Righteous Among the Nations
The Holocaust Rescuers of Jews Righteousness Seven Laws of Noah Yad Vashem
By country
Austrian Croatian Czech German Hungarian Lithuanian Norwegian Polish (list) Romanian Serbian Ukrainian
v t e

DuringWorld War II, some individuals and groups helpedJews and others escape theHolocaust conducted byNazi Germany.

The support, or at least absence of active opposition, of the local population was essential to Jews attempting to hide but often lacking in Eastern Europe.^[1] Those in hiding depended on the assistance of non-Jews.^[2] Having money,^[3] social connections with non-Jews, a non-Jewish appearance, perfect command of the local language, determination, and luck played a major role in determining survival.^[4] Jews in hiding were hunted down with the assistance of local collaborators and rewards offered for their denunciation.^[5][6][7] The death penalty was sometimes enforced on people hiding them, especially in eastern Europe,including Poland.^[8][9][10] Rescuers' motivations varied on a spectrum from altruism to expecting sex or material gain; it was not uncommon for helpers to betray or murder Jews if their money ran out.^[11][9][12]

Jews were hidden or saved by non-Jews throughoutNazi-occupied Europe. The Catholic Church and Vatican opposed the systemic murder of Jews, and in Italy the Mussolini government refused to deport Jews or participate in their mass murder. Many diplomats were involved in efforts to help Jews escape, such as by providing documents that allowed safe transit.

Since 1953,Israel's Holocaust memorial,Yad Vashem, has recognized 26,973 people asRighteous among the Nations.^[13] Yad Vashem's Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, headed by anIsraeli Supreme Court justice, recognizes rescuers of Jews as Righteous among the Nations to honor non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination byNazi Germany.

Poland had a very large Jewish population, and, according toNorman Davies, more Jews were both killed and rescued in Poland than in any other nation: the rescue figure usually being put at between 100,000–150,000.^[14] The memorial atBełżec extermination camp commemorates 600,000 murdered Jews and 1,500 Poles who tried to save Jews.^[15]6,532 men and women (more than from any other country in the world) have been recognized as rescuers byYad Vashem in Israel.,^[16] constituting the largest national contingent.^[17] Martin Gilbert wrote that "Poles who risked their own lives to save the Jews were indeed the exception. But they could be found throughout Poland, in every town and village."^[18]

Poland during the Holocaust of World War II was under total enemy control: initially, half of Poland was occupied by the Germans, as theGeneral Government andReichskomissariat; the other half by theSoviets, along with the territories of today'sBelarus andUkraine. Thedeath penalty was threatened forindividuals hiding Jews and their families.^[9] The list of Polish citizens officially recognized as Righteous includes 700 names of those who lost their lives while trying to help their Jewish neighbors.^[19] There were also groups, such as the PolishŻegota organization, that took drastic and dangerous steps to rescue victims.Witold Pilecki, a member ofArmia Krajowa, the Polish Home Army, organized aresistance movement in Auschwitz from 1940, andJan Karski tried to spread the word of the Holocaust.

WhenAK Home Army Intelligence discovered the true fate of transports leaving the Jewish Ghetto, the council to Aid Jews –Rada Pomocy Żydom (codenameŻegota) – was established in late 1942 in co-operation with church groups. The organization saved thousands. Emphasis was placed on protecting children, as it was nearly impossible to intervene directly against the heavily guarded transports. False papers were prepared, and children were distributed among safe houses and church networks.^[14] Two women founded the movement: the Catholic writer and activistZofia Kossak-Szczucka and the socialistWanda Filipowicz. Some of its members had been involved in Polish nationalist movements, which were themselves anti-Jewish, but which became appalled by the barbarity of the Nazi mass murders. In an emotional protest prior to the foundation of the council, Kossak wrote that Hitler's race murders were a crime about which it was not possible to remain silent. While Polish Catholics might still feel Jews were "enemies of Poland", Kossak wrote that protest was required: "God requires this protest from us... It is required of a Catholic conscience... The blood of the innocent calls for vengeance to the heavens."^[20]

In the 1948–49 Zegota Case, the Stalin-backed regime established in Poland after the war secretly tried and imprisoned the leading survivors of Zegota as part of a campaign to eliminate and besmirch resistance heroes who might threaten the new regime.^[21]

Jews were aided also by diplomats outside Poland. TheŁadoś Group was a group of Polish diplomats and Jewish activists who created inSwitzerland a system of illegal production ofLatin American passports aimed at saving EuropeanJews from theHolocaust. About 10,000 Jews received such passports, of whom over 3,000 have been saved.^[22] The group efforts are documented in theEiss Archive.^[23][24] Jews were also helped byHenryk Sławik, inHungary, who helped save over 30,000 Polish refugees, including 5,000Polish Jews by giving them false Polish passports with aCatholic designation,^[25] and byTadeusz Romer inJapan.

The Foundation for the Advancement of Sephardic Studies and Culture writes "One cannot forget the repeated initiatives of the head of the Greek Christian Orthodox Metropolitan See ofThessaloniki, Gennadios, against the deportations, and most of all, the official letter of protest signed inAthens on March 23, 1943, byArchbishop Damaskinos of theGreek Orthodox Church, along with 27 prominent leaders of cultural, academic and professional organizations. The document, written in a very sharp language, refers to unbreakable bonds between Christian Orthodox and Jews, identifying them jointly as Greeks, without differentiation. It is noteworthy that such a document is unique in the whole of occupied Europe, in character, content and purpose".^[26]

The 275 Jews of the island ofZakynthos, however, survived the Holocaust. When the island's mayor,Loukas Karrer (Λουκάς Καρρέρ), was presented with the German order to hand over a list of Jews, Bishop Chrysostomos returned to the amazed Germans with a list of two names; his and the mayor's. Moreover, the Bishop wrote a letter to Hitler himself stating that the Jews of the island were under his supervision.^[27] In the meantime the island's population hid every member of the Jewish community. When the island was almost levelled by the greatearthquake of 1953, the first relief came from the state of Israel, with a message that read "The Jews of Zakynthos have never forgotten their Mayor or their beloved Bishop and what they did for us."^[28]

The Jewish community ofVolos, one of the most ancient in Greece, had fewer losses than any other Jewish community in Greece thanks to the timely and dynamic intervention and mobilization of the massive communist-leftist partisan movement of EAM-ELAS (National Liberation Front (Greece) –Greek People's Liberation Army) and the successful cooperation of the head of the Greek Christian Orthodox Metropolitan See ofDemetrias Joachim and the chief rabbi of Volos,Moses Pesach for the evacuation of Volos from the Jewish people, after the events in Thessaloniki (displacement of the city's Jews to concentration camps).

Princess Alice of Battenberg and Greece, who was the wife ofPrince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and the mother ofPrince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and mother-in-law ofQueen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, stayed in occupiedAthens during the Second World War, sheltering Jewish refugees, for which she is recognized as "Righteous Among the Nations" atYad Vashem.Although the Germans and Bulgarians^[29] deported a great number of Greek Jews, others were successfully hidden by their Greek neighbors.

82-year-old Simon Danieli traveled from Israel to his birthplace in Veria to thank the descendants of the people who helped him and his family escape Nazi persecution during World War II. Danieli was 13 in 1942 when his family—father Joseph, agrain merchant, mother Buena, and nine siblings—fled Veria to escape the increasingly frequent atrocities committed by Nazi forces against the city's Jews. They ended up in a small nearby village in Sykies, where the family was taken in by Giorgos and Panayiota Lanara, who offered them shelter, food and a hiding place in the woods, helped also by a priest, Nestoras Karamitsopoulos. The Nazis, however, soon stormed Sykies, where around 50 more Jews from Veria had also taken refuge. They questioned the priest about the whereabouts of the Jews, but when Karamitsopoulos refused to answer, they began raiding people's homes. They found Jews hidden in eight homes, and promptly set fire the houses. They also turned their wrath on the priest, torturing him and pulling out his beard, according to Danieli.^[30]

Père Marie-Benoît was aFrenchCapuchin priest who helped smuggle approximately 4,000Jews into safety fromNazi-occupiedSouthern France and subsequently was recognized byYad Vashem as aRighteous among the Nations in 1966. The French town ofLe Chambon-sur-Lignon sheltered several thousand Jews. The Brazilian diplomatLuis Martins de Souza Dantas illegally issued Brazilian diplomatic visas to hundreds of Jews in France during theVichy Government, saving them from almost certain death.Si Kaddour Benghabrit, the religious head of the Islamic Center of France, helped more than a thousand Jews by providing forged identity papers to the Jews of Paris during the German occupation of France. He also managed to hide many Jewish families in the rooms ofParis Mosque as well as in the residencies and women's prayer areas.^{[31][32][33][34]}

In April 1943, members of the Belgian resistance held up thetwentieth convoy train to Auschwitz, and freed 231 people. Several local governments did all they could to slow down or block the registration processes for Jews they were obliged to perform by theNazis. Many people saved children by hiding them away in private houses and boarding schools. Of the approximately 50,000 Jews in Belgium in 1940, about 25,000 were deported—though only about 1,250 survived.Marie and Emile Taquet sheltered Jewish boys in a residential school or home. Bruno Reynders was a Belgian monk who defied the Nazis, as he implemented the directive of Pope Pius XII to save the Jews, worked with local orphanages, Catholic Nuns and the Belgian Underground to forge false identities for Jewish children whose parents willingly gave them up in an attempt to spare their lives faced with deportation to the death camps. Pere Bruno risked his life for his values and to save the lives of an estimated 400 Jewish children and is honored as a Righteous Gentile at Yad Vashem.

