It’s terrifying to think that there are still people out there in the world who refuse to believe that the Holocaust was real. In the face of so much evidence, it takes an incredible combination of hatred and will to convince yourself that the deaths of at least six million people were faked.

Despite what a small fringe believes, though, the Holocaust really happened—and we can prove it. Even discounting the stories of the million Jewish survivors who witnessed it firsthand, there is a wealth of physical evidence that the Holocaust happened just the way history records—and that the details were not exaggerated.

10 The Jewish Population Dropped By A Third

In 1939, there were 16,600,000 Jews in the world. When the war ended, that number had dropped by a third. Even after seven years of new lives being born, there were a mere 11,000,000 left alive.

The Nazis took a deep interest in these numbers. They monitored the number of Jews still living in Europe, working to get the number down to zero. We have proof of that. In 1943, Heinrich Himmler commissioned a report called “The Final Solution of the European Jewish Problem”—one of the Nazi documents that most clearly shows their approval of Jewish genocide.

This was a statistical report, listing the number of Jews still left in Europe. It notes how the numbers are dropping and takes a twisted pride in Germany’s role in getting the Jewish population down.

“Altogether,” the report boasts, “European Jewry must have been reduced by almost half since 1933, that is to say, during the first decade of the development of the power of National Socialism.”

9 The Gas Chambers

The gas chambers used to exterminate Jews were left behind, but they were not in the same condition they’d once been in. The Germans tried to destroy them, dynamiting some in the hopes of erasing the evidence.

It didn’t work. The chambers were still intact, along with the doors that were lined with airproof seals around the edges. There’s no question that these airtight seals were meant to keep poisonous gases from leaking out of the chambers. In the work order sent by the Auschwitz Construction Office, the doors are specifically described as “gas-tight.”

We’ve also found holes in chamber rooftops. These holes perfectly match survivors’ descriptions of how the Germans would pour Zyklon B crystals into the chambers. Zyklon B also left a residue that proves it really was used. The insides of the chambers are lined with hydrogen cyanide—a key component of Zyklon B.

8 Catalogs Of Cremated Bodies

In a letter dated June 28, 1943, Auschwitz administrator Karl Bischoff wrote up a tally of all the cremations his men had performed on a single day. In just 24 hours in one camp, his men had cremated 4,756 Jewish people.

It seems like an impossibly high number, but the people who burned the bodies insist it is accurate. One, Henryk Tauber, reported that “on average, we incinerated 2,500 bodies a day.”

They used cremation equipment that was only meant to burn one body at a time, which would have made those numbers impossible. The Nazis, however, ignored basic decency to get through the work more quickly.

“Generally speaking, we burned four or five bodies at a time in one muffle,” Tauber explained, “but sometimes we charged a greater number of bodies. It was possible to charge up to eight.”

7 Photographs Of Open-Air Pits

Sometimes, the Nazis killed too many people to cremate in a single day. On those days, the Nazis took the dead out to a large burning pit to dispose of the bodies.

We have pictures of these burning pits—and it took an incredible act of bravery to get them out of the camp. The Nazis suppressed or destroyed most photographic evidence of the camps. The pictures of the open-air pits are among the only pictures that survived. These were taken by a prisoner who smuggled the film out of the camp in a tube of toothpaste.

We also have aerial photos of the burning pits letting out plumes of smoke. These were taken in 1944 by Allied reconnaissance planes that happened to photograph Auschwitz, not fully aware of what they were seeing. They caught, on camera, smoke emanating from one of the burning pits as Jewish lives were brought to an end.

6 The Reinhard Death Camps

“Operation Reinhard” was the code name given to three death camps in southern Poland: Treblinka, Belzec, and Sobibor. While some Auschwitz prisoners were put into lives of forced labor, these camps were used purely for extermination.

Mass graves have been found in all three. Inside the graves are the cremated remains of the dead and a few bones that had been crushed into tiny shards.

In 1943, a telegram reporting on the Reinhard death camps was intercepted by the Allies. It was coded, referring to the camps by their first letters, and was ignored by the men who found it. It took until 2001 before anyone realized what it was.

The telegram was a death tally of Jews in the camps. Belzec: 434,508 dead. Sobibor: 101,370 dead. Treblinka: 713,555 dead.

By the end of the war, an estimated two million people died in these camps alone.

5 The Gas Vans

In some death camps, Jews were exterminated in gas vans. These were large black vehicles with massive, airtight cargo compartments in the back. Thousands of Jews were forced into those compartments, and there they died.

The exhaust pipes were curved, turning under the car and up through holes in the floor. When the ignition was sparked, the carbon monoxide of the exhaust would fill up the compartment, killing everyone inside.

Several German officers left behind letters about the vans, most complaining about the way the vans were built. One, Dr. August Becker, wrote that he “ordered that during application of gas all the men were to be kept as far away from the vans as possible” to ensure their safety.

Another suggested moving the exhaust “so that the gas is fed from the top downwards” to keep the vehicles from rusting. In another letter from an SS officer to the Reich Security Office, the officer complained that he didn’t have enough gas vans to kill everyone he was expected to kill. “A transport of Jews, which has to be treated in a special way, arrives weekly,” he complained. “The three S-vans which are there are not sufficient for that purpose.”

