The Righteous: The Unsung Heroes of the Holocaust

We wonder what we would have done or could have done. Here is what we each must do in the face of life.

After watching the procession for Oskar Schindler's funeral, Gilbert is inspired to do more research on those who risked their lives, called the Righteous, to save to aid Jews in WWII. Extensive research in archives and interviews lead to short sketches of courage and rescue. Gilbert divides the book up by geography which gives the book some order. Many of the stories of courage are very short and thus the number of them is overwhelming, at times you don't realize that he has shifted to another story. Another fascinating element of the stories is the various methods that were used to save lives. Some so ingenious and others so horrific you can't imagine how anyone could survive under those conditions. This book is at turns a wonderful monument to those who risked everything to save others but in the end you are struck with the fact that every 100 saved from some town -- 1000's died. It is well worth the read but be prepared.

I can't say this is a 'Happy' book. The period in which it is set is too terrible and many of the misdeeds described are too terrible to speak of. But the Joy in this work, the proverbial Silver Lining is there were good people during this period. Many of whom happily risked their lives for strangers. Opening thier pockests and their homes to the hunted with no expectation of rewards of any kind. Some of these heroes were actually anti-semites who drew a line within thier own souls to do good for those they did not like. Just as many of the villeins were mercenaries who did what they did for just money, not caring who thier victims were. And the Author admits he can not tell the stories of all these heroes but just the few mentioned here. Besides the noble deeds of the great humanitarian scoundrel Oskar Schindler, who so reminds me of the hero of the Film The Music Man, and the simple Dutch farmsers the Bogaards who turned their farm into a sanctuary hiding Jews from the Dutch police, We hear of an SS man who hides a Jewish inmate from one of his superiors in Dachau. A gypsy family who hides a Jewish Girl. Nuns and priests who hid Jewish children. So many risked their lives and liberty for strangers. And many paid for those lives with thier own. So many heroes, just not enough to do any real effective damage to the beast at work. It is good to know some good people did exist during these evil times, and that is the joy of this book. I must also say I do not like the Israili supreme court changing their designation from Righteous Gentiles to Righteous Persons. It cheapens these heroes and prevents the casual observer knowing the full extent of their nature. There are Men. There are Women. And then there are 'persons'.

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

There are no words to do justice to this book or the people whose stories are featured in it. It should be required reading for all those who insist this horror didn't happen.

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