L'abbé Joseph André is another Catholic priest who secured safe hiding places with Belgian families, orphanages and other institutions for Jewish children and adults.

The Jewish community in Denmark remained relatively unaffected by Germany'soccupation of Denmark on 9 April 1940. The Germans allowed the Danish government to remain in office and this cabinet rejected the notion that any "Jewish question" should exist in Denmark. No legislation was passed against Jews and theyellow badge was not introduced in Denmark. In August 1943, this situation was about to collapse as the Danish government refused to introduce the death penalty as demanded by the Germans following a series of strikes and popular protests. The German empire forced the Danish government to shut down. During these events, German diplomatGeorg Ferdinand Duckwitz tipped off Danish politicianHans Hedtoft that the Danish Jews would be deported to Germany following the collapse of the Danish government. Hedtoft alerted theDanish resistance and the Jewish leader C.B. Henriques informed the acting Chief RabbiMarcus Melchior in the absence of the Chief Rabbi Max Friediger who had already been arrested as a hostage on 29 August 1943, urging the community to go into hiding in service on 29 September 1943. During the following weeks, more than 7,200 of Denmark's 8,000-strong Jewish communities were ferried to neutral Sweden hidden in fishing boats. A small number of Jews, some 450 in all, were captured by the Germans and shipped toTheresienstadt. Danish officials were able to ensure that these prisoners weren't shipped to extermination camps, and DanishRed Cross inspections and food packages ensured focus on the Danish Jews. Swedish CountFolke Bernadotte ensured theirrelease and transport to Denmark in the final days of the war.

Based on its 1940 population of 9 million the 5,516 Jews rescued in the Netherlands represents the largest per capita number: 1 in 1,700 Dutch was awarded theRighteous Among the Nations medal.^[35] Notable rescuers include:

• Willem Arondeus, Dutch artist and resistance fighter who helped forge documents allowing Jewish families to flee the country
• Gertruida Wijsmuller-Meijer, who helped save about 10,000 Jewish children from Germany and Austria just before the outbreak of the war (Kindertransport) and on the last transport ship leaving the Netherlands to the UK in May 1940
• L. P. J. de Decker Dutch Ambassador to the Baltic States in Riga, 1940. He removed from the required visa text the need to have the Governor of Curacao's approval to enter. This was a ruse to allow Jews to escape from Lithuania. He instructed, authorized honorary Dutch consul in Kovno, LithuaniaJan Zwartendijk to issue modified end visas to Jews in Lithuania. With the added help ofChiune Sempo Sugihara, Japanese consul in Kovno, thousands of Jews escaped the Holocaust via Japan and then Shanghai.^[36][37]
• Jan Zwartendijk, who as a Dutch consular representative inKaunas, Lithuania, at Dutch Ambassador L.P.J. deDecker's request issued modified Curacao visas used by between 6,000 and to 10,000 Jewish refugees.
• Those who hid and helpedAnne Frank and her family, likeMiep Gies.
• Caecilia Loots, a teacher and antifascist resistance member, who saved Jewish children during the war.^[38]
• Marion van Binsbergen helped save approximately 150Dutch Jews, most of them children, throughout theGerman occupation of the Netherlands.^[39][40]
• Tina Strobos, rescued over 100 Jews by hiding them in her house and providing them with forged paperwork to escape the country.^[41]
• Jan van Hulst (18 December 1903 – 1 August 1975), instrumental in preventing Jews from being deported and murdered during the Holocaust.
• The participants of the so-called "Amsterdam dock strike" (better known as theFebruary strike, about 300,000 to 500,000 people who on 25 and 26 February 1941 took part in the first strike against persecution of the Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe).
• The village ofNieuwlande (117 inhabitants) that set up a quota for residents to rescue Jews.

After theInvasion of Yugoslavia, the country was occupied by Germany and some regions were occupied by Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria and Albania. A joint German-Italian puppet state calledIndependent State of Croatia was installed. After a bombing campaign on major Serbian cities, a German puppet regimeNedić’s Serbia led byMilan Nedić was installed. In collaboration with the German Army, SerbianChetnik collaborators along with theSerbian Volunteer Corps as well as theSerbian State Guard assisted in thepersecution of Jews in Serbia proper,^[42] in Hungarian-occupied Vojvodina region, and in the territory held by the CroatianUstashas. Serbian Jews who were not transported to concentration camps in Germany were either murdered in Nazi concentration camps within Serbia (Sajmište andBanjica), Banjica being jointly controlled by Nedic's Government and the German Army,^[43] or transported to Ustasha-controlled concentration campJasenovac and murdered there. Jews living in Hungarian-occupied regions faced mass executions, the most notorious being theNovi Sad raid in 1942.

Serbian civilians were involved in saving thousands of Yugoslavian Jews during this period. Miriam Steiner-Aviezer, a researcher into Yugoslavian Jewry and a member of Yad Vashem's Righteous Gentiles committee states: "The Serbs saved many Jews. Contrary to their present image in the world, the Serbs are a friendly, loyal people who will not abandon their neighbors."^[44] As of 2017 Yad Vashem recognizes 135 Serbians as Righteous Among Nations, the highest of any Balkan country.^[45][46]

Bulgaria joined theAxis powers in March 1941 and took part in the invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece.^[48] The Nazi-allied government ofBulgaria, led byBogdan Filov, fully and actively assisted in the Holocaust in occupied areas. On Passover 1943, Bulgaria rounded up the great majority of Jews in Greece and Yugoslavia, transported them through Bulgaria, and handed them off to German transport toTreblinka, where almost all were murdered. The Nazi-allied government ofBulgaria deported a higher percentage of Jews (from the areas of Greece and theRepublic of Macedonia) than did the German occupiers in the region.^[49][50] In Bulgarian-occupied Greece, the Bulgarian authorities arrested the majority of the Jewish population on Passover 1943.^{[51][52][53][54][55]} The territories of Greece, Macedonia and other nations occupied by Bulgaria during World War II were not considered Bulgarian—they were only administered by Bulgaria, but Bulgaria had no say as to the affairs of these lands.

The active participation of Bulgaria in the Holocaust however did not extend to its pre-war territory and after various protests by Archbishop Stefan of Sofia and the interference ofDimitar Peshev, the planned deportation of the Bulgarian Jews (about 50,000) was stopped. Deportation to the concentration camps was denied. Bulgaria was officially thanked by the government of Israel despite being an ally of Nazi Germany.^[56]

Dimitar Peshev was the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of Bulgaria and Minister of Justice during World War II. He rebelled against the pro-Nazi cabinet and prevented the deportation of Bulgaria's 48 000 Jews. He was aided by the strong opposition of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. Although Peshev had been involved in various anti-Semitic legislation that was passed in Bulgaria during the early years of the War, the government's decision to deport Bulgaria's 48 000 Jews on 8 March 1943 was too much for Peshev. After being informed of the deportation, Peshev tried several times to see Prime Minister Bogdan Filov but the prime minister refused. Next, he went to see Interior MinisterPetar Gabrovski insisting that he cancel the deportations. After much persuasion, Gabrovski finally called the governor ofKyustendil and instructed him to stop preparations for the Jewish deportations. By 5:30 p.m. on 9 March, the order was cancelled. After the war, Peshev was charged with anti-Semitism and anti-Communism by the Soviet courts, and sentenced to death. However, after an outcry from the Jewish community, his sentence was commuted to 15 years imprisonment, though released after just one year. His deeds went unrecognized after the war, as he lived in poverty in Bulgaria. It was not until 1973 that he was awarded the title of Righteous Among the Nations. He died the same year.

