Righteous among the Nations

Discussion in 'The Holocaust' started by laufer, Oct 25, 2004.

  1. Recce_Mitch

    Recce_Mitch Very Senior Member

    :poppy: Miep Gies :poppy:

    Paul
     
  2. marek_pk

    marek_pk Senior Member

    Yad Vashem honors Michalina Jasko, from Poland, as Righteous Among the Nations
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    JERUSALEM (EJP)---Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial and Museum in Jerusalem, posthumously honored Michalina Jasko from Poland as Righteous Among the Nations, during a ceremony in the Hall of Remembrance on Sunday.

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    EJP | News | Eastern Europe | Yad Vashem honors Michalina Jasko, from Poland, as Righteous Among the Nations[/FONT][FONT=&quot]

    [/FONT][FONT=&quot]P[/FONT][FONT=&quot]eople still being added to 'Righteous Among Nations'[/FONT]!
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    [/FONT]
     
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  3. soren1941

    soren1941 Living in Ypres

    Has anyone read this? it was on the BBC radio Sunday Religous News programme sounded quite interesting


    Other Schindlers: Why Some People Chose to Save Jews in the Holocaust



    Alibris UK: 10364680906

    Thanks to Thomas Keneally's book Schindler's Ark, and the film based on it, Schindler's List, we have become more aware of the fact that, in the midst of Hitler's extermination of the Jews, courage and humanity could still overcome evil. While 6 million Jews were murdered by the Nazi regime, some were saved through the actions of non-Jews whose consciences would not allow them to pass by on the other side, and many are honoured by Yad Vashem as 'Righteous Among the Nations' for their actions. As a baby, Agnes Grunwald-Spier was herself saved from the horrors of Auschwitz by an unknown official, and is now a trustee of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust. She has collected together the stories of thirty individuals who rescued Jews, and these provide a new insight into why these people were prepared to risk so much for their fellow men and women. With a foreword by Sir Martin Gilbert, one of the leading experts on the subject, this is an ultimately uplifting account of how some good deeds really do shine in a weary world. 'Unfortunately, to kill thousands of people only a few men with machine guns are needed, and they do not risk anything except their souls. Saving of just one man involved exceptional devotion, undescribable courage of many people, and they were risking not only their lives, but also those of their children.' Irena Veisaite 'Unfortunately, to kill thousands of people only a few men with machine guns are needed, and they do not risk anything except their souls. Saving of just one man involved exceptional devotion, undescribable courage of many people, and they were risking not only their lives, but also those of their children.' Irena Veisaite 'Unfortunately, to kill thousands of people only a few men with machine guns are needed, and they do not risk anything except their souls. Saving of just one man involved exceptional devotion, undescribable courage of many people, and they were risking not only their lives, but also those of their children.' Irena Veisaite Hide
     
  4. Kuno

    Kuno Very Senior Member

    I cannot open the link. Say's it's "broken".
     
  5. Nicola_G

    Nicola_G Senior Member

    Just tried to post but computer crashed so have to start again lol.

    That's what impressed me when I went to visit Ann Frank's house a few weeks ago. Otto Frank's staff not only agreed to help hide them, but helped feed them. This was made more difficult by the strict rationing and other issues of feeding 8 extra people not listed on the official lists that the Mayor's of Holland were ordered to draw up of all jewish people living in their areas, when the German's first invaded.

    I can't remember her name, but Otto Frank's secretary had a small video about it at the house describing what it was like. She was the person instrumental in saving all Anne's diaries and returned them to Otto after the war. Without her we wouldn't have been able to read such an inspirational book

    It makes one wonder what one would do in that situation. I would like to think that I would do the same thing, but you don't know until actually in that situation.
     
  6. Oggie2620

    Oggie2620 Senior Member

    That would be Miep Gies who has just recently died. Brave group of people. There are many unsung heroes in France, Belgium & Holland (and some in Germany etc) who saved people and have modestly stayed in the background never to be publicly acknowledged...

    I will be adding book to my wishlist

    Dee :)
     
  7. DoveRenee

    DoveRenee Junior Member

    Just tried to post but computer crashed so have to start again lol.

