Holocaust Memory Project: Resistance & Rescuers

Oskar Schindler was a man who enjoyed fast living. He liked to race motorcycles, and his wife thought he drank too much. Schindler joined the Nazi party to make money, and even became a spy for the promise of danger. After the Nazi invasion of Poland, Schindler made plans to start a business there and become rich. Instead, he saw the plight of the Polish Jews: the forced labor, the Nazi brutality, and the executions. He could not let these things happen without trying to make a difference. Author Ann Byers explores the life of this unusual rescuer: a Nazi businessman who spent his fortune and risked his life to save as many Jews as possible. Through the words of those he protected, the story of how Schindler used his factory as a shelter for over twelve hundred Jews-and how they honor his bravery-is revealed. Book jacket.

Although Oskar Schindler's name is synonymous with Holocaust heroes, his life story is by no means black and white. Readers will be introduced to a man who, with the help of his wife and staff, protected more than 1,000 Jews from the Nazis during the Holocaust. At the same time, this hero was a known womanizer with an alcohol problem. This enlightening book covers his upbringing, including his years in the Nazi Party, and his change of heart. Readers will find this volume to be educational, eye-opening, and inspiring.

In 1935, Swede Raoul Wallenberg graduated from the University of Michigan. He returned to Sweden, but soon World War II erupted. Sweden remained neutral during the war, which enabled Wallenberg to travel as a salesman throughout Europe. Because of his brilliant command of languages and Swedish citizenship, Wallenberg was chosen to work for the U.S. War Refugee Board in Hungary. His mission was to rescue Jews in Budapest from the Nazis and their monstrous death camps. This volume's gripping narrative transports readers to the turbulent last days of the war, when Wallenberg's heroic actions helped to save thousands of Jews.

The Holocaust's atrocities and losses are foremost in most people's minds, but this volume highlights the Jews who summoned the courage to stand up and fight. This compelling volume gives a history leading up to Holocaust and the terror inflicted by the N

Despite the widespread belief that Jews went willingly to their deaths in Nazi gas chambers, many risked everything to help their fellow prisoners, thwart the Nazi system, and escape from their captors. Resistance took many forms, including armed uprisings in the camps, partisan raids from forest enclaves on Nazi military assets, and non-violent activities in art, literature, and Jewish culture.

During the Holocaust, many individuals and groups risked their lives to rescue Jews who had fled from the dangers of Nazi-occupied territory. They provided the refugees with hiding places, food and clothing, and forged documents to help them escape. When the Allies liberated the Holocaust camps at the end of the war, the world finally learned the truth about the atrocities committed by the Third Reich.

Irena Sendler was born into a Catholic family in Poland in 1910. Throughout the German occupation in World War II, Irena worked tirelessly to help save Poland's Jews from the Nazi horror. Irena saved at least 2,500 Jewish children from certain death during the Holocaust. By the time of her death in 2008, Irena had been honored by the governments of Poland and Israel, Pope John Paul II, and many of those she had rescued. **LOG IN WITH YOUR NETWORK USERNAME AND PASSWORD TO READ THIS EBOOK ON FOLLETTSHELF**

Critically acclaimed Sibert Honor author Deborah Hopkinson brings to bold life the remarkable story of the Danish resistance and rescue of over 7,000 Jews during WWII.When the Nazis invaded Denmark on Tuesday, April 9, 1940, the people of this tiny country to the north of Germany awoke to a devastating surprise. The government of Denmark surrendered quietly, and the Danes were ordered to go about their daily lives as if nothing had changed. But everything had changed. Award-winning author Deborah Hopkinson traces the stories of the heroic young men and women who would not stand by as their country was occupied by a dangerous enemy. Rather, they fought back. Some were spies, passing tactical information to the British; some were saboteurs, who aimed to hamper and impede Nazi operations in Denmark; and 95% of the Jewish population of Denmark were survivors, rescued by their fellow countrymen, who had the courage and conscience that drove them to act. With her talent for digging deep in her research and weaving real voices into her narratives, Hopkinson reveals the thrilling truth behind one of WWII's most daring resistance movements.

On August 4, 1940, an unassuming American journalist named Varian Fry made his way to Marseilles, France, carrying in his pockets the names of approximately two hundred artists and intellectuals - all enemies of the new Nazi regime. As a volunteer for the Emergency Rescue Committee, Fry's mission was to help these refugees flee to safety, then return home two weeks later. As more and more people came to him for assistance, however, he realized the situation was far worse than anyone in America had suspected - and his role far greater than he had imagined. He remained in France for over a year, refusing to leave until he was forcibly evicted. At a time when most Americans ignored the atrocities in Europe, Varian Fry engaged in covert operations, putting himself in great danger, to save strangers in a foreign land. He was instrumental in the rescue of over two thousand refugees, including the novelist Heinrich Mann and the artist Marc Chagall.

Miriam M. Brysk is a Holocaust child survivor from Warsaw, Poland. She was interned in the Lida ghetto in Belarus, then escaped with her parents and joined the nearby partisans in the Lipiczany forest.

