Customer Reviews

Conscience and Courage: Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A brilliant account of those from the non-Jewish community who risked their lives & the lives of their families to save the Jews during the holocaust. Eva Fogelman has combined individual accounts with scientific research to ascertain why some people chose to help whilst others turned a blind eye. Of those who did not help, some commented (when asked many years later) that they 'didn't know'.

The stories she recounts are both inspiring & disturbing, describing the fears & hardships that the rescuers faced on a daily basis whilst trying to conceal their precious secret. Propelled to help those in need, many did so, not for material gain or praise & recognition, but from their own sense of morality. Hannah Senesh sums this book up extremely well in the passage:

'There are stars whose radiance is visible on Earth though they have long been extinct. There are people whose brilliance continues to light the World though they are no longer among the living. These lights are particularly bright when the night is dark. They light the way for mankind.'

You cannot help but read & wonder whether placed in the same situation, you would have been a light for mankind.

The book is at once harrowing and uplifting, recounting stories of decent everyday people who risked their lives to shelter their Jewish neighbors. Eva Fogelman delves into the psychology of rescuers while showing us the human beings, warts and all, who struggled bravely through an inhuman time. This is a memorable book indeed.

Eva Fogelman's book of rescuers of Jews during the holocaust is an inspiring and informative look at why people became rescuers, and why others did not. I was moved to tears by the inspirational stories of the moral and spiritual courage it took to become a rescuer. It also forced me to re-evaluate my righteous indignation at others for not helping. Ms. Fogelman gets to the heart of the atrocious nature of the time, and explains in vivid detail why most people were afraid to help. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in having basic questions anwered about why more people did not help. The angels who did were extraordinary spirits who literally risked their lives and the lives of those they loved to do what was right. Highly recommended reading.

I'm a senior in a subraban high school in Maine. I read this book when I was a freshman, and it turned my knowledge about the Holocaust upside down. Mrs. Fogelman's book showed how the human spirit can rise to the occasion even in the most horrendous and frightening situations. By writing about rescuers and why they chose action instead of passivity Fogelman sheds light on a whole different area of the Holocaust. This books helps illustrate that the Holocaust isn't a lesson about death, its a lesson about life and the goodness of the human spirit.

This book is both fascinating and inspirational. Fogelman shares the stories of a number of rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust. She also offers her insight regarding the psychological effects of risking ones life for others and why the individuals (and sometimes groups) chose to do good. This novel offers a little known aspect of the Holocaust and presents a shining light from an era of darkness.

- College Student

Conscience and courage is about the people who at great risk to themselves and their families helped Jews to escape from the Nazis.

It focuses on such courageous individuals as Stefania Podgorska Buzminski , a Polish teenage girl who hid 13 Jews in her home ; Alexander Roslan , a dealer in the black market who kept uprooting his family to shelter three Jewish children in his care , Joop Westerweel who presided over a network in the Netherlands that smuggled Jewish children to safety ; Diplomats such as Sempo Sugihara , Japanese consul based in Kovno , Lithuania , Aristide De Sousa Mendes , the Portuguese Consul General in Bourdieux , France and of course Raoul Wallenberg , whose efforts saved thousands of Jews from extermination.

It also covers the stories of such well known rescuers as Oskar Schindler and Miep Gies.

This book not only focuses on the stories of these brave individuals, but also explores why they acted as they did , and how their efforts and it's results affected them both during and after the war.

Many people chose to help out of moral reasons or out of love for their charges. Others where professionals had the skills and tools to help , and others where children who from an early age where involved in the rescue efforts of their parents.

Some rescuers worked alone and others worked in networks.

These stories are being re-examined at a time when some , like Iranian Presdient Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 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.

I thought this was a good, well-written book based on solid research by an obvious expert in the field. What I couldn't get into so much was the author's psychological jargon and her way of framing things psychologically based on the fact that she is---surprise!--a psychologist. I just don't think it is always helpful to try to analyze things like altruism, at least I'm not so interested in such analysis. I preferred Mark Klempner's book The Heart Has Reasons: Holocaust Rescuers and Their Stories of Courage because he lets the rescuers speak for themselves and when he does analyze, he does so in a more human, less technical way.

Eva Fogelman tells the stories of hundreds of Gentile rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust. Her accounts are often very moving, and the book is nicely done. She makes an idealistic plea for government and voluntary institutional support for altruism as a safeguard against future genocide, which is charming, but even she admits this may be a little too 'utopian.'

I really appreciated this book, and was touched by the sobering picture of how modernity and secularism have not brought real moral progress, but instead have made it easier to carry out evil in a grander scale. I don;t think this is the author's point, but it certainly was a conclusion I draw from all such accounts fo 20th century genocide.

My only dissappointments with the book -- while Fogelman as a psychologist proports probe the MOTIVES behind the extraordinary courage shown by the Gentile rescurers -- how their own 'moral compass' gave them the ability to stand against antisemitic hate, she shows very little understanding of how Biblical Christian values were likely decisive in so many cases. She seems somewhat ill-equipped to probe the motives of the truly committed Christian. Perhaps this explains why she makes no mention at all of some of the most famous and interesting cases of rescuers who acted out of profoundly Biblical convictions of justice and mercy (like Corrie Ten Boom, whose story is told in the book and film The Hiding Place; or Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who is give just one sentence in the book).

Overall, a very helpful and moving book.

First, what I did not like: the organization of the book was confusing to me, because it was based on the author's attempt to piece apart "what motivated" rescuers to act. That struck me as too reductionist. As someone who is always striving just to try to understand myself better (& that is always an ongoing journey), it seems presumptuous to assume that we can know, entirely, what motivates others. Usually aren't there, perhaps, several 'motivations?'

Despite that criticism, the stories are an inspirational treasure. I lost count of how many times I read the stories. Every time I am struck by the powerful testament toward both "conscience and courage," thus the book is appropriately titled. The author does an excellent job capturing the complexity of this time and the decision-making process. Her documentation of these stories adds to our knowledge of history the vast numbers of people who managed to defy the Nazi regime despite oppression. Further, the author does not attempt to paint a rosy picture or gloss over the difficulties they encountered. She includes the harrowing details, even the devastating endings. Good acts are not always rewarded. Until reading this book, I was completely unaware of how dangerous it still is to reveal acts of helpfulness toward the "enemies of the Third Reich," or of the secret Nazi societies that may still take revenge.

Besides the history contained, which is valuable enough, this book has been a personal challenge. I am from a different generation and a different place. It forces me to ask myself what I would do in similar situations. There is no way that I can know, but the process of seriously considering these questions leads to personal growth. I am requiring my son to read it, in the hopes that whatever challenges life brings his way, he may always be aware that he does have personal control over his choices.

An excellent book, well worth the price for the history it contains.