Rescuers during the Holocaust

Vocabulary Discussion Questions/Research Topics Reproducible Student Hand-Outs Bibliography Books Other Resources Lesson Plans From the Teacher's Guide Links to lesson plans on other Web sites Florida Resource Manual on Holocaust Education

Vocabulary

Allies: During World War II, the group of nations including the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union, and the Free French, who joined in the war against Germany and other Axis countries.

Auschwitz - Birkenau /oushvits - biakenow/ : A complex consisting of concentration, extermination, and labor camps in Upper Silesia. It was established in 1940 as a concentration camp and included a killing center in 1942. Auschwitz I: The main camp. Auschwitz II (Also known as Birkenau): The extermination center. Auschwitz III (Monowitz): The I.G. Farben labor camp, also known as Buna. In addition, there were numerous subsidiary camps.

B'richa: The organized and illegal mass movement of Jews throughout Europe following World War II.

Bund /boond/ : The Jewish Socialist Party founded in 1897. It aspired to equal rights for the Jewish population. During World War II the Bund was active in the underground resistance and some Bund members were also part of some Judenrat councils. They took part in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

Bystander: One who is present at some event without participating in it.

Collaboration: Cooperation between citizens of a country and its occupiers.

Dachau /dakhou/ : Nazi concentration camp in southern Germany. Erected in 1933, this was the first Nazi concentration camp. Used mainly to incarcerate German political prisoners until late 1938, whereupon large numbers of Jews, Gypsies, Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, and other supposed enemies of the state and anti-social elements were sent as well. Nazi doctors and scientists used many prisoners at Dachau as guinea pigs for experiments. Dachau was liberated by American troops in April 1945.

Death camp: Nazi extermination centers where Jews and other victims were brought to be killed as part of Hitler's Final Solution.

Death marches: Forced marches of prisoners over long distances and under intolerable conditions was another way victims of the Third Reich were killed. The prisoners, guarded heavily, were treated brutally and many died from mistreatment or were shot. Prisoners were transferred from one ghetto or concentration camp to another ghetto or concentration camp or to a death camp.

Eisenhower, Dwight D.: As Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces, General Eisenhower commanded all Allied forces in Europe beginning in 1942.

Guerrilla warfare: Fighting in which small independent bands of soldiers harass an enemy through surprise raids, attacks on communications and the like.

Partisans: Irregular forces which use guerrilla tactics when operating in enemy-occupied territory. During the Holocaust, partisans operated secretly in their efforts to assist Jews and others persecuted by the Nazis.

Righteous Gentiles: Non-Jewish people who, during the Holocaust, risked their lives to save Jewish people from Nazi persecution. Today, a field of trees planted in their honor at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem, Israel, commemorates their courage and compassion.

Roosevelt, Franklin Delano: Thirty-second president of the U.S., serving from 1933-1945.

Hannah Sennesh : A Palestinian Jew of Hungarian descent who fought as a partisan against the Nazis. She was captured at the close of the war and assassinated in Budapest by the Nazis.

Underground: Organized group acting in secrecy to oppose government, or, during war, to resist occupying enemy forces.

Raoul Wallenberg: A Swedish diplomat who deliberately stationed himself in Hungary during the war to save Hungarian Jews from their deaths.

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• View the movie Schindler's list and describe his acts of heroism.

• If you were in danger of being killed for your actions, would you help others escape Nazi persecution?

• How would you suggest dealing terms with humanitarian crimes if committed by your country?

• Who would you consider responsible for Nazi crimes, those who made the laws of persecution, those who carried them out, those who did not interfere?

• Discuss the following question: "Do you think that a bystander is guilty of the crime s/he stands by and lets happen?"

• Identify the risks of helping or even being associated with someone considered "undesirable" by Nazi policy.

• Analyze the dilemma of the bystander in Nazi Europe.

• Many Jewish children were sent to England during World War II to be kept safe. Research the Kindertransport and use evidence to explain if the program was, in your opinion, a good solution to the problem.

• Discuss current acts of persecution of certain groups in today's newspapers and magazines.

• Discuss the irony in Raoul Wallenberg's life story and mysterious disappearance.

• What role did Nazi resistance fighters play in aiding victims of persecution?

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  Reproducible Student Hand-Outs

  Concentration Camps. Map of Nazi concentration camps in Europe.

  Ghettos in Europe. Map showing Jewish ghettos in Europe under the Nazis.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The following bibliography and introduction is reproduced with the permission of the author, Mary Mark.

Visit Ms. Mark's Website, "Whoever Saves a Single Life..."

Whosoever saves a single life...

The Holocaust is a history of overwhelming horror and enduring sorrow. Sometimes it seems as though there is no spark of human concern or kindness, no act of humanity, to lighten that dark history. Yet there were acts of courage and kindness during the Holocaust which can offer us some hope for our past and for our future. Archives such as those of the Unites States Holocaust Museum contain records of rescues and survivors; Yad Vashem, in Jerusalem, has honored more than 11,000 rescuers (Fogelman, 1994), and many more cases await their consideration.

This bibliography lists works in English which discuss the lives and actions of rescuers during the Holocaust. Individuals, groups, and in the case of Denmark, almost an entire country, reached out. Bulgaria was also active in protecting its Jewish population.

People like Andre Trocme, the minister and spiritual leader of the village of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, probably fit most closely to our stereotypes of those who will help. Trocme was clearly motivated by ethical and religious convictions. Yet many others, who could have been expected to hold similar beliefs, failed to act. Less expected is an Oskar Schindler, the opportunistic businessman who made a fortune using Jewish slave labor - and spent that fortune again to save the lives of those in his factory. What did they have in common?

