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Heroes of the Holocaust - The Courageous Fighters against Hitler's Nazi Regime

גיבורי השואה - הלוחמים האמיצים במשטר הנאצי

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Top Surnames

Auer, Berman, Bernadotte af Wisborg, Bielski and 16 others
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Profiles

  •
    Hans Habe (1911 - 1977)
    Hans Habe (12 February 1911, Budapest – 29 September 1977, Locarno) was an Austrian writer and newspaper publisher. Since 1941, he held U.S. citizenship. Habe used also the pseudonyms Antonio Corte, ...
  • Ora Lore Zilli Goren (1920 - 1992)
    1939 Flucht in die Niederlande; interniert im Lager Westerbork; Flucht und Arbeit im Widerstand gegen Nazi-Deutschland cf.: In 1942, Lore Zilli lived in Holland.
  • Oskar Händler (1909 - d.)
    kein Eintrag im »Gedenkbuch« des Bundesarchivs im Oktober 1938 Abschiebung im Rahmen der »Poelaktion«; nach 1939 im polnischen Widerstand; überlebt cf.:
  • Karl Nord (1912 - d.)
    1938 im Widerstand verhaftet; 1943 im Strafbataillon 999; überlebt cf.:
  • Fritz Hermann Goerdeler (1886 - 1945)
    cf.:

We would like to honor the extraordinary heroes, National leaders, Generals, Scientists, Partisans, Diplomats, Civil Servants, the countless supremely brave Resistors and Rescuers-- all the individuals who helped eradicate the darkest period in history.

The eleven million victims of the Nazi regime included intelligentsia, artists, homosexuals, religious groups including six million Jews, the mentally and physically disabled, prisoners of war, gypsies, and races that were deemed inferior.

Whosoever saves a single life, saves an entire universe
(Mishnah, Sanhedrin 4:5)

Heroes

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Countries refusing to comply with Nazi demands of deporting Jews to Germany!

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Heroes behind Nazi lines - Jewish Paratroopers of British Mandate Palestine

National Leaders & Generals

Diplomats and Civil Servants

  • Per Anger - Swedish Diplomat in Budapest, issue provisional passports to Jews.
  • Wladyslaw Bartoszewski - Polish Zegota activist.
  • Duke Roberto de Castro Brandao - Brazilian diplomat, issued diplomatic visas and passports to Jews in Marseilles, France.
  • Folke Bernadotte Count of Wisborg - Swedish Diplomat. Negotiated release of 27,000 people, majority Jews, to hospitals in Sweden.
  • Jacon (Jack) Bernardout - British diplomat to Dominican Republic.
  • Hiram Bingham American Vice Consul in Marseille, France 1940-1941.
  • Alberto Teixeira Branquinho - Hungarian Diplomat.
  • Angel Sanz Briz (the Angel of Budapest) - Spanish Diplomat.
  • Corl. José Castellanos Contreras Salvadoran General Consul in Geneva, 1942-1945. Saved at least 13,000 Central European Jews.
  • Eduardo Propper de Callejon - Spanish Diplomat. Saved thousands of Jews in WWII.
  • Luis Martins de Souza Dantas - illegally issued Brazilian diplomatic visas to hundreds of French Jews.
  • Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz - German diplomat in Denmark.
  • Carlos de Sampayo Garrido - Hungarian Diplomat.
  • Heorg Ferdinand Duckwitz - German diplomatic attaché in Denmark, alerted Danish politician Hans Hedtoft, and enabled rescue of the Danish Jews.
  • Frank Foley - British M16 agent undercover as passport officer in Berlin issued forged passports to Britain and the British Mandate of Palestine.
  • Albert Göring - Berman businessman (and younger brother of leading Nazi Hermann Göring) who helped Jews and dissidents survive in Germany.
  • Paul Grunginger- Swiss commander of police, provided falsely dated papers to over 3,000 refugees so that they could escape Austria after the Anschluss.
  • Kiichiro Higuchi- Japanese lieutenant general who saved 20,000 Jewish refugees.
  • Wilm Hosenfeld - German officer who helped pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish Jew amongst many others.
  • Prince Constantin Karadja - Romanian diplomat, saved over 51,000 Jews from deportation and extermination, as credited by Yad Vashem in 2005.
  • Lucas Karrer - Mayor of Zakynthos, Greece refused to hand over list of Jews.
  • Felix Kersten, the personal physical therapist of Heinrich Himmler who used his power over Himmler to save Jews.
  • Carl Lutz, (1895 – 1975) Swiss Vice-Consul in Budapest, Hungary from 1942 until the end of World War II. He is credited with saving over 62,000 Jews from deportation to Nazi Extermination camps during the Holocaust.
  • Shyqyri Myrto - Albanian Muslim honoured for rescuing Jews, with Anti-Defamation League's Courage to Care Award.
  • George Mandel-Mantello El Salvador's honorary consul in Geneva for Hungary, Romania and Czechoslovakia
  • Aristides de Sousa Mendes do Amaral e Abranches, (1885 - 1954) Portuguese diplomat in France, issued 30,000 visas to Jews and other minorities which cost him his career.
  • Giovanni Palatucci - Chief of the Foreigner's Office, Fiume, Italy
  • Giuseppe Maria Palatucci - Catholic Bishop of Campagna
  • Giorgio Perlasca (1910 – 1992) Italian who posed as the Spanish consul-general to Hungary in the winter of 1944, and saved thousands of Jews from Nazi Germany and the Holocaust.
  • Guiseppe Roncalli - future Pope John XXIII issued transit visas from the Apolostic Delegation in Istanbul, Turkey.
  • Chiune Sugihara, 杉原 千畝 (1900 - 1986) Vice Consul for the Japanese Empire in Lithuania. During World War II, he helped several thousand Jews leave the country by issuing them transit visas to travel to Japan.
  • Ho Feng Shan - Chinese Consul General to Austria, saved tens of thousands of Jews with fake diplomatic passes.
  • Rafael Leonids Trujillo- Dominican Dictator, promised to receive 100,000 Jews into Dominican Republic in 1938 post the international conference in Evian. Dominican Republic was only nation accepting Jews after the conference.
  • Selâhattin Ülkümen, (1914 – 2003) Turkish diplomat and consul in Rhodes during the Second World War, who assisted many local Jews to escape the Holocaust.
  • Raoul Wallenberg Swedish Diplomat.
  • Sir Nicholas George Winton (Wertheimer) British humanitarian who organized the rescue of 669 mostly Jewish children from German-occupied Czechoslovakia on the eve of the Second World War in an operation later known as the Czech Kindertransport. Winton found homes for them and arranged for their safe passage to Britain. The UK press has dubbed him the "British Schindler".