    That's what impressed me when I went to visit Ann Frank's house a few weeks ago. Otto Frank's staff not only agreed to help hide them, but helped feed them. This was made more difficult by the strict rationing and other issues of feeding 8 extra people not listed on the official lists that the Mayor's of Holland were ordered to draw up of all jewish people living in their areas, when the German's first invaded.

    I can't remember her name, but Otto Frank's secretary had a small video about it at the house describing what it was like. She was the person instrumental in saving all Anne's diaries and returned them to Otto after the war. Without her we wouldn't have been able to read such an inspirational book

    It makes one wonder what one would do in that situation. I would like to think that I would do the same thing, but you don't know until actually in that situation.

    Thanks Nicole, as for me, it would not even be a question. I would for sure. Even though it could mean death for me.
     
  8. soren1941

    soren1941 Living in Ypres

    someone dobbed them on tho, must of been an inner circle member?
     
  9. Nicola_G

    Nicola_G Senior Member

    someone dobbed them on tho, must of been an inner circle member?

    From what they said in the video, no one has been ale to find out who it was.
     
  10. Peter Clare

    Peter Clare Very Senior Member

    The Canadian Press: Israel recognizes first Salvadoran for saving Jews during Holocaust

    JERUSALEM — Israel's Holocaust memorial on Tuesday added a Salvadoran diplomat to its list of gentiles who risked their lives to help save Jews during World War II.
    Col. Jose Arturo Castellanos defied his government by issuing thousands of visas and fake documents to as many as 40,000 Jews, helping many escape death at the hands of the Nazis.
    Castellanos was the first Salvadoran to be added to the Yad Vashem memorial's list of "Righteous Among the Nations."
    Castellanos, who died in 1977, served as El Salvador's consul general in Geneva in the 1940s. He and a Jewish colleague, George Mantello, often doled out the lifesaving documents without the knowledge of the Salvadoran government.
    In the aftermath of World War II, in which the Nazis and their collaborators murdered 6 million Jews, many survivors fled to Israel. Three Jews who were aided by Castellanos joined dozens of Salvadorans bearing their nation's flag for Tuesday's ceremony in Jerusalem.
    Yitzhak Mayer, 83, was a Jewish teenager in Hungary when he and his family were given El Salvador citizenship papers. Amid oppression, the documents gave him a feeling of safety.
    "Police would stop you, and if you were hiding, you were afraid that you will be detected and have to identify yourself," Mayer said. "If you have a very official diplomatic document, it always helps."
    Salvadoran Foreign Minister Hugo Martinez, who was in Israel on an official trip, said he was emotional and proud to meet people who might have been saved by his countryman.
    "This is something that not only Col. Castellanos but the country of El Salvador has contributed to humanity," he said.
    The granting of the Israeli memorial's highest honour for non-Jews to a Salvadorian citizen focuses attention on ties between the two small nations on opposite sides of the globe.
    In recent months a number of Latin American nations have unilaterally recognized a Palestinian state — a move that Israel rejects. Although El Salvador says it is committed to peace through negotiations, the Palestinian Authority has said it is in discussions with El Salvador over possible recognition.
    Still, El Salvador is one of the only countries in the world with an embassy in Jerusalem, which Israel claims as its capital but most of the international community does not recognize.
     
  11. dbf

    dbf Moderatrix MOD

    Out of curiosity for why cases such as the above, which seem so obviously deserving (to me anyway) are only now being added, I was looking into the procedure for nominating someone for this honour. I found this which I didn't know, in Yad Vashem's FAQs. Thought it interesting enough to add here:

    Are all rescuers of Jews entitled to receive the title of Righteous Among the Nations?

    Rescue of Jews took many forms and required varying degrees of involvement and self-sacrifice. The title of the Righteous is reserved for the smaller group of those who actively risked their lives or their liberty for the express purpose of saving Jews from persecution and murder.

    There is a wider circle of men and women who assisted the persecuted in the darkest hour of Jewish history, but whose help did not involve the taking of risks. These humane people have our greatest appreciation and their deeds are being documented by us. Nevertheless, even though their aid was crucial to the Jews' survival, in the absence of risk, they do not qualify for recognition within the framework of the Righteous program.