4 Anne Frank’s Diary

Some Holocaust deniers believe that Anne Frank’s diary was faked. They claim it is a forgery, a scheme by her father to get rich. One denier called it “just one more fraud in a whole series of frauds perpetrated in support of the ‘Holocaust’ legend and the saga of the Six Million.”

Most people just ignore the Holocaust deniers, but the Dutch government actually tested their claim. The government analyzed Anne Frank’s original diary and proved in several ways that it was legitimately written by Frank herself.

For one thing, the handwriting was consistent throughout the diary and with other examples of her handwriting. According to the report, the diary entries also had characteristics that fit the way young girls tend to write.

The materials were also proven to have been purchased before the end of the war. The paper, ink, and glue used in the diary were all created before the early 1940s. Different types of glue and ink were introduced in 1950, and the materials that made up Frank’s diary were extremely rare after the war ended.

The government also found that Anne Frank had passed the time by making a second draft of her diary. Fittingly for a teenage girl, she’d wanted to adapt her life into a detective story. So she rewrote her own life, using the family name “Robin” instead of her own.

3 Witnesses To The Babi Yar Massacre

The Babi Yar Massacre was one of the worst mass killings of the Holocaust. On a single day in September 1941, 33,771 Jews were massacred in a ravine in Ukraine. There were few survivors. But some faked their deaths and escaped to tell the story.

However, the victims aren’t the only witnesses who confirmed that the massacre really happened. Some of the killers did, too, and their versions of the story perfectly corroborate the ones told by the survivors.

A German truck driver named Hofer said that the victims were forced to lie down on top of the bodies of the dead. “A police marksman came along and shot each Jew in the neck with a submachine gun,” he described. “It went on this way uninterruptedly, with no distinction being made between men, women, and children. The children were kept with their mothers and shot with them.”

Kurt Werner, one of the executioners in the massacre, described the same scene. “I had to spend the whole morning down in the ravine,” he said. “For some of the time, I had to shoot continuously.”

2 The Einsatzgruppen Reports

When the German Army marched into the Soviet Union, a group called Einsatzgruppen followed behind them. These were Nazi death squads who sought out and massacred Jews, usually gunning them down. The death squads murdered at least one million people before they were turned back, leaving a trail of mass graves in their wake.

The Einsatzgruppen sent weekly reports back to Berlin with updates of their massacres—and 194 of the 195 reports have survived to today. The reports list the dates, numbers, and ethnicities of the people killed by the Einsatzgruppen. Most of their victims were Jewish.

“I consider the Jewish action more or less terminated as far as Einsatzkommando 3 is concerned,” one report reads. “I am of the view that the sterilization program of the male worker Jews should be started immediately so that reproduction is prevented. If, despite sterilization, a Jewess becomes pregnant, she will be liquidated.”

1 Hitler Knew About It

There is no question that Hitler knew and approved of what was going on. To keep his records clean, Hitler never wrote and signed an official order. But there is more than enough evidence to show that he was behind it.

In 1922, Hitler told Josef Hell, “Once I really am in power, my first and foremost task will be the annihilation of the Jews.” Likewise, Joseph Goebbels wrote in his diary, “Regarding the Jewish question, the Fuhrer is determined to clean the table. [ . . .  ] The world war has come, therefore the annihilation of the Jews has to be its inevitable consequence.”

In 1923, Goebbels recorded in his diary that he had informed Hitler that mobs were holding demonstrations in which they burned down synagogues. Goebbels recorded Hitler’s response: “He orders: Let the demonstrations go on. Withdraw the police. The Jews must for once feel the people’s fury.”

Hitler, worried about the public reaction to the Holocaust, seems to have given orders verbally rather than writing them down. So we don’t have his Holocaust order in writing.

Nazi soldiers confirm, though, that the orders came from Hitler himself. SS officer Adolf Eichmann wrote in his memoir that Reinhard Heydrich told Eichmann in 1942 “that the Fuhrer had ordered the physical destruction of the Jewish opponent.”

Despite all his caution, Hitler’s name is on one damning piece of paper. The “Report to the Fuhrer on Combating Partisans” announced that 363,211 Jews had been executed. On it are marked the words: “Shown to the Fuhrer.”

During the time of Hitler’s rise to power and the ensuing Holocaust, Jews and other targeted people faced oppression, deportation, and death. People fleeing these circumstances had few options. Many countries were reluctant to welcome the hordes of refugees who had been displaced from their homes. Few nations eased their immigration quotas or made any substantial effort to help.

While the majority of the world remained hands-off, there were villages, cities, and countries that protected their at-risk neighbors and welcomed those seeking asylum. In these places, refugees were allowed to worship freely and conduct business. Most importantly, they were saved from being sent to concentration camps, where they would have endured starvation, brutality, and, often, death.

Here are ten places where refugees found respite from the horrors of the Holocaust.

