Catholic Rescuers and Resisters During the Holocaust

1. Catholic Rescuers and ResistersDuring the Holocaust 1943 Poster: “Give a Hand in Rescue” A Jewish child in hiding as a Christian

2. Definitions • Rescue and resistance - “despite the indifference of most Europeans and the collaboration of others in the murder of Jews during the Holocaust, individuals in every European country and from all religious backgrounds risked their lives to help Jews.” • Yad Vashem - established, in 1953, by the state of Israel, “to document and record the history of the Jewish people during the Holocaust as well as to acknowledge the countless non-Jewish individuals who risked their lives to save Jews.” • Righteous Among the Nations - “Yad Vashem began to award the title “Righteous Among the Nations” in 1963, and since that time, over 22,000 rescuers from 44 countries have been acknowledged for their efforts.” http://www.ushmm.org/research/library/bibliography/?lang=en&content=rescuers#intro

3. Methods and Consequences • Protest in letters, sermons • Smuggling food and supplies to those in ghettos or in hiding • Shelter in homes, barns, holes, zoos, convents, orphanages, church crypts, often relocating frequently • Medical help • Money, tickets, transportation • False documents: • identification papers • baptismal certificates • Information and warnings, maps • Provide tools for deception • Catholic customs to evade detection • pseudonyms, etc. • Constant risk of discovery from searches, betrayals, denouncements, blackmail • Interrogations, beatings, torture for information • In many Nazi occupied areas helping Jews was a crime • Helping Jews was punishable by death for the entire family “. . . rescuers, who every day had to decide whether or not to continue to risk their lives and those of their families to help those in hiding . . .” http://www.holocausttaskforce.org/education/guidelines-for-teaching/how-to-teach-about-the-holocaust.html

4. One Polish rescuer described the situation: If they had caught us, first they would have shot my children right before my eyes, then the child we were hiding, then they would have killed us. But we didn’t think about the danger. We just wanted to save the child . . . . (Gilbert)

5. Poland Deportation of Jewish Children in Poland

6. Irene Gut OpdykeTarnopol, Poland • Helped Jews in the ghetto with food, supplies and information • Hid Jews in laundry where she worked • Hid 13 Jews in basement of German major’s home, including an infant • The German Major found out, but he became an accomplice for their safety • All survived • Named Righteous Among the Nations Nazi Decree: Poles who help Jews will be executed

7. ZofiaKossak-SczuckaWarsaw, Poland • After advocating for a Poland without Jews before the war, Nazi occupation convinced her to oppose persecution of Jews • Founded Zegota: The Council for Assistance to the Jews • Worked with the ArmiaKrajowa (AK) or Home Army to care for thousands of Jews, mostly children • Created safe houses for hiding and provided false documents • Arrested and sent to Auschwitz, but survived • Named Righteous Among the Nations Kossak-Szucka, bottom left

8. Wladyslawa ChomsLvov, Poland “Angel of Lvov” • Worked with Zegota and the Home Army • False documents to Jews • Helped Jews who escaped from the ghetto • Wrote a letter to President Roosevelt asking for help for the Jews • Named Righteous Among the Nations False baptismal certificate

9. Irena Sendlerowa (Irena Sendler) Warsaw, Poland • Catholic social worker, head of children’s division of Zegota • Smuggled babies out of ghetto, gave false identities and placed in homes • Cataloged all the babies’ names and locations and hid them in jars in a tree • Captured and tortured, later rescued • Tried to reunite the children with their families after war • Named Righteous Among the Nations • Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize Irena Sendlerowa

10. Poland MarceliGodlewski Stefanie Podgorska • Priest at All Saints Church which bordered Warsaw ghetto • Jews hid in the crypt, received false papers • Smuggled children out under his robes • Named Righteous Among the Nations • Catholic teenager in Przemysl, Poland • Parents were sent to camps • Hid 13 Jews in her home’s attic for 2 ½ years • Named Righteous Among the Nations

11. France Teens live under false identities in a convent-operated, old age home in France

12. Mother Maria--Elizabeth SkobtsovaParis, France • Russian Orthodox nun • Hid Jews in her small convent • Collected food and supplies for those imprisoned at Drancy • Coordinated efforts to smuggle children out of Drancy with trash collection • Arrested, admitted helping Jews, and was sent to Ravensbruck where she died just before liberation. Drancy Transit Camp, France