    Also in FAQs, the criteria:
    What are the basic criteria for awarding the title of Righteous?
    The basic conditions for granting the title are:

    -Active involvement of the rescuer in saving one or several Jews from the threat of death or deportation to death camps
    -Risk to the rescuer’s life, liberty or position
    -The initial motivation being the intention to help persecuted Jews: i.e. not for payment or any other reward such as religious conversion of the saved person, adoption of a child, etc.
    -The existence of testimony of those who were helped or at least unequivocal documentation establishing the nature of the rescue and its circumstances.

    36 Questions About the Holocaust (19-29)
    Who are the "Righteous Among the Nations"?

    Answer: "Righteous Among the Nations," or "Righteous Gentiles," refers to those non-Jews who aided Jews during the Holocaust. There were "Righteous Among the Nations" in every country overrun or allied with the Nazis, and their deeds often led to the rescue of Jewish lives. Yad Vashem, the Israeli national remembrance authority for the Holocaust, bestows special honors upon these individuals.

    To date, after carefully evaluating each case, Yad Vashem has recognized approximately 10,000 "Righteous Gentiles" in three different categories of recognition.

    The country with the most "Righteous Gentiles" is Poland. The country with the highest proportion (per capita) is the Netherlands.

    The figure of 10,000 is far from complete as many cases were never reported, frequently because those who were helped have died. Moreover, this figure only includes those who actually risked their lives to save Jews, and not those who merely extended aid.
     
  12. Melsays

    Melsays Junior Member

    Henryk Sławik (1894-1944) during the inter-war period he was a policeman in Polish Silesia. At the same time Sławik was social worker and activist of the right-wing faction of the Polish Socialist Party.

    At the outbreak of Polish Defence War of 1939 Sławik joined a mobilised police battalion attached to the Kraków Army. He fought with distinction during the retreat fights along the northern parts of the Carpathians. His battalion was attached to 2nd Mountain Brigade, with which he took part in defence of the mountain passes leading to Slovakia.

    On September 15 Sławik and his men were ordered to retreat towards the newly-established border with Hungary. On September 17, after the Soviet Union joined the war against Poland, Sławik crossed the border and was interned as a Prisoner of War. Jozsef Antall, father of the future prime minister of Hungary and member of the Hungarian ministry of internal affairs responsible for the civilian refugees spotted Sławik in one of the camps. Thanks to his fluent knowledge of German language Sławik was brought to Budapest and allowed to create the Citizen's Committee for Help for Polish Refugees. Together with Jozsef Antall he organised jobs for the POWs and DPs, schools and orphanages. He also clandestinely organised an organisation whose purpose was to help the exiled Poles leave the camps of internment and get to France or Middle East to join the Polish Army. Sławik also became a delegate of the Polish Government in Exile.

    After the government of Hungary issued the racial decrees and separated Polish refugees of Jewish descent from their colleagues, Sławik started to issue false documents confirming their Polish roots and Catholic faith. He also helped several hundred Polish Jews to get to the Yugoslavian partisans. One of his initiatives was creation of an orphanage for the Jewish orphans (officially named School for Children of Polish Officers) in Vac. To help keep the true character of this school the children were visited by the Catholic church authorities, most notably by nuncio Angelo Rotta.

    After the Germans took over Hungary in March 1944, Sławik went underground and ordered as many of the refugees under his command to leave Hungary. Thanks to the fact that he accomplished an appointment of a new commanding officer of the camp for Polish Jews, all of them were able to escape and leave Hungary. Also the Jewish children of the orphanage in Vac were evacuated. Sławik was arrested by the Germans on March 19, 1944. Brutally tortured, he did not inform on his Hungarian colleagues. Finally he was sent to Mauthausen concentration camp where he was shot to death, most probably in August 1944. His wife survived the Ravensbrück concentration camp and after the war found their daughter hidden in Hungary by the Antall family. His place of burial remains unknown.

    It is estimated that Henryk Sławik helped as many as 30,000 Polish refugees in Hungary. Approximately 5,000 of them were Jews. After 1948 the communist authorities of both Poland and Hungary did not allow his deeds to be commemorated. In 1990 the Yad Vashem Institute honoured Sławik with the title of Righteous Among the Nations
    Is there an official citation or published account of this? Fascinating story...
    Mel
     
  13. Son of POW-Escaper

    Son of POW-Escaper Senior Member

    Great story, thanks for sharing it!