10 Sosua

By 1938, Hitler’s regime had driven hundreds of thousands of Jews from their homes and countries. President Roosevelt requested an international conference to discuss options for handling the vast number of refugees. Representatives from 32 countries met in Evian, France, for nine days. Nearly every delegate spoke of sympathy for the refugees. However, they did not offer assistance beyond filling their current immigration quotas or permitting nominal numbers of additional visas. This was during the Great Depression, and a lack of resources and funds was commonly given as an excuse for declining to help.

The only country to make a significant offer of assistance was the Dominican Republic. Dictator Rafael Trujillo pledged to accept up to 100,000 refugees. Trujillo’s reasons for doing so were not entirely altruistic. It has been said that he only agreed to accept refugees in order to receive the associated financial aid. In addition, Trujillo was seeking to improve his international reputation after slaughtering thousands of Haitians. Finally, Trujillo planned to “whiten” up his country by encouraging black natives to marry light-skinned refugees.

Regardless of Trujillo’s motives, Sosua became home to hundreds of people with nowhere to go. Transportation from Europe to the Caribbean was difficult during the war, so only about 800 refugees actually arrived in the Dominican Republic. The majority of them were settled in the undeveloped coastal town of Sosua. Each refugee received a small parcel of land and some livestock. For many, life in Sosua was an adjustment—and not just because they were in a new country. Former businessmen and doctors had to learn how to make a living in agriculture. But they learned and adapted to their new life. Sosua became a community, with a synagogue for worship and a school for the children.^[1]

9 Bolivia

More than 20,000 Jewish refugees fled to Bolivia between 1938 and 1941. Mauricio Hochschild was largely responsible for the number of visas issued to Jews fleeing the Holocaust. Hochschild was a tin mining tycoon with a reputation for exploiting his workers and evading taxes. But before moving to Bolivia, Hochschild had once been a Jew living in Germany. When he learned what was happening in his former country, he sought to save as many Jewish refugees as he could.

Hochschild’s success as an entrepreneur had given him political ties. He had a friendship with German Busch, Bolivia’s military president at the time. Hochschild convinced Busch that admitting Jews would be a good way to grow Bolivia’s labor force. Hochschild himself covered the costs of travel for more than 9,000 refugees. The Jews arrived by boat in Chile and then rode a train to La Paz, Bolivia. They were arriving so regularly that the train became known as the “Jewish Express.” Hochschild provided the refugees with housing and set them up with jobs in his workforce. He also financially supported a school for the Jewish children.

After Hochschild’s role in helping the refugees was discovered, he became known as the “Bolivian Schindler.”^[2]

8 Haiti

A little-known place that took in refugees during the Holocaust is the small nation of Haiti.

At the Evian conference, Haiti’s diplomat offered to accept up to 50,000 Jewish refugees. The proposal was rejected, but Haitian diplomats throughout Europe issued as many visas as they could. An estimated 300 Jews were able to make the long journey to the Caribbean nation, and they were welcomed upon their arrival. The Haitian people had experienced their own share of persecution and suffering at the hands of others and were sympathetic toward the Jewish refugees.^[3]

Some of the Jewish refugees who arrived in Haiti remained there and made it their home. But for many, it was a Nazi-free place for them to await the approval of their US immigration papers. Their stay in Haiti was brief, but they were incredibly grateful to the country and its people for giving them a safe stopover on their journey.

7 Shanghai

Prior to and during World War II, many countries closed their borders to the thousands of refugees fleeing their homes. One exception was Shanghai, where foreigners could enter without visas or even passports. Approximately 17,000 Jewish refugees made their way to the port city.

Shanghai was far from Utopia. It was overcrowded, with people living on top of one another. Refugees with financial means housed themselves in run-down buildings, while the destitute were put up in barracks. But the European Jews persisted, doing whatever they could to make ends meet. Some found success running bakeries, cafes, or shops, while others worked as builders, teachers, or doctors.^[4]

When Shanghai became occupied by the Japanese, life changed again for the refugees. The Jews were confined to a designated area in the Hongkou district, which became known as the Shanghai Ghetto. Clothing and food were in short supply, and disease and fear ran rampant. Yet social events and religious services still took place, and children were allowed day passes out of the ghetto to continue their schooling.

Despite the hardships faced by the Shanghai refugees, they fared far better than they would have in Europe. The Japanese oppressed the Jews, but they did not seek to systematically exterminate them. They ignored the “final solution” proposed by the Nazis, which consisted of gathering the Shanghai Jews and either sending them to gas chambers or loading them onto barges in which they would drift off and die of starvation.

The Shanghai Jews did not discover the horrors that took place in Europe until after the war ended. The majority of them had survived, and when they realized the slaughter they had escaped, they were simultaneously filled with relief and guilt.

6 Sweden

Sweden remained officially neutral during World War II, but they appeared to favor the Germans early on. German troops were granted passage through Sweden, and the nation provided the Germans with iron ore during the war. Like many countries, Sweden severely restricted the immigration of Jewish refugees. But after the truth of what the Nazis were doing came to light, Sweden’s stance shifted. The country opened its borders and became a sanctuary for thousands of refugees.

