Heroes of the Holocaust and Their Stories of Courage Two

The following are a few more remarkable people who had done all they could to save lives at enormous risk to their own lives and careers. Most of their deeds may have been overlooked during their lifetimes but many have been honored by Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial with the title “Righteous among the Nations” or “Righteous Gentiles,” acknowledging those non-Jews who helped save Jews from the Holocaust.

To read the first part, click here.

Aristides de Sousa Mendes (1885 – 1954)

Portuguese Diplomat

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Sousa Mendes was was the Consul General in Bordeaux when France fell into the Nazi hands in 1940. Though the fascist dictator Antonio de Oliveira Salazar, whose personal belief highly favored Hitler, was able to preserve Portugal’s neutrality during the war, he issued orders to all consuls not to grant visas to foreigners of questionable nationality or to Jews expelled from their countries. Following a few days crisis of conscience, he began issuing visas, an estimated total of about 30,000 of them, to help Jews and other persecuted minorities escape the Nazi terror. For his willful disobedience, he was dishonorably forced to quit his post. He found himself unable to continue his law career; and abandoned by his friends and colleagues. Deprived of his pension, he died in poverty in Lisbon in 1954, still in disgrace with his government. Sousa Mendes’ posthumous honors include being listed as one of the “Righteous among the Nations” by Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in 1966; and the Order of Liberty, one of Portugal’s highest honors, in 1987.

“My desire is to be with God against men, rather than with men against God.” – Sousa Mendes

“I could not have acted otherwise, and I therefore accept all that has befallen me with love.” – Sousa Mendes

Albert Göring (1895 – 1966)

German Businessman

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Albert Göring was nothing like his elder brother, Hermann, who was a top Nazi party member. He despised the Nazi philosophy and the brutality it entailed. He would sometimes go out of his way to help Jews with the work that was forced upon them, such as scrubbing the street, but the SS official in charge would order every activity stopped upon learning of his identity, not willing that Hermann’s brother be humiliated in public. On numerous occasions, he would forge his brother’s signature on transit papers or send trucks to concentrations camps with labor requests, enabling many Jews and dissidents to escape. After the war, he was questioned at the Nuremberg Tribunal, where his brother was eventually convicted. He was subsequently released when many of those he had rescued testified on his behalf. Upon his return to Germany, he found himself rejected because of his family name. He passed away in 1966 with his heroic deeds still unacknowledged to this very day.