The Righteous

With the righteous, an eminent historian presents the unsung heroes of the holocaust.drawing from twenty-five years of original research, sir martin gilbert re-creates the remarkable stories of non-jews who risked their lives to help jews during the holocaust.according to jewish tradition, "whoever saves one life, it is as if he saved the entire world." non-jews who helped save jewish lives during world war ii are designated righteous among the nations by yad vashem, the holocaust archive in jerusalem. in the righteous, distinguished historian sir martin gilbert, through extensive interviews, explores the courage of those who-throughout germany and in every occupied country from norway to greece, from the atlantic to the baltic-took incredible risks to help jews whose fate would have been sealed without them. indeed, many lost their lives for their efforts.those who hid jews included priests, nurses, teachers, neighbors and friends, employees and colleagues, soldiers and diplomats, and, above all, ordinary citizens. from greek orthodox princess alice of greece, who hid jews in her home in athens, to the ukrainian uniate archbishop of lvov, who hid hundreds of jews in his churches and monasteries, to muslims in bosnia and albania, many risked, and lost, everything to help their fellow man. review “[the righteous] deserves to be read side by side with the studies claiming that there were no rays of light, no manifestations of humanity and goodness in those dark days.” ―the new york times“a timely [book] for a new century . . . the questions raised in this book lie at the heart of our humanity.” ―the guardian“this is a book that should, that must, be read.” ―milwaukee journal sentinel one of britain's most distinguished historians, martin gilbert was knighted in 1995. a fellow of merton college, oxford, he is also the official biographer of winston churchill. among his books are the holocaust, the second world war, churchill: a life, auschwitz and the allies, the first world war, and never again. excerpt. © reprinted by permission. all rights reserved. fromthe righteous:"what were the motives of those who tried to save jews from deportation and death?" this question is raised with every account of rescue, as the reader, like the historian, wonders whether they would have behaved in such a courageous manner. first and foremost, the righteous of this book chose to act; theirs was a deliberate decision to behave in a civilized, humane manner, rather than to do nothing, or to refuse to be involved, or to take the route of barbarism.in the circumstances of a combination of nazi rule, ss power and gestapo terror, inaction motivated by fear cannot be belittled. those who turned against the tide of terror were all the more remarkable. "we did what we had to do"; "anyone would have done the same"-the words of many rescuers mask the courageousness of the course they chose, knowing it to be full of danger, often the danger of execution of their families as well as themselves. yet these were not foolhardy, rash or intemperate people; most of them made their choice calmly, deliberately and with full realization of the risks, risks that they faced, and took, for months and even years.