Free Republic

RIGHTEOUS AMONG THE NATIONS—Here is America's only soldier to ever receive Israel’s highest honor conferred on non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. On this day 77 years ago, facing the threat of immediate execution, he and his men displayed an act of courage and character that exemplifies what it means to take a stand against evil. US Army Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds, 422nd Infantry Regiment, 106th Infantry Division, the “Golden Lions”, was captured by German forces at the onset of the Battle of the Bulge. A native of Knoxville, TN, Edmonds was 25 years old....

Crammed uncomfortably in the front seat of a van, forced to sit at a 45-degree angle to avoid a head-on collision between my knees and the gear box, I'm surprised and relieved when my seatmate notices my pained grimace and graciously offers to share his legroom. "Stretch your legs out, there's room here," says Rabbi Yitzchok Meyer Landau, the spiritual leader of the famed Khal Veretzky (fondly known as "Rav Landau's") at the corner of Avenue L and East 9th Street in Midwod, Brooklyn. Sharing tight quarters is part of the Landau heritage, as I would soon see for myself....

Instruments of Salvation By Ari Bussel Did you notice how at every point of time we are given a choice: turn right or left, continue or abort, pay attention or ignore. Our progress in life is just the sum total of numerous small decisions, most seemingly inconsequential. But they all are, shaping our path and defining who we are. Also, this is how we can be grouped into clusters. There are many reasons for doing what we do, some rational, others mysterious. At times we think, hesitate and hardly reach a conclusive decision. Other times we do not spend a...

What was the moral motivation of gentiles who rescued Jews during the Holocaust? During a recent conference at Yad Vashem, Prof. Wolfgang Bialas of the Hannah Arendt Institute in Dresden, Germany presented some research findings on the mindset of non-Jewish Berliners who sheltered Jews and helped them survive. Apart from "the usual mix of motives," some common factors distinguish the psychological profile of the rescuers. First of all, they were independent people who set their own rules and priorities and were not easily influenced by propaganda. In addition, they were righteous, empathic individuals, guided by an innate sense of morality...

When Jewish Blood Spills; We all Must Bleed By Norma Zager “There can only be one state of mind as you approach any profound test; total concentration, a spirit of togetherness, and strength.” Pat Riley When the history of the Jewish people is recorded, it will point to present times as the last stop at the end of a once-great religion. Why is this moment in time so pivotal? Jews have survived pogroms, holocausts, inquisitions, crusades and all other manners of murder and intolerance. Why now should anyone worry or assume they cannot endure one more difficult challenge? The answer...

Poland honours woman who saved Jewish childrenDeclared national heroine Harry De Quetteville, National Post Published: Thursday, March 15, 2007 POZNAN, Poland - For most Jewish children imprisoned behind the walls of the Warsaw ghetto, the only exit led to concentration camps and the gas chambers. However, thousands did find salvation in the form of Irena Sendler, who smuggled them out in workmen's bags or through the sewers, before taking them to safety and hiding them with friendly families around the city. Yesterday Ms. Sendler, now 97, was honoured as a national heroine by the Polish parliament for saving 2,500...

NEW YORK -- World War II was over, and Anna Kohen, then a small child, was walking with her mother in Vlora, Albania, when a Muslim woman ran toward them, crying and calling her mother by an unfamiliar name. The women hugged and cried. Later, her mother explained that the woman was from a village where she, Kohen's father and other Jews had hidden during the Nazi occupation before Kohen was born. To protect themselves, Kohen's mother and father had taken Muslim names. "Everyone in the village knew they were Jews, but no one betrayed them," Kohen recalled Wednesday as...

A German army officer who saved hundreds of Jews from the Nazi Holocaust in Lithuania has been honoured at a ceremony in Israel. The story of Maj Karl Plagge was unearthed by a US doctor, Michael Good, who began searching in 1999 for the Nazi who had saved his mother. Maj Plagge sheltered about 1,200 Jews at a vehicle workshop while the SS annihilated the Vilnius ghetto. Plagge, who died in 1957, was honoured by the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial. It is unusual for Yad Vashem to bestow the "Righteous Among the Nations" title on a German who was part...

THE RIGHTEOUS The Unsung Heroes of the Holocaust By Martin Gilbert Illustrated. 529 pages. Henry Holt. $35. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hitler intended to exterminate European Jews without exception, and he almost succeeded. Nevertheless, thousands survived in Nazi-occupied Europe, hiding or using false identities. They could not have survived without the help of non-Jews; the helpers were a minority but not an insubstantial one. Some Jews hid in the sewers of big cities, others in isolated farmhouses; some found refuge in forests, others in convents. Help was extended even by courageous inmates inside Nazi camps, which often made the difference between survival and...