The Holocaust remains one of the darkest chapters in human history, a period of unimaginable cruelty that claimed millions of lives. Yet amid that bleakness, a handful of extraordinary people rose up, defying Nazi terror with courage, ingenuity, and compassion. In this top 10 incredible account, we shine a light on those brave souls whose daring actions saved countless Jews, children, and other persecuted groups from certain death.
Top 10 Incredible Heroes of the Holocaust
10 Oskar Schindler
Oskar Schindler, perhaps the most widely recognized rescuer thanks to Steven Spielberg’s acclaimed film, was a German industrialist who initially joined the Nazi Party and profited from the war. In 1939 he purchased an enamelware factory in Kraków, Poland, employing roughly a thousand Jewish workers. Although his early motivations were commercial, Schindler soon used his position to shield his workforce from deportation, leveraging bribes and black‑market deals to keep them safe.
Over the next five years Schindler painstakingly expanded his protective network, persuading Amon Göth to relocate his factory to Moravia as the Eastern Front collapsed. He drafted a typed roster of 1,200 Jews—later known as “Schindler’s List”—and spent his entire fortune to keep them from the death camps. By war’s end, his self‑sacrifice had saved over a thousand lives, earning him and his wife Emilie the honor of Righteous Among the Nations in 1993.
9 Audrey Hepburn
While most remember Audrey Hepburn for her timeless screen performances, her wartime résumé tells a very different story. Born into a Dutch aristocratic family, she lost her uncle Otto Ernst Gelder to a Nazi execution, an event that propelled her into the Dutch Resistance. Using her talents as a prima ballerina, Hepburn raised funds and helped hide Jewish families, risking her own safety to aid those in peril.
During the brutal battles of Arnhem and Oosterbeek, Hepburn and her mother heard the sounds of destruction, and she personally protected a British soldier while assisting nurses. Captured briefly by the Nazis, she escaped imminent death and later declined a role in “A Bridge Too Far” because it revisited those painful memories. After the war, she continued her humanitarian work as a UNICEF ambassador, championing the rights of children affected by conflict.
8 Raoul Wallenberg
Swedish architect and diplomat Raoul Wallenberg became a lifeline for Hungarian Jews in 1944. Appointed Sweden’s special envoy to Budapest, he issued protective passports—known as “Schutz-Pass”—to 650 Jews with any Swedish connection, effectively shielding them from deportation. Simultaneously, Wallenberg organized safe houses in 32 buildings, two hospitals, and a soup kitchen, designating them as Swedish territory to keep Nazis at bay.
Beyond passports, Wallenberg distributed roughly 4,500 protective letters that exempted recipients from forced labor and the mandatory yellow Star. Though he survived the siege of Budapest, he was later seized on espionage suspicions and vanished, presumed to have perished in a Soviet prison. His legacy includes the Raoul Wallenberg Award, honoring those who embody his non‑violent courage.
7 Johan Van Hulst
Johan Willem van Hulst, a Dutch professor and school director, orchestrated the rescue of 600 Jewish children in 1943. Situated opposite the Hollandsche Schouwburg—where Jews were processed for deportation—his Reformed Teacher Training College overlooked the nursery where the children were temporarily held. Partnering with resistance members and university students, Van Hulst devised a daring plan to relocate the children to sympathetic families.
Starting in January 1943, he matched each child with a Dutch family that resembled them, striking the children’s names from Nazi records before smuggling them over a garden hedge, often concealed in bags or baskets. He later recounted the harrowing moment when Nazis ordered 100 children to be sent to camps, describing his agonizing decision to save twelve and questioning why he couldn’t save thirteen.
6 Adolfo Kaminsky
Adolfo Kaminsky, a French Resistance operative, became a master forger who produced false identity papers for more than 14,000 Jews. After his mother was killed by the Nazis, the 17‑year‑old joined the underground, initially relaying train schedules to London. By 1943, following a near‑deportation, Kaminsky and his family settled in Paris, where he set up a clandestine lab to manufacture forged documents.
