Rescue: The Story of How Gentiles Saved Jews in the Holocaust – A Jane Addams Honor Book About Courage for Children

by Milton Meltzer

Between the years 1933 and 1945, Adolf Hitler organized the Murder of six million Jews while the world looked on silently. But not all people stood back in fear. In every Nazioccupied Country, at every level of society, there were non-Jews who had the courage to resist. From the king of Denmark, refusing to force Jewish Danes to wear yellow stars, to the Dutch student, registering Jewish babies as Gentiles and hiding children in her home, a small number of people had the strength to reject the inhumanity they were ordered to support. Here are their thrilling, terrifying, and most of all, inspiring. For in the horror that was the Holocaust, some human decency could still shine through. "There are no Rambo-style heroics here, just short accounts of quiet bravery. It is an inspiring testimonial." --The San Francisco Examiner-Chronicle ‘A companion to Never to Forget, this is the story of those gentiles who sought to rescue their Jewish neighbors from annihilation during World War II. Succeeding chapters describe the efforts of Germans, Poles, Danes, and others to save Jewish friends and strangers from the Nazis. A story that needs telling." 'SLJ. Notable Children's Books of 1988 (ALA)
1988 Best Books for Young Adults (ALA)
Best Books of 1988 (SLJ)
Best of the '80s (BL)
1988 Children's Editors' Choices (BL)
Young Adult Choices for 1988 (IRA)
1989 Teachers' Choices (IRA)
1989 Jane Addams Children's Book Award Honor Book
Children's Books of 1988 (Library of Congress)
1989 Books for the Teen Age (NY Public Library)
100 Books for Reading and Sharing 1988 (NY Public Library)

Genres: Holocaust, History, Nonfiction, World War II, Historical

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Milton Meltzer wrote 110 books, five of which were nominated for the National Book Award. With Langston Hughes, he co-authored A Pictorial History of Black Americans, now in its sixth edition. He received the 2001 Laura Ingalls Wilder Award for his contribution to children's literature, the 1986 Jane Addams Peace Association Children's Book Award, and the 2000 Regina Medal. He died in New York City of esophageal cancer at age 94.

Reviews

[Shaun Joyner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rescue is the true story of the Holocaust in Europe during World War II. This book tells of how the gentiles saved the Jews in Europe. I liked this book for the many different stories it told, each more daring then the next. This book doesn't really have a plot, it is more of a collection of stories I recommend this book people who like the facts more than a story. Personally, I found this book to be very interesting. One thing it lacked was a storyline though. All is all, the most memorial part of this book was how a few people showing a little kindness managed to change the world and save millions of lives.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

To tell the truth, I began this book rather ignorant about the Holocaust. I have read such books as The Hiding Place and Zvi, but am far from having a full understanding of what brought about the Holocaust, how Hitler rose to power, and what happened then.
For me, this book was perfect.
Meltzer writes clearly, even with the foreign names, and it is easy to follow his reasoning. Though I can't handle much detail about the horrors of that time (especially involving children), this book gave me a better glimpse into that within the context of good, so that it evil only grieved me. The book gives a good overview of what happened in each of the countries under Nazi occupation as relates to the Jews, and showed why each people responded the way they did. Along with overall looks, it tells the gripping and inspiring stories of those individual Gentiles who risked their lives to help Jews. While not Christian, the narrative shows a mostly Christian worldview, so each page, though detailing atrocities, is bound by hope and love. Casting back in my mind now, I cannot even remember the parts that desterbed me while reading it, for they are swallowed up by the light of those "Righteous Gentiles."

It is so encouraging to hear, for a change, not how many Jews died, though that is stated, but how many were saved. There was still goodness and courage then, so there is still goodness and courage now. If darkness should take over the land today, may my generation stand for right as many of those did!

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

While there are a couple graphic descriptions of Nazi violence, I believe this book should be required reading for every citizen. Organized into geographical locations, the stories of person after person who stood up to the Nazis show the reader possibilities, even in the face of what seems like certain failure.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book made a big impact on me. As I read the stories of so many heroic people during such a horrific time, I couldn't help thinking if I would sacrifice so much under similar circumstances. The stories in this book, and of this time, should forever stand as a reminder to us of what true courage and sacrifice is.

[Noah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I this book was very inspiring to anyone who loves history.
Milton. It was a great book, I loved everything about it. He tells about people who died trying to save the Jews. And some of them were successful in the process. He mentions Ellie Wiesel in his book too. And quotes him on one of his phrases.

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

In interesting take of the horrors of the Holocaust. Many of the heroic people lost their lives saving Jews and their stories are largely unknown. Meltzer presents the idea and supporting facts that there was goodness amidst the evil. This book has no storyline but is a collection of stories grouped by country. Not a quick or easy read because of the subject matter, but not difficult.