Denmark was occupied by Germany in 1940, but the Danish government negotiated to retain a certain amount of power and protect their Jewish population. This arrangement held until 1943, when increasing unrest from the Danish resistance caused Germany to threaten the Danish government. The Danish government resigned in protest. With the Danish Jews no longer protected by their government, Hitler ordered all of them to be sent to concentration camps. A German diplomat alerted a leader in the Danish resistance of the impending deportation. Throughout the country, neighbors and strangers alike helped hustle more than 7,500 Jews to the coast. From there, they were shuttled across the narrow channel and into Sweden. The refugees remained there safely for the remaining 19 months that Germany occupied Denmark.^[5]

In addition to granting asylum to nearly the entire population of Danish Jews, Sweden also took in approximately 900 Norwegian Jews facing deportation. Sweden’s own Jewish population of 7,000 were protected by the country’s neutrality.

5 Ecuador

Prior to Hitler’s rise and World War II, Ecuador had a Jewish population of fewer than 20 people. Between 1933 and 1943, 2,700 Jews found refuge in the South American nation.^[6]

In Ecuador, the refugees were expected to work in agriculture. For accountants and dentists, this lifestyle was new and did not prove to be a success. Many Jews struggled to find a new way to make a living, attempting various crafts and trades. Sixty families were settled on established chicken farms, but they all ultimately failed. Furniture-building was a popular source of income, and the refugees were the first to introduce steel and iron pieces to the Ecuadorian market.

Adapting to a new country came with many challenges, but some of the refugees thrived, starting businesses that still exist today.

4 Zakynthos

Zakynthos is a Greek island located in the Ionian Sea. During the Holocaust, it had a population of 275 Jews. They were protected by Chrysostomos Demetriou, the bishop of Zakynthos, and Loukas Karrer, the mayor.

German commander Berenz and his forces arrived on the island of Zakynthos in October 1943. Berenz met with Mayor Karrer and Bishop Chrysostomos and informed them that all Jews living on the island must adhere to a strict curfew and identify themselves with a sign on their door. The bishop argued that the Jews were a part of the island’s community and should not be mistreated. Berenz told the two men that regardless, the Jews will eventually be deported. The people of Zakynthos, including the mayor and bishop, were aware of the death camps and what deportation ultimately led to.

Mayor Karrer warned the Jews, who were then sheltered in Christian homes throughout the island. Berenz summoned Mayor Karrer again in October 1944. This time, the German commander ordered Mayor Karrer to provide a list of all Jews in Zakynthos within 24 hours, under threat of his own life.

Mayor Karrer conferred with Bishop Chrysostomos. The next day, the two men presented Berenz with a list that contained merely their own names. The bishop also gave Berenz a letter addressed to Hitler, stating that the Jews of Zakynthos were under his protection. Berenz sent both documents to the German High Command in Berlin and requested guidance on how to handle the situation. The order to deport the Zakynthos Jews was revoked, and the German forces left the island. All 275 Zakynthos Jews survived.^[7]

3 Philippines

Between 1937 and 1941, approximately 1,200 Jews fled to the Philippines. Many came from Austria and Germany, pushed out of their countries by increasingly harsh anti-Semitic policies.

At the time, the nation of islands was the Commonwealth of the Philippines. The Asian country was in a transitory period from American rule to independence, and foreign policy was still controlled by the United States. Manuel Quezon, the commonwealth president, sought to welcome as many Jewish refugees as possible. The US would not issue visas to anyone in need of financial assistance, so Quezon planned to bring 10,000 skilled refugees to his shores. He arranged for doctors, accountants, a rabbi, and even a conductor to enter the country.

The European Jews experienced culture shock in the Philippines. The weather, food, and language were all very different than what they were accustomed to. But the Filipinos were welcoming, and the refugees were able to live freely.

The stream of refugees was interrupted when the Japanese invaded in 1941. Those who had been safe were suddenly on the front lines of the war. But the Japanese forces did not share Hitler’s agenda of exterminating the Jews. Instead, those with German passports were seen as allies. The European Jews were left alone, while Filipinos and Americans were imprisoned. Life was still hard for the refugees, as the islands became battlefields. Bombs dropped regularly, land mines were abundant, and the body count continued to rise. Yet many Jews survived the war and remained grateful that their time in the Philippines kept them out of the concentration camps in Europe.^[8]

2 Llanwrtyd Wells

During the Holocaust, more than 130 Czechoslovakian Jewish children were kept happy and safe in a tiny town in Wales. The residents of Llanwrtyd Wells were unaccustomed to foreigners. But when the children arrived, transported by one of Nicholas Winton’s trains, the town welcomed them with open arms.

A local hotel became a Czechoslovakian boarding school for the children. Most of them were unaware of the horrors their parents faced in their home country. The kids lived relatively normal lives, studying in school and playing games on the playground. Since the Jewish children were without their parents, the local residents cared for and looked after them. One shop owner drove the kids to sporting events on the weekends. One of the little girls, now grown, remembers the time as one of the happiest in her life.