Historians have estimated that up to one million refugees fled from the Nazis through Portugal during World War II, an impressive number considering the size of the country's population at that time (circa 6 million).^[57] Portugal remained neutral within the overall objectives of the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance; and that astute policy under precarious conditions, made it possible for Portugal to contribute to the rescue of a large number of refugees.^[58] Portuguese Prime MinisterAntónio de Oliveira Salazar allowed all international Jewish organizations—HIAS, HICEM, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, World Jewish Congress, and Portuguese Jewish relief committees—to establish themselves in Lisbon.^[59] In 1944, in Hungary, risking their lives, the diplomatsCarlos Sampaio Garrido andCarlos de Liz-Texeira Branquinho, coordinating with Salazar, also helped many Jews escape Nazis and their Hungarian allies.^[60] In June 1940, when Germany invaded France, Portuguese consul in Bordeaux,Aristides de Sousa Mendes issued visas, indiscriminately, to a population in panic,^[61] without asking previous authorizations from Lisbon, as he was supposed to. On 20 June, the British Embassy in Lisbon accused the Consul in Bordeaux of improperly charging money for issuing visas and Sousa Mendes was called to Lisbon. The number of visas issued by Sousa Mendes cannot be determined; a 1999 study by theYad Vashem historian Dr. Avraham Milgram published by the Shoah Resource Center, International School for Holocaust Studies,^[62] asserts that there is a great difference between reality and the myth created by the generally cited numbers. Sousa Mendes never lost his title as he kept on being listed in the Portuguese Diplomatic Yearbook until 1954 and kept on receiving his full Consul salary, $1,593 Portuguese Escudos,^[63][64] until the day he died.^[65] Other Portuguese credited for saving Jews during the war are ProfessorFrancisco Paula Leite Pinto andMoisés Bensabat Amzalak. A devoted Jew, and a Salazar supporter, Amzalak headed the Lisbon Jewish community for more than fifty years (from 1926 until 1978). Leite Pinto, General Manager of the Portuguese railways, together with Amzalak, organized several trains, coming from Berlin and other cities, loaded with refugees.^[66][67][68]

InFranco's Spain, several diplomats contributed very actively to rescue Jews during the Holocaust. The two most prominent ones wereÁngel Sanz Briz (the Angel of Budapest), who saved around five thousand Hungarian Jews by providing them Spanish passports,^[69] andEduardo Propper de Callejón, who helped thousands of Jews to escape from France to Spain.^[70] Other diplomats with a relevant role were Bernardo Rolland de Miota (consul of Spain at Paris),^[71] José Rojas Moreno (ambassador at Bucharest), Miguel Ángel de Muguiro (diplomat at the embassy in Budapest), Sebastián Romero Radigales (consul at Athens), Julio Palencia Tubau, (diplomat at the embassy in Sofía), Juan Schwartz Díaz-Flores (consul at Vienna) and José Ruiz Santaella (diplomat at the embassy in Berlin).

According to the data available at Yad Vashem, by 1 January 2019,904 rescuers of Jews in Lithuania were identified, whereas in the catalogue compiled by theVilna Gaon State Jewish Museum, 2300^[72] Lithuanians who rescued Jews are indicated, among them 159 members of clergy.^[73]

The Republic of Lithuania following the occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in September 1939, accepted and accommodated in the country numbers of Polish and Jewish refugees^[75] as well as soldiers of defeated Polish army.^[76] Part of these refugees were later saved from the Soviets (and eventually from Nazis) byL. P. J. de Decker, Dutch Ambassador to the Baltic States in Riga, 1940. He removed from the required visa text the need to have the Governor of Curacao's approval to enter. This was a ruse to allow Jews to escape from Lithuania. He instructed, authorized honorary Dutch consul in Kovno, LithuaniaJan Zwartendijk to issue modified end visas to Jews in Lithuania. With the added help ofChiune Sempo Sugihara, Japanese consul-general in Kovno, thousands of Jews escaped from the Holocaust via Japan and then to Shanghai.^[36][37]

As well as in other countries rescuers from Lithuania came from different layers of society. The most iconic figures are librarianOna Šimaitė, doctorPetras Baublys, writerKazys Binkis and his wife journalist Sofija Binkienė, musician Vladas Varčikas, writer and translator Danutė Zubovienė (Čiurlionytė) and her husband Vladimiras Zubovas, doctorElena Kutorgienė, aviator Vladas Drupas, doctor Pranas Mažylis, Catholic priest Juozapas Stakauskas, teacher Vladas Žemaitis, Catholic nun Maria Mikulska and others. In Šarnelė village (Plungė district) Straupiai family (Jonas and Bronislava Straupiai together with their neighbours Adolfina and Juozas Karpauskai) saved 26 people (9 families).^[77]

Citizens of Lithuania and foreign countries who rescue people on the territory of Lithuania and citizens of Lithuania abroad are awarded Life Saving Crosses. The President of Lithuania honors Jewish rescuers every year on the occasion of the National Memorial Day for the Genocide of Lithuanian Jews, which is marked on September 23 to commemorate the liquidation of theVilna Ghetto on that day in 1943.

Unlike many otherEastern European countries under Nazi occupation,Albania—whichhas a mixed Muslim and Christian population and a tradition of tolerance—became a safe haven for Jews.^[78] At the end of 1938, Albania was the only remaining country in Europe that still issued visas to Jews through its embassy in Berlin.^[79] Following the Nazi occupation of Albania, the country refused to hand over its small Jewish population to the Germans,^[80] sometimes even providing Jewish families with forged documents.^[78] During the war, about 2,000 Jews sought refuge in Albania, and many of them took shelter in rural parts of the country where they were protected by the local population.^[78] At the end of the war, Albania's Jewish population was greater than it was prior to the war, making it the only country in Europe where the Jewish population increased duringWorld War II.^[81][82] Out of two thousand Jews in total,^[83] only fiveAlbanian Jews perished at the hands of the Nazis.^[80][84] They were discovered by the Germans and subsequently deported toPristina.^[85]

Between February and March in 1939,King Zog I of Albania granted asylum to 300 Jewish refugees before being overthrown by theItalian fascists in April the same year. When the Italians requisitioned the Albanian puppet government to expel its Jewish refugees, the Albanian leaders refused, and in the following years, 400 more Jewish refugees found sanctuary in Albania.^[86]

Refik Veseli was the first Albanian to be awarded the titleRighteous Among the Nations,^[87] having declared afterwards that betraying the Jews "would have disgraced his village and his family. At minimum his home would be destroyed and his family banished".^[88] On 21 July 1992, Mihal Lekatari, anAlbanian partisan fromKavajë, was recognized asRighteous Among the Nations. Lekatari is noted for stealing blank identity papers from the municipality of Harizaj and distributing identity papers with Muslim names on them to Jewish refugees.^[89] In 1997, Albanian Shyqyri Myrto was honored for rescuing Jews, with theAnti-Defamation League'sCourage to Care Award presented to his son, Arian Myrto.^[90] In 2006, a plaque honoring the compassion and courage of Albania during the Holocaust was dedicated inThe Holocaust Memorial Park inSheepshead Bay inBrooklyn,New York, with the Albanian ambassador to theUnited Nations in attendance.^{[note 1]}

During the war, some parts ofKosovo andMacedonia which were occupied by theAxis powers were annexed toAlbania, and an estimated 600 Jews were captured in these territories, and consequently killed.^[92]

The government of Finland generally refused to deport Finnish Jews to Germany. It has been said that Finnish government officials told German envoys that "Finland has no Jewish Problem". However, the Secret PoliceValPo deported 8 Jews in 1942 who were refugees seeking asylum in Finland. Moreover, it seems highly likely that Finland deported Soviet POWs, among them a number of Jews. The majority of Finnish Jews, however, were protected by the government's co-belligerence with Germany. Their men joined the Finnish army and fought on the front.