What was it that lead some people to reach out and help others, to become rescuers, while most of the population around them did not? What was it, about individuals and societies, that led them to act on behalf of strangers? Perhaps, if we can begin to understand this, we can begin to build societies in which such actions are more likely to occur, and in which Holocausts are less likely to happen.

Bibliography:

• Aroneanu, Eugene. Inside the Concentration Camps: Eyewitness Accounts of Life in Hitler's Death Camps. Trans. Thomas Whissen. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 1996.

  This is a book by and about survivors: a compilation of eyewitness accounts by survivors of what they experienced while prisoners in Nazi concentration camps all over Europe. It was compiled by Eugene Aroneanu, a Romanian who fled to Paris before the war and then worked in the underground in Switzerland during the war, and originally published in German in the 1940's. Little information about rescuers is included, but it may still be of interest.

• Agar, H. The saving remnant: An account of Jewish survival. New York: Viking, 1960.

• Anger, Per. With Raoul Wallenberg in Budapest. (Firsthand account.) New York: Holocaust Library, 1981.

• Arnold, Elliot. A night of watching. New York: Scribner, 1967.

• Barfod, Jorgen, H. The Holocaust failed in Denmark. Copenhagen: Frihedsmuseets Venners, 1985.

• Bacque, J. Just Raoul: The private war against the Nazis of Raoul Laporterie, who saved over 1,600 lives in France. Rocklin, CA.: Prima Publishing, 1992.

• Bartoszewski, W. & Lewin, Z. The righteous among the nations. London: Earls Court, 1969.

• Bartoszewski, W. & Lewinowna, Z. The Samaritans: Heroes of the Holocaust. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1970.

• Bauer, Yehuda. A history of the Holocaust. New York: Franklin Watts, 1982.

• Bauer, Yehuda. Flight and rescue: Brichah - The organized escape of the Jewish survivors of Eastern Europe, 1944-1948. New York: Random House, 1970.

  This book deals with displaced persons and the border crossings en route to Palestine.

• Bauer, Y. They chose life. New York: American Jewish Committee, 1973.

• Baumel, Judith Tydor. Unfulfilled promise : rescue and resettlement of Jewish refugee children in the United States, 1934-1945. Juneau, Alaska, USA : Denali Press, c1990.

• Bauminger, A.L. The righteous. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 1983.

• Benchley, Nathaniel. Bright candles. New York: Harper and Row, 1974.

• Berenbaum, Michael. The world must know: the history of the Holocaust as told in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1993.

  An excellent introduction to the history of the Holocaust. 'The Last Chapter' reviews rescuers and rescue attempts as well as the liberation of the camps. Very useful bibliographic notes and references.

• Berenstein, T. & Rutkowski, A. Assistance to the Jews in Poland (1939-1945). Warsaw: Polonia Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1963.

• Berg, Lars G. Book That Disappeared : What Happened in Budapest.

• Bertelsen, Aage. October '43. New York: Putnam, 1954.

• Bierman, John. Righteous Gentile: The story of Raoul Wallenberg, missing hero of the Holocaust. New York: Viking Press, 1981.

• Bishop, C. H. Twenty and ten. New York: Penguin, 1952.

• Biss, A. A million Jews to save. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1975.

• Block, G. & Drucker, M. Rescuers: Portraits of moral courage in the Holocaust. New York: Holmes & Meier, 1992.

• Blond, S. The righteous gentiles. Tel Aviv: S. Blond, 1983.

• Boehm, E.H. We survived: Fourteen histories of the hidden and hunted of Nazi Germany. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1949; Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio Information Services, 1985.

• Brecher, Elinor J. Schindler's legacy: True stories of the list survivors. New York: Plume/Penguin, 1994.

• Breznitz, S. Memory fields: The legacy of a wartime childhood in Czechoslovakia. New York: Knopf, 1992.

• Caracciolo, Nicola. Uncertain Refuge: Italy and the Jews during the Holocaust. Translated and Edited by Florette Rechnitz Koffler and Richard Koffler. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1995.

• Daniel, Jamie et al. Raoul Wallenberg : One Man Against Nazi Terror (People Who Made a Difference).

• Des Pres, Terrence. The survivor: An anatomy of life in the death camps. New York: Oxford University Press, 1976.

• Drucker, M. & Halpern, M. Jacob's rescue: A Holocaust story. New York: Bantam Books, 1993.

• Edelheit, Abraham J. The Yishuv in the shadow of the Holocaust : Zionist politics and rescue aliya, 1933-1939. Boulder : Westview Press, 1996.

• Fabre, Emil C. (Ed.) God's underground. Translation by William and Patricia Nottingham. St. Louis, Mo.: Bethany, 1970.

  This is an authoritative study of the rescue efforts of the Cimade, a group which helped people to escape through the mountains of France into neutral Switzerland.

• Fackenheim, Emil. To mend the world. New York: Schocken Books, 1989.

  This work discusses the work and writings of Kurt Huber, of the White Rose, a philosophy professor in Germany who opposed the Nazis.

• Fein, Helen. Accounting for genocide. New Brunswick: Free Press, 1979.

  A sociological account of how genocide happens. Her concept of the universe of moral obligation is helpful in understanding why some chose to rescue while others remained indifferent.