Spiritual Leaders and Scientists

  • Leo Baeck German-Polish Rabbi, Scholar.
  • Niels Bohr Nobel Laureate - The Manhattan Project.
  • Dr. Dietrich Bonhoeffer Pastor, Theologian, Martyr.
  • Bishop Chrysostomos- Zakynthos offered his name and that of the Mayor's to Germans.
  • Archbiship Damaskinos - Archbishop of Athens during German Occupation. He quietly ordered chuches under his jurisdiction to fake Christian baptismal certificates to Jews fleeing the Nazis.
  • Archbishop Johannes de Jong - later Cardinal of Utrecht, Netherlands. Together with Titus Brandsma O. Carm (Dachau 1942) a letter that called for all Catholics to assist persecuted Jews, and openly condemned the Nazi German deportation of our Jewish fellow citizens (From: Herderlijk Schriven, read from all pulpits Sunday 26 January 1942).
  • Alfred Delp S.J. - Jesuit Priest, helped Jews escape to Switzerland while rector of St Georg Church in suburban Munich. Also involved with Kreisau Circle. Executed 2 February 1945 in Berlin.
  • Rufino Niccacci - Franciscan friar and priest who sheltered Jewish refugees in Assisi, Italy from September 1943 - June 1944.
  • Maximilian Kolbe - Polish Conventual Franciscan friar. In the friary Kolbe provided shelter to poeple from Greater Poland, including 2000 Jews. Active radio amateur, vilifying Nazi activities through his reports.
  • Omelyan Kovch - Ukranian Greek Catholic Priest, deported to Treblinka camp for helping thousands of Jews. He was canonized by Pope John Paul 11.
  • Bernard Lichtenberg - German Catholic priest at berlin's Cathedral. Sent to Dachau because he prayed for Jews at evening prayer.
  • Harav Israel Meir Lau, Heroes of Israel
  • Marcus Lazarus Melchior Chief Rabbi Denmark.
  • J. Robert Oppenheimer The Manhattan Project of WWII
  • Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty - Irish Catholic priest, saved 4,000 Allied soldiers and Jews. Known as the Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican. Retold in the movie 'The Scarlet and the Black'.
  • John von Neumann The Manhattan Project of WWII
  • Sister Sara Salkahazi - Hungarian Roman Catholic nun who sheltered approximately 100 Jews in Budapest and saved thousands of Hungarian Jews. Recognised by Yad Vashem as well as beatified.
  • Martha Ingham Sharp
  • Archbishop Stefan of Sofia - Bishop of Sofia and Exarch of Bulgaria, protested against deportation of approximately 50,000 Jews.
  • Audrey Sheptytsky - Metropolitan Archbishop of the Ukranian Greek Catholic Church, harboured hundreds of Jews in his residence and in Greek Catholic monastries. He issued the pastoral letter, Thou Shalt not Kill to protest Nazi atrocities.
  • Rav Yisroel Spira of Bluzhev, Spiritual Light of Bergen-Belsen.
  • Pastor Andre Trocme and Magda Trocme - French Paster and his wife, led the Le Chambon-sur-Lignon village movement that saved between 3500 - 5000 Jews.
  • Alan Turing Deciphered the German Enigma code.
  • Elie Wiesel Nobel Laureate, Author, Survivor.

Partisans / Resistance Fighters

Heroic Individuals of Tremendous Moral Courage

Muslim Albanians who Rescued Jews During the Holocaust

Rescuers

For individual rescuers - see

Other Heroic Individuals

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