The most notable Finnish individual involved in aiding the Jews wasAlgoth Niska (1888–1954). Niska was a smuggler during the Finnish prohibition but had run into financial troubles after its end in 1932, so when Albert Amtmann, an Austrian-Jewish acquaintance, expressed his concerns over his people's position in Europe, Niska quickly saw a business opportunity in smuggling Jews out of Germany. The modus operandi was quickly established. Niska would forge Finnish passports and Amtmann would acquire the customers, who with their new passports would be able to cross the border out of Germany. All in all, Niska falsified passports for 48 Jews during 1938 and earned 2,5 million Finnish marks ($890,000 or £600,000 in today's money) selling them. Only three of the Jews are known to have survived the Holocaust while twenty were certainly caught. The fates of the other twenty-five are not known. Involved in the operation with Niska and Amtmann were Major Rafael Johannes Kajander, Axel Belewicz and Belewicz's girlfriend Kerttu Ollikainen whose job was to steal the forms on which the passports were forged.^[93][94]

DespiteBenito Mussolini's close alliance with Hitler, Italy did not adopt Nazism's genocidal ideology towards the Jews. The Nazis were frustrated by the Italian forces' refusal to co-operate in the roundups of Jews, and no Jews were deported from Italy prior to the Nazi occupation of the country following the Italian capitulation in September 1943.^[95] In Italian-occupied Croatia, the Nazi envoySiegfried Kasche advised Berlin that Italian forces had "apparently been influenced" by Vatican opposition to German anti-Semitism.^[96] As anti-Axis feeling grew in Italy, the use ofVatican Radio to broadcast papal disapproval of race murder and anti-Semitism angered the Nazis.^[97] Mussolini was overthrown in July 1943, and the Nazis moved to occupy Italy, commencing a round-up of Jews. Although thousands were caught, the great majority of Italy's Jews were saved. As in other nations, Catholic networks were heavily engaged in rescue efforts.^{[note 2]}

InFiume (northern Italy, today Croatian Rijeka),Giovanni Palatucci, after the promulgation of racial laws against Jews in 1938 and at the beginning of war in 1940, as chief of the Foreigners' Office, forged documents and visas to Jews threatened by deportation. He managed to destroy all documented records of some 5,000 Jewish refugees living inFiume, issuing them false papers and providing them with funds. Palatucci then sent the refugees to a large internment camp in southern Italy protected by his uncle,Giuseppe Maria Palatucci, the Catholic Bishop of Campagna. Following the 1943capitulation of Italy, Fiume was occupied by the Nazis. Palatucci remained as head of the police administration without real powers. He continued to clandestinely help Jews and maintain contact with theResistance, until his activities were discovered by the Gestapo. The Swiss Consul toTrieste, a close friend of his, offered him a safe pass to Switzerland, but Giovanni Palatucci sent his young Jewish fiancée instead. Palatucci was arrested on 13 September 1944. He was condemned to death, but the sentence was later commuted to deportation toDachau, where he died.

On 19 July 1944, the Gestapo rounded up the nearly 2000 Jewish inhabitants of the island ofRhodes, which had been governed by Italy since 1912. Of the approximately 2,000 Rhodesli Jews who were deported to Auschwitz and elsewhere, only 104 survived.

Giorgio Perlasca, who posed as the consul-general of Spain under the Spanish ambassador inBudapest, was able to put under his protection thousands of Jews and non-Jews destined to concentration camps.

The cycling championGino Bartali had hidden a Jewish family in his cellar and, according to one of the survivors, saved their lives in doing so.^[98] He also used his fame to carry messages and documents to theItalian Resistance and fugitive Jews.^[99][100] Bartali cycled fromFlorence throughTuscany,Umbria andMarche, many times traveling as far afield asAssisi, all the while wearing the racing jersey emblazoned with his name.

Calogero Marrone was the chief of the Civil Registry office in the municipality ofVarese and issued hundreds of fake identity cards in order to save Jews and anti-fascists. He was arrested after an anonymous tip-off and died in theDachau concentration camp.

Martin Gilbert wrote that, in October 1943, with the SS occupying Rome and determined to deport the city's 5000 Jews, the Vatican clergy had opened the sanctuaries of the Vatican to all "non-Aryans" in need of rescue in an attempt to forestall the deportation. "Catholic clergy in the city acted with alacrity", wrote Gilbert. "At the Capuchin convent on the Via Siciliano,Father Benoit saved a large number of Jews by providing them with false identification papers [...] by the morning of October 16, a total of 4,238 Jews had been given sanctuary in the many monasteries and convents of Rome. A further 477 Jews had been given shelter in the Vatican and its enclaves." Gilbert credited the rapid rescue efforts of the Church with saving over four-fifths of Roman Jews.^[101]

Other Righteous Catholic rescuers in Italy includedElisabeth Hesselblad.^[102] She and two British women, MotherRiccarda Beauchamp Hambrough and SisterKatherine Flanagan have been beatified for reviving the Swedish Bridgettine Order of nuns and hiding scores of Jewish families in their convent.^[103] The churches, monasteries and convents ofAssisi formed theAssisi Network and served as a safe haven for Jews. Gilbert credits the network established by BishopGiuseppe Placido Nicolini and AbbottRufino Niccaci of the Franciscan Monastery, with saving 300 people.^[104] Other Italian clerics honored byYad Vashem include the theology professor FrGiuseppe Girotti of Dominican Seminary of Turin, who saved many Jews before being arrested and sent to Dachau where he died in 1945; FrArrigo Beccari who protected around 100 Jewish children in his seminary and among local farmers in the village ofNonantola in Central Italy; and DonGaetano Tantalo, a parish priest who sheltered a large Jewish family.^{[105][106][107]} SisterMarguerite Bernes collaborated with Prati parish priest Father Antonio Dressino to hide Jewish refugees.^[108] Of Italy's 44,500 Jews, some 7,680 were murdered in the Nazi Holocaust.^[109]

In the 1930s,Pope Pius XI urged Mussolini to ask Hitler to restrain the anti-Semitic actions taking place in Germany.^[110] In 1937, the Pope issued theMit brennender Sorge (German:"With burning concern") encyclical, in which he asserted the inviolability of human rights.^{[111][note 3]}

Pius XII

Pope Pius XII succeeded Pius XI on the eve of war in 1939. He used diplomacy to aid the victims of the Holocaust, and directed the Church to provide discreet aid.^[118] His encyclicals such asSummi Pontificatus andMystici corporis preached against racism—with specific reference to Jews: "there is neither Gentile nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision".^[119]His 1942 Christmas radio address denounced the murder of "hundreds of thousands" of "faultless" people because of their "nationality or race". The Nazis were furious and TheReich Security Main Office, responsible for the deportation of Jews, called him the "mouthpiece of the Jewish war criminals".^[120] Pius XII intervened to attempt to block Nazi deportations of Jews in various countries.^[121]

Following the capitulation of Italy, Nazi deportations of Jews to death camps began. Pius XII protested at diplomatic levels, while several thousand Jews found refuge in Catholic networks. On 27 June 1943,Vatican Radio broadcast a papal injunction: "He who makes a distinction between Jews and other men is being unfaithful to God and is in conflict with God's commands".^[122]

When the Nazis came to Rome in search of Jews, the Pope had already days earlier ordered the sanctuaries of the Vatican City be opened to all "non-Aryans" in need of refuge and according toMartin Gilbert, by the morning of 16 October, "a total of 477 Jews had been given shelter in the Vatican and its enclaves, while another 4,238 had been given sanctuary in the many monasteries and convents of in Rome. Only 1,015 of Rome's 6,730 Jews were seized that morning".^[123] Upon receiving news of the roundups on the morning of 16 October, the Pope immediately instructed Cardinal Secretary of State Maglione, to make a protest to the German ambassador. After the meeting, the ambassador gave orders for a halt to the arrests. Earlier, the Pope had helped the Jews of Rome by offering gold towards the 50 kg ransom demanded by the Nazis.^[124]

Other noted rescuers assisted by Pius werePietro Palazzini^[125]Giovanni Ferrofino,^[126]Giovanni Palatucci,Pierre-Marie Benoit and others. When ArchbishopGiovanni Montini (later Pope Paul VI) was offered an award for his rescue work by Israel, he said he had only been acting on the orders of Pius XII.^[124]

Pius' diplomatic representatives lobbied on behalf of Jews across Europe, including inVichy France, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia and Slovakia, Germany itself and elsewhere.^{[116][124][127][128][129][130]} Manypapal nuncios played important roles in the rescue of Jews, among themGiuseppe Burzio, the Vatican Chargé d'Affaires in Slovakia;Filippo Bernardini, Nuncio to Switzerland; andAngelo Roncalli, the Nuncio to Turkey.^[131]Angelo Rotta, the wartime Nuncio to Budapest andAndrea Cassulo, the Nuncio to Bucharest have been recognized as Righteous Among the Nations.

Pius directly protested the deportations of Slovakian Jews to the Bratislava government from 1942.^[132] He made a direct intervention in Hungary to lobby for an end to Jewish deportations in 1944, and on 4 July, the Hungarian leader,Admiral Horthy, told Berlin that deportations of Jews must cease, citing protests by the Vatican, the King of Sweden and the Red Cross.^[133] The pro-Nazi, anti-SemiticArrow Cross Party seized power in October, and a campaign of murder of the Jews commenced. The neutral powers led a major rescue effort and Pius' representative, Angelo Rotta, took the lead in establishing an "international Ghetto", marked by the emblems of the Swiss, Swedish, Portuguese, Spanish and Vatican legations, and providing shelter for some 25,000 Jews.^[134]

In Rome, some 4,000 Italian Jews and escaped prisoners of war avoided deportation, many of them hidden in safe houses or evacuated from Italy by a resistance group organized by the Irish-born priest and Vatican officialHugh O'Flaherty. Msgr. O'Flaherty used his political connections to help secure sanctuary for dispossessed Jews.^[135] The wife of the Irish ambassador,Delia Murphy, assisted him.