    Marc
     
  14. Tom Canning

    Tom Canning WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    I find this article extremely interesting

    Heritage
    16
    CATENA March 2011
    M
    onsignor O’Flaherty was
    an Irish priest and official of
    the Vatican Curia. During
    World War II he was responsible for
    saving 6,500 Allied POWs, Jews and
    other civilians. Due to his ability to
    evade the traps set by the German
    Gestapo he earned the nickname
    of “The Scarlet Pimpernel of the
    Vatican”.
    Hugh O’Flaherty was born on the
    Kerry/Cork border but grew up in
    Killarney. His father was the steward of
    Killarney Golf Club. As a young seminarian
    he was posted to Rome in 1922 to finish
    his studies and was ordained Priest on
    the 20th December 1925.
    He was a skilled diplomat and served the
    Vatican Diplomatic Service in Egypt, Haiti,
    San Domingo and Czechoslovakia. After a
    period of four years he was recalled to
    Rome and was appointed to the Holy Office.
    He was an amateur golfing champion as
    well as being a champion boxer and a
    good handball player and hurler. His
    sporting attributes, as well as his charm,
    enabled him to make friends with the
    aristocracy in Rome, many of whom were
    able to help him in his later exploits.
    The Rome Escape Organisation featured
    a cast of characters who worked together
    with the Monsignor to save many lives.
    They ran the risk of imprisonment and
    possible execution.
    Among these was a Major Sam Derry,
    captured serving in North Africa. He
    managed to escape, made his way to
    Rome and assisted the Monsignor, taking
    charge of organisational and administrative
    matters. One surprising supporter of the
    Monsignor at this time was Delia Murphy,
    the famous Irish ballad singer. She was
    the wife of Dr Thomas Kiernan who,
    during the occupation of Rome by the
    Germans, was the Irish Minister
    Plenipotentiary to The Holy See.
    Notable amongst the civilian supporters
    was a Mrs Henrietta Chevalier, a young
    Maltese widow with six daughters and two
    sons. Even though she lived in a small
    third floor apartment in Rome she
    provided shelter and food for escapees.
    After the War Hugh O’Flaherty
    received awards from many countries
    including the CBE and the US Medal of
    Freedom. Italy offered him a lifetime
    pension but this he refused. He was
    termed one of the ‘Righteous Among the
    Nations’ by the Government of Israel
    which in 2003 planted a tree in his
    honour at Yad Vashem Jerusalem.
    His life has been the subject of a
    number of books and in 1983 a television
    film called ‘The Scarlet and the Black’
    was made in which he was portrayed by
    Gregory Peck.
    After the war the head of the Gestapo
    and SS, Lieutenant Colonel Kappler, was
    imprisoned for life but was visited
    regularly by O’Flaherty. In 1959 Kappler
    converted to Catholicism.
    O’Flaherty died in 1963 aged 65 and
    was buried in the cemetery of Daniel
    O’Connell Memorial Church in Cahirciveen.
    The exploits of Monsignor O’Flaherty
    and his associates are being
    commemorated in a concert which is
    being staged by Irish Heritage entitled
    “Refuge in Rome”.
    Irish Heritage (Irish Heritage - promoting Irish and Anglo Irish performing arts in the UK)
    is an arts organisation that promotes Irish
    arts and culture in Great Britain. The
    concert will be held at St James Church,
    Spanish Place, 22 George Street, London,
    W1U 3QY, on Friday 8th April 2011 in the
    presence of representatives of the Papal
    Nunciature, the Archbishop of Westminster
    and the Irish Embassy. It is also hoped
    that relatives of those who benefited from
    Monsignor O’Flaherty’s work, and who
    worked with him, will be present.
    Full details are contained in the advert
    in this edition of Catena or alternatively
    I can be contacted through my e-mail
     
  15. Za Rodinu

    Za Rodinu Hot air manufacturer

  16. macrusk

    macrusk Proud Daughter

    I found another article about the Monsignor, Tom. I always found his story fascinating.