• Feingold, Henry L. The politics of rescue: The Roosevelt administration and the Holocaust, 1938-1944. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1970.

  a good understanding of the political context in which American policy developed.

• Fensch, Thomas. Oskar Schindler and His List : The Man, the Book, the Film, the Holocaust and Its Survivors.

• Fittko, Lisa. Escape through the Pyrenees. Trans. David Koblick Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1991.

  Translation of Mein Weg ueber die Pyrenaeen, Erinnerungen 1940/41 (Munich: Carl Hanser Verlag, 1985).

• Fittko, Lisa. Solidarity and Treason, Resistance and Exile, 1933-1940. Trans. Roslyn Theobald. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1993 (paperback, 1995).

  Translation of Solidaritaet Unerwuenscht, Erinnerungen 1933-1940 (Munich: Carl Hanser Verlag, 1992).

• Flaim, Richard, et al. (Eds.) The Holocaust and genocide: A search for conscience. 2 volumes, 2nd edition. New York: Anti-defamation League of B'nai Brith, 1986.

  Curriculum guide and anthology on the Holocaust with units on rescue.

• Flender, Harold. Rescue in Denmark. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1963; Holocaust Library,1980.

  When the Nazis attempted to deport Denmark's Jewish population to the death camps, citizens throughout the country spontaneously formed an underground network, and almost the entire Jewish population of 8000 people was ferried to safety in Sweden.

• Fogelman, Eva. Conscience and courage: Rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust. New York: Anchor Books, Doubleday,1994.

  Fogelman examines the stories of rescuers to show how external conditions and internal motivations lead them to rescue people, as well as how rescuing affected them psychologically, during and after World War II.

• Ford, H. Flee the captor. Nashville, TN: Southern Publishing Association, 1966.

• Friedenson, Joseph. Heroine of rescue : the incredible story of Recha Sternbuch who saved thousands from the Holocaust by Joseph Friedenson, David Kranzler ; foreward by Julius Kuhl. Brooklyn, N.Y. : Mesorah Publications, c1984.

• Friedlander, Saul. When memory comes. Translated from the French by Helen R. Lane. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1979.

• Friedman, Philip. Their brother's keepers: The Christian heroes and heroines who helped the oppressed escape the Nazi terror. New York: Crown Publishers, 1957; Holocaust Library, 1978.

• Fry, Varian. Assignment Rescue: an autobiography. New York: Scholastic, Inc., 1945.

  A chronicle of the work of Varian Fry and the Centre Americain de Secours who helped Jews, particularly "persons of exceptional merit", to escape legally and illegally from Vichy France.

• Geier, Arnold & T.G. Friedman. Heroes of the Holocaust : Extraordinary True Accounts of Triumph.

• Gies, M. with Gold, A. Anne Frank remembered: The story of the woman who helped to hide the Frank family. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987.

• Goldberger, Leo (Ed.) The rescue of the Danish Jews: moral courage under stress. New York: New York University Press,1987.

  An interdisciplinary collection of essays, including first-person accounts, which explore the question "Why did the Danes risk their lives to rescue their Jewish population?"

• Green, G. The legion of noble Christians: The Sweeney survey. New York: Trident Press, 1965.

• Greenfeld, Howard The hidden children. New York: Ticknor & Fields,1993.

  This book describes the experiences of Jewish children who were forced to go into hiding during the Holocaust, who survived to tell about it.

• Gross, Leonard. The last Jews of Berlin. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1982.

  A brilliantly orchestrated account of those who rescued Jews in Hitler's Berlin.

• Gut Opdyke, I. with Elliot, J.M. Into the flames: The life story of a righteous gentile. San Bernardino, CA: The Borgo Press, 1992.

• Gushee, David P. The Righteous Gentiles of the Holocaust : A Christian Interpretation.

• Gutman, Y. & Zuroff, E. (Eds.) Rescue attempts during the Holocaust: Proceedings of the Second Yad Vashem International Historical Conference, Jerusalem, 8-11 April, 1974. New York: Ktav Publishing House, 1978.

• Haesler, A. The lifeboat is full: Switzerland and the refugees, 1933-1945. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1969.

• Haestrup, Jorgen. The secret alliance. 3 volumes. New York: New York University Press, 1985.

• Haestrup, Jorgen. Passage to Palestine: Young Jews in Denmark 1932-1945. Odense: Odense University Press, 1983.

• Hallie, Philip. Lest innocent blood be shed: The story of the village of Le Chambon and how goodness happened there. New York: Harper & Row, 1979.

  Quietly, peacefully, and in spite of both the Vichy government and the Nazis, the small Protestant village of Le Chambon, in the mountains of southern France, organized to save thousands of Jewish children and adults.

• Halter, Marek La force du bien Paris, Robert Laffont, 1995, 306 p.

  This book was made after the movie "Tsedek" which Marek Halter did on the subject.

• Hanser, Richard. A noble treason : the revolt of the Munich students against Hitler. New York : Putnam, c1979. 319 p., [4] leaves of plates : ill.

  This book deals with opposition to the Nazis, including Hans and Sophie Scholl of the White Rose movement, not rescue efforts.

• Hebrew University contemporary Jewry oral history collection : Part II, World War II, the holocaust, resistance, and rescue. New York times oral history program. Glen Rock, N.H. : Microfilming Corp. of America, 1975.

• Hellman, Peter. Avenue of the righteous: Portraits in uncommon courage of Christians and the Jews they saved from Hitler. New York: Atheneum, 1980; New York: Bantam Books, 1981.

