The righteous : the unsung heroes of the Holocaust
(Book)

Includes bibliographical references (p. 463-478) and index.

Having chronicled the horrors of Nazi-dominated Europe in major works on the Holocaust and the Second World War, the distinguished historian Sir Martin Gilbert now turns his attention to the subject of altruism in that period. In this extraodinary volume, Gilbert re-creates the stories of hundreds of non-Jews who, during the Holocaust, risked their lives to help save Jews from deportation and death. Drawing on twenty-five years of original research, Gilbert takes us through Germany and every occupied country from Norway to Greece, from the Atlantic to the Baltic, where the Righteous, by their lifesaving actions, challenged Nazi barbarism. The Greek Orthodox Princess Alice, who hid Jewish families in her Athens home; a Polish woman, "the Angel of Lvov," who worked closely with the Roman Catholic Church to obtain false certificates of baptism for those in imminent danger; and Albanian Muslims, who disguised Jews as their own brethren in order for them to be saved, are just a few of the Righteous whom we encounter within these pages. Others were priests and nuns, teachers and diplomats, colleagues and neighbors: above all, "ordinary" men and women, decent human beings. According to Jewish tradition, "Whoever saves one life; it is as if he saved the entire world." The Righteous of Martin Gilbert's book certainly upheld that ideal, as they inspire us with their righteous acts to this day.