[Mom · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is actually a collection of short stories about common people who, during a horrifying time found the courage to say no to a genocide. Reading it made me feel that there was hope for humanity that there were people who had this kind of courage. It made me hope that I would have been one.

[Winnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inspirational stories from the gentiles who saved Jews during the Holocaust.
Very moving...the light of human decency that shines through the horrors of the Holocaust!

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heroism performed by righteous gentiles who worked save Jews. New perspective on the Holocaust. Hard to read.

[Dena Lawrence · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an excellent book to accompany Meltzer’s previous book Never to Forget: The Jews of the Holocaust. I agree with the previous reviewer who wrote that it stands as a reminder to us of what true courage and sacrifice is. The book is written at the 7th grade reading level and is fairly short at 159 pages. I recommend it for adults as well as middle school and high school students.

[Linda Shi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Along with the mention of holocaust, the word bad, ruthless, Unhuman, etc. will appare on people's mind. And so do I. But this book actually revealed me some good thing happened during that time. People became helpful to others and try to rescue both them self and others

[Debra Kulchar · Rating 2 out of 5]

Seems to be written for teens. Good stories.

[Benjamin Doll · Rating 4 out of 5]

The name of my book is "RESCUE: The story of How Gentiles Saved Jews in the Holocaust". It was written by Milton Meltzer. In the book he is talking about the Holocaust in Germany, during the time of the second World War. The Purpose of the author was on the one hand to show other people what happened during that time, espacially people who do not come from Germany or Europe, so he wants to present it to the people who didnt know so much about it, because during that time they had just the newspaper as media. On the other hand he probably just wants to honor the people who helped the jews to hide somewhere and got killed after that, because you got killed if you helped the Jews ( pg.1;l.1-4). So in his opinion those people are just normal people who wanted to help defenseless people who did nothing and just had a different religion. So his purpose of that book is to let more people know about the horrible time in Germany during the 2nd World War, but as well give the people who helped defenseless Jews to survive, a last honor.

The theme of the book is very clear. The main thing is, that he wants to say the people how horrible the time was during the 2nd World War. He wants to say that it wasn't right to the Jews to kill them because they had a different religion and dark hairs or eyes, but the rest is the same. So he was really sad and mad about the Holocaust and about the Germans who killed all the Jews, because he is talking about the that he just realized that he has also put some importance of non-evil things (p.2; l.8-10). So that shows me that he tried to get a theme which describes the horrible time during the world war.
Finally I wold say the theme of the book is, that the 2nd World War was a horrible time and that there was no reason to send the Jews to concentration camps, or to kill the people who JUST helped the Jews, so nobody should get killed, because of a different religion or because of having contact to people with a different religion than Christinatiy.

The style of the author is very clear and is the same over the whole story. He is using very formal words, like "inferior" or "anti-semitism" (both page 3). That shows that is very well informed about what happened, what means he can give the right information to the people. This book is a mix of adescription and an exposition. Because on the one hand he is talking about the time during the Holocaust and 2nd World War (the whole book) and on the other hand he is bringing clarity about what really happened to all those Jews. So he has a mixture from these two kinds of style. Another ind of style he is using is, that he uses a lot of real statements(p. 37-38; p.49 the middle;p. 92-94; the statements are the textes withe the italic writing) from the Jews or the persons who helped the Jews. That makes the whole story more brisk and more truthful.
All in all he found a good combination of styles, to make the book a godd book for everyone.

In my opinion, the book is very good and interesting, even if it is a non-fiction story. The author did a good job with using different kinds of styles, to make the non-fiction story a good, interesting and informative story. That really suprised me. I really enjoyed find something out about people who really had to deal with the problems, so it was a good idea to write real statements.
What I didn't like was that there were some words which I didn't know, so I would change that at least at the end should be a explanation for those words, to have it easier to understand the text, especially if you are ayounger person.
All in all I really recommend the book if you want to discover some German history. But as well if you are interested in the Holocaust.

[Noah Vannoy]

I thought this book was very confusing. Every chapter was a totally different setting with different characters. Each chapter followed the theme of the Holocaust and how different people and different groups of people helped the Jews either survive or escape, but it jumped around a lot. I would recommend this book to people who are interested in reading more about the Holocaust or this period in history.

The different groups of people saved many Jewish lives in their acts of guidance. Many of these kind people were killed or tortured for helping Jews because it was against the law. Meltzer collected these stories through interviews, diaries, eyewitness accounts and letters. These stories of human suffering and sacrifice are hard to read, but they are important for us to know about and to remember.

[Melissa Mclees · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am so glad that a lot of people did survive the Holocaust and I am glad that this book was writen because It gives us an educational view of what happened also.

[Heidi]

This book is great if you want it know many stories from people who helped Jews when the Holocaust was going on. It tells stories who took them in and how they handled it. It told stories of how they almost got give away or messing up also it tells a lot more.