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The Righteous: The Unsung Heroes of the Holocaust
The Unsung Heroes of the Holocaust
Drawing from twenty-five years of original research, Sir Martin Gilbert re-creates the remarkable stories of non-Jews who risked their lives to help Jews during the Holocaust.
According to Jewish tradition, "Whoever saves one life, it is as if he saved the entire world." Non-Jews who helped save Jewish lives during World War II are designated Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust archive in Jerusalem. In The Righteous, distinguished historian Sir Martin Gilbert, through extensive interviews, explores the courage of those who-throughout Germany and in every occupied country from Norway to Greece, from the Atlantic to the Baltic-took incredible risks to help Jews whose fate would have been sealed without them. Indeed, many lost their lives for their efforts.
Those who hid Jews included priests, nurses, teachers, neighbors and friends, employees and colleagues, soldiers and diplomats, and, above all, ordinary citizens. From Greek Orthodox Princess Alice of Greece, who hid Jews in her home in Athens, to the Ukrainian Uniate Archbishop of Lvov, who hid hundreds of Jews in his churches and monasteries, to Muslims in Bosnia and Albania, many risked, and lost, everything to help their fellow man.
Drawing from twenty-five years of original research, Sir Martin Gilbert re-creates the remarkable stories of non-Jews who risked their lives to help Jews during the Holocaust.
According to Jewish tradition, "Whoever saves one life, it is as if he saved the entire world." Non-Jews who helped save Jewish lives during World War II are designated Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust archive in Jerusalem. In The Righteous, distinguished historian Sir Martin Gilbert, through extensive interviews, explores the courage of those who-throughout Germany and in every occupied country from Norway to Greece, from the Atlantic to the Baltic-took incredible risks to help Jews whose fate would have been sealed without them. Indeed, many lost their lives for their efforts.
Those who hid Jews included priests, nurses, teachers, neighbors and friends, employees and colleagues, soldiers and diplomats, and, above all, ordinary citizens. From Greek Orthodox Princess Alice of Greece, who hid Jews in her home in Athens, to the Ukrainian Uniate Archbishop of Lvov, who hid hundreds of Jews in his churches and monasteries, to Muslims in Bosnia and Albania, many risked, and lost, everything to help their fellow man.
560 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2002
117 people are currently reading
2131 people want to read
About the author
Martin Gilbert
249 books417 followersThe official biographer of Winston Churchill and a leading historian on the Twentieth Century, Sir Martin Gilbert was a scholar and an historian who, though his 88 books, has shown there is such a thing as “true history”
Born in London in 1936, Martin Gilbert was educated at Highgate School, and Magdalen College, Oxford, graduating with First Class Honours. He was a Research Scholar at St Anthony's College, and became a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford in 1962, and an Honorary Fellow in 1994. After working as a researcher for Randolph Churchill, Gilbert was chosen to take over the writing of the Churchill biography upon Randolph's death in 1968, writing six of the eight volumes of biography and editing twelve volumes of documents. In addition, Gilbert has written pioneering and classic works on the First and Second World Wars, the Twentieth Century, the Holocaust, and Jewish history.
Gilbert drove every aspect of his books, from finding archives to corresponding with eyewitnesses and participants that gave his work veracity and meaning, to finding and choosing illustrations, drawing maps that mention each place in the text, and compiling the indexes. He travelled widely lecturing and researching, advised political figures and filmmakers, and gave a voice and a name “to those who fought and those who fell.”
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Born in London in 1936, Martin Gilbert was educated at Highgate School, and Magdalen College, Oxford, graduating with First Class Honours. He was a Research Scholar at St Anthony's College, and became a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford in 1962, and an Honorary Fellow in 1994. After working as a researcher for Randolph Churchill, Gilbert was chosen to take over the writing of the Churchill biography upon Randolph's death in 1968, writing six of the eight volumes of biography and editing twelve volumes of documents. In addition, Gilbert has written pioneering and classic works on the First and Second World Wars, the Twentieth Century, the Holocaust, and Jewish history.
Gilbert drove every aspect of his books, from finding archives to corresponding with eyewitnesses and participants that gave his work veracity and meaning, to finding and choosing illustrations, drawing maps that mention each place in the text, and compiling the indexes. He travelled widely lecturing and researching, advised political figures and filmmakers, and gave a voice and a name “to those who fought and those who fell.”
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August 10, 2024
Martin Gilbert is the greatest historian on the subject of the Holocaust out there, and is one of the most prolific historians of today.
In The Righteous, Gilbert describes the many cases of righteous gentiles, throughout Nazi-occupied Europe, who risked their lives and all they had to save Jews, many of them children, from certain death at the hands of the Nazi killing-machine.
Gilbert describes the heroic actions of those brave and righteous gentiles, by region describing the action of the unsung heroes in Eastern Galicia, Vilna, Lithuania, Poland, Warsaw, Western Galicia, Germany and Austria, Central Europe and the Balkans, Norway, Finland and Denmark, France, Belgium and Luxembourg, Holland, Italy and the Vatican and Hungary as well as in the Camps and on the death marches.
In some cases, entire nations came together to say no to Nazi evil, and to save the Jews of their country.
Denmark, Bulgaria and Albania stand out in this regard.
Irene Grunbaum wrote in her memoirs that one day she would tell the world how the Albanians 'protected a refugee and wouldn't allow her to be harmed even if it meant losing their lives. The gates of your small country remained open, Albania. your authorities closed both eyes, when neccesary, to give poor persecuted people another chance to survive the most horrible of all wars. We thank you'.
Morechaie Paldiel writes that 'An overwhelming majority of the Albanian population, Muslim and Christian, gave refuge to two thousand Jews in their midst, resulting in the almost total rescue of the Jewish community'.
While Gilbers describes the hroism of the Danish and Bulgarian people, he does not write enough on the very special and noble roles, to save Jews, taken by King Christian X of Denmark and King Boris III of Bulgaria.
Despite the collaborators and local anti-Semites in these nations, whole towns and villages came togehter in some cases, in France, Belgium, Holland and Greece, to save their Jews from Nazi anihilation.
Nazi Germany's allies, Italy and Hungary rejected Nazi genocide of Jews, and did what they could to save the Jews. Italian occupied zones in France,the Balkans etc were safe zones for Jews. Only after direct Nazi ocupation were the Jews of these countries taken to the death camps. Finland also protected her Jews, and the neutral countries like Spain, Portugal and Sweden played a role in saving a number of Jewish refugees.
Many Jewish children were taken in by Christian families throughout Europe and looked after them as their own.
In Poland and the East, the penalty for just having contacted a Jew was death.
There are many accounts of the recue and care of Jewish children by saintly people and families, during the war.
I will mention a few of them.
*In the Novogrudok region (which is today in Belarus), one of those saved was a baby, Bella Dzienciolska. 'Her parents had entrusted her to a farmer to hide. She was blonde and did not look like a Jewish child, but at two years old she already spoke Yiddish. So the farmer made a hole under the floor and kept her there during the day for a year until she forgot to speak. He then took her out and told the neighbours that a relatives child was staying with them.'.
Bella Dzienciolska survived the war, and fifty years later, returned to the farm, and found the hole under the floorboards where she had been hidden.
Other children were hidden and raised by nuns and churchmen, in abbeys, monasteries, churches and hospitals and schools run by the Church.
* In the small town of Licskowke, in Eastern Galicia, Father Michael Kujita hid eight year old Anita Helfgott, a fugitive from the ghetto of Skole, in his parsonage. Later a Catholic couple, Josef and Paulina Matusiewicz gave her sanctuary. She survived the war.
* In Czêstochowa, in Poland, Genowefa Starczewka-Korczak gave sanctuary to a little Jewish girl, Celina Berkowitz, shortly before her parents were killed. When the Nazis executed Genowefas husband she was forced to place her Jewish charge and her own two daughters in a Catholic orphanage. But each weekend she brought all three girls home.
* In the Siedlce region east of Warsaw, a poor peasant widow gave shelter to two Jewish girls, Eva, aged 11, and Batja, aged 5, sisters who had escaped from the Warsaw ghetto and wandered for several moths through the Polish countryside.
Fearing betrayal, the peasant woman took Ester and Batja for sanctuary to Sister Stanislawa Jozwikowska, in the Heart of Jesus convent, near the village of Skorzec. 'I was dirty, ill, weak and full of lice' Batja recalled years later, 'The nuns washed me thoroughly, put me into soft pajamas and put me in a clean bed'.
Despite the convent being occupied by German soldiers, nobody knew of the girls Jewish identity except the Mother Superior, and
.Sister Stanislawa Jozwikowska. Sixty years after having been given shelter Batja recalled "Mother Superior Beata Bronislawa Hryniewicz healed me; she recovered my soul by great love; she pampered me as her own child; she dressed me nice and neat; she combed my hair and tied ribbons in my plaits; she taught me manners (she was from an aristocratic noble family). She was strict but fair with my duties; to pray, to study, to work on my character, to obey etc, but every step was with love, love love!'
Children, who were rescued by righteous gentiles, included Israel Lau, later Chief Ashkenazic rabbi of Israel, and Aharon Barak (out of the Kovno Ghetto in a suitcase as a child and hidden by a Lithuanian farmer), later President of the Supreme Court of Israel from 1995 until the middle of 2006.
Many people chose to help out of moral reasons or out of love for their charges. These people were Saints!
These stories are being re-examined at a time when some, like Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei deny the Holocaust happened-while working to carry out a real holocaust against the Jews , while others forget history and aim to dismantle the Jewish State, built to a large extent by Holocaust survivors.
In The Righteous, Gilbert describes the many cases of righteous gentiles, throughout Nazi-occupied Europe, who risked their lives and all they had to save Jews, many of them children, from certain death at the hands of the Nazi killing-machine.
Gilbert describes the heroic actions of those brave and righteous gentiles, by region describing the action of the unsung heroes in Eastern Galicia, Vilna, Lithuania, Poland, Warsaw, Western Galicia, Germany and Austria, Central Europe and the Balkans, Norway, Finland and Denmark, France, Belgium and Luxembourg, Holland, Italy and the Vatican and Hungary as well as in the Camps and on the death marches.
In some cases, entire nations came together to say no to Nazi evil, and to save the Jews of their country.
Denmark, Bulgaria and Albania stand out in this regard.
Irene Grunbaum wrote in her memoirs that one day she would tell the world how the Albanians 'protected a refugee and wouldn't allow her to be harmed even if it meant losing their lives. The gates of your small country remained open, Albania. your authorities closed both eyes, when neccesary, to give poor persecuted people another chance to survive the most horrible of all wars. We thank you'.
Morechaie Paldiel writes that 'An overwhelming majority of the Albanian population, Muslim and Christian, gave refuge to two thousand Jews in their midst, resulting in the almost total rescue of the Jewish community'.
While Gilbers describes the hroism of the Danish and Bulgarian people, he does not write enough on the very special and noble roles, to save Jews, taken by King Christian X of Denmark and King Boris III of Bulgaria.
Despite the collaborators and local anti-Semites in these nations, whole towns and villages came togehter in some cases, in France, Belgium, Holland and Greece, to save their Jews from Nazi anihilation.
Nazi Germany's allies, Italy and Hungary rejected Nazi genocide of Jews, and did what they could to save the Jews. Italian occupied zones in France,the Balkans etc were safe zones for Jews. Only after direct Nazi ocupation were the Jews of these countries taken to the death camps. Finland also protected her Jews, and the neutral countries like Spain, Portugal and Sweden played a role in saving a number of Jewish refugees.
Many Jewish children were taken in by Christian families throughout Europe and looked after them as their own.
In Poland and the East, the penalty for just having contacted a Jew was death.
There are many accounts of the recue and care of Jewish children by saintly people and families, during the war.
I will mention a few of them.
*In the Novogrudok region (which is today in Belarus), one of those saved was a baby, Bella Dzienciolska. 'Her parents had entrusted her to a farmer to hide. She was blonde and did not look like a Jewish child, but at two years old she already spoke Yiddish. So the farmer made a hole under the floor and kept her there during the day for a year until she forgot to speak. He then took her out and told the neighbours that a relatives child was staying with them.'.
Bella Dzienciolska survived the war, and fifty years later, returned to the farm, and found the hole under the floorboards where she had been hidden.
