The "nervous British spinsters" who helped Jewish people flee Nazi Germany.
Yarden Zalimansky is only 25, but comports himself like a staid older citizen. He’s been married for a few years, and wears a white shirt, tie and dark slacks for our meeting; he has a tablet opened to a Bible app and speaks in a deeply serious tone of voice. Until age 19, he styled...
I’m very pleased to welcome Bernard S. Wilson as our guest blogger today. Bernard is British and a retired university lecturer. Graduating from the University of London with a Bachelor of Divinity and a MA in education from the University of Leeds, Bernard’s professional life was centered around teaching children in secondary and grammar schools. […]
Last night my family and I watched a great movie about a teenager who kept thirteen Jews hidden in her house after the Nazis invaded Poland. It's based on the true story of Stefania ("Fusia") Podgorska, beautifully dramatized in this film written by Stephanie Liss, starring Kellie Martin as Fusia. I had seen it televised on Lifetime in 1996 and waited for years before it finally became available on video in 2002. (Still no DVD, though! Aaaaargh!) I especially liked the fact that although there are some graphic moments in the film - the bombing of Przemysl, civilians getting shot, Jewish families being herded into a transport train, the body of a work camp victim being carried back to the camp in a wheelbarrow - I felt it was an excellent introduction to the history of the Holocaust for my school age kids. They were both very moved by the story and asked great questions afterward - about war today, and evil, and suffering, and if there are still people like the Nazis. There are several haunting moments, like the Jews in hiding in an attic partition, crammed together with rats and a bucket for a toilet, half-starved, but having to deal with the smell of delicious food being cooked in a kitchen below; or them kneeling in solidarity with Fusia as she prays desperately for help; the courage of her younger sister, Helena, only seven years old but heroic beyond her years; an unexpected Christmas dinner; and of course all the moments of sorrow and loss as familes got torn apart. The question that kept going through my mind was how did Fusia come to make the decisions she made, instead of succumbing to intimidation and fear and simply obeying authority? How was she able to listen to the authority of her own conscience and moral convictions, when doing so put her life and the lives of her sister and her friends at risk? When asked about it later, she reportedly said, "I didn't do anything special." Przemysl was liberated on July 27, 1944. At the time of the film's release, she and her husband, one of the survivors she kept in hiding, were celebrating their 51st wedding anniversary. Just last week I was in a discussion with someone who was criticizing the staff at Kings County Hospital for standing by and doing nothing while a patient coded and died in the waiting room. "I would never have done that," she said. But there are social psychology studies that suggest otherwise, and numerous papers on the now-well-know phenomenon of Bystander Effect. Equally famous is a social psychology experiment on obedience to authority carried out by Stanley Milgram, in which volunteers were commanded to apply electric shocks to a person they did not realize was an actor feigning pain and suffering. Despite the actor's "pain," two thirds of participants kept obeying the authority figure (a man in a white coat) and applying the shocks anyway. Most people feel they would NEVER obey the authority figure's orders, or if they started, that they would never continue. But the experiment has been duplicated with similar results. The medical simulator used by my anesthesia training program did a low-key version of an obedience-to-authority experiment in the simulator. I'm not allowed to disclose the details of the scenario, but I will say that although I was not entirely disappointed in the decisions I made or in my words and actions during the simulation, I was still a little shaken at the potential fragility of my own resolve - and, I imagine, that of any individual in a high-stakes situation whose convictions are tested against the control of a tyrannical aggressor. Which brings me back to Fusia. The stakes couldn't possibly have been higher, nor could the aggressor have been more dangerous or more frightening. But she did it. She stood up to one of the most evil forces the world has known, with resourcefulness, diligence, grace, and uncommon valor. Where does that power come from? The answer is implicit in the film: she was a girl of tremendous faith - meaning strength of character, trust in God, and courage of conviction in the right thing to do and in the value of human life, all combined - and her faith, her way of being in the world, got her through, at least as this movie tells it. But where, I wonder, does such spiritual valor come from? Favorable brain chemistry? A transcendent gift? Both? It's a mystery - one the we've been blessed to glimpse through human beings like her, known and unknown, and the stories that leave their mark on this world. (Photo credit: http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/idcard.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10006455) בָּרוּךְ אַתָה יהוהאֶלוֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הַעוֹלָם שֵהֵחְיָנוּ וְקִיְימָנו וְהִגִעָנוּ לַזְמַן הַזֶה
During World War Two, many individuals from many countries risked their lives to save various minorities, especially Jews, from the horrors of the Holocaust. This list commemorates 10 of them. All these individuals were made ‘Righteous Among the Nations’ by the Israeli government in honor of what they had done. 10Feng-Shan Ho Feng-Shan Ho was
When Germans at a Nazi camp demanded that Jewish POWs identify themselves, Roddie Edmonds — the highest-ranking American there — ordered every soldier to step forward. "We are all Jews," he said.
With the release of their extraordinary documentary film The Rescue, Alvaro and his younger brother Boris haven’t just faced up to their clan’s history. They have turned it into high art.
Students will read an article from the Jewish Virtual Library about the Righteous Among the Nations. After gathering information about this honor, they will explain whether or not they believe Rosa and Hans are deserving of this recognition. ...
Jane Haining, a quiet farmer's daughter from the south of Scotland, is the only Scot to be officially honoured for giving her life for Jews in the Holocaust.
A Holocaust heroine’s last will and testament has been unearthed in church archives in Scotland, offering a glimpse into the incredible life of Jane Haining, who died in Auschwitz in 1944.
Learn about the Holocaust with this Holocaust unit study. It includes lessons on Hitler's rise to power, Jewish resistance, and life in the concentration camps.
Leading Nazi Hermann Göring was instrumental to Hitler's reign of terror, but research suggests his younger brother Albert saved the lives of dozens of Jews. Israel must now decide whether he deserves to be honored as one of the "Righteous Among the Nations."
The Prophecy of the Nations in Ezekiel is a significant passage that unveils a future battle involving several nations. Ezekiel’s prophecy provides valuable…
If not for the list of the Righteous Among the Nations, the world might have long forgotten Miep Gies before she passed away on January 11, 2010.
The Bible tells us what happens to nations that fall into corruption and ungodly leadership. Does God Abandon Nations? What happens to nations that fall
The Prophecy of the Nations in Ezekiel is a significant passage that unveils a future battle involving several nations. Ezekiel’s prophecy provides valuable…