• Henry, Frances. Victims and neighbors: A small town in Nazi Germany remembered. South Hadley, Mass.: Bergin & Harvey, 1984.

• Herzer, Ivo. The Italian refuge: Rescue of Jews during the Holocaust. Washington: Catholic University Press, 1989.

  a fine collection of essays on Italian rescues.

• Hilberg, Raul The destruction of the European Jews: Revised and definitive edition. Chicago: Quadrangle, 1961; New York: Holmes and Meier, 1985.

  definitive history of the Holocaust, based primarily on German documents

• Hilberg, Raul. Perpetrators, victims, bystanders: The Jewish catastrophe 1933-1945. New York: Harper Collins, 1992.

• Hoffman, P. The history of the German resistance: 1933-1945. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1978.

• Horbach, M. Out of the night. New York: Frederick Fell, 1967.

• Huneke, Douglas D. The Moses of Rovno: The stirring story of Fritz Graebe. New York: Dodd Mead, 1985.

• Iranek-Osmecki, K. He who saves one life: A documented story of the Poles who struggled to save the Jews during World War II. New York: Crown, 1971.

• Isaacman, C. Clara's story. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1984.

• Jacobs, Benjamin. The Dentist of Auchwitz: A Memoir University Press of Kentucky, 1994.

  A moving first-person survivor account of living through the Holocaust. This book can be read on-line!

• Jens, Inge. (Ed.) At the heart of the white rose: letters and diaries of Hans and Sophie Scholl. New York: Harper & Row, Pub., 1987.

  Though not directly involved in rescue attempts, the German White Rose group are notable for their public opposition to the Nazi movement and it's actions. "We will not be silent. We are your bad conscience. The White Rose will not leave you in peace."

• Keneally, Thomas. Schindler's list. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1982.

  A novelization based on the actual testimony of the Schindlerjuden - those whose lives were saved by German profiteer Oskar Schindler.

• Kestenberg, Judith & Ira Brenner. The Last Witness, The Child Survivor of the Holocaust. American Psychiatric Press, 1996.

  "An in-depth study of the traumatic effects of genocidal persecution on the child's psychic structure and on development throughout the life cycle"

• Kimche, Jon & Kimche, David. The secret roads. London: Secker and Warburg, 1954.

  This work discusses illegal immigration to Palestine.

• Kren, George M. & Leon H. Rappoport. The Holocaust and the crisis of human behavior. New York: Holmes & Meier, 1980.

• Lacqueur, Walter. The terrible secret: Suppression of the truth about Hitler's Final Solution. Boston: Little Brown, 1980.

  An authoritative treatment of what was known by perpetrators, victims, and bystanders (including the Vatican and the Allies) and what was done with that knowledge. Laqueur's distinction between knowledge and information is pivotal to understanding inaction.

• Lapomarda, Rev. Vincent, S.J. The Jesuits and the Third Reich. Lewiston, NY: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1989.

  This book deals with the efforts of the Jesuits to act as rescuers and assist in the resistance against the Nazis during the Holocaust.

• Laqueur, Walter , & Richard Breitman. Breaking the Silence. (Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry, No 18).

• Lampe, David. The Danish resistance. New York: Ballantine, 1960.

• Land-Weber, Ellen. To Save A Life: Stories of Jewish Rescue. Electronic text: copyright of author, 1984, 1996.

  The book is comprised of illustrated narratives of six rescuers matched with stories and related material of Jewish people they rescued. All of the rescuers have been authenticated by Yad Vashem.

• Larsen, Anita & James Watling. Raoul Wallenberg : Missing Diplomat (History's Mysteries).

• Lazare, Lucien Le livre des justes Paris, Jean-Claude Lattes, 1993, 262 p.

  This book deals with the righteous among the nations in France.

• Lazare, Lucien. Rescue as resistance : how Jewish organizations fought the Holocaust in France.translated by Jeffrey M. Green. New York : Columbia University Press, c1996.

• Le Boucher, F. The incredible mission of Father Benoit. Translation by J.F. Bernard. New York: Doubleday, 1969.

• Lester, Elenore. Wallenberg: The man in the iron web. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1984.

• Leuner, H.D. When compassion was a crime: Germany's silent heroes 1933-1945. London: Wolf, 1966.

• Levine, Hillel. In search of Sugihara: the elusive Japanese diplomat who risked his life to rescue 10,000 Jews from the Holocaust. New York, N.Y. : Free Press, 1996.

• Lewy, Gunther, The Catholic Church and Nazi Germany. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964.

• Lifton, Betty Jean. The king of the children: A biography of Janusz Korczak. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1988.

  An excellent source for both his life and the experience of children in the doomed ghetto.

• Linnea, Sharon. Raoul Wallenberg: The Man Who Stopped Death.

• Lowrie, D. The hunted children. New York: W.W. Norton, 1963.

• Lowry, L. Number the stars. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1989.

• McCarthy, Edward V., Jr. The Pied Piper of Helfenstein. Garden City, N.Y. : Published for the Crime Club by Doubleday, 1975.

  Fictional account of an American GI (2nd generation American of German/Jewish ancestry) who goes AWOL and disguises himself as an SS officer in order to rescue children. This book was brought to my attention by a reader, but neither of us know if it had any basis in fact.

• Macaulay, Jacqueline R. & Leonard Berkowitz (Eds.) Altruism and helping behavior. New York: Academia Press, 1970.