Other children were hidden and raised by nuns and churchmen, in abbeys, monasteries, churches and hospitals and schools run by the Church.
* In the small town of Licskowke, in Eastern Galicia, Father Michael Kujita hid eight year old Anita Helfgott, a fugitive from the ghetto of Skole, in his parsonage. Later a Catholic couple, Josef and Paulina Matusiewicz gave her sanctuary. She survived the war.
* In Czêstochowa, in Poland, Genowefa Starczewka-Korczak gave sanctuary to a little Jewish girl, Celina Berkowitz, shortly before her parents were killed. When the Nazis executed Genowefas husband she was forced to place her Jewish charge and her own two daughters in a Catholic orphanage. But each weekend she brought all three girls home.
* In the Siedlce region east of Warsaw, a poor peasant widow gave shelter to two Jewish girls, Eva, aged 11, and Batja, aged 5, sisters who had escaped from the Warsaw ghetto and wandered for several moths through the Polish countryside.
Fearing betrayal, the peasant woman took Ester and Batja for sanctuary to Sister Stanislawa Jozwikowska, in the Heart of Jesus convent, near the village of Skorzec. 'I was dirty, ill, weak and full of lice' Batja recalled years later, 'The nuns washed me thoroughly, put me into soft pajamas and put me in a clean bed'.
Despite the convent being occupied by German soldiers, nobody knew of the girls Jewish identity except the Mother Superior, and
.Sister Stanislawa Jozwikowska. Sixty years after having been given shelter Batja recalled "Mother Superior Beata Bronislawa Hryniewicz healed me; she recovered my soul by great love; she pampered me as her own child; she dressed me nice and neat; she combed my hair and tied ribbons in my plaits; she taught me manners (she was from an aristocratic noble family). She was strict but fair with my duties; to pray, to study, to work on my character, to obey etc, but every step was with love, love love!'
Children, who were rescued by righteous gentiles, included Israel Lau, later Chief Ashkenazic rabbi of Israel, and Aharon Barak (out of the Kovno Ghetto in a suitcase as a child and hidden by a Lithuanian farmer), later President of the Supreme Court of Israel from 1995 until the middle of 2006.
Many people chose to help out of moral reasons or out of love for their charges. These people were Saints!
These stories are being re-examined at a time when some, like Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei deny the Holocaust happened-while working to carry out a real holocaust against the Jews , while others forget history and aim to dismantle the Jewish State, built to a large extent by Holocaust survivors.
February 25, 2013
I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, it was nothing if not thorough, full of thousands of tales of human decency and tender courage in the face of death. I believe people have a duty to remember the heroes of history, and the Righteous Gentiles were certainly heroes. There are so many inspirational and touching tales in here.
On the other hand, though...I was kind of disappointed by the book too. Martin Gilbert is an internationally recognized historian, and I've been impressed by other books of his I've read. His analyses are spot-on.
But this book HAD no analyses. There was no attempt to interpret the stories, to try to explain why the Righteous acted as they did and so many others didn't. Neither did Gilbert compare and contrast the Righteous Gentiles in different countries, although each country does have its own section.
Instead of that, it's just story after story after heroic story. Almost like a list: "Such-and-such family got saved by these guys, who hid them in a shed. And this guy was saved by this person, and in the same town, So-and-so saved fifteen Jews..." I confess the stories rapidly began to run together and I struggled to finish the book.
For what it's worth, I probably couldn't have done any better. After all, the stories ARE basically the same: someone, at great personal risk, does the right thing and saves lives. I don't know how to provide a comprehensive history of Righteous Gentiles without being repetitive. I just wish it didn't have to be like that.
On the other hand, though...I was kind of disappointed by the book too. Martin Gilbert is an internationally recognized historian, and I've been impressed by other books of his I've read. His analyses are spot-on.
But this book HAD no analyses. There was no attempt to interpret the stories, to try to explain why the Righteous acted as they did and so many others didn't. Neither did Gilbert compare and contrast the Righteous Gentiles in different countries, although each country does have its own section.
Instead of that, it's just story after story after heroic story. Almost like a list: "Such-and-such family got saved by these guys, who hid them in a shed. And this guy was saved by this person, and in the same town, So-and-so saved fifteen Jews..." I confess the stories rapidly began to run together and I struggled to finish the book.
For what it's worth, I probably couldn't have done any better. After all, the stories ARE basically the same: someone, at great personal risk, does the right thing and saves lives. I don't know how to provide a comprehensive history of Righteous Gentiles without being repetitive. I just wish it didn't have to be like that.
October 18, 2008
Another on the Holocaust ... I know, I know, I've got to move on.
But this was very uplifting, though tedious at the same time, because so many of the stories were similar. Someone at great risk helped a Jew to survive.
And yet - the author methodically moves from one country to another describing the heroic acts there, and how a whole Jewish agency, Yad Vashem, The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority was established to chronicle these acts, and name those who helped others as "Righteous Among the Nations" (See the website http://www.yadvashem.org/)
Probably three things stood out for me:
That Italy and Italians never had a racial animosity towards Jews, though they were certainly infected with militarism. And the author singled out Norway, Denmark, Belgium, and Italy for principled and widespread resistance.
Sweden, Switzerland were two countries that somehow positioned themselves as neutral - but that was a wonderful status, and many underground movements developed human pipelines through which to send Jews to a haven of survival.
I had not heard of instances in Albania and Kosovo, where the Muslim population had many "righteous" helping Jews survive. On the island of Rhodes in the mediteranean, one story was given of an Imam at a Mosque, offering a Rabbi a safe place to story some holy Jewish writings. The Rabbi agreed, the sacred texts hidden by the Imam, and returned to him after the war.
The book ends with an afterword, where the author muses on how so many acquiesced to the propaganda or participated in the terror, and yet everywhere there were always some who did resist through the act of being compassionate to those being hunted down. What is it in human nature that can so dramatically sink so low, and yet in direct opposition, examples of such high moral acts.
But this was very uplifting, though tedious at the same time, because so many of the stories were similar. Someone at great risk helped a Jew to survive.
