The Righteous: The Unsung Heroes of the Holocaust.

GILBERT, Martin.

Item Number: 142493

New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2003.

First edition of this work by the eminent historian. Octavo, original half cloth, illustrated. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the title page, “To Yehuda with the author’s regards Martin Gilbert.” Fine in a fine dust jacket. Jacket design by Raquel Jaramillo.

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. “[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).