After the war ended, many of the Czech children learned that their parents had perished. The kids left the small town to either reunite with surviving relatives or move on with their lives. But as adults, they returned to Llanwrtyd Wells to pay tribute to the town that sheltered them during the Holocaust.^[9]

1 Le Chambon-Sur-Lignon

Many individual heroic efforts to help refugees were made during the Holocaust. But in the mountains of Southern France, an entire region worked together to protect those fleeing the Nazis. Le Chambon-sur-Lignon and its surrounding villages sheltered thousands of refugees during the Holocaust. An estimated 3,500 of them were Jews, mainly children, while the rest were Spanish Republicans, anti-Nazi Germans, and members of the French resistance.

The residents in the Protestant region were strongly opposed to Hitler’s message of anti-Semitism. Their people had suffered persecution from the Catholic Church, and they did not wish to see another group of people being punished for their culture. A local pastor knew a Quaker who was able to negotiate the release of Jewish children from internment camps in Southern France. When the Quaker mentioned that the children had nowhere to go, the pastor immediately offered to find homes for them in Le Chambon. The town and surrounding communities all pitched in to welcome the Jewish children into their homes and provide them with food, clothing, and forged papers.

Additional refugees made their own way to the region after word of mouth began to spread that Le Chambon was a safe place for Jews and anyone fleeing the Nazis. Local residents hid the refugees in plain sight, helping them blend in and appear as if they belonged. Some refugees were sheltered during the entire war in the remote villages, while others were taken to the Swiss border and smuggled out of the country.

Thanks to the collective efforts of the region, an estimated 5,000 refugees survived.^[10]

While millions perished under the Nazi regime throughout Europe, thousands survived to tell their stories and help to prosecute the cruel perpetrators of the Holocaust who escaped at the end of the war. While every survivor has their story to tell, some went on to lead successful lives in the public eye as politicians, writers, playwrights, producers, and actors.

While society chose to celebrate these remarkable few, their work and contributions to the world of entertainment and justice have helped preserve the history of what happened to them, hopefully ensuring history never repeats itself. Because it would be inappropriate to rank these people, one way or the other, they are presented here in alphabetical order, so here are ten amazing celebrities who survived the Holocaust.

See Also: 10 Amazing Ways People Survived The Holocaust

10 Robert Clary—Singer, Writer, & Actor

Robert Clary was born Robert Max Wilderman in Paris, France, back in 1926. He began a life in showbusiness early on, having started singing professionally on French radio at the age of 12. By 1942, he was deported to the Nazi concentration camp at Ottmuth, Poland. He didn’t remain there for too long, and soon after his forearm was tattooed “A5714,” he was sent to Buchenwald concentration camp where he was made to sing for a gathering of SS soldiers every other Sunday. “Singing, entertaining, and being in kind of good health at my age, that’s why I survived. I was very immature and young and not really fully realizing what situation I was involved with … I don’t know if I would have survived if I really knew that.”

Clary remained at Buchenwald until the camp was liberated on April 11, 1945. He was the lone survivor of his 13 family members sent to the camps. Twelve of whom were taken to Auschwitz where they were murdered. After the war ended, Clary returned to Paris, where he learned that three of his siblings survived the occupation of France, and it wasn’t long before he returned to showbusiness. He continued singing and gained a great deal of worldwide recognition. He toured the United States where he met Eddie Cantor, the man who would become his father in law. He acted in films and television and is probably best known for his work on Hogan’s Heroes where he played Corporal Louis LeBeau.^[1]

9 Meyer Gottlieb—Producer

Meyer Gottlieb was born shortly after Germany invaded Poland in 1939. Though his memories of his early childhood during the war are limited, the ones he has retained are unpleasant, to say the least. “I have no memories of joyous events. The first real memories of a childhood I have are after I came to America.” The Gottlieb family fled their home as the Germans advanced, and they found themselves retreating with the Russian military until finally winding up in a Ukranian labor camp. When he was only three or four-years-old, he remembers his father wrapping his infant brother in a tallis before carrying him outside the labor camp so he could give him a proper burial.

Another vivid memory that haunts Gottlieb was that of his father, who was an officer in the Polish Army, getting into a black bus to fight the Germans towards the end of the war. He never saw him again. Four years after arriving in Ukraine, the war came to an end, and Gottlieb and his mother were expelled to a displaced persons camp in the U.S. sector of occupied Germany. Eventually, Gottlieb emigrated to the United States, where he produced films, including hits like Master and Commander and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. He was eventually elevated to become the president of Samuel Goldwyn Films.^[2]

8 Imre Kertész—Novelist

Imre Kertész was born in Budapest in 1929, where he later attended boarding school in a segregated class consisting entirely of Jews. In 1944, he was rounded up with other Hungarian Jews and deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp at the age of 14. He didn’t remain at Auschwitz, as he was transferred to Buchenwald, where he claimed to be 16-years-old, and a worker. He said this to avoid instant extermination, which would have been his fate had the Nazis known he was only 14. He managed to survive until Buchenwald was liberated the following year. When the war ended, he returned to Budapest, where he finished high school in 1948.