    June 2009

    "Ther is no evidence that the Irish Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty had ever heard of Baroness Orczy’s courageous hero. But the role he played during the second world war, as a member of the Vatican’s secretariat, had many similarities. O’Flaherty was a genial, outgoing, golf-playing Irishman, whose clerical career had led him to be appointed to the Vatican’s diplomatic staff during the 1930s. His capacity for making friends in high society, both on and off the golf course, was to stand him in good stead.

    When the war spread to Italy, he was appointed to be a member of the special Vatican commission, charged with the welfare of refugees and prisoners of war. In this capacity he visited a number of Italian camps for British and Commonwealth prisoners of war, providing comforts, cigarettes and Red Cross parcels to these men, but also ascertaining their names, which were then transmitted over the Vatican radio to their relatives at home. It was all part of the Catholic Church’s works of mercy. But this was only the first step. O’Flaherty was soon enough to become involved in much more dangerous exploits on behalf of many of these soldiers and airmen from a variety of countries, by rescuing them from being recaptured, by providing them with hiding places of refuge along with the necessary contacts, and maintaining them for as long as necessary, sometimes for months at a time.

    His story has now been written up by a retired Irish teacher, Brian Fleming, who has diligently researched the surviving records, interviewed several of those involved, and pursued the matter in both Irish and British archives. Unfortunately the Vatican’s own papers are still not available. Equally unfortunately O’Flaherty wrote no memoirs. And while Fleming is well aware that exact figures for the rescue attempts made by the Monsignor and his associates are impossible to establish with certainty, his estimates of the extent of these heroic activities carry conviction.

    By 1942 numerous prisoners of war had escaped from captivity in Italy,
    made their way to Rome and sought the help of this friendly English-speaking priest. The first to arrive were three New Zealand soldiers seeking sanctuary in the Vatican. O’Flaherty immediately arranged for them to be helped. In the following weeks a large number of other soldiers and airmen followed, and also appealed for assistance. In fact there were so many that the existence of this escape route became known. This proved to be an embarrassment for the Vatican authorities since it posed serious moral and political dilemmas.

    Officially the Vatican was a neutral state. On the outbreak of war Pope Pius XII had decreed a policy of strict impartiality. He hoped to use the Vatican’s diplomatic influence to persuade all the warring parties to cease hostilities and to agree to a negotiated peace settlement. So any overt action, such as assisting members of one side’s armed forces to escape from captivity, was bound to be seen as hostile by the other side, and hence would compromise the Vatican’s carefully guarded stance. Orders were issued to the Swiss Guard that anyone seeking refuge in the Vatican or on papal property was to be refused. This prohibition however only made O’Flaherty more determined to help where he could.

    His situation was only made more onerous by the fact that his own government in Ireland had adopted the same policy of strict neutrality. The Irish had in fact two Ambassadors in Rome, one attached to the Vatican and one to the Italian state. The latter diplomat clearly disapproved of O’Flaherty. His activities on behalf of the escapees was seen by this Ambassador as irresponsible and crassly publicity-seeking, to be discouraged where possible. However, in the Vatican itself, the Irish Ambassador’s wife proved to be much more congenial and helpful. So too numerous Italian friends and contacts, presumably pro-British or anti-Fascist, offered assistance in hiding these escaped soldiers, often for long periods. The British Minister to the Vatican, D’Arcy Osborne, provided considerable sums of money drawn on the Foreign Office in London, to make this support possible. One Italian princess, herself hiding out in the Vatican, was particularly helpful ion forging new identity documents for the escapees.

    The situation became even more dangerous as the German grip tightened on Rome, especially after the Italian government’s capitulation in September 1943. Immediately German troops flooded south, and actually surrounded the Vatican’s small 108 acres of territory. But they did not invade it, despite widespread rumours that they intended to kidnap the Pope. Gestapo agents were alleged to have infiltrated the Vatican’s premises. The tension there was palpable. Despite this O’Flaherty managed to carry on. According to Fleming, by November 1943 the Monsignor and his associates had placed in excess of a thousand ex-POWs in safety, concealing them in convents,crowded flats or outlying farms.

    Maintaining these contacts and collecting donations for their support was a risky venture, even for those in clerical clothes. On one occasion, O’Flaherty was caught in a Gestapo-led raid, but managed to escape through the coal cellar, disguised as a coalman.

