Customer Reviews

The Righteous: The Unsung Heroes of the Holocaust

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Martin Gilbert has written more on the Holocaust than, perhaps, anyone else. This, his latest work, is deserving of special praise. Gilbert looks at the many non-Jews who played personal roles in saving small and large numbers of Jews during WWII. He spends time discussing the better known saviors such as Schindler and Wallenberg, but he also looks to the lesser known people who risked their lives to save one or two at a time. He examines the many married couples who took in Jewish children and protected them as their own, and he looks at the many religious officials who hid children in convents and churches. Gilbert's examination of these relative unknowns is very good reading, and his detailed and painstaking research into so many people is obvious. This book is wonderful for so many reasons. It is an excellent history -- a history of a subject all too forgotten -- and it is a refreshing portrait of an otherwise horrible time in the history of mankind. These individual saviors stand out against a black background, and Gilbert's writing serves them justice and gives them the recognition they deserve.

After attending a seminar on teaching the Holocaust, I needed a little inspiration, so I purchased this book, which recounts the stories of hundreds of Jews who were rescued by non-Jews during the course of the Holocaust. Each chapter addresses a different part of Europe and the rescues that took place within that region, mostly through first-person accounts. The stories are very compelling and show quite clearly how much people were willing to risk in order to do the right thing when so few were willing to do so. The downside to the book is that each story is probably worth a chapter on its own and not just a paragraph or two; however, since this is one of the few books I've seen that puts all of the stories together in one place, so it's a worthwhile trade. On the whole, a very good book--though it is depressing to think how few were ultimately willing to help out their neighbors and do what what right and decent.

This book has gotten a lot of praise for its treatment of a subject that has been overlooked for too long. That being said, this book -- as a work of history -- has some serious flaws. It is a collection of anecdotes, lacking analysis.

Each chapter contains scores of tales and anecdotes of rescue. The author does little to link them up. He provides scant analysis contrasting his different anecdotes or establishing patterns of rescue (e.g. those who did it for money vs. those who acted out of religious belief or ideology, cities vs. villages, etc.). The chapters are arranged by country or geographical region of Europe, but there is hardly any discussion explaining why some countries had higher rates of rescue than others. It doesn't seem as if Gilbert has a working thesis that he wishes to defend through his evidence. Rather, it seems that he went to the Yad Vashem archive and collected as many interesting tales of rescue as he could find and then categorized them by country for his book.

Because it is filled with many, many interesting stories, this book will chiefly be of interest to "lay readers" or armchair historians with an interest in Holocaust studies. Professional historians and scholars of the Holocaust may use this book as a resource (esp. for teaching), but they will quickly stumble upon this book's limits.

This is the first book that I am aware of that deals with the indescribable bravery of the multitute of unsung heroes all across Europe.

Thus it is a nice complimentary effort to his other book entitled "The Boys", which narrated the stories of the several hundred children who survived the horrors of the Nazi death camps.

The only reason why I did not award it a 5 star rating is because each incident is invariably condensed in one or two paragraphs. This was perhaps made necessary by the sheer number of acts of rigteousness that the author had to cover. In my opinion, he could have covered fewer number of situations but covered them in greater depth.

Nevertheless, the book astonishes the reader by narrating the acts of supreme courage shown by the rescuers when they perfectly understood that they could lose their lives if their acts of kindness were discovered.

Highly recommended.

I can't say this is a 'Happy' book. The period in which it is set is too terrible and many of the misdeeds described are too terrible to speak of.

But the Joy in this work, the proverbial Silver Lining is there were good people during this period. Many of whom happily risked their lives for strangers. Opening thier pockests and their homes to the hunted with no expectation of rewards of any kind. Some of these heroes were actually anti-semites who drew a line within thier own souls to do good for those they did not like. Just as many of the villeins were mercenaries who did what they did for just money, not caring who thier victims were. And the Author admits he can not tell the stories of all these heroes but just the few mentioned here.

