Rescuers: Portraits of Moral Courage in the HolocaustWho are the rescuers, the men and women whose gripping personal narratives make up the core of this remarkable book? Why did they risk everything - their livelihoods, their homes, their lives, and even those of their families - to save Jews marked for death during the Holocaust? Are they ordinary people, as they themselves claim, or truly heroic? Malka Drucker and Gay Block spent three years visiting 105 rescuers from ten countries. Their psychologically revealing interviews and photographs speak directly to us in powerful words and images. Block's full-page color portraits accompany each narrative, inviting us to look at these men and women as they are today, people whose faces resemble our own. Would we act as they did? In their own words, forty-nine of the rescuers present a vivid picture of their lives before, during, and after the war as they grapple with the question of why they acted with humanity in a time of barbarism - and whether they would do it again. Their stories - infused with the deep memory that engages a terrible past - are unforgettable. Louisa Steenstra relives the Nazis' murder of her husband and of the Jews they were hiding in their attic in the Netherlands; Antonin Kalina of Czechoslovakia relates how he deceived the SS to save 1,300 children in Buchenwald. Others recall how they smuggled Jews out of the ghettos; worked in resistance movements; forged passports and baptismal certificates; hid Jews in cellars, barns, and behind false walls; shared their meager food rations; secretly disposed of waste; and raised Jewish children as their own. A landmark volume that includes maps, historic photographs from family collections, and a comprehensive introduction byMalka Drucker, Rescuers makes a vital contribution to our understanding of the Holocaust, of the complex factors that made some people refuse the role of passive bystander, and of the profound psychological and ethical issues that still perplex us. When asked about the prospects for acts of moral courage today, rescuer Liliane Gaffney told the authors: "It's very difficult for a generation raised looking out for Number One to understand it. This is something totally unknown here. But there, if you didn't live for others as well as yourself it wasn't worth living". For Jan Karski, however, the legacy of the rescuers is one of affirmation: "Do not lose hope in humanity". In the end, what is perhaps most striking about the rescuers is their modesty and simple humanness; yet, as Cynthia Ozick concludes in the Prologue, "It is from these undeniably heroic and principled few that we can learn the full resonance of civilization". |
From inside the book
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Page 21
... hiding places . Although it was far easier for the underground to place the Dutch boys , it did help Jews to hide . Jan de Haan , who worked to place Jews , provided papers , and later was a secret agent in the Resistance , remembered ...
... hiding places . Although it was far easier for the underground to place the Dutch boys , it did help Jews to hide . Jan de Haan , who worked to place Jews , provided papers , and later was a secret agent in the Resistance , remembered ...
Page 63
... hiding . This woman was the worst of the fifty who stayed with us . After ... place ? Of course not . But we'd never have been able to get them out of ... place . No matter how many we brought , their door was always open for more . And ...
... hiding . This woman was the worst of the fifty who stayed with us . After ... place ? Of course not . But we'd never have been able to get them out of ... place . No matter how many we brought , their door was always open for more . And ...
Page 87
... hiding place . He did it so well that when I took my youngest daughter back to Amsterdam last year , I had to ask the woman who lives there now to find it for me . After the hiding place was built , my mother said to me , " We're hiding ...
... hiding place . He did it so well that when I took my youngest daughter back to Amsterdam last year , I had to ask the woman who lives there now to find it for me . After the hiding place was built , my mother said to me , " We're hiding ...
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afraid Amsterdam André anti-Semitism apartment arrested asked Auschwitz baby became began Belgium Bert Bochove born brother Bulgaria bystanders Catholic Chambon child Christian church Czechoslovakia dangerous daughter deported Dutch Erna father felt forest France French gave Germans Gertrud Luckner Gestapo ghetto Guth happened helping Jews hiding place Hitler Holland Holocaust human Hungary husband interview Israel Ivan Jacob Jan Karski Jewish children Jewish family Jewish friends Jews Joop killed knew later Le Chambon Libuse live looked married medal Mein Kampf Mela Mickey Montauban months mother Nazis Netherlands never night numbers Orsi parents Peremyshl Poland Polish prison refugees remember rescue rescuers Resistance Russian save Jews sister someone stayed Stefan story survived talk Taquet tell Theresienstadt things thought told took underground village walked wanted Warsaw Westerbork wife woman Yad Vashem