His relentless work ethic was summed up in his own words: “Stay awake as long as possible; each hour of sleep could mean thirty more deaths.” After the liberation of Paris, he continued forging IDs for French spies and later aided draft‑dodgers during the Algerian War, never accepting payment for his services and supporting activist groups for over three decades.
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5 Frank Foley
Major Francis “Frank” Edward Foley, a British Secret Intelligence Service officer, oversaw passport control at the British Embassy in Berlin before World War II. Exploiting his position, he issued thousands of visas and passports to Jewish families fleeing the November 1938 Kristallnacht, earning him the nickname “British Schindler.” Estimates suggest he saved over 10,000 Jews by enabling their legal escape to Britain or British‑mandated Palestine.
Foley routinely bent diplomatic rules, smuggling refugees into internment camps and sheltering them in his own home while forging documents. Though unrecognized during his lifetime, posthumous honors include the British Hero of the Holocaust award and the Israeli Righteous Among the Nations designation.
4 Albert Göring
Albert Göring, the lesser‑known brother of Nazi Luftwaffe chief Hermann Göring, chose a path of defiance. From the outset, Albert opposed the regime, leveraging his family name to assist Jews and other persecuted individuals. He secured the release of his former employer Oskar Pilzer and helped the Pilzer family escape Germany.
Using forged signatures of his infamous brother, Albert produced transit documents that enabled countless Jews to flee. He also arranged for trucks sent to concentration camps to unload their cargo in remote areas, allowing the prisoners to escape. Though briefly detained, his famous surname protected him from harsher punishment. After the war, he was recognized as a humanitarian who saved many lives.
3 Nicholas Winton
Nicholas Winton, a British humanitarian, organized the rescue of 669 predominantly Jewish children from Czechoslovakia on the eve of war. In 1938 he founded a charitable effort, converting a hotel room into an office where he secured permission for under‑17 refugees to enter Britain, provided they had a host and £50 for a return journey.
Winton lobbied politicians, and only Britain and Sweden agreed to accept the children. Though he believed more could have been saved with broader international aid, his work remained uncelebrated for five decades until a 1988 BBC appearance reunited him with many of the now‑adult survivors. He was later knighted in 2003 for his services to humanity.
2 Carl Lutz
Carl Lutz, a Swiss diplomat serving as Vice‑Consul in Budapest from 1942, orchestrated the largest Jewish rescue operation of the war, saving over 62,000 lives. In 1944, after the Nazi occupation, he obtained special permission to issue 8,000 protective letters to Hungarian Jews, facilitating their emigration to Palestine.
By creatively applying each letter to entire families rather than individuals, Lutz effectively protected tens of thousands. He also established 76 safe houses, declared annexes of Swiss property, and thus shielded them from Nazi raids. His extraordinary efforts earned him the title of Righteous Among the Nations.
1 Irena Sendler
Irena Sendler, a Polish social worker and nurse, operated within the Warsaw underground to rescue Jewish children. Working for the Department of Social Welfare and Public Health, she coordinated a network that smuggled children out of the Warsaw Ghetto, providing them with falsified identity papers that placed them with willing Polish families.
When the Gestapo arrested her in 1943, Sendler concealed the list of rescued children, a move that saved countless lives. Though sentenced to death, she escaped execution after the Polish Council to Aid Jews (Żegota) bribed officials. Post‑war, she continued humanitarian work and was honored in 1965 as Righteous Among the Nations and received Poland’s Order of the White Eagle.
Beyond these ten remarkable individuals, thousands of unnamed men and women risked everything to protect the vulnerable during the Holocaust. Their collective bravery reminds us that even in humanity’s darkest hour, compassion can prevail. If you wish to support Holocaust education and remembrance, consider donating to organizations such as the Zachor Holocaust Remembrance Foundation or the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation.