almost 1,200 Jews while fighting the Germans.

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Luba Tryszynska

• A Polish Jew, Luba rescued and cared for more
  than 40 Dutch children, none older than 14, in
  Bergen-Belsen concentration camp from the summer
  of 1944 until liberation by the British on April
  15,1945.

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Righteous Among the Nations

• This term is used by the State of Israel to
  describe non-Jews who risked their lives during
  the Holocaust to save Jews from death by the
  Nazis. It is commonly translated into Righteous
  Gentile.

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Criteria

• Only a Jewish individual can nominate someone.
• Helping a family member or a Jewish convert does
  not qualify.
• The assistance has to be repeated and /or
  substantial.
• Assistance has to be given without expectation of
  financial gain

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Those Honored

• As of January 1, 2008, 22,211 men and women from
  44 countries have been recognized as Righteous
  Among the Nations.
• Poland has 6,066 awards while many countries like
  Chile, Japan, Ireland, and Portugal have only one.

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Why Teach Rescue?

• What do we want our students to take away from a
  study of the Holocaust?
• How can a study of the Holocaust move our
  students forward so that they are not traumatized
  or fixated on its atrocities?
• What lessons can our students learn from the past
  to make the world a better place?
• How do we move our students to action and
  responsibility?

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Teaching to Empower

• Ingenuity
• Cooperation
• Self-Sacrifice
• Moral Leadership
• Courage
• Integrity
• Compassion
• Social Responsibility

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There are many persons ready to do what is right
because in their hearts they know it is right.
But they hesitate, waiting for the other fellow
to make the first move- and he in turn, waits for
you.

• Marian Anderson

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Rescuers

• Chinune Sugihara
• Oskar Schindler
• Feng Shan Ho
• Le Chambon Sur- Lignon
• Irena Sendler
• Kinder transport

• Danish Rescue
• Aristedes de Sousa Mendes
• Varian Fry
• Bielski Brigade
• Raoul Wallenberg
• Luba Tryszynska