He began working as a journalist for several years, but after the paper he was working for adopted the communist party line, he lost his job. He continued to write, mostly doing freelance jobs while working on his novels, the most well-known of which, Fetelessness, revolves around the experiences of a 15-year-old boy trapped in the concentration camps of Buchenwald, Auschwitz, and Leitz. That work was adapted into a film based on Kertész’s script. Throughout his life, he wrote 17 books and received numerous honors. In 2002, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature “for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history.”^[3]

7 Ivan Klíma—Playwright

Ivan Kauders was born in Prague in 1931, where he grew up without any issues, not even knowing his parents had Jewish ancestry. Neither were observant Jews, but that didn’t matter when the Nazis came to Czechoslovakia in 1938. In November 1941, his father was ordered to a concentration camp at Theriesenstads; he and his mother followed the next month. The family remained in the camp until it was liberated by the Red Army in May 1945. Their survival was remarkable, as Theriesenstads was a holding camp, which regularly shipped Jews to Auschwitz, but they survived there for four years.

Soon after the war came to an end, the terror of the occupying Nazi regime was replaced by the proxy Soviet control in the form of the Czech Communist regime, of which Klima became a member. Klima’s experiences in the concentration camp flowed into his writing, and he has described this time as being “the liberating power that writing can give.” Throughout his life, Klima worked as a prolific playwright, and as a professor at the University of Michigan. He has been recognized for his work with the Magnesia Litera award, the Franz Kafka Prize, and many other significant honors.^[4]

6 Curt Lowens—Actor

Curt Lowens (originally, Löwenstein) was born in Olsztyn, Poland in 1925, and as the Nazis came to power in Germany, he and his family moved to Berlin. They hoped to find shelter among the large Jewish community there, but it wasn’t long before the Nazis forced the family to emigrate to the Netherlands. They planned to emigrate from there to the United States, but the day they were meant to depart, the Nazis invaded. For the first two years of the occupation, the Löwensteins managed to avoid deportation to Auschwitz, but eventually, Curt and his mother were rounded up and sent to Westerbork, a transition concentration camp in 1943. They were released through his father’s connections, but the family subsequently had to go into hiding.

For the next two years, the family remained in hiding but worked actively with a network of Dutch rescuers to save as many people from the Nazis as they possibly could. Under false identities, Lowens and his mother aided in the rescue of 150 Jewish children. He also saved two downed American Army Air Corpsmen, which earned him a commendation from General Dwight D. Eisenhower. After the Netherlands was liberated, he aided the Allies as a translator and helped capture Nazi leaders remaining in the area. Soon after the war ended, he and his family emigrated to the United States, where he studied acting at the Herbert Berghof Studio in New York. Over the course of his long career, Lowens starred in more than 100 films and television shows.^[5]

5 Branko Lustig—Producer

Branko Lustig was born to a Croatian Jewish family in the former Yugoslavia, now Croatia, in 1932. While his parents weren’t religious, his grandparents were, and they attended synagogue regularly. Lustig grew up in relative peace until World War II began, and it wasn’t long before he was taken as a young boy to the Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps. The vast majority of his family was killed in various death camps across Europe, though his mother did survive, and the two reunited after the war came to an end. When he was finally liberated, he was infected with Typhoid and weighed only 66 lbs., and he credited his survival to a German officer who came from his same neighborhood. The man knew who his father was, and because of this connection, he helped Lustig survive.

When the war came to an end, Lustig regained his health and began a film career in 1955. He worked for a Zagreb-based state-owned film production company where he worked on several projects. Eventually, he went on to work on 1971’s The Fiddler on the Roof and many more movies. He received his first Academy Award for his work on Schindler’s List, and his second came for his work on Gladiator. He’s worked as a producer and executive producer on numerous films throughout his long career and remained a well-respected and influential man in Hollywood until his death in 2019.^[6]

4 Roman Polanski—Director

Roman Polanski was born in Paris to a Jewish family in 1933. The family relocated to Kraków in 1936, which is where they remained when Germany began its invasion of Poland. The city was soon occupied, and the Pola?skis were rounded up and forced to live in the Kraków Ghetto. He began primary school at the age of six, but only remained a few weeks before “all the Jewish children were abruptly expelled.” Soon after, all Jews were required to wear armbands with a blue Star of David, so they could be easily identified. It wasn’t long before the Germans began deporting Jews from the Ghetto, and he watched as both of his parents were sent to concentration camps.

Pola?ski managed to escape the Ghetto in 1943 and was able to survive the remainder of the war with the help of Polish Roman Catholics. He memorized Catholic prayers so he could pass as Catholic, but his ignorance of the Catechism outed him to those unwilling to shelter a Jew for fear of death. Later, he roamed the Polish countryside, avoiding German soldiers when he could, and he survived the war. When the war ended, he began working in films in Poland and eventually became an Academy Award-winning director. These days, he’s mostly known for his work in Hollywood and his arguably criminal affairs with young girls, which keeps him from ever returning to the United States.^[7]

3Leon Prochnik—Screenwriter

Leon Prochnik was born in 1933 to a Jewish family who owned the second-largest chocolate factory in Poland. For most of his youth, he enjoyed a privileged existence, but by 1939, the family was forced to flee Nazi-occupied Poland. His father was warned via telegram by one of his workers that the Nazis were looking for him, and despite being on vacation from Kraków, they never returned. He and his family kept on the run for more than a year and a half, which saw them travel through Lithuania, Russia, Japan, Canada, and finally, the United States. Emigrating to the U.S. at that time was difficult, and the family was detained for some time at U.S. Customs. “America would not let Jewish refugees in at that point; it was not a very proud moment in America’s history.”

