I found this project while reading up on the Holocaust. I was particularly drawn to Bert Bochove's story. It seems the chances of success were greatly enhanced if the leading citizens of a community were involved. http://www.humboldt.edu/~rescuers/index.html
It seems the chances of success were greatly enhanced if the leading citizens of a community were involved. Going by some of the extracts from Goebbel's Diaries I've read over the years - German industrialists, particularly in the round-Berlin munitions industry, may have been instumental in both warning and hiding HUGE numbers of Jews during the various arrest sweeps through the city in 1942 and 1943. Goebbels is VERY irate on three separate occasions when the Jewish munitions workers, skilled artificers valued by their bosses, were warned of upcoming arrest sweeps and went into hiding.
For many years, until his tragic passing about ten years ago, I had the pleasure of knowing a lovely chap by the name of Freddie (Manfred) Korenstein. We used to walk together, most mornings, in our local park and we walked and talked about everything in the world and if I was lucky he would tell me about how, as a child, he eventually escaped certain death in Italy Freddie spent his formative years as a Jew living in Germany and in 1943 he found himself literally on the run and in hiding from the Nazis at a place called Villa Emma at Nonantola. Forgive the quality of the print copy below but it is well worth reading. ps More about Villa Emma here: Don Arrigo Beccari: A Safe Haven In Villa Emma and here: Academy Article