And yet - the author methodically moves from one country to another describing the heroic acts there, and how a whole Jewish agency, Yad Vashem, The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority was established to chronicle these acts, and name those who helped others as "Righteous Among the Nations" (See the website http://www.yadvashem.org/)
Probably three things stood out for me:
That Italy and Italians never had a racial animosity towards Jews, though they were certainly infected with militarism. And the author singled out Norway, Denmark, Belgium, and Italy for principled and widespread resistance.
Sweden, Switzerland were two countries that somehow positioned themselves as neutral - but that was a wonderful status, and many underground movements developed human pipelines through which to send Jews to a haven of survival.
I had not heard of instances in Albania and Kosovo, where the Muslim population had many "righteous" helping Jews survive. On the island of Rhodes in the mediteranean, one story was given of an Imam at a Mosque, offering a Rabbi a safe place to story some holy Jewish writings. The Rabbi agreed, the sacred texts hidden by the Imam, and returned to him after the war.
The book ends with an afterword, where the author muses on how so many acquiesced to the propaganda or participated in the terror, and yet everywhere there were always some who did resist through the act of being compassionate to those being hunted down. What is it in human nature that can so dramatically sink so low, and yet in direct opposition, examples of such high moral acts.
February 11, 2021
Nothing makes me cry as much as a story about selfless courage, and this book made me cry many times. The Holocaust is one of the worst things, perhaps the worst thing, that has ever happened on this planet. It showed human beings at their absolute worst. Many acted like monsters and many more were spineless. This book focuses on the exceptions, those people who took risks to save others under terrible conditions and with potentially deadly consequences.
The Righteous feels more like a monument than a book. It lacks any kind of narrative thread, it is just one story of good versus evil after another. Some of the heroes mentioned in this book are given a few pages (Oskar Schindler, for example, gets three or four) but many are given a paragraph, and some get only a sentence or two. Each one of these little stories deserves to be an entire book. Even the stories that are only two sentences long involved depths of good and evil, horror and hope, struggle and fear that cannot be expressed adequately in the space they were given. Gilbert had a choice between including as many stories as he could, or fleshing out a smaller number of stories. He chose the former. This was probably the right approach because every single one of these people deserves to be mentioned, but it makes the book feel a little disjointed and rambling. It leaves the reader wishing for more details to many of the stories.
It was interesting to see how different nations dealt with German pressure to give up their Jews. Some countries acted with defiance at an almost national level. The people of Denmark can be proud of the way they acted as a nation. In places like Poland, where antisemitism was at least as strong as it was in Germany, the locals largely helped the Germans hunt down their Jewish population. After the war, those who had hidden Jews were sometimes murdered by their neighbors when what they had done was discovered. When the Russians pushed the Germans out of an area the Jews would often wait until dark to emerge from their hiding places so that those who saved them would not be attacked for their acts of heroism. This makes the actions of the over 7,000 Poles who have been recognized by the state of Israel as Righteous Among the Nations all the more heroic.
This is an imperfect book, but a great monument to the heroes who dared to stand up against the Holocaust.
The Righteous feels more like a monument than a book. It lacks any kind of narrative thread, it is just one story of good versus evil after another. Some of the heroes mentioned in this book are given a few pages (Oskar Schindler, for example, gets three or four) but many are given a paragraph, and some get only a sentence or two. Each one of these little stories deserves to be an entire book. Even the stories that are only two sentences long involved depths of good and evil, horror and hope, struggle and fear that cannot be expressed adequately in the space they were given. Gilbert had a choice between including as many stories as he could, or fleshing out a smaller number of stories. He chose the former. This was probably the right approach because every single one of these people deserves to be mentioned, but it makes the book feel a little disjointed and rambling. It leaves the reader wishing for more details to many of the stories.
It was interesting to see how different nations dealt with German pressure to give up their Jews. Some countries acted with defiance at an almost national level. The people of Denmark can be proud of the way they acted as a nation. In places like Poland, where antisemitism was at least as strong as it was in Germany, the locals largely helped the Germans hunt down their Jewish population. After the war, those who had hidden Jews were sometimes murdered by their neighbors when what they had done was discovered. When the Russians pushed the Germans out of an area the Jews would often wait until dark to emerge from their hiding places so that those who saved them would not be attacked for their acts of heroism. This makes the actions of the over 7,000 Poles who have been recognized by the state of Israel as Righteous Among the Nations all the more heroic.
This is an imperfect book, but a great monument to the heroes who dared to stand up against the Holocaust.
Want to read
August 15, 2023I bought this book almost brand new for £1 in my favourite charity shop partial because of its ridiculously low price but also because I felt at a gut level that I needed to be reminded that there are things and times which demand that, if you have any belief in right and wrong that you must take a stand. It is not enough to lodge a protest, disagree, post a frowning face, but you must take a stand and do something that requires you to put yourself on the line in the most personal way and do it in the knowledge that no one will ever know or maybe thank you.
Aside from Oscar Schindler, and he only because of a film, not one of the people in this book will appear on anyone's list of heroes - which is perhaps how they would have wanted it because they are as unknown as the people they saved and the even more numerous, and almost always nameless, that they couldn't save.
I can't wait to start reading this book.
Aside from Oscar Schindler, and he only because of a film, not one of the people in this book will appear on anyone's list of heroes - which is perhaps how they would have wanted it because they are as unknown as the people they saved and the even more numerous, and almost always nameless, that they couldn't save.
I can't wait to start reading this book.
January 20, 2019
Quintessential Martin Gilbert. The book focuses on, by country, many of the non-Jewish people who risked their lives to try save Jews during the Holocaust. There were regular people, clergy, government officials and even sometimes German soldiers. Using direct Yad Vashem testimony, diaries, letters to the author and actual interviews, Gilbert provides heart rending views of the fear and horror facing the Jews but also of their 'saviors'. It is dense and at times somewhat tedious since some episodes are just short snippets. Where the book shines is in the longer, more detailed events with more about the people involved. Of course, that is all dependent on the amount of information available.
But these stories also illustrate what humanity is all about. The people in the book and the thousands of others not are truly the "Righteous Among the Nations." Throughout the book, and especially in the afterword, philosophical questions of morality and humanity are raised. What would you have done in the face of such deadly persecution, knowing you were risking your family's lives, those you tried to save and possibly your neighbors'?