Besides the noble deeds of the great humanitarian scoundrel Oskar Schindler, who so reminds me of the hero of the Film The Music Man, and the simple Dutch farmsers the Bogaards who turned their farm into a sanctuary hiding Jews from the Dutch police, We hear of an SS man who hides a Jewish inmate from one of his superiors in Dachau. A gypsy family who hides a Jewish Girl. Nuns and priests who hid Jewish children. So many risked their lives and liberty for strangers. And many paid for those lives with thier own. So many heroes, just not enough to do any real effective damage to the beast at work.

It is good to know some good people did exist during these evil times, and that is the joy of this book.

I must also say I do not like the Israili supreme court changing their designation from Righteous Gentiles to Righteous Persons.
It cheapens these heroes and prevents the casual observer knowing the full extent of their nature. There are Men. There are Women. And then there are 'persons'.

This book isn't so much "written" as it is "assembled." On the other hand, the research task accomplished here is gargantuan, and it's a good deed to make these testimonies easily accessible under one cover.
There were a larger number of good people who helped Jews and put not only their own lives at stake, but the lives of their families, than I imagined. Many of whom gave their lives and those of their families in their effort.
Splitting meager rations of food among too many people, creating special hiding places around their homes, smuggling documents, all to save the lives of neighbors and strangers; all these selfless acts and more are recorded to offer a different view of ordinary citizens during the War.
Mostly the rescuers are Christian because of the region, but there are a few Muslims in the mix and even a few sympathetic German soldiers.
One story that I was familiar with, I was kind of disappointed with the treatment it received in this volume. A Polish woman named Irene Opdyke saved 9 Jews under the very nose of a German Major. One day, he accidentally caught her with those she was hiding. The book (p. 45) says she was able to convince the Major "somehow" not to turn her and the Jews in. It does not say that she bartered her innocent 17-year-old body on an on-going basis for the lives of the Jews she protected. (I have not read it, but her book is called "In My Hands"). I don't know a 17-year-old who can figure out how to bag groceries let alone hide 9 Jews from a German Major in his own home.
I suspect there was much more of this kind of exploitation going on than the book would lead one to believe. Not an especially good read, but a good deed, and uplifting information.

One element of Martin Gilbert's writing has been the telling of individual stories which normally would have not had a part in most works of history. He has written of the Shoah( Holocaust) in a way which gives the name and story of many ' ordinary' individuals a place they would not ordinarily have.
His collecting the accounts of righteous Gentiles is the same kind of holy work.
There is another important point about the moral value of this work. Even among the most cruel and evil peoples involved in the Holocaust there were exceptions, human beings who give hope that there is a ' saving spark' in all peoples.

My reaction to this book was that it showed two different themes. One was the theme mentioned in the title, the unsung heroes of the holocaust. The other was its opposite, the villains of the holocaust.

As we read about this or that Christian who risked all to help a stranger, we also read about the Nazi collaborators, the anti-semitic actions taken, the villains of the period. This book makes you angry, with a cold hatred. It makes you hope there is a Hell, a suitable punishment for acts of cruelty committed during this life on Earth.

How many times do we read about helpless sweet children below the age of six being hunted down by grown men, insane men, stupid men, sadistic men, Germans and their collaborators.

In one of the reports, we read about a little 5 or 6 year old girl who is asked her name. She answers with the Christian alias she was given, and then she cheerfully adds that her real name is something else, a Jewish name. Why must this little child be careful? What kind of world was she living in, that forced insane, unnatural caution on an adorable child?

Perhaps my "favorite" report in this book is when the Germans were tipped off by an informer that a little 5 year old Jewish girl was being cared for by a Christian family. These grown German men tracked the little girl down. They had already decided to kill her, but that was not enough for them. First they had to make her final hour one of panic and pain. They whipped the child. When they were done with their sadistic fun they killed her. Then they killed the Christian family of eight that had cared for the little girl.

It is amazing that this sick German culture actually believed that they were in some way "superior" to the Jews. Not for nothing, but these Germans were morally inferior to a pack of wolves, certainly sub-human.

The book is infuriating. If it does not infuriate you, there's something missing in you.

