German Rescuers of Jews: Individuals Versus the System

As of January 1, 2016, close to 700 men and women from Germany and Austria have been awarded the Righteous Among the Nations honour by the State of Israel. Here Mordecai Paldiel, former director of the Righteous Among the Nations Department at Yad Vashem, tells some of their stories. These include Germans in various occupations and stations, even some in uniform, who aided Jews to avoid capture and arrest and survive the Holocaust. Some saved Jewish friends from before the Nazi accession to power, others close business acquaintances. Also included are narratives of aid to Jews in mixed marriages, and of Germans who were in charge of Jewish forced labourers who saved their Jewish workers through various ingenious and deceptive means - as in the well-known Oskar Schindler story. These stories are testimony to the strength of the human spirit in spite of great and evil adversities. The actions by German and Austrian rescuers were nothing less than a moral defiance; a throwing down of the gauntlet toward their own regime's immoral and illegitimate existence. They showed this by risking their lives and personal freedom to save Jews. Most of the stories in this book are based on records stored at Yad Vashem that were compiled under a special program to honour non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews from the Nazis, as well as a few stories of those not awarded this honour.