Examines the rescue of the Danish Jews during World War II, including background on Denmark and the Holocaust, firsthand accounts from the many people involved, and how thousands of Jews were saved from the Nazis.

Jaap Penrat can't understand the Germans' hatred of his Jewish neighbors in his hometown of Amsterdam. As the restrictions multiply and the violence escalates, Jaap knows he must take action to help his friends. He begins by using his father's printing press to forge identification cards and papers for Jewish neighbors and refugees, but as the Nazi grasp tightens, he is forced to take a more drastic path -- leading twenty Jews on the dangerous first leg of a journey to Paris, the start of the underground pipeline to safety. This initial group of twenty men is only the beginning; the number eventually grows to over four hundred Jews saved from certain death by Jaap Penraat's heroic efforts, brought to life in this vivid retelling.

In the midst of the horrors of the Holocaust, Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat in Hungary, had one goal: to save as many Jews as possible from Nazi execution. Debra McArthur details the life of an extraordinary man who gave everything, including his life, in the service of humanity. In the face of overwhelming cruelty, he proved that one person can make a difference.

Since 1953, the State of Israel has named non-Jews who risked their lives to help save Jews during the Holocaust as Righteous Among the Nations. Known as righteous gentiles, these individuals summoned the strength to put aside their own safety to oppose the Nazis.

The heroes of the Holocaust were individuals who risked their own lives to save thousands of Jews from certain death. In SCHINDLER, WALLENBERG, MIEP GIES: the HOLOCAUST HEROES, author David K. Fremon recounts the actions some people took to save the lives of thousands of people trying to escape from the Nazis and their deadly persecution. Some heroes are now famous, but many unknown heroes took action to forge false identity papers, leave out food for refugees, and hide Jews in their homes.

Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl's memoir has riveted generations of readers with its descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. Between 1942 and 1945 Frankl labored in four different camps, including Auschwitz, while his parents, brother, and pregnant wife perished. Based on his own experience and the experiences of others he treated later in his practice, Frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose. Frankl's theory-known as logotherapy, from the Greek word logos ("meaning")-holds that our primary drive in life is not pleasure, as Freud maintained, but the discovery and pursuit of what we personally find meaningful.

This is the story of the fighting underground of the Jews of Kovno, Lithuania, in World War II. The authors, historians Zvie A. Brown and Dov Levin, were themselves members of the Kovno underground, and this well-researched book based on documentary material, verbal testimonies, and written memoirs of witnesses, among other sources is supplemented by the authors own personal accounts. The authors here describe the first steps of the organized Jewish underground in the Kovno Ghetto, its desperate search for allies outside the ghetto, and its first bloodstained attempts to break through the ring of isolation and establish a base of support for partisan battle.

In a stirring chronicle, Doreen Rappaport brings to light the courage of countless Jews who organized to sabotage the Nazis and help other Jews during the Holocaust. Under the noses of the military, Georges Loinger smuggles thousands of children out of occupied France into Switzerland. In Belgium, three resisters ambush a train, allowing scores of Jews to flee from the cattle cars. In Poland, four brothers lead more than 1,200 ghetto refugees into the forest to build a guerilla force and self-sufficient village. And twelve-year-old Motele Shlayan entertains German officers with his violin moments before setting off a bomb. Through twenty-one meticulously researched accounts -- some chronicled in book form for the first time -- Doreen Rappaport illuminates the defiance of tens of thousands of Jews across eleven Nazi-occupied countries during World War II. In answer to the genocidal madness that was Hitler's Holocaust, the only response they could abide was resistance, and their greatest weapons were courage, ingenuity, the will to survive, and the resolve to save others or to die trying. "Extensive end matter includes: "- timeline of important events - index - pronunciation guide - source notes - maps integrated throughout text

Teenagers were among those most likely to resist the Nazis in ghettos and concentration camps. Their armed and unarmed resistance against the Nazis, as well as their spiritual resistance, are celebrated in this volume.

"I did not become a resistance fighter, a smuggler of Jews, and a defier of Nazis all at once. First steps are always small: I began by hiding food under a fence. Now I was smuggling Jews to the Janowka forest." Irene Gut Opdyke was a teenager when the German army invaded Poland in 1939. She was forced to work in an ammunition factory, and then a laundry for the army. At the same time, she began helping Jews to escape from the Nazis. 'Resistance to the Nazis' shows how Irene Gut Opdyke was just one of many ordinary people who found ways to resist Hitler's armies in Europe, and to save people from the Holocaust. This book explains the different forms of resistance, from the efforts of people to keep their culture alive in the concentration camps, to fighting the German arm by sabotaging supplies and communications. Each book includes: first-hand accounts from people involved in the Holocaust; an in-depth study of a key topic mentioned in the book; detailed timeline to help place important events; and a further reading and sources section.

The World Almanac Library of the Holocaust tells the story of the horrific mass murder of millions of people at the hands of the Nazis, with special emphasis on the attempted genocide against the Jewish people. Written in clear, narrative style and complemented by primary source documents and period photography, this series gives a realistic and sensitive account of the Holocaust. From the rise of Nazi anti-Semitism in Germany to the shocking atrocities committed in the concentration camps, this series attempts to explain the unexplainable-how an event as terrible as the Holocaust ever could have occurred.