But these stories also illustrate what humanity is all about. The people in the book and the thousands of others not are truly the "Righteous Among the Nations." Throughout the book, and especially in the afterword, philosophical questions of morality and humanity are raised. What would you have done in the face of such deadly persecution, knowing you were risking your family's lives, those you tried to save and possibly your neighbors'?
August 25, 2011
Competent description of "righteous among nations" during the Holocaust. However, despite the historical significance and thrilling nature of the events described, this was a boring and disjointed read. Competent, but not creative or full of curiosity.
March 9, 2025
“Goodness leaves us gasping…,” said Mordecai Paldiel, long-time head of the Righteous Among the Nations Department, at Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem.
Indeed, so is the evil of the Holocaust. Yet, the goodness of the “Good Samaritans” who rescued, sheltered, and spoke up and died for their Jewish neighbors may be even more gasp-worthy, considering the risks taken. For rescuing one Jew, a whole Gentile family could be slaughtered. For turning in a neighbor hiding a Jew, the greedy (albeit, sometimes, starving) tattletale neighbor could be rewarded life-saving money.
One dramatic story of rescue is that of the 4,700 Jewish husbands rescued by their non-Jewish wives in Berlin. These women protested outside their husbands’ holding pen for a solid week and refused to leave until their husbands’ release. Technically, they were supposed to divorce, but most refused. Technically, all—Jews and wives—could have been executed then and there. Somehow, the women’s ploy worked and the men were released and given the status of “privileged persons” by no less than the evil Dr. Goebbels himself. Oh, the power of the wives’ goodness! Oh, the power of protest! Yes, I was left gasping.
In some cases, the rescues are by whole religious orders, villages, nations, and diplomats. Denmark, for example, saved nearly all its Jews, in daring escapes by a flotilla of boats across the sea into Sweden. Most rescues, however, are by individual peasants, farmers, and city dwellers.
This book can be hard to read for at least two reasons: the depth of violence, slaughter, and betrayal depicted is almost more than the heart can bear; the technical difficulty of reading about so many rescues strung together in single sentences and whole paragraphs or in two to three pages. In the latter difficulty, Gilbert weaves the stories together well as he does so geographically, using fairly smooth transitions story-to-story. The maps at the end of the book of each territory in which the Jews are taken or rescued do help you to follow the events. I especially loved the final map, which shows the numbers of those “righteous” by country awarded medals by their rescued Jews and the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum.
I also loved seeing the reference to the Sarajevo Haggadah by a Muslim (Chapter 10). This reference is, in part, the impetus for the Geraldine Brooks’ fictional novel People of the Book. This book, too, is a wonderful read and takes you inside the Jewish persecution in 1492 Spain--and persecutions later on.
“He who saves one life, it is as if he had saved the whole world.” Pray that we would all be so willing to save the world today!
Indeed, so is the evil of the Holocaust. Yet, the goodness of the “Good Samaritans” who rescued, sheltered, and spoke up and died for their Jewish neighbors may be even more gasp-worthy, considering the risks taken. For rescuing one Jew, a whole Gentile family could be slaughtered. For turning in a neighbor hiding a Jew, the greedy (albeit, sometimes, starving) tattletale neighbor could be rewarded life-saving money.
One dramatic story of rescue is that of the 4,700 Jewish husbands rescued by their non-Jewish wives in Berlin. These women protested outside their husbands’ holding pen for a solid week and refused to leave until their husbands’ release. Technically, they were supposed to divorce, but most refused. Technically, all—Jews and wives—could have been executed then and there. Somehow, the women’s ploy worked and the men were released and given the status of “privileged persons” by no less than the evil Dr. Goebbels himself. Oh, the power of the wives’ goodness! Oh, the power of protest! Yes, I was left gasping.
In some cases, the rescues are by whole religious orders, villages, nations, and diplomats. Denmark, for example, saved nearly all its Jews, in daring escapes by a flotilla of boats across the sea into Sweden. Most rescues, however, are by individual peasants, farmers, and city dwellers.
This book can be hard to read for at least two reasons: the depth of violence, slaughter, and betrayal depicted is almost more than the heart can bear; the technical difficulty of reading about so many rescues strung together in single sentences and whole paragraphs or in two to three pages. In the latter difficulty, Gilbert weaves the stories together well as he does so geographically, using fairly smooth transitions story-to-story. The maps at the end of the book of each territory in which the Jews are taken or rescued do help you to follow the events. I especially loved the final map, which shows the numbers of those “righteous” by country awarded medals by their rescued Jews and the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum.
I also loved seeing the reference to the Sarajevo Haggadah by a Muslim (Chapter 10). This reference is, in part, the impetus for the Geraldine Brooks’ fictional novel People of the Book. This book, too, is a wonderful read and takes you inside the Jewish persecution in 1492 Spain--and persecutions later on.
“He who saves one life, it is as if he had saved the whole world.” Pray that we would all be so willing to save the world today!
October 28, 2019
I read this book as a companion piece to Martin Gilbert's "The Boys," which I have reviewed on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
After reading in February 2015 that Mr. Gilbert had died, and was considered one of the leading historians of the 20th Century (he's mainly known as Winston Churchill's biographer, although has written over 80 history books), I decided to give both books a read. I'm so glad I did. I'm interested in WWII, my family are British and all of my aunts and uncles and both my parents did their bit for the war effort, even as young teenagers (for instance, from the age of 15 my dad went to school in the mornings, then turned a lathe at Parnall's Airplane Factory helping to build Lancaster gun turret parts in the afternoon).
"The Boys" tells the survival stories of 732 children who somehow miraculously survived the concentration camps and death marches of Nazi Germany, to recuperate in English sanitoriums from 1945 on. Almost all the children were between the ages of 12-16 at the end of the war, although some were a bit older. I highly recommend reading that book if you are interested in the truth about child Holocaust survivors, and accounts of human survival against all odds.
This book, "The Righteous", chronicles the Righteous Among Nations, those individuals across Europe who hid, protected, fed or otherwise somehow helped to save the life or in many cases lives, of Jewish men, women and children during the Holocaust. The book is separated into countries, and is a grind through very difficult material (although well organized), since the book is over 500 pages long and consists of first person or third person accounts of survival testimonial. Mr. Gilbert assembled the letters of thousands of Jewish survivors and parsed them by country.