During theoccupation of Norway by Nazi Germany, itsJewish community wassubject to persecution anddeported to extermination camps. Although at least 764 Jews in Norway were killed, over 1,000 were rescued with the help of non-Jewish Norwegians who risked their lives to smuggle the refugees out, typically to Sweden.^[136] As of January 2018^[update], 67 of these individuals have been recognized byYad Vashem as beingRighteous Among the Nations.^[137] Yad Vashem has also recognized theNorwegian resistance movement collectively.^[138]

Ho Feng Shan – Chinese Consul inVienna started to issue visas to Jews for Shanghai, part of which during this time was still under the control of the Republic of China, for humanitarian reasons. Between 1933 and 1941, the Chinese city ofShanghai under Japanese occupation, accepted unconditionally over 18,000 Jewish refugees escaping the Holocaust in Europe, a number greater than those taken in by Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and British India combined during World War II. After 1943, the occupying Nazi-aligned Japanese ghettoised the Jewish refugees in Shanghai into an area known as theShanghai ghetto. Many of the Jewish refugees in Shanghai migrated to the United States andIsrael after 1948 due to theChinese Civil War (1946–1950).

The Japanese government ensured Jewish safety in China, Japan and Manchuria.^[139] Japanese Army GeneralHideki Tōjō receivedJewish refugees in accordance with Japanese national policy and rejected German protest.^[140]Chiune Sugihara,Kiichiro Higuchi, andFumimaro Konoe helped thousands of Jews escape the Holocaust from occupied Europe.

Between 1938 and 1941, around 20,000 Jews were given visas for Bolivia under an agricultural visa program. Although most moved on to the neighboring countries of Argentina, Uruguay and Chile, some stayed and created aJewish Community in Bolivia.^[141]

In a notable humanitarian act,Manuel L. Quezon, the first president of theCommonwealth of the Philippines, in cooperation with United StatesHigh CommissionerPaul V. McNutt, facilitated the entry into the Philippines of Jewish refugees fleeing fascist regimes in Europe, while taking on critics who were convinced by fascist propaganda that Jewish settlement is a threat to the country.^{[142][143][144]} Quezon and McNutt proposed to have 30,000 refugee families on Mindanao, and 40,000-50,000 refugees onPolillo. Quezon gave, as a 10-year loan to Manila's Jewish Refugee Committee, land beside Quezon's family home inMarikina. The land would house homeless refugees in Marikina Hall, dedicated on 23 April 1940.^[145]

• Raoul Wallenberg as Swedish diplomat went to Budapest on July 7, 1944 at the request of the AmericanWar Refugee Board. Together with his colleagues saved possibly tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews by providing them with Swedish protection papers.

• Per Anger –Swedish diplomat in Budapest who originated the idea of issuing provisional passports to Hungarian Jews to protect them from arrest and deportation to camps. Anger collaborated withRaoul Wallenberg to save the lives of thousands of Jews.
• Władysław Bartoszewski –PolishŻegota activist.
• CountFolke Bernadotte of Wisborg –Swedish diplomat, who negotiated the release of 27,000 people (a significant number of whom were Jews) to hospitals in Sweden.
• Jacob (Jack) Benardout – British diplomat toDominican Republic before and during World War II. Issued numerous Dominican Republic visas to Jews in Germany. Only 16 Jewish families arrived in the Dominican Republic (the other Jews dispersed to countries along the way, e.g. Britain, America) and so created the Jewish community of the Dominican Republic.^[146]
• Hiram Bingham IV – American Vice Consul inMarseille, France, 1940–1941.
• José Castellanos Contreras – aSalvadorean army colonel and diplomat who, while working as El Salvador'sConsul General inGeneva from 1942 to 1945, and in conjunction with George Mantello, helped save at least 13,000Central European Jews from Nazi persecution by providing them with false papers of Salvadorean nationality.
• Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz – German diplomatic attaché in Denmark. Alerted Danish politicianHans Hedtoft about the imminent German plans deport to Denmark's Jewish community, thus enabling the followingrescue of the Danish Jews.
• Harald Edelstam – Swedish diplomat in Norway who helped to protect and smuggle hundreds of Jews andNorwegian resistance fighters to Sweden.
• Gisi Fleischmann led theBratislava Working Group, one of the most important rescue groups, in partnership with RabbiChaim Michael Dov Weissmandl. They successfully negotiated with the Nazis in early 1942 to stop the transports from Slovakia and a few months later, via theEuropa Plan, to try to stop transports from other parts of Europe. They demanded bombing of the rail lines to Auschwitz and authored/distributed theAuschwitz Report in 1944.
• RabbiChaim Michael Dov Weissmandl of theBratislava Working Group. SeeGisi Fleischmann above.
• Wilfrid Israel had important role in theKindertransport. See his webpage for details.
• Frank Foley –BritishMI6 agent undercover as a passport officer in Berlin, saved around 10,000 people by issuing forged passports to Britain and theBritish Mandate of Palestine.
• Rafael Leónidas Trujillo – the Dominican dictator promised to receive 100,000 Jewish refugees into the Dominican Republic in 1938 when Franklin D. Roosevelt organized an international conference in Evian to discuss the persecution of the Jews. Dominican Republic was the only nation accepting Jews immigrants after the conference.^[147] The DORSA (Dominican Republic Settlement Association) was formed to settle Jews on the northern coast. 5,000 visas were issued, but only 645 European Jews reached the settlement. The refugees were assigned land and cattle and the town ofSosúa was founded.^[147] 5000 dollars in gold from Jewish International in New York were paid for each person taken by the Trujillo.^[147] Other refugees settled in the capital Santo Domingo.^[148][149]
• Albert Göring –German businessman (and younger brother of leading NaziHermann Göring) who helped Jews and dissidents survive in Germany.
• Paul Grüninger –Swiss commander of police who provided falsely dated papers to over 3,000 refugees so they could escape Austria following theAnschluss.

• Carlos María Gurméndez -Uruguayan ambassador to the Netherlands who sheltered German and Dutch Jews in the Uruguayan embassy and assisted with their travel to Uruguay and the United States.^{[152][153][154]}
• Kiichiro Higuchi – Japanese lieutenant general who saved 20,000 Jewish refugees.^[155]
• Wilm Hosenfeld – German officer who helped pianistWladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish Jew, among many others.
• Seishirō Itagaki –Japanese Army Minister who proposed and adopted a Japanese national policy to receive Jewish refugees.^[139]
• Lyndon B. Johnson – FuturePresident of the United States who, as a member of theUnited States House of Representatives in 1938, helpedAustrian conductorErich Leinsdorf gainpermanent residency in the United States. Johnson later helped Jews enter the U.S. throughLatin America and become workers onNational Youth Administration projects inTexas.^[156]
• PrinceConstantin Karadja – Romanian diplomat, who saved over 51,000 Jews from deportation and extermination, as credited by Yad Vashem in 2005.^[157]
• Jan Karski –Polish emissary ofArmia Krajowa to Western Allies and eye-witness of the Holocaust.
• Necdet Kent –Turkish Consul General atMarseille, who granted Turkish citizenship to hundreds of Jews. At one point, he entered an Auschwitz-bound train at enormous personal risk to save from deportation 70 Jews, to whom he had granted Turkish citizenship.
• Fumimaro Konoe –Japanese Prime Minister who adopted a Japanese national policy to receive Jewish refugees.^[139]
• Zofia Kossak-Szczucka –Polish founder of Zegota.
• Hillel Kook (aka Peter Bergson) established a US-based rescue group: theEmergency Committee for the Rescue of European Jewry, which had considerable support in Congress. The group's activism was the major factor forcing PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt to establish theWar Refugee Board in January 1944. Significant added credit is due to the US Treasury SecretaryHenry Morgenthau and his team. One of the WRB's important actions was initiation and sponsoring of theRaoul Wallenberg mission to Budapest.
• Carl Lutz –Swiss consul inBudapest, protected tens of thousands of Jews in Hungary, including thousands in the BudapestGlass House.
• Luis Martins de Souza Dantas – Brazilian in charge of the Brazilian diplomatic mission in France. He granted Brazilian visas to several Jews and other minorities persecuted by the Nazis. He was proclaimed as Righteous among the Nations in 2003.^[158]
• George Mantello (b. Mandl Gyorgy) –El Salvador's honorary consul for Hungary,Romania, andCzechoslovakia - a Jew from the Hungarian part of Romania - – provided Salvadoran protection papers for thousands of Jews. After receipt an abbreviated version of theAuschwitz Report on June 20, 1944 he spearheaded an unprecedented Swiss grassroots protests, including masses in Swiss churches and a press campaign of over 400 articles in a very short time. It led to Roosevelt, Churchill and other world leaders threatening Hungary's ruler, regentMiklos Horthy, with post-war retribution if the transports did not stop. That ended the deportation of Jews from Hungary to Auschwitz.^{[159][160][161]}
• Boris III of Bulgaria – King of Bulgaria from 1918 to 1943 Resisted demands from Hitler to deport the Jews resulting in all 50,000 being spared, Boris died in 1943 after meeting with Hitler.
• Paul V. McNutt – United StatesHigh Commissioner of the Philippines, 1937–1939, who facilitated the entry of Jewish refugees into the Philippines.^[162]
• Helmuth James Graf von Moltke – adviser toNazi Germany on international law; active inKreisau Circle resistance group, sent Jews to safe-haven countries.
• Delia Murphy – wife of Dr. Thomas J. Kiernan,Irish minister in Rome 1941–1946, who worked withHugh O'Flaherty and was part of the network that saved the lives of POWs and Jews in the hands of the Gestapo.^[163]
• Jean-Marie Musy, past President of Switzerland, drove to Berlin with his son Benoit from Switzerland toward end of the war while the German highways were bombed to negotiate with Himmler on behalf ofRecha Sternbuch in order to rescue large numbers of Jews in the concentration camps as Germany was withdrawing toward end of the war.
• Giovanni Palatucci –Italian police official who saved several thousand.
• Giorgio Perlasca –Italian. WhenÁngel Sanz Briz was ordered to leave Hungary, Perlasca in Budapest "stepped into his shoes": falsely claimed to be his substitute and saved some thousands more Jews.
• Dimitar Peshev – Deputy Speaker of the Bulgarian Parliament, played a major role in rescuing Bulgaria's 48 000 Jews, the entire Jewish population in Bulgaria at the time.
• Frits Philips – Dutch industrialist who saved 382 Jews by insisting to the Nazis that they were indispensable employees ofPhilips.
• Witold Pilecki – the only person who volunteered to be imprisoned inAuschwitz, organized a resistance inside the camp and as a member ofArmia Krajowa sent the first reports on the camp atrocities to thePolish Government in Exile, from where they were passed to the rest of theWestern Allies.
• Karl Plagge – a major in theWehrmacht Heer who issued work permits in order to save almost 1,000 Jews (seeThe Search for Major Plagge: The Nazi Who Saved Jews, by Michael Good)
• Enver Hoxha – Led the Resistance against the German and Italians in Albania. Hoxha refused that the Germans or collaborationists deport a single Jew, therefore Albania was the only country in Europe to have an increased Jewish population after the war.
• Mehmet Shehu – a resistance fighter in Albania who allowed Jews to enter Albania, and refused to hand the Jews over to The Germans, during the occupation
• Eduardo Propper de Callejón – First Secretary in the Spanish embassy in Paris who stamped and signed passports almost non-stop for four days in 1940 to let Jewish refugees escape to Spain and Portugal.
• Traian Popovici –Romanian mayor of Cernăuţi (Chernivtsi) who saved 20,000 Jews ofBukovina.
• Manuel L. Quezon – President of theCommonwealth of the Philippines, 1935–1941, assisted in resettling Jewish refugees on the island ofMindanao.^[162]
• Florencio Rivas – Consul General ofUruguay in Germany, who allegedly hid one hundred and fifty Jews duringKristallnacht and later provided them with passports.^[164][154]
• Gilberto Bosques Saldívar – General Consul ofMexico inMarseille, France. For two years, he issued Mexican visas to around 40,000 Jews, Spaniards and political refugees, allowing them to escape to Mexico and other countries. He was imprisoned by the Nazis in 1943 and released to Mexico in 1944.^[165]
• Ángel Sanz Briz –Spanish consul in Hungary. Together withGiorgio Perlasca, he saved more than 5,000 Jews in Budapest by issuing Spanish passports to them.
• Abdol-Hossein Sardari – Head of Consular affairs at the Iranian Embassy in Paris. He saved many Iranian Jews and gave 500 blank Iranian passports to an acquaintance of his, to be used by non-Iranian Jews in France.^[166]

• Oskar Schindler –German businessman whose efforts to save his 1,200 Jewish workers were recounted in the bookSchindler's Ark and the filmSchindler's List.
• RabbiSolomon Schonfeld rescued many thousands of Jews, partly from theKindertransport. He requested that the Auschwitz crematoria be bombed, purchasedStranger's Cey, an island in the British Bahamas, hoping it could be a shelter for Jewish refugees from the Holocaust, convinced large numbers in Parliament to pass a motion allowing Jews who could escape from Nazi held territories to find refuge in parts of the British Empire. The Parliamentary motion had omitted Palestine as a haven, and was therefore opposed by a lobby group which should have helped instead, as was the case with the Mauritius initiatives.^[167]
• Eduard Schulte – German industrialist, the first to inform the Allies about the mass extermination of Jews.
• Irena Sendler –Polish head ofZegota children's department who saved 2,500 Jewish children most of whom she smuggled out from theWarsaw Ghetto.
• Ho Feng Shan – Chinese Consul inVienna who freely issued visas to Jews.
• Henryk Slawik –Polish diplomat who saved 5,000–10,000 people in Budapest, Hungary.
• Aristides de Sousa Mendes –Portuguese diplomat inBordeaux, who signed about 30,000 visas to help Jews and persecuted minorities to escape theNazis andThe Holocaust.
• Recha Sternbuch sometimes together with her husband Yitzchak, an Orthodox Jewish couple, rescued large numbers of Jews by smuggling them into Switzerland from Austria, by distributing protection papers, by negotiating with Himmler with help ofJean-Marie Musy to save Jews in the concentration camps as the Germans were retreating, and by rescuing the Jews who arrived to Bergen-Belsen by train from Hungary.

^[168]

• Chiune Sempo Sugihara –Japanese consul to Kovno, Lithuania, 2,140 (mostly Polish) Jews and an unknown number of additional family members were saved by Japanese travel documents, unauthorized by Japan, provided by him in 1940 and travel documents previously provided by Dutch ambassador in RigaL.P.J. deDecker and Dutch honorary consulJan Zwartendijk in Kovno.
• Hideki Tōjō –General andPrime Minister of Japan who receivedJewish refugees in Manchuria and rejected German protest.^[140]
• Selâhattin Ülkümen –Turkish diplomat who saved the lives of some 42 Jewish Turkish families, more than 200 persons, among a Jewish community of some 2000 after the Germans occupied the island ofRhodes in 1944.
• Raoul Wallenberg –Swedish diplomat. Wallenberg saved the lives of tens of thousands of Jews condemned to certain death by the Nazis during World War II. In January 1945, Wallenberg was imprisoned at the headquarters ofRodion Malinovsky inDebrecen and disappeared. He is believed to have been poisoned in theLubyanka Building by the NKVD torturerGrigory Mairanovsky.^[169]

• Sir Nicholas Winton –British stockbroker who organized the CzechKindertransport which sent 669 children (most of them Jewish) to foster parents ln England and Sweden fromCzechoslovakia and Austria afterKristallnacht. Sir Nicholas was nominated for the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize.^[170][171]
• Namik Kemal Yolga – A Vice-Consul at theTurkish Embassy in Paris who saved numerous Turkish Jews from deportation.
• Guelfo Zamboni –Consul General atThessaloniki who gave false papers to save the lives of over 300 Jews residing there.
• Raymond Geist –Consul General at theAmerican embassy in Berlin. While he was posted in Berlin from 1929 to 1939 he personally intervened with Nazi officials to save those (German Jews as well as opponents of the Nazi regime), who were under the threat of being imprisoned in concentration camps and issued more than 50,000 visas to save their lives. According to the TV seriesGenius, he was the one who issued visas toAlbert Einstein and his family even when he was under orders fromJ. Edgar Hoover, who was at that time the Director of theFBI not to give the visas till Albert Einstein signed a declaration confirming that he was not a member of theCommunist Party. He was awarded the Order of Merit by theGerman Federal Republic in 1954.^[172]