Discusses the efforts of Jews and non-Jews in various countries to stop the deadly persecution of Germany's Jewish population by the Nazis.

In this gripping addition to THE HOLOCAUST IN HISTORY, Altman explores the efforts to resist the Nazis and rescue the many victims. She discusses the historical setting and Hitler's influence, the dangers and high costs of attempting resistance, and the reasons that people continued to defy the Nazis and fight for freedom. The author looks at the people involved, both the famous and the lesser known, as well as the effect on the world in the years that followed.

A recounting drawn from historic source material of the many individual acts of heroism performed by righteous gentiles who sought to thwart the extermination of the Jews during the Holocaust.

Very few non-Jews risked their own lives to save the lives of Jews targeted for death by the Nazis. This book relates the inspiring stories of some of these courageous teen rescuers.

The remarkable story of collective and individual acts of bravery and altruism. Photos, map, bibliography, index.

One of the most complex individuals to emerge from World War II was Oskar Schindler, a member of the Nazi Patty who, instead of persecuting Jews, ended up saving more than twelve hundred lives. This book examines Schindler's motives, his extraordinary efforts in behalf of his Jewish workers, and the legacy that resulted.

The history of the Holocaust is in many ways the story of individuals. Expanding on Rosen's acclaimed Teen Witnesses to the Holocaust series, these new biographies explore key figures: those who perpetrated the nightmare of the Holocaust, those who suffered during it, and those who managed to act heroically during it. These gripping and affecting books help teens understand the heroic, infamous, and little-known people of the Holocaust.The life story of the Swedish diplomat who risked his life to save Jews from the horrors of Nazi rule offers young adults an inspiring example of the power of individual courage in the face of even the most oppressive evil.

An amazing and inspirational World War II story about how one man saved the lives of many. Raoul Wallenberg’s name may not be a universally familiar one, but the impact he had is immeasurable. Wallenberg was a Swedish humanitarian who worked in Budapest during World War II to rescue Jews from the Holocaust. He did this by issuing protective passports and housing Jews in buildings established as Swedish territory, saving tens of thousands of lives. Louise Borden researched Wallenberg’s life for many years, visiting with his family and the site of his childhood home, and learned his story from beginning to end. Wallenberg himself has not been heard from since 1945. It is suspected he died while in Russian custody, though this has never been proven. Raoul Wallenberg . . . it’s a name you may not have known, but you’ll never forget his story.

-- Complements the Holocaust curriculum. -- Well-researched books perfect for report writers and young researchers.

The Holocaust was a time of both evil and courage. Here are the stories of six remarkable people who made conscious, deliberate decisions to save the lives of people they never met. Oskar Schindler, Raoul Wallenberg, Vladka Reed, Andre Trocme, Hannah Senech, and Jan Karski are heroes who made a difference.

Tales of unbelievable bravery abound from the Holocaust. Government leaders and regular citizens throughout Europe resisted Nazi tyranny, often at personal cost, to help Jews and other victims. They sheltered and hid refugees and runaways; they refused to obey oppressive and deadly Nazi policies; they helped in any way they could. This book outlines the individuals and groups that took action when it would have been much easier and safer to do nothing. It also answers the question, Why didn't the victims fight back? The truth is...they did.

Presents ten short biographies of individuals who did what they could to save Jews from the Nazis: Anna Borkowska, Varian Fry, Irene Gut Opdyke, Mustafa Hardaga, Jorgen Kieler, Oskar Schindler, Andrew Sheptitsky, Sempo Sugihara, Marion van Binsbergen Pritchard, and Raoul Wallenberg.

As a young adult in wartime Vienna, Georg Rauch helped his mother hide dozens of Jews from the Gestapo behind false walls in their top-floor apartment and arrange for their safe transport out of the country. His family was among the few who worked underground to resist Nazi rule. Then came the day he was drafted into Hitler's army and shipped out to fight on the Eastern front as part of the German infantry—in spite of his having confessed his own Jewish ancestry. Thus begins the incrediblejourney of a nineteen year old thrust unwillingly into an unjust war, who must use his smarts, skills, and bare-knuckled determination to stay alive in the trenches, avoid starvation and exposure during the brutal Russian winter, survive more than one Soviet labor camp, and somehow find his way back home.Unlikely Warrior is Rauch's true account of this extraordinary adventure.

The story of the teenage boys who resisted the Nazis when the adults would not . Denmark did not resist German occupation. Deeply ashamed of his nation's leaders, fifteen-year-old Knud Pedersen resolved with his brother and a handful of schoolmates to take action against the Nazis into their own hands. Naming their secret club after the fiery British leader, the young patriots in the Churchill Club committed countless acts of sabotage, infuriating the Germans, who eventually had the boys tracked down and arrested. But their efforts were not in vain: the boys' exploits and eventual imprisonment helped spark a full-blown Danish resistance.

Presents an overview of non-Jews throughout Europe who tried to save Jews from persecution and extermination by the Nazis.