The Phenomenon and Its Significance – Gideon Greif

“The rescue of Jews by fellow Jews during the Holocaust is a remarkable human and moral phenomenon, worthy of being inscribed in golden letters in the book of Jewish heroism throughout the generations. In Holocaust historiography and public discourse, this extraordinary and inspiring phenomenon was neglected and pushed to the margins for many years, perceived as an obvious response, a pattern of human behavior that supposedly required no special attention, recognition, or appreciation.

However, as life teaches us, what seems obvious is not necessarily so. Neither is the fact that thousands of Jews, during the darkest and most terrible period in Jewish history, risked their lives to save other Jews, many of whom they had never met before the act of rescue, while endangering themselves and their families. Some paid for these actions with their lives.

Times of personal or collective distress and catastrophe are usually moments in which people focus on themselves, their families, their loved ones, and their immediate world. This is a human pattern of behavior, one that is neither blameworthy nor deserving of criticism. It is precisely against this familiar human tendency that the rescue efforts of Jews saving fellow Jews during the Holocaust stand out in their extraordinary humanity and moral greatness.

The rescue of Jews by Jews during the Holocaust was a widespread phenomenon that took place everywhere under direct or indirect German occupation, throughout the entire Holocaust period without interruption, in varying scales and dimensions. Through these efforts, many Jews were rescued and saved from death. To the rescuers themselves, their actions may have seemed natural and normal, but they were anything but ordinary.

What does this phenomenon, which has still not received the attention it deserves, teach us?

I believe that this extraordinary phenomenon teaches us first and foremost about the triumph of the Jewish spirit during the Holocaust. The Germans sought to destroy the Jewish body, the physical existence of the Jewish people, but at the same time they also tried with all their might to destroy the Jewish spirit, Jewish moral values, and the solidarity among the Jewish people. If, during the darkest days of the Holocaust, many Jews were still able to look beyond themselves and their immediate circle, to break free from the human egoism that exists within all of us, to think beyond the boundaries of self centeredness and moral conformity, then the Germans failed completely. It was the Jewish spirit that prevailed.

Highlighting the nobility of Jews during the Holocaust is important not only because the actions of Jewish rescuers were far from self evident, but also because it sheds authentic light on patterns of Jewish behavior during the Holocaust that were not always portrayed positively.

The time has come to correct the injustice done to the Jewish people.

Every Jew who was saved from certain death and from the decree of the “Final Solution” represents a victory over the Germans and the frustration of their murderous plans. Every Jew rescued by another Jew, every Jew pulled away from the gas chambers of the extermination camps, personally disrupted the German plan to physically annihilate the Jewish people.

Among the Jews who rescued fellow Jews were some who paid the ultimate price with their lives. Mala Zimetbaum, Dr. Maximilian Samuel, and Marianne Cohen are only a few examples of Jewish rescuers who sacrificed their lives to save others during the Holocaust. Though they are no longer with us, through their deaths they gave life to other Jews, lives that continue to this very day.

A Jew rescued by another Jew created an unbroken and eternal chain of new life. Today, more than eighty years after the Holocaust, that survivor may be the parent of a large family of children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and great great grandchildren. Even if the Jewish rescuer lost their own life, they granted the Jewish people and the world entire future generations through those they saved, generations who will continue carrying the heritage of the Jewish people forever. This is among the greatest gifts that Jewish rescuers bestowed upon us through their noble actions.

This effort of recognition, gratitude, commemoration, and preservation of the legacy of Jews who saved fellow Jews without regard for the danger involved in their actions is of profound historical importance. This comprehensive project of documentation and research, to which Moshe Gromb devoted many years, presents for the first time thousands of Jewish rescuers who saved their fellow Jews during the Holocaust and reveals the broad and diverse spectrum of these rescue efforts. This book and film deserve a place on every bookshelf in Israel and around the world.

Those Jews who rescued fellow Jews during the Holocaust deserve recognition for their greatness and courage, which were far from self evident. Their actions, carried out under immense danger, deserve official recognition through inclusion in the Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Law of Yad Vashem, enacted in 1953. Such recognition would grant them commemoration, documentation, appreciation, and gratitude. This would in no way diminish the honor of the non Jewish Righteous Among the Nations, for whom we all hold the deepest respect.

Now, with the publication of this important historical and documentary collection by Moshe Gromb, a long standing injustice has finally been corrected, and honor and recognition have been restored to those Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust in order to save another Jewish soul and to undermine the “Final Solution” of the Germans and their collaborators.

During the darkest and most terrible period in human history, on the brink of annihilation, in ghettos, camps, and forests, many Jews rose up and risked their lives to save their fellow Jews. Thanks to these noble spirited Jews, many Jewish survivors are alive among us today, together with their children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.

The study of Jews who rescued fellow Jews during the Holocaust also carries immense educational and pedagogical value, especially for younger generations. What can be learned from this remarkable chapter in the history of Jewish responses during the Holocaust?

That many Jews did not accept the Germans’ murderous intentions as fate and acted against them despite enormous personal risk. Many of them paid with their lives for these rescue efforts.

That even in the darkest periods, one must think about active resistance against the forces of evil, and sometimes, even against all odds, such resistance can succeed beyond expectation.

That during the Holocaust, thousands of Jews did not lose their resourcefulness, courage, ingenuity, and heroism despite the unbearable conditions they faced every day.

That human life is the most sacred value, and in preserving this sacred principle of life, Jews who rescued fellow Jews spared no effort, even in the most desperate circumstances.

That many Jews acted during the Holocaust מתוך noble and compassionate humanitarian motives, thereby preserving the dignity of the Jewish people.

And that nothing in life should be taken for granted, especially Jews risking their lives to save fellow Jews who were not necessarily their relatives or friends, during the darkest period in Jewish history.

Professor Gideon Greif is a historian and Holocaust researcher specializing in the history of Auschwitz and the Sonderkommando. He has written fifteen books on Holocaust history. In 2018, he received a knighthood and the “Presidential Gold Medal” from the Government of Serbia in recognition of his life’s work on Holocaust research.