He later said of his first night after finally settling in New York, “It was the first night I remember sleeping without my fists being clenched.” After the war ended, and life began to return to a sense of normalcy, Prochnik received an education and began working in film as a writer and editor. His most notable work was on the film Child’s Play, for which he wrote the screenplay. He has also directed, edited, and produced shorts.^[8]

2 Ruth Westheimer—Sex Therapist

Karola Ruth Siegel was born in June 1928 in Wiesenfeld, Germany, to a family of Orthodox Jews who taught her Judaism at an early age. She attended synagogue regularly with her father, but in January 1939, she was sent to Heiden, Switzerland, to live in an orphanage so as to avoid the horrors of the oncoming war and Nazi regime. Before this happened, she watched as her father was taken during the Night of Broken Glass in 1938. She made it to the orphanage at the age of 11, where she became a caretaker to the younger children. During this time, she wasn’t allowed to attend school, but another orphan snuck books to her at night so she could continue her education.

While in Switzerland, her parents succumbed to the Nazi death machine; her father was killed at Auschwitz in 1942, and her mother was killed sometime during the war, but she never learned any specific information about her death. She later emigrated to Palestine at the age of 17 and joined the Haganah in Jerusalem as a scout and sniper. She was wounded in the 1947-49 Palestine war, and eventually, she moved to France before finally settling in the United States, where she became a renowned sex therapist who is best known for her radio show, Sexually Speaking. Most know her these days simply as Dr. Ruth, and as of late 2019, the 91-year-old was still busy working with appearances on The View, Late Night with Seth Meyers, and other shows.^[9]

1 Simon Wiesenthal—Writer & Nazi Hunter

Simon Wiesenthal was born on the last day of 1908 in an area of what is now known as Ternopil Oblast in Ukraine. His family had already emigrated from the Russian Empire three years earlier to escape the violent pogroms targeted against the Jewish community. His father was killed in action on the Eastern Front of World War I in 1915, which left the remainder of his family, including Simon, his younger brother Hillel, and his mother, Rosa. Simon graduated high school in 1928 and spent the next decade holding a supervisory position in a factory in Lwów until 1939. Eventually, Lwów was annexed by the Soviets before falling to German occupation in 1941.

Wiesenthal was first placed in the Lwów Ghetto before he and his wife were transferred to the Janowska concentration camp. Over the next few years, he was nearly killed several times, escaped the liquidation of the camp, was later captured and returned once more, and finally, the camp was liberated by invading Soviet forces, but he was forced on a death march few survived to Buchenwald, then Mauthausen concentration camp. He barely survived until liberation in May 1945. Through the course of the Holocaust, the couple lost a total of 89 relatives. When the war ended, he became a Nazi hunter who was a key figure in the apprehension of Adolph Eichmann in 1959. He also wrote extensively and crafted numerous stories and memoirs, many of which revolved around the events of his life.^[10]

The Holocaust is one of the most horrific events in human history. Because it happened in the 20th-century, it is one of the most well-documented and detailed accounts of human suffering ever chronicled. The Nazis systematically slaughtered millions of people, and far fewer escaped the torture and degradation inflicted upon the populace by Goebbels and Hitler’s Final Solution of the Jewish Question.

During the Holocaust, there were thousands of people who defied the rules set down by the Nazis, and collectively, they saved countless Jews, homosexuals, African Europeans, Romany, and other minorities from certain death. The stories of their brave defiance against Hitler and his followers stand as a testament to the heroism of a select few.

The following people are listed in no particular order, as each one stands as a hero worthy of praise. These amazing people did whatever they could during the darkest of times, and are heroes of the Holocaust.

10 Amazing Ways People Survived The Holocaust

10 Oskar Schindler

One of the most well-known people who defied the orders of Nazi Germany was Oskar Schindler. The details of his work in saving Jews from execution were detailed in Steven Spielberg’s award-winning film, Schindler’s List, which was released in 1993. Schindler was a member of the Nazi party, prior to the outbreak of war, he spied against Czechoslovakia by reporting railway information and troop movements to the Nazis. He continued in this vein for Poland, and in 1939, he acquired an enamelware factory in Kraków, Poland, which came with approximately 1,000 Jewish “workers.”

