There was also a Japenese diplomat stationed in Europe who wrote false visas for thousands of Jews to get them away from the NAZIs. I can’t remember his name.
There were many others, lots of whom died for it.
Chiune (Sempo) Sugihara was his name.
Here is a website telling the story of this man who understood what must be done and did it:
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/sugihara.html
From the end of the web article:
“... Sempo Sugihara was no ordinary Japanese man and may have been no ordinary man. At the time that he and his wife Yukiko thought of the plight of the Jewish refugees, he was haunted by the words of an old samurai maxim: “Even a hunter cannot kill a bird which flies to him for refuge.”
A Final Tribute: Righteous Among the Nations
Today, more than 50 years after those 29 fateful days in July and August of 1940, there may be more than 40,000 who owe their lives to Chiune and Yukiko Sugihara. Two generations have come after the original Sugihara survivors, all owing their existence to one modest man and his family. After the war, Mr. Sugihara never mentioned or spoke to anyone about his extraordinary deeds. It was not until 1969 that Sugihara was found by a man he had helped save, Mr. Yehoshua Nishri. Soon, hundreds of others whom he had saved came forward and testified to the Yad Vashem (Holocaust Memorial) in Israel about his life saving acts of courage. After gathering testimonies from all over the world, Yad Vashem realized the enormity of this man’s self-sacrifice in saving Jews. And so it came to pass that in 1985 he received Israel’s highest honor. He was recognized as “Righteous Among the Nations” by the Yad Vashem Martyrs Remembrance Authority in Jerusalem.
By then a old man near death, he was too ill to travel to Israel. His wife and son received the honor on his behalf. Further, a tree was planted in his name at Yad Vashem, and a park in Jerusalem was named in his honor.
Forty-five years after he signed the visas, Chiune was asked why he did it. He liked to give two reasons: “They were human beings and they needed help,” he said. “I’m glad I found the strength to make the decision to give it to them.” Sugihara was a religious man and believed in a universal God of all people. He was fond of saying, “I may have to disobey my government, but if I don’t I would be disobeying God.”
Consul Chiune Sugihara, age 86, died on July 31, 1986. Mrs.Yukiko Sugihara had her 88th birthday on December 17, 2001. She now lives in Fujisawa, Japan.”