The Resistance
The Countries and People Who Gave Their Lives to the Jews
Most Influential Countries
Netherlands
- Gertruida Wijsmuller-Meier , who saved many Jewish children, and the Dutch consul in Lithuania, Jan Zwartendijk, who saved 3,000 to 6,000 people.
Also Miep Geis, the woman who tried to save Anne Frank
The Netherlands also saved over 1,200 gypsies and homosexuals
Was the country that spread the word about needed help for the Jews
Because these rescuers were not Jewish, they were not afraid to send many people-of all ages- to go rescue the Jews
Poland
- During the WWll under Nazi occupation, Poland was the only country where any help provided to a person of Jewish faith or origin was punishable by death
- This was due to the Iron Curtain
- The Iron Curtain was a physical boundary separating Europe due to the conflict--WWll 1945-Cold War 1971
- 6,195 men and women have been recognized as rescuers by Yad Vashem in Israel. Many of the rescuers were women,children, and teenagers
- 2/3 of all rescuers from Poland were captured and put into Jewish camps
- Poland had the most rescuers than any other country
- After the invasion of Poland, citizens raided Nazis and concentration camp and fought back- with full force
Italy
- In 1939 there were some 50,000 Jews in Italy; and 16,000 refugees from Germany, Poland, Hungary, Yugoslavia, France, and other countries
- Giovanni Palatucci made fake passports and Visas to get the refugees out of captivity
- He managed to destroy all documented records of the some 5,000 refugees living in Fiume, issuing them false papers and providing them with funds.
- This gave over half of those people an escape and their freedom
- Most people forget that Italy was one of the most influential countries in saving the refugees in the Holocaust
- Because there were so many prisoners and Nazis in Italy, they had the biggest resistance and risked their lives for the Jews
Other Countries Involved in the Support of Saving the Refugees
These countries include:
Denmark- saved over 20,000 people
Finland
Portugal
Spain
Greece- negotiated with Nazis and released over 5,000 Jews
France
Albania
Bulgaria- rebels stood against the Nazis and saved over 6,700 people
China
- Lithuania
Frank Foley
A British agent undercover as a passport officer in Berlin, saved around 10,000 people by making forged passports.
Count Folke Bernadotte of Wisborg
Oskar Schindler
Connection to "Night"
Even Elie himself resisted some of the harass that the Nazis tried to give him. A lot of countries and people resisted and rebelled against the Nazis and it gave the future hope, along with Elie in the book Night.