The Righteous, The Unsung Heroes of the Holocaust - by Martin Gilbert

[wordsgood]

Confession...I've simply copied the bulk of what I added to my reading log for this review.

 

Title: The Righteous, The Unsung Heroes of the Holocaust, by Martin Gilbert

Genre: Historical Anthology

Copyright 2003

ISBN: 1-55263-512-0

Rating: 10/10 ++

 

Length: 444 pages of text, plus some copies of related photos, detailed maps of every location mentioned, an extensive bibliography which is further broken into sections related to the type of source, and large, well organized index.

 

Martin Gilbert has written several other books that relate the many horrors of the Holocaust. While this one definitely contains many of them, his goal in this is to give well-deserved praise to the many non-Jewish heroes who risked their lives and families to save the hunted Jewish in Nazi controlled territory during WWII. And with this book, he succeeded admirably!

 

Gilbert was first inspired to take on the monolithic task of researching and writing this amazing anthology while walking along Mount Zion in Jerusalem in 1974. Curious when watching a large procession of what appeared to be non-Jewish pilgrims enroute to one the Christian cemeteries there, he started asking people where they were going and why. As it turns out, most of 400 people were Jewish survivors rescue by Oskar Schindler, and all were on the way to pay their respects to his grave site. Though Schindler is perhaps the most famous of the non-Jews who did so much to save Jewish lives, he is by no means the only one. This book chronicles many, many individual stories and experiences all across Europe, yet is still wonderfully crafted into readable prose. It isn't a story, it is many stories that at last give recognition to all the unsung heroes from this dark, terrible time in human history.

 

Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum and archive, as laid down in the law of the State of Israel - is to this day tracking down and recording for history, as many of these unsung heroes as they can. Martin Gilbert is proudly associated with them.

 

Gilbert has broken down the unwieldy task of organising the indivual experiences of those saved by who are called the Righteous Among Nations by the Yad Vashem, by the location rather than names or dates. For instance, all the stories that took place in France, are listed under the chapter heading of France. The book is by no means all inclusive, because as Gilbert says in the Preface, more than 800 of the Righteous are being found and recognized every year by the Yad Vashem. And that, "Were a single page devoted to each person already recognized as Righteous, it would take fifty books the size of this one to tell all their stories."

 

Gilbert masterfully uses his historian skills to tell the stories of people from every walk of life, and every faith, who risked everything to help others condemned for the crime of simply being born Jewish. From those where a single act, even a simple remark that saved a child, to intricate, well thought out and planned rescues involved a long chain of people - many of whom did not even know the names of their contacts, Gilbert makes each story come alive. It is so well written that you find yourself there with these people, both the Jews and their would-be saviours. Many were found out and toruted and executed, right along with the very people they were trying to help. Yet despite the danger, despite the risk to their own lives and families, so many went far above and beyond the call of duty at a time when it even a comment or look suggesting sympathy for the Jewish could mean death. Or worse.

 

The Righteous is definitely a book that I will re-read several times over the years, though I cry through nearly every page. The complete and total lack of inhumanity that comes screaming through each story made me cringe with revulsion. Yet the length's so many went to in an effort to stop the madness and save lives, at the same time made my heart sing even while I felt it shattering. One scene that is forever seared into my memory, is when a large cold-storage crate is found - marked "Property of the SS" and it were found several people, naked and freezing. For some, the rescue came to late... They had been in the crate for several days, naked, in freezing temperatures with no food or water.

 

This book will definitely take you far out of your comfort zone! It will shock you, hurt your heart and at times even break it, but it is one of many that should be read by everyone interested in stopping these kinds of horrors that still go in different parts of the world. Granted, not on the same scale, but what value a human life? Is one worth less than many? Lest we forget indeed.

Edited September 4, 2008 by wordsgood