• Pope Pius XII, preached against racism in encyclicals likeSummi Pontificatus. UsedVatican Radio to denounce race murders and anti-Semitism.^[122] Directly lobbied Axis officials to stop Jewish deportations.^[133] Opened the sanctuaries of the Vatican to Rome's Jews during the Nazi roundup.^[123]
• MonsignorHugh O'FlahertyCBE –Irish Catholic priest who saved more than 6,500 Allied soldiers and Jews;^[173] known as the "Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican". Retold in the filmThe Scarlet and the Black.
• Filippo Bernardini, papal nuncio to Switzerland.^[131]
• Giuseppe Burzio, the Vatican Chargé d'Affaires in Slovakia.^[131] Protested the anti-Semitism and totalitarianism of the Tiso regime.^[132] Burzio advised Rome of the deteriorating situation for Jews in the Nazi puppet state, sparking Vatican protests on behalf of Jews.^[174]
• Angelo Roncalli, the nuncio to Turkey saved a number of Croatian, Bulgarian and Hungarian Jews by assisting their migration to Palestine. Roncalli succeeded Pius XII as Pope John XXIII, and always said that he had been acting on the orders of Pius XII in his actions to rescue Jews.^[175]
• Andrea Cassulo, papal nuncio in Romania.^[176] Appealed directly to Marshall Antonescu to limit the deportations of Jews to Nazi concentration camps planned for the summer of 1942.^[177]
• Cardinal Gerlier of France refused to hand over Jewish children being sheltered in Catholic homes. In September 1942, Eight Jesuits were arrested for sheltering hundreds of children on Jesuit properties, and Pius XII's Secretary of State, Cardinal Maglione protested to the Vichy Ambassador.^[178]
• Giuseppe Marcone, apostolic visitor to Croatia, lobbied Croat regime, saved 1000 Jewish partners in mixed marriages.^[179]
• ArchbishopAloysius Stepinac of Zagreb, condemned Croat atrocities against both Serbs and Jews, and himself saved a group of Jews.^[179] He declared publicly in the spring of 1942 that it was "forbidden to exterminate Gypsies and Jews because they are said to belong to an inferior race".^[130]
• BishopPavel Gojdič protested the persecution of Slovak Jews.Gojdic was beatified by the Church and recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem.^[180]
• Angelo Rotta, papal nuncio to Hungary. Actively protested Hungary's mistreatment of the Jews, and helped persuade Pope Pius XII to lobby the Hungarian leaderAdmiral Horthy to stop their deportation.^[181] He issued protective passports for Jews and 15,000 safe conduct passes – the nunciature sheltered some 3000 Jews in safe houses.^[181] An "International Ghetto" was established, including more than 40 safe houses marked by the Vatican and other national emblems. 25,000 Jews found refuge in these safe houses. Elsewhere in the city, Catholic institutions hid several thousand more Jewish people.^[182]
• ArchbishopJohannes de Jong, laterCardinal, ofUtrecht, Netherlands, who drew up together withTitus Brandsma O.Carm. († Dachau, 1942) a letter in which he called for all Catholics to assist persecuted Jews, and in which he openly condemned the Nazi German"deportation of our Jewish fellow citizens" (From:Herderlijk Schrijven, read from allpulpits on Sunday 26 January 1942).
• ArchbishopJules-Géraud Saliège of Toulouse – lead a number of French bishops (includingMonseigneur Théas,Bishop of Montauban,Monseigneur Delay,Bishop of Marseille,Cardinal Gerlier,Archbishop of Lyon,Monseigneur Vansteenberghe of Bayonne andMonseigneur Moussaron,Archbishop of Albi – in denouncing roundups and mistreatment of Jews in France, spurring greater resistance.^[183]
• Père Marie-Benoît, Capuchin priest who saved many Jews in Marseille and later in Rome where he became known among the Jewish community as "father of the Jews".^[105]
• MotherMatylda Getter'sFranciscan Sisters of the Family of Mary sheltered Jewish children escaping theWarsaw Ghetto.^[184] Getter's convent rescued more than 750.^[185]
• Alfred Delp S.J., a Jesuit priest who helped Jews escape to Switzerland while rector of St. Georg Church in suburbanMunich; also involved with theKreisau Circle. Executed 2 February 1945 in Berlin.
• Rufino Niccacci, aFranciscan friar and priest who sheltered Jewish refugees inAssisi, Italy, from September 1943 through June 1944.
• Maximilian Kolbe –PolishConventual Franciscan friar. During the Second World War, in the friary, Kolbe provided shelter to people fromGreater Poland, including 2,000 Jews. He was also active as a radio amateur, vilifying Nazi activities through his reports.
• Bernhard Lichtenberg – GermanCatholicpriest at Berlin's Cathedral. Sent to Dachau because he prayed for Jews at Evening Prayer.
• Sára Salkaházi – a Hungarian Roman Catholic nun who sheltered approximately 100 Jews in Budapest.
• Margit Slachta, of theHungarian Social Service Sisterhood, went to Rome to encourage papal action against the Jewish persecutions.^[186] In Hungary, she had sheltered the persecuted and protested forced labour and antisemitism.^[186] In 1944, Pius appealed directly to the Hungarian government to halt the deportation of the Jews of Hungary. The Sisters of Social Service, nuns who saved thousands ofHungarian Jews; includedSister Sara Salkahazi, recognized byYad Vashem as well asbeatified.

• Archbishop Damaskinos – Archbishop ofAthens during the German occupation. He formally protested the deportation of Jews and quietly ordered churches under his jurisdiction to issue fake Christian baptismal certificates to Jews fleeing the Nazis. Thousands ofGreek Jews in and around Athens were thus able to claim that they were Christian and were thus saved.
• Archbishop Stefan of Sofia – Bishop ofSofia andExarch of Bulgaria, actively supportedDimitar Peshev's pressure against the Bulgarian government to cancel the deportation of the 48,000 Bulgarian Jews.
• Bishop George Bell -Bishop of Chichester, England and friend ofDietrich Bonhoeffer. In 1936 Bell received the chair of the International Christian Committee for German Refugees, and in that role he especially supported Jewish Christians, who at that time were supported by neither Jewish nor Christian organizations. He provided a temporary home for exiled Jewish children in his own official residence.
• Dietrich Bonhoeffer – a German Lutheran pastor who joined theAbwehr (a German military intelligence organization) which was also the center of the anti-Hitler resistance, and was involved in operations to help German Jews escape to Switzerland. Arrested by the Nazis, he was hanged on 5 April 1945, not long before the war ended.
• MetropolitanBishop Chrysostomos ofZakynthos,^[187] who, when ordered by theAxis occupying forces to submit a list of all Jews on theisland, submitted a document bearing just two names: his own and the mayor's.Consequently, all 275 Zante Jews were saved.
• Omelyan Kovch –Ukrainian Greek Catholic priest who was deported toMajdanek for helping thousands of Jews. He wascanonized byPope John Paul II^[188]
• Dimitar Peshev was the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of Bulgaria and Minister of Justice (1935–1936), before World War II. He rebelled against the pro-Nazi cabinet and prevented the deportation of Bulgaria's 48,000 Jews, and was bestowed the title of "Righteous Among the Nations".
• Leopold Socha was a Polish sewage inspector in the city of Lwów (now Lviv, Ukraine). During the Holocaust, Socha used his knowledge of the city's sewage system to shelter a group of Jews from Nazi Germans and their supporters of different nationalities. In 1978, he was recognized by the State of Israel as Righteous Among the Nations.
• Andrey Sheptytsky –Metropolitan Archbishop of theUkrainian Greek Catholic Church, harbored hundreds of Jews in his residence and in Greek Catholic monasteries. He also issued the pastoral letter, "Thou Shalt Not Kill", to protest Nazi atrocities.
• André and Magda Trocmé – AFrench Reformed pastor and his wife who led theLe Chambon-sur-Lignon village movement that saved 3,000–5,000 Jews.
• Maria Skobtsova –Russian Orthodox nun who ran a shelter for alcoholics, drug addicts and homeless people; the shelter was also open for refugees who had fled from theSoviet Union. During the first three years of the war she also took in several hundred Jewish people fearing persecution. She died inRavensbrück concentration camp during the end of the war, after almost two years in the camp. Canonized by theEastern Orthodox Church as a saint; she is also named aRighteous among the Nations byYad Vashem

Quakers

TheReligious Society of Friends, known asQuakers, from 1933 played a major role in assisting and saving Jews through their international network of centres (Berlin, Paris, Vienna) and organizations. In 1947, theNobel Peace Prize was awarded to theFriends Service Council and to theAmerican Friends Service Committee (AFSC). Also individual Quakers did rescue work.