    In other visits to his charges and contacts in Rome he adopted various tricky stratagems. But his resolve to assist those in need remained unchanged. His determination was only strengthened when the German occupiers began their vindictive pursuit of the Roman Jews and other opponents. O’Flaherty was only marginally involved in attempts to rescue civilian Jews, but naturally was shocked by the treatment they received at the hands.of the German assailants. The October 1943 roundup and deportation of 1000 Jews to Auschwitz sent shock waves throughout Rome. According to Fleming, 477 Roman Jews were sheltered in the Vatican itself, while 4238 found refuge in monasteries and convents in the city. While no precise orders from the Pope himself to provide such assistance have yet been found, there can be no doubt that Vatican officials were aware of these steps being taken and did not countermand them. Only political considerations prevented any open or enthusiastic endorsement of these humanitarian gestures.

    With the rising number of Allied escapees, it was vital to take a more organized approach. O’Flaherty’s spontaneous but risk-filled endeavours needed a steadier hand. This was found in the person of Major Sam Derry, who had escaped to the Vatican earlier, and was then recruited by the British Minister to be O’Flherty’s chief of staff. He took over the work of finding places for men to live and ensuring that they received supplies. In addition he maintained accurate records of the escapees assisted, as well as of their Italian hosts, so that eventually these persons could be recompensed by the British and American governments. Derry’s account of his services, written in 1960, was one of Fleming’s principal sources, and filled in the official documents of the British organization in Rome for assisting Allied escaped prisoners of war, now held in the British Public Record Office.

    By the end of 1943 the situation was deteriorating. The German Gestapo had stepped up its recaptures, and it was clear that O’Flaherty’s organization was known and was being watched. Indeed he actually had a meeting with the German Ambassador to the Vatican, von Weizsäcker, who warned him not to leave the Vatican territory. A similar advice would seem to have been given by his Vatican superior, Msgr Montini, later Pope Paul VI. But the quasi-military but still amateur underground continued its efforts. Assistance came from a variety of anti-German and anti-Fascist groups, priests, diplomats, communists, noblemen and humble folk, all collaborating in a remarkably valiant manner. Some of them were themselves obliged to go underground to evade the authorities, but all acknowledged O’Flaherty as their inspirer and encourager. Fleming gives an excellent account of this cat-and-mouse game during these months.

    In January 1944 the Allies landed at Anzio, only 30 miles south of Rome. Unfortunately they did not take advantage of the clear road, and were contained there by the Germans for another five months, much to the disappointment of the Roman citizens and of course their proteges, the Allied ex-POWs.

    By the end of March 1944, O’Flaherty’s organization, administered now by Major Derry,had expanded vastly. The total number of escapees and evaders they were looking after had increased to 3,423 and the number of accommodations in Rome itself was approximately 200. The cost was estimated at nearly 3 million Lire a month. There were also casualties. Between mid-March and early May, at least 46 men whom they had been caring for were either recaptured or shot, some as the result of denunciations. The food situation in Rome was critical, and necessarily was worse for those without official ration cards. Fascist groups were seeking a last chance to make a name for themselves by rounding up POWs or political opponents. Running battles escalated between the authorities and the resistance. Nevertheless, even in these desperate circumstances, Derry and his team were subsidizing 164 escaped prisoners in Rome, and in excess of 3500 in the countryside around, in 32 different locations.

    Rome was at last liberated on June 5th 1944, and O’Flaherty and his helpers no longer had to fear for their lives. Instead they assisted in repatriating the ex-POWs, and in compensating those who had helped them. The British Government alone provided £1 million. For his services O’Flaherty was awarded the C.B.E., and later the American government gave him the US Medal of Freedom with Silver Palm, a rare honour for a non-American. But O’Flaherty’s sympathy for those in need did not change. He now energetically sought help for those Italian prisoners of war held by the Allies in both Britain and Africa,.and even pleaded on behalf of known Fascist collaborators. Fleming does not discuss the still controversial subject of the assistance given to Nazi criminals trying to escape to Latin America. But he does admit that O’Flaherty was reported to be working for Germans and Italians in trouble with the Allied authorities and for refugees still in hiding around Rome. Supposedly the food and provisions he brought to these people were paid for by the Pope. Interestingly his pastoral sympathies even extended to the notorious and convicted Nazi war criminal, Kappler, whom he regularly visited in prison, and later received into the Roman Catholic faith.

    In later years, O’Flaherty continued in the Vatican’s service until his returement in 1960. He died in 1963 Fleming deplores the fact that he has not received the kind of recognition he deserves from either the Irish government or the Catholic Church. One reason may be due to the official Irish disapproval of those who were involved in helping their old enemy, the British. But the Church’s failure is more puzzling, especially for one who in Fleming’s view “fulfilled his mission with extraordinary conviction, ingenuity, courage and compassion for his fellow men. Indeed this was a great and good man”."
     
  17. dbf

    dbf Moderatrix MOD

    Old thread, but as at least one link quoted previously is no longer valid, thought I'd add this article about a remarkable woman ...

    Heroines who beat Auschwitz | The Daily Telegraph
    [​IMG]
    IN THE balmy afterglow of Australia Day, we count our blessings in a nation that, despite its fires and floods, has been remarkably fortunate, compared with other parts of the world -- and especially compared with Poland.

    Through unlucky geography, internal discord and the evil intentions of powerful neighbours, the Eastern European republic has suffered more than most at the sharp end of history.

    The 66th anniversary today of the liberation of Auschwitz, the Nazi concentration camp in Poland, reminds us it is at times of extreme duress that the souls of men and women are put to the test.

    Some respond with opportunistic cruelty. Some turn their backs on suffering through cowardice or plain indifference.

    Others try to help in small ways, as long as there is no risk to their own wellbeing.

    Then there are the heroes, ordinary men and women who commit such acts of selfless courage that they transcend ordinary existence and expunge, or at least counterbalance, the evil which humanity too often brings on itself.

    In Poland during World War II there was ample opportunity to see the worst as well as the best of human nature.

    In the latter category are two women named Irena -- one of whom later migrated to Australia -- who saved hundreds of people from the Nazi Holocaust.

    Irena Sendler was a 32-year-old Catholic socialist, social worker and member of the Polish resistance who rescued 2500 Jewish babies and children from almost certain death in the Warsaw ghetto in the summer of 1942.

    She smuggled them out and placed them in convents or with ordinary Polish families who changed their names and brought them up as their own children, at a time when the punishment for helping a Jew was summary execution.

    Irena wrote the real names of the children and their parents in code on pieces of paper which she buried in glass bottles in her neighbour's garden, hoping that once the war was over the families could be reunited.

    But by the end of the war almost all the children had been orphaned, their parents sent to death camps.

    Of the 400,000 people crammed into the Warsaw ghetto at its most crowded in 1941, few survived.

    "Persuading the parents to part with their children was horrendous," Polish-Australian author George Sternfeld said at Sydney's Polish consulate last year at a commemoration of

    the second anniversary of Sendler's death.

    "Irena endured the cries of parents and babies as they were separated. Some were sedated and taken in body bags, potato sacks, coffins, tool boxes, under ambulance stretchers."

    Sendler once said it was the grandparents and parents who entrusted their children to her who were the real heroes.

    Sternfeld's was one of a gruelling series of speeches from elderly Australian Holocaust survivors remembering the woman they knew had saved so many lives.

    In 1943, Sendler was captured by the Gestapo and tortured in an attempt to get her to reveal the identities of the families which had sheltered the Jewish children from the ghetto.

    But she refused to betray the children, said Sternfeld.

    "They broke her legs but could not break her spirit." Sendler was sentenced to death but, miraculously, the Polish underground managed to bribe a Gestapo officer for her release and she spent the rest of the war in hiding.

    In 2007, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize but, mystifyingly, was beaten for the honour by Al Gore, whose sole claim to posterity was a documentary about global warming which was riddled with errors and exaggeration.

    Nevertheless, Irena Sendler was honoured at the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Israel as "Righteous Among the Nations", the title awarded to people who risked their lives to save Jews in the Holocaust.

    She died in 2008 in a modest nursing home in Warsaw, at the age of 98. She once said: "Every child saved with my help is the justification of my existence on this Earth, not a title to glory."

    It's worth noting on this anniversary of Auschwitz's liberation that after World War II, Poland went straight into a second long nightmare of Communist rule.

    During that period, the history of the war was distorted and suppressed.

    Far from being feted after the war, heroes of the Polish resistance were imprisoned and executed. So today, few things rankle Poles more than the description of Auschwitz as a "Polish concentration camp" or "Polish killing fields" when the German camp was built on occupied Polish territories and 150,000 Poles were its victims.

    After the war, Irena Sendler was regarded as a subversive by the Communists and narrowly escaped another death sentence.

    Her story was forgotten and only came to light in the last decade when four American schoolgirls read a small newspaper clipping about her life and decided to stage a play about her as a school project, which brought her fame in the US in 2001.
     
  18. laufer

    laufer Senior Member

    Is there an official citation or published account of this? Fascinating story...
    Mel

    There is a book (in Polish) and documentary by G. Lubczyk - former Polish Ambassador in Budapest. I found an article in English in Toronto's Jewish Tribune: The Polish-Jewish Heritage Foundation of Canada
     
  19. PA. Dutchman

    PA. Dutchman Senior Member

    Another amazing story is the Japanese Consul-General Chiune Sugihara who wrote countless Visas for the Jewish to go to Japan. It saved many many lives. The Japanese allowed the Jewish to live in separated areas once the World War started without too much trouble. This Japanese Consul was named a Righteous Gentile of Israel like Schindler and some others. The link below will take you to the entire story I have only posted a part of the story.

    http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/sugihara.html

    In the course of human existence, many people are tested. Only a few soar as eagles and achieve greatness by simple acts of kindness, thoughtfulness and humanity. This is the story of a man and his wife who, when confronted with evil, obeyed the kindness of their hearts and conscience in defiance of the orders of an indifferent government. These people were Chiune and Yukiko Sugihara who, at the beginning of World War II, by an ultimate act of altruism and self-sacrifice, risked their careers, their livelihood and their future to save the lives of more than 6,000 Jews. This selfless act resulted in the second largest number of Jews rescued from the Nazis.

    The Compassion of Consul-General Sempo Sugihara

    In March 1939, Japanese Consul-General Chiune Sugihara was sent to Kaunas to open a consulate service. Kaunas was the temporary capital of Lithuania at the time and was strategically situated between Germany and the Soviet Union. After Hitler's invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, Britain and France declared war on Germany. Chiune Sugihara had barely settled down in his new post when Nazi armies invaded Poland and a wave of Jewish refugees streamed into Lithuania. They brought with them chilling tales of German atrocities against the Jewish population. They escaped from Poland without possessions or money, and the local Jewish population did their utmost to help with money, clothing and shelter.
    Before the war, the population of Kaunas consisted of 120,000 inhabitants, one forth of which were Jews. Lithuania, at the time, had been an enclave of peace and prosperity for Jews. Most Lithuanian Jews did not fully realize or believe the extent of the Nazi Holocaust that was being perpetrated against the Jews in Poland. The Jewish refugees tried to explain that they were being murdered by the tens of thousands. No one could quite believe them. The Lithuanian Jews continued living normal lives. Things began to change for the very worst on June 15, 1940, when the Soviets invaded Lithuania. It was now too late for the Lithuanian Jews to leave for the East. Ironically, the Soviets would allow Polish Jews to continue to emigrate out of Lithuania through the Soviet Union if they could obtain certain travel documents.
    By 1940, most of Western Europe had been conquered by the Nazis, with Britain standing alone. The rest of the free world, with very few exceptions, barred the immigration of Jewish refugees from Poland or anywhere in Nazi-occupied Europe.
    Against this terrible backdrop, the Japanese Consul Chiune Sugihara suddenly became the linchpin in a desperate plan for survival. The fate of thousands of families depended on his humanity. The Germans were rapidly advancing east. In July 1940, the Soviet authorities instructed all foreign embassies to leave Kaunas. Almost all left immediately, but Chiune Sugihara requested and received a 20-day extension.
     

    Attached Files:

  20. PA. Dutchman

    PA. Dutchman Senior Member

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Righteous_among_the_Nations

    Righteous among the Nations (Hebrew: חסידי אומות העולם‎, Chassidey Umot HaOlam, more literally: righteous of the world's nations, also translated as Righteous Gentiles) is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis.

    Here is another listing of Righteous Gentiles by country.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Righteous_among_the_Nations_by_country
     

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