13. France Bishop Pierre-Marie Theas Germaine Ribiere • Montauban, France • Wrote letters to other priests condemning deportations of Jews • Delivered by female bicycle courier to all churches within 100 kilometers • Urged all Catholics to protect Jews and resist • Paris, France • Catholic resistance fighter, founded Amitie Chretienne • Advocated that the Catholic church return Jewish children to their families after war Both named Righteous Among the Nations

14. Cardinal Gerlier, Archbishop of Lyons, France • Joined forces with groups of Jewish resistance • Hid five hundred adults • Hid more than a hundred children • As Catholic priests were being arrested for sheltering Jews, Gerlier issued a refusal to hand over those he sheltered • Named Righteous Among the Nations

15. Belgium Jewish child in hiding on a farm in Belgium

16. Cardinal van RoeyBelgium • Head of the Catholic Church of Belgium • Worked with Queen Elisabeth of Belgium to intervene to save Jewish leaders • Gave sanctuary to children in the St. Joseph orphanage Young Belgan-Jewish child about to go into hiding.

17. Belgium Sister Alfonsja • Directed an orphanage where Jewish children were hidden • Father Bruno • Hid 320 Jewish children in family homes Both named Righteous Among the Nations

18. Holland 1933 Map of Holland

19. Village of Sevenum, Holland • The whole Roman Catholic village hid several hundred Jews on its farms German-Jewish child in hiding in Holland

20. Germany Yellow badge bearing German word for Jew

21. MargareteSommerBerlin, Germany • Member of Berlin Catholic resistance circle • Protected Catholic patients from T-4 euthanasia program • Wrote detailed reports on conditions in the ghetto • Reported Jewish murders to bishops repeatedly • Acted as liaison to obtain information from a Nazi double agent • Helped Jews, who could, to emigrate • As deportations began, helped hide Jews

22. Czechoslovakia Nazi occupation of Prague, Czechoslovakia, 1939

23. Carlo Boromeo Church, Prague • After Czech assassins killed Reinhard Heydrich, author of “The Final Solution,” they hid in the church crypt • After Nazi interrogation and targeting of Prague’s citizens, they were denounced and discovered • Eventually, they were killed while inside the church • The church, now called St. Cyril and Methodious, holds a museum and memorial

24. Italy and The Vatican Jewish refugees sail to “Palestine” from Italian port

25. Italy Rome and The Vatican • Countless priests, nuns and other clergy helped warn Jews and hide Jews throughout Italy • Hitler’s Propaganda Minister, Josef Goebbels, complained that Italians, even under a fascist regime, were protecting Jews • 477 Jews were sheltered in the Vatican • 4,238 Jews were given sanctuary in monasteries and convents in Rome • Only one-fifth of Rome’s Jews were deported

26. Hungary Deportation of Hungarian Jews

27. Budapest, Hungary Margit Slachta • Fed and clothed those in Budapest ghetto • Hid escaping Jews in houses • Credited with rescuing 2,000 Monks of the Champanat Institute of the Order of Mary • Took in a hundred Jewish pupils, with fifty of their parents • They were discovered and denounced • The monks were tortured and released • The Jews were killed

28. Greece Greek Jews in front of the Parthenon

29. Greek Archbishops • In Athens • Archibishop Damaskinos ordered Greek Orthodox leaders to hide Jews and not turn them over • Most of Athens’ Jews were saved • On a Greek island • Archbishop Crysostomos alerted the island’s Jews to danger • Sent 195 to remote village for hiding • When 62 were caught, he promised to share their fate • By chance, there was not room for them on the transport boat

30. “It is important that we not only remember the atrocities and violence and murder and terror of that time, but that we also consider the sparks of humanity that glowed in the midst of the darkest of midnights.” --United States Congressman Tom Lantos, rescued during the Holocaust. Reunion of survivors

31. Bibliography Blevins, Pamela. The Gift of Life: Rescuers of the Holocaust. Self-published, 2002. Geier, Arnold. Heroes of the Holocaust: Extraordinary True Accounts of Triumph. New York: Berkley Books, 1993. Gilbert, Martin. The Righteous: The Unsung Heroes of the Holocaust. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2003. Halberstam, Yitta and Judith Leventhal. Small Miracles of the Holocaust: Extraordinary Coincidences of Faith, Hope, and Survival. Guilford, Connecticut: The Lyons Press, 2008. Phayer, Michael. The Catholic Church and the Holocaust, 1930-1965. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2000. Siegel, Rachel. Stories of Moral Courage in the Face of Evil. Addison, Texas: Business Express Press, 2007. All photos courtesy of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

32. Upstander Project