• Marchione, Margherita. Yours Is a Precious Witness : Memoirs of Jews and Catholics in Wartime Italy. [Stimulus Book - Not Yet Published]

• Marshall, R. In the sewers of Lvov. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1990.

• Marton, Kati. Wallenberg: Missing hero. New York: Random House, 1982.

• Melchior, Marcus. A rabbi remembers. New York: Lyle Stuart, 1968.

• Meltzer, Milton. Rescue: The story of how Gentiles saved Jews in the Holocaust. New York: Harper & Row, 1988.

  A recounting drawn from historic source material of the many individual acts of heroism performed by righteous gentiles who sought to thwart the extermination of the Jews during the Holocaust.

• Mendelsohn, John. Relief and rescue of Jews from Nazi oppression, 1943-1945. New York : Garland Pub., 1982.

• Milton, Sybil. Rescue to Switzerland: the Musy and Saly Mayer affairs. New York : Garland Pub., 1982.

• Mochizuki, Ken. Passage to Freedom: The Sugihara Story Illustrated by Dom Lee, Afterword by Hiroki Sugihara. New York: Lee & Low Books, Inc., 1997.

  A children's book about the Holocaust? This one is both beautiful and deeply moving. Hiroki Sugihara was five year's old, the eldest son of the Japanese consul to Lithuania, when his father was faced with a grave decision: whether or not to grant visas to Jewish refugees, against his government's explicit orders. Through Hiroki's eyes, we too see the events of those crucial days.

• Muus, Flemming. The spark and the flame. London: Museum Press, 1957.

• Nicholson, Michael & David Winner. Raoul Wallenberg : The Swedish Diplomat Who Saved 100,000 Jews from the Nazi Holocaust Before Mysteriously Disappearing (People Who Have Helped the World).

• Nissim, Gabriele. L'uomo che fermò Hitler ("The man who stopped Hitler"). Italy: Mondadori, 1998.

  "Dimitar Peshev (1894-1973) is the somewhat neglected Bulgarian hero who in 1943, as vice-president of the National Assembly, stopped the deportation of the 48,000 Jews of his country. After the War he was brought to trial by the Communists and persecuted for the rest of his life." For information on the man, and the book, see the Peshev Memorial and a report of the official commemoration.

• Nogueres, Henri. Histoire de la Resistance en France. Paris: Robert Laffont, 1967-1976.

  This month-by-month study of the Occupation is both encyclopedic and microscopic.

• Novak, Zdenka. When Heaven's Vault Cracked -- Zagreb Memories: Braunton, Devon : Merlin, 1995.

• Oliner, Pearl M. et al. Embracing the Other: Philosophical, Psychological, and Historical Perspectives on Altruism.

• Oliner, S. Restless memories. Berkeley: Judah L. Magnes Museum, 1979.

• Oliner, Samuel P. & Oliner, Pearl M. The altruistic personality: rescuers of Jews in Nazi Europe: what lead ordinary men and women to risk their lives on behalf of others? New York: The Free Press, 1988.

  A study of the social psychology of rescuers and their values.

• Omer, Devorah. The Teheran operation : the rescue of Jewish children from the Nazis : based on the biographical sketches of David and Rachel Laor. [English translation, Riva Rubin].Washington, D.C. : B'nai B'rith Books, c1991.

• Orenstein, H. I shall live. New York: Beaufort Books, 1987.

• Orlev, V. The man from the other side. Translation by H. Halkin. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1991.

• Paldiel, Mordecai. The path of the righteous: Gentile rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust. New York: Ktav, 1993.

• Paldiel, Mordecai. Sheltering the Jews: Stories of Holocaust rescuers. Augsburg/Fortress Publishers,1995.

• Pettit, Jayne. A Place to Hide/True Stories of Holocaust Rescues.

• Phayer, Michael. Protestant and Catholic Women in Nazi Germany. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1990.

• Perl, Gisella. I was a Doctor at Auschwitz. New York: International Universities Press,1948; New York: Arno Press, 1979

  This book is the first hand account of a polish female physician who was a prisoner at Auschwitz. Since she was a physician she was given the duty by the SS of treating female inmates in the camp "hospital." I don't know how relevant this will be to those interested primarily in rescue accounts; it has been recommended to me as a first person account by someone who was in an uncommon position within the camp.

• Perl, William R. Operation action: rescue from the Holocaust. New York : F. Ungar Pub. Co., 1983. [Rev. ed. of: The four-front war. c1979.]

• Petrow, Richard. The bitter years: The invasion of Denmark and Norway, April 1940-May 1945. New York: Morrow, 1974.

• Ramati, Alexander, as told by Padre Rufino Niccacci. The Assisi underground: The priests who rescued Jews. New York: Stein & Day, 1978.

  Using letters, dairies, and official Church documents, Ramati recounts the story of Niccacci, the Franciscan priest who with other Italian Catholic clergy organize the rescue of Jews during the German occupation.

• Rautkallio, Hannu. Finland and the Holocaust: the rescue of Finland's Jews. New York : Holocaust Library, c1987.

• Reilly, Robin. The sixth floor. London: Leslie Frewin, 1969.

• Reiss, J. The upstairs room. New York: Bantam Books, 1972.

• Roi, Emilie. A different story: About a Danish girl in World War Two. Dallas, Texas: Rossel Books, 1987.

• Rittner, Carol & Myers, Sondra (Eds.) The courage to care: Rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust. New York: New York University Press, 1986.