But as you read each survivor's story, page after page after page, you realize that the stories are remarkably similar in one thing: ordinary people, farmers, neighbours, strangers, will often go to the most incredible and dangerous lengths to save a fellow human. I think by the end, you realize that the Jewish population of Europe, those who were saved from the Nazis in hiding (which numbered in the tens of thousands, I believe), were largely saved in ones and twos, in basements, attics, stoves, haylofts, beneath farm yards (there were a LOT of dugouts beneath animal troughs for instance because people quickly learned that the Nazis disliked getting their uniforms covered in animal filth), and in churches, orphanages and among the nuns and monks of hundreds of convents and monasteries. The book leaves the reader with a very real sense of the immense stress and terror that the entire population of Europe existed with for six very long years.
Raoul Wallenberg and Oskar Schindler are in there too, and there is a little-known story about Schindler. Apart from saving Jewish workers, he also re-routed a train car of dying concentration camp survivors, by lying to a guard. One thousand people were removed from the car, and although some were past saving, most of them were nursed back to health by his wife, in his factory under the noses of German guards.
Mr. Gilbert raises interesting questions a few times: not one gas canister meant for the gas chambers ever went astray. Why, he wonders? It would have been easy to reroute or lose a shipment with regularity. Messing up the supply chain wouldn't have been that hard. He also mentions that only one train engineer (driver), ever refused to do his job. All the others continued to shunt trainloads of prisoners and deportees to the concentration camps and death pits.
In the end, Mr. Gilbert saves the words of the Righteous themselves for the last chapter. To the question, "Why did you do it? Why did you save Jews you didn't know at great personal risk to your life and the life of your family?' each Righteous answered the same thing: it was the right thing to do. One man put it this way: "I had no choice. They were children. What would you do?"
Indeed. I asked myself that question all the way through the book.
After reading in February 2015 that Mr. Gilbert had died, and was considered one of the leading historians of the 20th Century (he's mainly known as Winston Churchill's biographer, although has written over 80 history books), I decided to give both books a read. I'm so glad I did. I'm interested in WWII, my family are British and all of my aunts and uncles and both my parents did their bit for the war effort, even as young teenagers (for instance, from the age of 15 my dad went to school in the mornings, then turned a lathe at Parnall's Airplane Factory helping to build Lancaster gun turret parts in the afternoon).
"The Boys" tells the survival stories of 732 children who somehow miraculously survived the concentration camps and death marches of Nazi Germany, to recuperate in English sanitoriums from 1945 on. Almost all the children were between the ages of 12-16 at the end of the war, although some were a bit older. I highly recommend reading that book if you are interested in the truth about child Holocaust survivors, and accounts of human survival against all odds.
This book, "The Righteous", chronicles the Righteous Among Nations, those individuals across Europe who hid, protected, fed or otherwise somehow helped to save the life or in many cases lives, of Jewish men, women and children during the Holocaust. The book is separated into countries, and is a grind through very difficult material (although well organized), since the book is over 500 pages long and consists of first person or third person accounts of survival testimonial. Mr. Gilbert assembled the letters of thousands of Jewish survivors and parsed them by country.
But as you read each survivor's story, page after page after page, you realize that the stories are remarkably similar in one thing: ordinary people, farmers, neighbours, strangers, will often go to the most incredible and dangerous lengths to save a fellow human. I think by the end, you realize that the Jewish population of Europe, those who were saved from the Nazis in hiding (which numbered in the tens of thousands, I believe), were largely saved in ones and twos, in basements, attics, stoves, haylofts, beneath farm yards (there were a LOT of dugouts beneath animal troughs for instance because people quickly learned that the Nazis disliked getting their uniforms covered in animal filth), and in churches, orphanages and among the nuns and monks of hundreds of convents and monasteries. The book leaves the reader with a very real sense of the immense stress and terror that the entire population of Europe existed with for six very long years.
Raoul Wallenberg and Oskar Schindler are in there too, and there is a little-known story about Schindler. Apart from saving Jewish workers, he also re-routed a train car of dying concentration camp survivors, by lying to a guard. One thousand people were removed from the car, and although some were past saving, most of them were nursed back to health by his wife, in his factory under the noses of German guards.
Mr. Gilbert raises interesting questions a few times: not one gas canister meant for the gas chambers ever went astray. Why, he wonders? It would have been easy to reroute or lose a shipment with regularity. Messing up the supply chain wouldn't have been that hard. He also mentions that only one train engineer (driver), ever refused to do his job. All the others continued to shunt trainloads of prisoners and deportees to the concentration camps and death pits.
In the end, Mr. Gilbert saves the words of the Righteous themselves for the last chapter. To the question, "Why did you do it? Why did you save Jews you didn't know at great personal risk to your life and the life of your family?' each Righteous answered the same thing: it was the right thing to do. One man put it this way: "I had no choice. They were children. What would you do?"
Indeed. I asked myself that question all the way through the book.
March 29, 2010
Not a Holocaust perspective that gets a lot of attention, Martin Gilbert has done an outstanding job of painstakingly chronicling the efforts of non-Jews throughout Europe and beyond to save their Jewish communities and refugees from deportation and death during World War II, actions which earned most of these individuals acknowledgment as Righteous Among The Nations by the Yad Vashem. Gilbert moves through these rescues country by country, and highlights the gestures, ordinary and extraordinary (though in this context, nothing is ordinary), of these determined individuals to refuse to cave to the chaos and destruction of this aspect of the war.
When I read The Hiding Place back in fifth grade, I remember thinking: Would I have been able to do what Corrie ten Boom and her family did, or would fear have kept me from helping? Certainly not a question that can be accurately answered in a time, country and circumstance so far removed from the actual events, but it returned to my mind while reading this book.
More importantly, in my mind: What were the qualities demonstrated by those who DID assist, for a moment, an hour, a month, or years? I decided to focus on the qualities and circumstances of the rescuers that Gilbert reveals, and I think it would be a good exercise for me to try to develop and strengthen these key traits in my own life - whether they ever become urgently needed in life or not.