• Bertha Bracey – As secretary of theGermany Emergency Commission, set up 7 April 1933, in Britain, she raised awareness for the dangers of the Nazi philosophy. With voluntary workers, she handled appeals for assistance from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia and contributed substantially to theKindertransport which brought 10,000 children to England.
• Elisabeth Abegg – On 23 May 1967, Yad Vashem recognized German Quaker Elisabeth Abegg asRighteous Among the Nations. She helped many Jewish people by offering them accommodation in her home or directing them to hiding places elsewhere.
• Kees Boeke andBetty Boeke-Cadbury – On 4 July 1991, Yad Vashem recognized Cornelis Boeke and his wife Beatrice Boeke-Cadbury asRighteous Among the Nations for hiding Jewish children in Bilthoven.
• Laura van den Hoek Ostende – On 29 September 1994, Yad Vashem recognized Dutch Quaker Laura van den Hoek Ostende-van Honk as Righteous Among the Nations for hiding Jews in Putten, Hilversum and Amsterdam.
• Mary Elmes – On 23 January 2013, Yad Vashem recognized Irish Quaker Mary Elisabeth Elmes asRighteous Among the Nations for rescuing Jewish children in France.
• Auguste Fuchs-Bucholz and Fritz Fuchs – On 11 August 2009, Yad Vashem recognized German Quakers Auguste Fuchs-Bucholz and Fritz Fuchs asRighteous Among the Nations.
• Carl Hermann andEva Hermann-Lueddecke – On 19 January 1976, Yad Vashem recognized German Quakers Carl Hermann and Eva Hermann-Lueddecke asRighteous Among the Nations.
• Helga Holbek – In 1982, Yad Vashem recognized Danish AFSC worker Helga Holbek asRighteous Among the Nations for rescuing Jewish children in France.
• Gilbert Lesage – On 14 January 1985, Yad Vashem recognized French Quaker Gilbert Lesage asRighteous Among the Nations.
• Gertrud Luckner – On 15 February 1966, Yad Vashem recognized German Quaker Gertrud Luckner asRighteous Among the Nations.
• Ernst Lusebrink andElfriede Lusebrink-Bokenkruger – On 11 August 2009, Yad Vashem recognized German Quakers Ernst Lusebrink and Elfriede Lusebrink-Bokenkruger asRighteous Among the Nations.
• Geertruida Pel andTrijntje Pfann – On 15 August 2012, Yad Vashem recognized Dutch Quaker Geertruida Pel and her daughter Trijntje Pfann asRighteous Among the Nations.
• Lili Pollatz-Engelsmann andManfred Pollatz – On 3 December 2013, Yad Vashem recognized German Quakers Lili Louise Pollatz-Engelsmann and Erwin Herbert Manfred Pollatz as Righteous Among the Nations for hiding German and Dutch Jewish children in their home in Haarlem, Netherlands. Wijnberg, I., Hollaender, A., 'Er wacht nog een kind..., De quakers Lili en Manfred Pollatz, hun school en kindertehuis in Haarlem 1934–1945, AMB Diemen, 2014,ISBN 97890-79700-67-7;
• Wijnberg, I., Hollaender, A., 'Er wacht nog een kind ..., De quakers Lili en Manfred Pollatz, huIlse Schwersensky-Zimmermann and n school en kinderte men, 2014,ISBN 97890-79700-67-7
• Ilse Schwersensky-Zimmermann andGerhard Schwersensky – On 2 May 1985, Yad Vashem recognized German Quakers Gerhard Schwersensky and Ilse Schwersensky-Zimmermann asRighteous Among the Nations for hiding Jews in Berlin.

• Yaruga,Ukraine^[189]
• Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, in theHaute-Loiredépartement in France, which saved up to 5,000 Jews.
• Inoccupied Poland, among thehundreds of villages involved, some of the most notable includedGłuchów nearŁańcut with everyone engaged,^[190] as well as the villages ofGłówne,Ozorków,Borkowo nearSierpc,Dąbrowica nearUlanów, inGłupianka nearOtwock,^[191] andTeresin nearChełm.^[192] InCisie near Warsaw, 25 Poles were caught hiding Jews; all were killed and the village was burned to the ground as punishment.^[193][194] InGołąbki,Jerzy and Irena Krępeć provided a hiding place for as many as 30 Jews on their farm and set up homeschooling for all children, Christian and Jewish together; their actions were "an open secret in the village." Other villagers helped "if only to provide a meal."^[195] Another farm couple,Alfreda and Bolesław Pietraszek, provided shelter for Jewish families consisting of 18 people inCeranów nearSokołów Podlaski, and their neighbors brought food to those being rescued.^[196] InMarkowa, where 17 Jews survived the war in hiding with their Christian neighbors, entire Polish family ofJózef and Wiktoria Ulma including 6 children and prenatal child were shot dead by the Germans for hiding the Szall and Goldman families. Dorota and Antoni Szylar hid seven members of Weltz family. Julia and Józef Bar hid five members of Reisenbach family. Michal Bar hid Jakub Lorbenfeld; while Jan and Weronika Przybylak hid Jakub Einhorn.

• Tršice,Czech Republic, many people from this village helped hide a Jewish family; six of them were given the honorific of Righteous Among the Nations.
• Nieuwlande, Netherlands – during the war, this small village contained 117 inhabitants. Most households in the village and surrounding area cooperated to shelter Jews, thus making it difficult for anyone in the small village to betray their neighbors. Dozens of Jews were thus saved. Over 200 inhabitants have been honored byYad Vashem.^[197]
• Moissac, France – There was a Jewish boarding home and orphanage in this town. When the mayor was told that the Nazis were coming, the older students would go camping for several days, the younger students were boarded with families in the area and told to be treated as members of their immediate family; the oldest students hid in the house. When it became too dangerous for the students to stay there any longer, the residents made sure that every student had a safe place to go to. If the students had to move again, the counsellors from the boarding house arranged for a new place and even escorted them to the new housing.
• The Portuguese cities ofFigueira da Foz,Porto,Coimbra,Curia,Ericeira andCaldas da Rainha were assigned to house refugees. They were pleasant resorts with many available hotels.^[198] The refugees led totally ordinary lives.^[59] They were allowed to circulate freely within town limits, practice their religions, and enroll their children in local schools."Here we were given freedom of movement; we were allowed to go on outing and live as we wished", said Ben-Zwi Kalischer.^[199] Those times were captured on films that can be found at the Steven Spielberg Film and Video Archive.^[200]
• Oľšavica, Slovakia^[201][202]

• TheAmerican Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
• TheJewish Labor Committee^[203]

• Arab rescue efforts during the Holocaust
• British Hero of the Holocaust
• Jewish settlement in the Japanese Empire
• Rescue of Roma during the Porajmos
• Rescuer (genocide)

• Bartov, Omer (2023). "The Holocaust".The Oxford History of the Third Reich. Oxford University Press. pp. 190–216.ISBN 978-0-19-288683-5.
• Beorn, Waitman Wade (2018).The Holocaust in Eastern Europe: At the Epicenter of the Final Solution.Bloomsbury Academic.ISBN 978-1-4742-3219-7.
• Burzlaff, Jan (2020). "Confronting the Communal Grave: a Reassessment of Social Relations During the Holocaust in Eastern Europe".The Historical Journal.63 (4):1054–1077.doi:10.1017/S0018246X19000566.ISSN 0018-246X.
• Gerlach, Christian (2016).The Extermination of the European Jews.Cambridge University Press.ISBN 978-0-521-70689-6.
• Longerich, Peter (2010).Holocaust: The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews. Oxford University Press.ISBN 978-0-19-280436-5.

• Fogelman, Eva (1994).Conscience and Courage: Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust. Doubleday.ISBN 0-385-42027-7.
• Phayer, Michael (2000).The Catholic Church and the Holocaust, 1930–1965. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.ISBN 0253214718.
• Phayer, Michael (2008).Pius XII, the Holocaust, and the Cold War. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.ISBN 9780253349309.
• Nachtstern, Moritz; Arntzen, Ragnar (2008).Counterfeiter: How a Norwegian Jew Survived the Holocaust. Osprey.ISBN 978-1-84603-289-9.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toRescue of Jews during The Holocaust.

• The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous: Stories of Moral Courage
• About the "Righteous Among the Nations" Program atYad Vashem

• Rescue of Jews during the Holocaust
• People who rescued Jews during the Holocaust
• Lists of people by activity
• Responses to genocide
• The Holocaust-related lists

• CS1 Polish-language sources (pl)
• Webarchive template wayback links
• All articles with incomplete citations
• Articles with incomplete citations from September 2023
• CS1 Dutch-language sources (nl)
• CS1 Spanish-language sources (es)
• CS1 Finnish-language sources (fi)
• CS1 Italian-language sources (it)
• CS1: unfit URL
• CS1 German-language sources (de)
• Articles with Spanish-language sources (es)
• CS1 uses Russian-language script (ru)
• CS1 Russian-language sources (ru)
• Articles with Polish-language sources (pl)
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Wikipedia extended-confirmed-protected pages
• Use dmy dates from December 2019
• Articles containing German-language text
• Articles containing potentially dated statements from January 2018
• All articles containing potentially dated statements
• Commons category link is on Wikidata