The Righteous

"As a researcher and collector of historical source material, Mr. Gilbert has no peer among
contemporary historians." --"The New York Times"
According to Jewish tradition, "Whoever saves one life, it is as if he saved the entire world." In "The Righteous," distinguished historian Sir Martin Gilbert explores the courage of those who, throughout Germany and in every occupied country, took incredible risks to help Jews whose fate would have been sealed without them. Indeed, many lost their lives for their efforts.
From Greek-Orthodox Princess Alice of Greece to the Ukrainian Uniate Archbishop of Lvov, from priests and soldiers to employees and neighbors, many risked, and sacrificed, everything to help their fellow man. Drawing from twenty-five years of original research, Gilbert re-creates the remarkable stories of the non-Jews who have received formal recognition by the State of Israel as Righteous Among the Nations.
Sir Martin Gilbert was knighted in 1995 "for services to British history and international relations." The author of an eight-volume biography of Winston Churchill, among his other books are "Churchill: A Life, The First World War, The Second World War," and most recently "The Somme." He lives in London, England.
Having chronicled the horrors of Nazi-dominated Europe in major works on the Holocaust and the Second World War, the distinguished historian Sir Martin Gilbert now turns his attention to the subject of altruism in that period. In this volume, Gilbert re-creates the stories of hundreds of non-Jews who, during the Holocaust, risked their lives to help save Jews from deportation and death.
Drawing on twenty-five years of original research, Gilbert takes us through Germany and every occupied country from Norway to Greece, from the Atlantic to the Baltic, where the Righteous, by their lifesaving actions, challenged Nazi barbarism.
The Greek Orthodox Princess Alice, who hid Jewish families in her Athens home; a Polish woman, "the Angel of Lvov," who worked closely with the Roman Catholic Church to obtain false certificates of baptism for those in imminent danger; and Albanian Muslims, who disguised Jews as their own brethren in order for them to be saved, are just a few of the Righteous whom we encounter within these pages. Others were priests and nuns, teachers and diplomats, colleagues and neighbors: above all, "ordinary" men and women, decent human beings.
According to Jewish tradition, "Whoever saves one life, it is as if he saved the entire world." The Righteous of Martin Gilbert's book certainly upheld that ideal, as they inspire us with their righteous acts to this day.
"As a researcher and collector of historical source material, Mr. Gilbert has no peer among contemporary historians; a man of awe-inspiring initiative and indefatigable productivity, he will leave no stone unturned in his searches . . . "The Righteous"] is a work of deep commitment; more than that, a labor of love. It deserves to be read side by side with the studies claiming that there were no rays of light, no manifestations of humanity and goodness in those dark days . . . One should be grateful for Mr. Gilbert's Herculean labors."--Walter Laqueur, "The New York Times"
"As a researcher and collector of historical source material, Mr. Gilbert has no peer among contemporary historians; a man of awe-inspiring initiative and indefatigable productivity, he will leave no stone unturned in his searches. His enterprise is admirable, for while many of the stories told in this] book have been told before, only a few have reached a wider public . . . "The Righteous"] is a work of deep commitment; more than that, a labor of love. It deserves to be read side by side with the studies claiming that there were no rays of light, no manifestations of humanity and goodness in those dark days . . . One should be grateful for Mr. Gilbert's Herculean labors."--Walter Laqueur, "The New York Times"
"Mining the extensive archives of Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust Memorial Authority, along with memoirs and personal reminiscences, Gilbert narrates the story of those gentiles acknowledged by Vashem as 'Righteous Among the Nations.' Why some people chose to perform heroic deeds during the Holocaust often varied according to local circumstances. One of the book's virtues is Gilbert's ability to set the local context briefly before recounting the personal stories, thus keeping the human dimension paramount. A major criticism of 'rescue studies' is that rescuers were in the minority; clearly, had there been more righteous, there would have been more survivors. Although Gilbert acknowledges that the sheer weight of Nazi power, along with the depth of local collaboration, certainly ensured that the number of rescuers would remain small, he justly claims that this makes their acts all the more worthy of study."--Frederic Krome, Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati, "Library Journal"
"This is a book that should, that must, be read."--"The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel "
"A timely book] for a new century . . . The questions raised in this book lie at the heart of our humanity."--"The Guardian" (London)
" Gilbert] recounts, in the same methodical, precisely meticulous and austerely moral fashion as his other books, heartwarming accounts of extraordinary bravery and sacrifice."--"St. Louis Post-Dispatch"
"These 'Righteous Among Nations, ' the Yad Vashem, were comparatively rare in WWII-era Europe, where homegrown fascists, nationalists, criminals, and ordinary people with scores to settle visited murder upon the Jews or stood by as it was committed en masse. Gilbert gathers some truly remarkable stories of the brave deeds of the Righteous: poor Polish farmers, for instance, who hid Jewish families under barn floors or in attics; Italian priests and nuns who disguised refugees as monks and novices (as in Assisi, where one hiding place was 'th