One of the reviews mentioned that the book discusses one of the few bright spots in the darkness of the Holocaust, but make no mistake - the efforts of these individuals cost many of them their lives, as well as those for whom they tried so determinedly to save. It's a fitting acknowledgment of undaunted, day-in, day-out effort by individuals who deserve every honor they've been given.
When I read The Hiding Place back in fifth grade, I remember thinking: Would I have been able to do what Corrie ten Boom and her family did, or would fear have kept me from helping? Certainly not a question that can be accurately answered in a time, country and circumstance so far removed from the actual events, but it returned to my mind while reading this book.
More importantly, in my mind: What were the qualities demonstrated by those who DID assist, for a moment, an hour, a month, or years? I decided to focus on the qualities and circumstances of the rescuers that Gilbert reveals, and I think it would be a good exercise for me to try to develop and strengthen these key traits in my own life - whether they ever become urgently needed in life or not.
One of the reviews mentioned that the book discusses one of the few bright spots in the darkness of the Holocaust, but make no mistake - the efforts of these individuals cost many of them their lives, as well as those for whom they tried so determinedly to save. It's a fitting acknowledgment of undaunted, day-in, day-out effort by individuals who deserve every honor they've been given.
February 5, 2013
This was one of those books that you're happy that you're reading because you believe you are learning something of importance, but that is hard to get through none the less. In this particular instance the reason it was difficult to get through wasn't necessarily the horrific (though heroic) subject matter. It was the terrible style in which it was written. Mr. Gilbert tries to present a sampling of cases concerning the actions of The Righteous in Europe during the Holocaust. Not a bad idea, certainly not a bad idea for a book. The problem is in the execution. There is no flow from story to story, the examples provide scant details and the writing is just bad. I enjoyed the book because of it's premise and it's stories of the fight against evil in an environment that did not support such ventures. The presentation though leaves a lot to be desired.
June 12, 2010
Inherently hopeful, this book is a welcome flash of light in the darkness of Holocaust histories. A simple and straightforward collection of anecdotes of Gentiles who saved the Jews, with no religious bias toward Catholic, Protestant or secular heroism. The tone is one of simple admiration and respectful remembrance. I didn't care for the format; Gilbert launches straight into the recollections, arbitrarily organized by geographic location, with little framing narrative. Still, the raw material of the book is a valuable addition to the more clinical, and cynical sort of Holocaust records that seem to be more prevalent.
December 17, 2016
This book is a roll call and salute to those Europeans of all nationalities, faiths, and classes who whooped hide and protect Jews from the Nazis during WWII. Dozens if not hundreds of names are cited so that only brief descriptions of often like or similar activities are given. After a while this made the read a bit monotonous. I'd have rather learned more about the experiences of fewer people. The best part for me is the context the author sets up showing how widespread anti-Semitism was throughout Europe -east and west - well before the Nazis took power.
February 28, 2025
A remarkable book. It's one thing to read books which show the broad sweeps of history. That is fine. However, it is another thing to show the nitty-gritty, day to day, details of how it affects individuals. That is what this book does and quite effectively. You owe it to yourself to read this book.
January 30, 2011
This wasn't exactly what I thought it would be. It was more a listing of heroes instead of details about their stories.
November 5, 2022
In this riveting, engrossing, sad but important book, Sir Martin Gilbert explores and documents those rare individuals, during the darkest days of the Holocaust, who saved the lives of many Jews, despite the threat to their own lives, and that of their families, that such brave actions represented.
For such acts of extraordinary bravery, and humanity, their names are now recorded for all posterity as ' The Righteous Among the Nations ' at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem Israel.
During this time, when the very worst of human depravity and brutality were exhibited across Europe, the individuals recorded here, and sometimes their families, and even whole villages rescued Jews from terror and death at the hands of the Nazi regime and it`s allies.
Sir Martin has since produced a dvd which focuses on those diplomats that made incredible efforts, at great personnel risk to rescue thousands of Jews, but in this book, the focus is on the ordinary person - farmer, peasant, villager who refused to put aside their humanity, and by doing so became,for all time 'hasidei umot haolam '
Righteous Among the Nations.
For such acts of extraordinary bravery, and humanity, their names are now recorded for all posterity as ' The Righteous Among the Nations ' at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem Israel.
During this time, when the very worst of human depravity and brutality were exhibited across Europe, the individuals recorded here, and sometimes their families, and even whole villages rescued Jews from terror and death at the hands of the Nazi regime and it`s allies.
Sir Martin has since produced a dvd which focuses on those diplomats that made incredible efforts, at great personnel risk to rescue thousands of Jews, but in this book, the focus is on the ordinary person - farmer, peasant, villager who refused to put aside their humanity, and by doing so became,for all time 'hasidei umot haolam '
Righteous Among the Nations.
September 28, 2019
The only reason I rated the book a three is because it is not easy to read repetition after repetition.
Many thoughts went through my mind as I read. First I am thankful that there are good people in the world, but immediately also disgusted by the fact that there are not many good people. Then the very important realization that there are good and bad people on all sides - it's not religion or nationality that makes bad people, but character and choice.
What will I do when something similar happens again, and it does every day. In South Africa there is peace at the moment, sort off - xenophobia is a big problem here. Am I willing to hide a person from another country? Gender violence is also a big problem in South Africa - am I willing to put my life and the lives of my wife and children in danger to intervene when I see a husband abuse his wife? And what if we are suddenly at war - am I willing to hide people perceived as the enemy by "my people"?
Someone once said - the world is not a bad place due to what bad people do, it is a bad place due to good people doing nothing.
Many thoughts went through my mind as I read. First I am thankful that there are good people in the world, but immediately also disgusted by the fact that there are not many good people. Then the very important realization that there are good and bad people on all sides - it's not religion or nationality that makes bad people, but character and choice.
What will I do when something similar happens again, and it does every day. In South Africa there is peace at the moment, sort off - xenophobia is a big problem here. Am I willing to hide a person from another country? Gender violence is also a big problem in South Africa - am I willing to put my life and the lives of my wife and children in danger to intervene when I see a husband abuse his wife? And what if we are suddenly at war - am I willing to hide people perceived as the enemy by "my people"?