  Covers the conference on rescuers sponsored by the United States Holocaust Memorial Council.

• Rochman, L. The pit and the trap: A chronicle of survival. New York: Holocaust Library, 1983.

• Rose, L. The tulips are red. New York: A. S. Barnes, 1978.

• Rosenfeld, Harvey. Raoul Wallenberg.

• Rosenfeld, H. The Swedish angel of rescue: The heroism and torment of Raoul Wallenberg. Buffalo, New York: Prometheus Books, 1982.

• Rotenberg, A. Emissaries: A memoir of the Riviera, Haute-Savoie, Switzerland, and World War II. Secaucus, NJ: Citadel Press, 1987.

• Roth-Hano, R. Touch wood: A girlhood in occupied France. New York: Four Winds Press, 1988.

• Rubinek, S. So many miracles. New York: Viking Penguin, 1988.

• Rudomin, Yitschak The Second World War and Jewish Education in America: The Fall and Rise of Orthodoxy Master of Arts Thesis in the faculty of the Teachers College, Columbia University (1983).

  This study examines the ways in which Jewish education became a focus for the development of a new Orthodox Jewish life in America, by the survivors of Hitler's death camps. Three broad periods are discussed: Jewish education and culture in America and Europe before 1939; the war itself and the role of Jewish education in the lives of its victims; and the post-war period of growth in Orthodox Jewish life in America. Part II includes brief descriptions of some attempts to escape the Holocaust.

• Ryan, Michael D. (ed.) Human Responses in the Holocaust:Perpetrators and Victims. Bystanders and Resisters. New York: E. Mellen, 1981.

• Rybak, Rywka. A Survivor of the Holocaust.Cleveland, Ohio: Prologue Publications, 1993.

• Seghers, Anna. Das Siebte Kreuz: Ein Roman aus Hitlerdeutschland (The Seventh Cross: A Novel from Hitler's Germany) 1942.

  This novel tells the story of seven escapees from a concentration camp. While this is a work of fiction, it may still be of interest: Written in the late 30s-early 40s, and published in 1942, it was immediately translated and became a big bestseller in a number of allied countries, including the U.S. It was even printed in an "armed forces edition" for U.S. troops. An English translation with a foreword by Kurt Vonnegut and an afterword by Dorothy Rosenberg has recently been published by New York: Monthly Review Press, c1987 as part of the Voices of Resistance series.

• Scholl, Inge. Six against tyranny. [microform] translated from the German by Cyrus Brooks. London : J. Murray, 1955. 99 p., [2] p. of plates : ill.

• Scholl, Inge. Students against tyranny; the resistance of the White Rose, Munich, 1942-1943. Translated from the German by Arthur R. Schultz. Middletown, Conn., Wesleyan University Press, 1970.

• Scholl, Inge. The white rose: Munich 1942-1943. Middletown, CN: Wesleyan University Press,1983.

  This book contains personal memories of Hans and Sophie Scholl of the German White Rose movement, from their sister, Inge Scholl; the text of the leaflets which they wrote and distributed, opposing the Nazis; and documents related to their trial and execution.

• Silver, E. The book of the just: The silent heroes who saved Jews from Hitler. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1992.

• Skoglund, Elizabeth. A Quiet Courage: Per Anger, Wallenberg's Co-Liberator of Hungarian Jews. [to appear]

• Staub, Ervin. The roots of evil: The origins of genocide and other group violence. Cambridge University Press, 1989.

• Stein, D. Quiet heroes: True stories of the rescue of Jews by Christians in Nazi-occupied Holland. Toronto: Lester & Orpen Dennys Limited, 1988.

• Stræde, Therkel. Die Menschenmauer. Dänemark im Oktober 1943: Die Rettung der Juden vor der Vernichtung. Preface by Richard von Weizsäcker. Copenhagen: Tiderne Skifter, 1997 (Danish original 1993; French translation to be published late 1997; no English version available)

• Sugihara, Yukiko. Visas For Life. Translated by Hiroki Sugihara. (167 pp.,illustrated) San Francisco, CA: Edu-Comm. Plus, 1995.

  Chiune and Yukiko Sugihara were heroically responsible for saving an estimated 6000 estimated Jewish lives in the Holocaust. Unlike other diplomats who issued visas to Jews, Chiune Sugihara acted against the direct orders of his government in issuing visas. After the war, Sugihara was disgraced by his government. This book is a translation, privately published, of an account by Chiune's wife, Yukiko. Available from Edu-Comm. Plus (Hiroki Sugihara) 236 West Portal Avenue #249, San Francisco, CA 94127.

• Suslensky, Yakov. True Heroes. Kiev, Ukraine: Jewish-Ukrainian division of the Center of Cultural Links and historic/literary society "LITOPYS".

  "A touching account of the Holocaust in Ukraine, during which many Jews were saved by Ukrainians at a risk (and often at the cost) of their own death. The book is a combination of oral history by real-life participants of the holocaust drama and the author's analysis of the events, containing numerous photographs, letters, and poems dated from the War times to the present day. This work is also remarkable for publishing documents that were either kept secret or made public in a distorted way by the Soviet government. The author, Yakov Suslensky, is a Ukrainian Jew who lived through the Holocaust. He was arrested and sentenced in 1970 to 7 years of concentration camps for his work to enforce the Declaration of Human Rights in the USSR, labeled as "anti-Soviet propaganda." Available from: Tanya Puchkova, 20 College Dr., Roscommon, MI

• Tec, Nechama. When light pierced the darkness: Christian rescue of Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986.

• Tec, N. Dry tears: The story of a lost childhood. New York: Oxford University Press, 1984.

• Ten Boom, Corrie. The hiding place. New York: Bantam, 1974.

• Tokayu, M. & Swart, M. The fugu plan: The untold story of the Japanese and the Jews during WWII. New York: Paddington Press, Ltd., 1979.

• Tomaszewski, Irene, & Tecia Werbowski. Zegota : the rescue of Jews in wartime Poland. Montreal, Quebec, Canada : Price-Patterson, 1994.

  Zegota was an organization of Polish Jews and Christians, which provided assistance to Jews in Poland during the Holocaust. The book "Zegota", written by two women, a Jew and a Gentile, contains many fascinating stories of courage and humanity.

• Troen, Selwyn Ilan (ed.) Organizing rescue : national Jewish solidarity in the modern period. Edited by Selwyn Ilan Troen and Benjamin Pinkus. London, England ; Portland, Or.: F. Cass, 1992.

• Vinke, Hermann. The short life of Sophie Scholl. With an interview with Ilse Aichinger ; translated from the German by Hedwig Pachter. Cambridge [Mass.] : Harper & Row, c1984.

  A biography of Sophie Scholl of the German White Rose movement, who opposed the Nazis and was executed by them.

• Vlcko, P. In the shadow of tyranny: A history in novel form. New York: Vantage Press, 1973.

• Von Staden, W. Darkness over the valley. New Haven & New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1981.

• Vos, J. Like a cedar on the Lebanon. Leiden: A. W. Sythoff Vitgeversmaatschabpy M.V., 1952.

• Waagenar, S. The Pope's Jews. LaSalle, Ill.: Alcove, 1974.

• Wallenberg, Raoul & Kjersti Board. Letters and Dispatches 1924-1945.

• Warhaftig, Zorach. Refugee and survivor. 1987.

  The story of the rescue of thousands of Polish Jewish refugees, amongst which were Rabbis, Yeshiva Students and pioneers ("Halutzim") and of their rehabilitation in Displaced Persons' Camps. Rabbi Warhftig took an active part in these rescue attempts while in Lithuania, Japan and China.

• Weinstein, F. S. A hidden childhood: A Jewish girl's sanctuary in a French convent, 1942-1945. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1985.

• Werbell, F.E. & Clarke, T. Lost hero: The mystery of Raoul Wallenberg. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1982.

• Wolfe, J. Take care of Josette: A memoir in defense of occupied France. New York: Franklin Watts, 1981.

• Wood, E. Thomas & Jankowski, Stanislaw M. Karski: How One Man Tried to Stop the Holocaust.John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1994.

  Karski: retells the exploits of Jan Karski, a Roman Catholic member of the Polish underground resistance movement during World War II who survived Soviet captivity and Gestapo torture to bring his eyewitness account of the Nazi Holocaust to the free world in 1942. Jan Karski eventually carried his message to top Allied leaders, including U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. (Website):

• Wuorio, Eva-Lis. To fight in silence. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1973.

• Yahil, Leni. The Holocaust: The fate of European Jews. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.

  Comprehensive and insightful, built on a strong foundation of earlier work and research: a work of passion and power.

• Yahil, Leni. The rescue of Danish Jewry: Test of a democracy. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1969.

  This book is considered the definitive work on the rescue of the Jewish population of Denmark. Of all the countries of Nazi-occupied Europe, only Denmark rescued virtually all its Jewish population.

• Zajackowski, Waclaw. Martyrs of Charity.

• Zassenhaus, H. Walls: Resisting the third Reich - one woman's story. Boston: Beacon, 1974.

• Ziemian, J. The cigarette sellers of Three Crosses Square. London: Vallentine & Mitchell, 1970.

• Zilversmit, Kitty. Yours Always: A Holocaust Love Story. Bethesda MD: CDL Press, 1995.

  This biography of a Holocaust survivor is one of the occasional publications of the Department of Near Eastern Studies and the Program of Jewish Studies at Cornell University. Orders to: CDL Press, PO Box 34454, Bethesda MD.

• Zampieri, Stefano. Il flauto d'osso, Firenze, Editrice La Giuntina, 1996.

  This book is dedicated to the literature of the lager, to the memories and to the testimonies of the Holocaust (Levi, Celan, Antelme, Wiesel, Amery, Sachs, and others.)

• Zuccotti, Susan. The Italians and the Holocaust: Persecution, rescue, survival. New York: Basic Books, 1987.

The bibliography above © Mary Mark: mmbt@andrew.cmu.edu

Visit Stories of Rescue and Heroism in the Literature section for an annotated bibliography of recommended works.

View the "Righteous Among the Nations" bibliography at the Wiesenthal Center site.

This bibliography, also by Mary Mark, lists articles written in English which discuss the lives and actions of rescuers during the Holocaust.

Other Resources

The Courage to Care. Profiles of non-Jews who risked their lives to help protect the Jews from Nazi persecution are highlighted through film footage, still photographs, and first-person accounts. (29 minutes), Grades 6-12, United Way

A Debt to Honor. This documentary tells the extraordinary story of how the Italian Christians helped save over 30,000 Jews during Hitler's occupation of Northern Italy. Through interviews, film footage and still photography, Nuns, Priests and others tell their story of heroism. (30 minutes), Grades 7-12, Documentaries International, 1995

Holocaust: Liberation of Auschwitz. This video documents the liberation of Auschwitz on January 27, 1945 by Soviet troops. Warning: not recommended for unprepared audiences due to intensely graphic presentations. (18 minutes), Grades 9-12, Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1990

The Holocaust: Through Our Own Eyes. This video provides firsthand accounts from Holocaust survivors, as well as liberators of the concentration camps, on the atrocities that took place. Reproducible masters, discussion questions, and activities are also provided. (35 minutes), Grades 7-12, Midwest Center for Holocaust Education, 1994

Missing Hero: Raoul Wallenberg. The story of Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat who bravely stands on a deportation train, at the risk of his life, and passes out Swedish passports is told through the testimony of those who were there. (52 minutes), Grades 9-12, BBC

Nazi Holocaust Failed in Denmark. 14 Photo aids tell the story of how the Danes protected the Jews from the Nazis during occupation. Grades 6-12, Documentary Aids

Number the Stars. The story of a young Jewish girl and her best friend who helps her, along with the Danish Resistance, escape from the Nazis during occupation in 1943. (15 minutes), Grades 3-7

The Other Side of Faith. This documentary alternates between the story of a Catholic girl who saved 13 Jews, to dealing with issues such as - Is it right to disobey an unjust law? (27 minutes), Grades 6-12, Documentaries International

The Power of Conscience: The Danish Resistance and the Rescue of the Jews. The story of the Danish resistance to Hitler is told here through compelling interviews and original film footage. The Danish people are credited with saving 7,000 Jews from the horrors of the Holocaust. (55 minutes), Grades 9-12, Direct Cinema Education, 1994

Raoul Wallenberg: Between the Lines. This video documents the courage of Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat that risked his life in order to save the Jews of Budapest. (85 minutes), Grades 9-12

Rescue in Scandinavia. Narrated by Liv Ullman, the story of how the people of Scandinavia helped save 70000 Jews from the Nazis through a kind of underground railroad system. Actual film footage, as well as interviews with rescuers, and the people they rescued aid in the telling of this heroic story. (56 minutes), Grades 7-12, Documentaries International, 1994

Schindler. This documentary describes the heroic efforts of Oskar Schindler, who saved more than 1000 Jews during the Holocaust. Actual film footage, still photographs and survivors help tell the story. Note: some scenes of atrocities. (82 minutes), Grades 9-12, Thames Television

Schindler's List. Steven Spielberg's Oscar-winning film on the life of Oskar Schindler. A comprehensive teacher's guide is also included. Note: contains graphic violence, strong language, and nudity. (197 minutes), MCA, 1993

Teaching Holocaust Studies with the Internet: Internet Lesson Plans and Classroom Activities. Lessons using specific web sites along with reproducible worksheets are provided. Lessons on The Rise of Hitler and Nazism, Life in the Ghettos, Survivors' Stories and others are included. Grades 4-12, Classroom Connect, 1997

They Risked Their Lives: Rescuers of the Holocaust. Over 100 Holocaust rescuers from 12 different countries recall their heroic experiences of risking their lives to save Jews during the time of Nazi occupation. (54 minutes), Grades 7-12, Ergo Media, 1992

The Upstairs Room. The true story of Annie de Leeuw, a young Jewish Dutch girl, and the Dutch Gentiles who put their lives on the line in order to hide her and her sister from the Nazis. (37 minutes), Grades 5-8, Random House

Weapons of the Spirit. The courage of the people in the French village of Le Chambon, who saved 5000 Jewish lives is documented here through film footage, and interviews of the rescuers. (38 minutes), Grades 7-12

World War II. Twelve posters by U.S., French, German and British artists are provided to enhance units of study on World War II and propaganda. Grades 6-12, Perfection Learning

This bibliography by Mary Mark lists film and video resources which discuss the lives and actions of rescuers during the Holocaust.

Lesson Plans from the Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust

Ideas for Research and Discussion of Anne Frank's Diary. Student activities from the Anne Frank Center USA.

Deliberate Acts of Kindness. Students recognize and honor the kind acts of Holocaust liberators and rescuers, cultivate their ability to do kind acts, and realize the importance of those acts to others.

Eleventh Grade Language Arts Unit.

The Lily Cupboard. This activity is based on The Lily Cupboardby Shulamith Ley Oppenheim.

Number the Stars,by Lois Lowry. New York: Dell 1990

Number the Stars. This review by Carol Otis Hurst first appeared in Teaching K-8 Magazine.

Number the Stars. Florida Atlantic University - Holocaust Outreach Center: Fifth Grade Unit

Twenty and Ten: Holocaust Outreach Center - Florida Atlantic University: Fourth Grade Unit.

Lesson Plans on Other Sites

The Schindler's List Teaching Guide is available at the Southern Institute for Education and Research site.

Assignment: Rescue: The Story of Varian Fry and the Emergency Rescue Committee, an eight-day unit for high school.

Florida Resource Manual on Holocaust Education

The following materials from the State of Florida Resource Manual on Holocaust Education, Grades 9-12 will enrich your class's study of this topic. This manual was distributed to all Florida high schools in the spring of 1999 and should be available in your school resource center.

Vocabulary	Unit 8	pages 7-9
Profile of Rescuers	Unit 8	pages 11-12
Constructing a "Wall of Righteous People"	Unit 10	page 61
Victims of Hate Crime in America	Unit 10	pages 84-87

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A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust
Produced by the Florida Center for Instructional Technology,
College of Education, University of South Florida © 2000.