But there are positive things in here too. I am not referring to the acts of individual heroism, which, by the way, seem to be carried out more often by women than men. I'm referring to the nations in which there was no anti-semitism.

Denmark, Albania and Bulgaria are described that way in this book. I knew that Denmark wasn't viciously anti-semitic but I learned from this book just how beautiful a people the Danes were. And I had absolutely no idea that the Albanians and Bulgarians were so kind. I'm impressed. Belgium also came across very well.

I was disappointed to learn that Holland was not as gentle and civilized as I had thought. This book tells us that Holland had its share of anti-semites and informers. It seems to be about equal to France in the fact that while the majority wished to protect the Jews, a sizeable minority were quite happy to slit Jewish throats.

This book tells us just how bad the Polish people were in general, most of them perfectly happy about the holocaust. After all, the Jews killed Christ, so they were only getting what they deserved. Amazing that people think that way. Some people seem to have descended (as opposed to ascended) from the ape. There were also many Polish heroes in the book, all the more impressive given the general attitude prevailing in the country, with its added risk of informants.

But of course the inside track to Hell is owned by the German people. Even their allies the Italians considered anti-semitism the German disease, and refused to cooperate with the murders. Italy, and the Pope, were portrayed very positively in this book. I was told elsewhere that the Pope was a Nazi collaborator, but he didn't appear so in this book. The Pope, here, was a strong supporter of the Jews, and saw to it that all of Italy was too, except for those Italians who milked Jews for every penny they could extort.

I understand why other reviewers would object to the writing style of this book. It is a series of anecdotes. They are just piled one on top of the last. But it is a reasonable way to approach the subject, if your aim is to recognize the unsung heroes of the holocaust. Okay, here's this hero, here's the next, and this is what they did. It's not a novel. The organization and the writing style are what they are.

I expected to read more about the Croat attempt to exterminate both the Jews and Serbs during this period in history. The Croats were cruel, which prompted the reprisal by the Serbs as soon as Marshall Tito died. We think of the Serbs as the villains of Yugoslavia, but during World War Two the Eastern Orthodox Serbs and the Jews were victims of the Catholic Croats in an extermination that was truly German in its cruelty. I mention the religion of the Serbs and Croats only because that is the only way to tell them apart, since they are one and the same people racially, differentiated only by religion, according to another book that you can buy on Amazon, whose name I have forgotten.

The next time some racist idiot says there was no holocaust, hand it this book.

I've never read anything of Gilbert's before. Apparently he is a major documentarian of the Holocaust, and this book is very much needed for reasons I will explain later. The format of this book is basically a chapter concerning each country invaded by the Nazis and the efforts of the few (compared to the many who turned their heads and ignored the fate) who attempted to rescue their friends, their neighbors, and the strangers who came to them who were of Jewish backgrounds. Each chapter names those whose names are known, who are honored in Israel in the Vad Yeshem Righteous Among the Nations. It also tells the stories of some of these rescues, and though given the fact that little is known concerning these rescue attempts (as many involved are dead)...the book could have been written in a better way than a mere listing of those involved.

What is interesting about this book, is the surprising number of those who were complete strangers who took Jews in. Also, information concerning those who were anti-Semitic but totally disagreed with Hitler's Solution who risked their lives and the lives of their families in order to save individuals and family groups. It becomes evident that more children and women were saved, then men. Many ministers, and Catholic monks and Sisters also saved many Jews on their own initiation, with disregard for their own safety.

Even though this book is dry reading, it is necessary reading. Why? Because in this day and age, when inroads are being made on individual rights across the world, it becomes necessary to ask ourselves, 'what would I choose to do in this situation?' I would hope that I would show the courage of the many Gentiles demonstrated in this book, regardless of the fact that my religions and beliefs differ from anyone involved in a move towards genocide regarding one group or one people. In the U.S. we have had this happen (regardless of those who would ignore our history) with the Underground Railroad...but these persons were not threated with immediate death for protecting those of color. As so many of these righteous gentiles said "Do it, because it is the right thing to do. ...

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 hte 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 suvived 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 Częstochowa, 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 brough 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 escpaed 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 President 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.