Someone once said - the world is not a bad place due to what bad people do, it is a bad place due to good people doing nothing.
January 23, 2018
Inspiring
Over 19000 Righteous. What if that number were doubled or tripled? How many more lives would have been saved? This book is extremely well written, extremely well researched, and among one of Gilbert's best. Having said that I also have to say that there were rescuers he made little to no mention of or wrote not at all about them. Schindler gets his story told again and that is just. It deserves to be told again. However there is little written of Irena Sendler who saved 2500 children from almost certain death in the Warsaw ghetto. A heroine recently nominated for the Nobel peace prize. Corrie Ten Bloom got no mention at all. Miep Giesp who rode her bycicle all over the country trying to find food for the Frank family got only a brief tag. And let us not forget the true treasure this woman saved when she hid Anne Frank's diary. Very good, important book but so much more should have been said.
Over 19000 Righteous. What if that number were doubled or tripled? How many more lives would have been saved? This book is extremely well written, extremely well researched, and among one of Gilbert's best. Having said that I also have to say that there were rescuers he made little to no mention of or wrote not at all about them. Schindler gets his story told again and that is just. It deserves to be told again. However there is little written of Irena Sendler who saved 2500 children from almost certain death in the Warsaw ghetto. A heroine recently nominated for the Nobel peace prize. Corrie Ten Bloom got no mention at all. Miep Giesp who rode her bycicle all over the country trying to find food for the Frank family got only a brief tag. And let us not forget the true treasure this woman saved when she hid Anne Frank's diary. Very good, important book but so much more should have been said.
June 25, 2024
This is another book that needs to be read and digested in bite-sized pieces. While it doesn't, in any way, detract from the horrors of the Holocaust or the depravity of Hitler and his cronies, it highlights the God-given mercy and compassion that is dormant in most human beings and that rises to the surface in some during times of crisis.
One thing that we, as humans, must never forget is that, while God may use the evil, unjust actions of men to chastise and discipline His people, He will never abandon them. Perpetrators of even the smallest slight against His children will be called to account for their actions (or lack of them).
One thing that we, as humans, must never forget is that, while God may use the evil, unjust actions of men to chastise and discipline His people, He will never abandon them. Perpetrators of even the smallest slight against His children will be called to account for their actions (or lack of them).
July 25, 2024
“Whoever saves one life, it is as if he saved the entire world”
From Schindler (everyone knows Schindler) and Raoul Wallenberg to the many many nameless ones who helped save Jews and were recognised by the State of Israel as Righteous Among The Nations, their stories are told by brilliant Historian Sir Martin Gilbert.
The stories are heartbreaking and uplifting and incredibly remarkable that during Nazi occupation some brave people made the conscious decision to help the helpless at risk of death.
From Schindler (everyone knows Schindler) and Raoul Wallenberg to the many many nameless ones who helped save Jews and were recognised by the State of Israel as Righteous Among The Nations, their stories are told by brilliant Historian Sir Martin Gilbert.
The stories are heartbreaking and uplifting and incredibly remarkable that during Nazi occupation some brave people made the conscious decision to help the helpless at risk of death.
July 9, 2025
Important book by an incredible historian. The vast majority of people living under German rule during the 30s and early 40s either were silent about the Holocaust or actually collaborated in it. Gilbert highlights those rare individuals and groups who rescued Jews. These heroes were from all walks of life and even included some Nazi party members and German officers. The stories of these people and communities are given in short descriptions and left me wanting to do further reading on many of them.
February 8, 2024
An incredible spotlight on the often unforgotten and lesser-known heroes that saved lives during the Holocaust. People from all walks of life, faiths, and backgrounds came together to fight against the evil of war and hatred. We as a society should be looking to these people as the true heroes in the annals of our history. Those who have been forgotten are often the very people who should never be.
June 22, 2018
More like 3.5, but I'm rounding up. This is a fascinating subject- the people designated "Righteous Among the Nations" for helping save Jews during the Holocaust, who were, unfortunately, the minority. I'm not crazy about how the book is written, though- there's not much analysis until the end, and it's organized by region, so at times it just feels like a list of who did what.
July 17, 2017
Martin gilbert: fine historian
March 8, 2020
Fantastic. Should be read with his holocaust book.
March 1, 2022
Excellent. Martin Gilbert has done a wonderful job with this book.
January 17, 2024
I found it a sobering read that was informative. I enjoyed reading the personal stories.
January 18, 2023
A series of anecdotes grouped by country, with little analysis of the psychology of the righteous, nor much analysis of how the actions of the righteous differed due to the different countries and subcultures’ different histories, economics, laws, enforcement, anti-semitism, religious beliefs, etc.
An appreciated point— the foreword and interviews throughout take care to note the voices of those Jewish people who indeed say NO ONE but fellow Jewish people helped them, and to point out that perhaps the focus on praising the few righteous that helped their Jewish neighbours creates a false picture of the world and humanity, a world where in truth, the vast majority did not.
Worthwhile for the stories and quotations from survivors, but go elsewhere for analysis.
An appreciated point— the foreword and interviews throughout take care to note the voices of those Jewish people who indeed say NO ONE but fellow Jewish people helped them, and to point out that perhaps the focus on praising the few righteous that helped their Jewish neighbours creates a false picture of the world and humanity, a world where in truth, the vast majority did not.
Worthwhile for the stories and quotations from survivors, but go elsewhere for analysis.
September 19, 2016
I started this book in early 2014 on the kindle I received as a gift. Since I only read the kindle when on the plane or vacation, I finally finished it just a week ago. It was one of those books that if I read a chapter on the plane and didn't get back to the next chapter until a month later, it was OK. I was really amazed at all the stories of people who helped the Jews escape or hid them or helped them survive the camps during the Holocaust. And it was astonishing that people remembered these stories years and years later in order for them to be told and remembered at the Memorial in Israel. It was a very interesting non-fiction book.
July 18, 2015
This was not a book that I found I could sit and read right through. Not only does Mr. Gilbert describe the righteous, he also talks of those who did not live, and it was very hard to take. So I found myself reading some of it, then putting it aside then coming back. I am a quick reader, but this one took the better part of a month because it hurt so much seeing how many people suffered among the heroes of this terrible time.
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