For the next five years, Schindler worked to ensure the safety of his workforce, and through his connections, he was able to keep them from being deported to concentration camps. As the war progressed, this became more difficult, and he utilized the black market to bribe Nazi officials. Schindler was able to convince Amon Göth to let him move his factory to Moravia when the Eastern lines began to close in on Poland. He created a typed list of 1,200 Jews to take with him, and when the war ended, he had spent his entire fortune ensuring their safety. Schindler and his wife Emilie were named Righteous Among the Nations by the Israeli government in 1993.^[1]

9 Audrey Hepburn

Audrey Hepburn is probably best known for her acting work on classic films, including My Fair Lady, Roman Holiday, and Breakfast at Tiffany’s, but those films are hardly the only thing she did in her life. Her most important role wasn’t in a Hollywood film; rather, it was a story about a Dutch aristocrat who aided in her nation’s resistance against the Nazis and helped people escape their persecution. After her uncle, Otto Ernst Gelder, was executed by the Nazis, she joined up with the Dutch Resistance, aided Jews in hiding, raising funds through her work as a prima ballerina to keep those people safe through the conflict.

Hepburn and her mother heard the destruction of their home town when the Allies were defeated at the battles of Arnhem and Oosterbeek. She risked her life to protect a British soldier, and she and her mother worked as assistants to nurses. She was once rounded up by the Nazis, and faced certain death, but was able to escape. Hepburn was greatly affected by the war, and would never repeat her uncle’s name following his death. She declined to appear in A Bridge Too Far because it depicted the battles she suffered through. Hepburn continued to work in support of humanitarian efforts following WWII and became a UNICEF ambassador, working with children affected by the conflict.^[2]

8 Raoul Wallenberg

Raoul Gustaf Wallenberg was a Swedish architect, diplomat, and businessman who is best known for his work saving tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust. Between July and December 1944, Wallenberg worked as Sweden’s special envoy to Budapest, where he was responsible for issuing passports. While working in this capacity, Wallenberg issued 650 protective passports to Jews with any connection to Sweden, helping to save them from deportation to concentration camps. During this time, he also managed to hide and shelter Jews in 32 buildings, two hospitals, and a soup kitchen owned and operated by the Swedish government. The Swedish designation kept them part of Swedish territory and off-limits to the Nazis.

Wallenberg also gave approximately 4,500 Jews a protective letter, which kept them from being used as slave labor, and they weren’t required to wear a yellow Star of David. Wallenberg survived the Siege of Budapest in 1945, though, he was detained on suspicion of espionage. He was never seen again, and it’s believed he was imprisoned by the KGB in Lubyanka, where he likely died. His work during the war has earned him numerous recognitions, including being named Righteous Among Nations by the Israeli government. Additionally, a committee named in his honor awards the Raoul Wallenberg Award on an annual basis for anyone who has been noted to “perpetuate the humanitarian ideals and the nonviolent courage of Raoul Wallenberg.”^[3]

7 Johan Van Hulst

Johan Willem van Hulst was a Dutch university professor, author, politician, and school director who is remembered for saving the lives of 600 Jewish children. In 1943, he worked alongside members of the Dutch Resistance and students of the University of Amsterdam to save children from the nursery of the Hollandsche Schouwburg, all of whom were set for deportation to Nazi concentration camps. Hulst’s Reformed Teacher Training College sat across the street from the theater, where Jews were processed to be deported to camps around Europe. When they arrived, their children were separated from the families and sent to a local nursery, which shared a garden with Hulst’s college.

Beginning in January 1943, Hulst, alongside an army of resistance members, began finding families who could adopt Jewish children they physically resembled. When a match was made, the child’s name was stricken from the Nazi records, and they were spirited over a hedge in the garden. They were often hidden in bags or baskets and then moved throughout the city. Hulst spoke about his work decades later after the Nazis ordered 100 children to be sent to the camps. “Now try to imagine 80, 90, perhaps 70 or 100 children standing there, and you have to decide which children to take with you….That was the most difficult day of my life….You know for a fact that the children you leave behind are going to die. I took 12 with me. Later on, I asked myself: ‘Why not 13?’”^[4]

6 Adolfo Kaminsky

Adolfo Kaminsky was a member of the French Resistance during the Nazi Occupation of France. He specialized in the forgery of documents, and he worked tirelessly throughout the war to forge identity papers for more than 14,000 Jews. Kaminsky entered into the Resistance at the age of 17, after the Nazis killed his mother. Early in his career as a resistance fighter, he sent messages to London about train movements. After nearly being deported in 1943, Kaminsky and the rest of his family moved to Paris. He began working in an underground laboratory, forging papers for Jews the Nazis were actively seeking in France.

Kaminsky was devoted to his forgery operations, and he once said of his work, “Keep awake. The longer possible. Struggle against sleep. The calculation is easy. In one hour, I make 30 false papers. If I sleep one hour, 30 people will die.” Following the Liberation of Paris in 1944, he joined the French Army and became involved in the creation of false IDs for spies sent behind enemy lines. He continued his forgery operation after WWII in support of draft dodgers during the Algerian War. He supplied papers to other activist groups, never taking payment for his efforts, having supported one forgery operation or another for more than thirty years.^[5]

10 Inspiring Stories Of True Love From The Holocaust

5 Frank Foley

Major Francis “Frank” Edward Foley was a British Secret Intelligence Service officer who was responsible for passport control at the British Embassy in Berlin before the war. In this capacity, he issued thousands of papers to Jewish families who were escaping Nazi Germany following the Night of Broken Glass, just before the war began. His work before the war has labeled him as the “British Schindler,” due to the thousands of people he saved. It’s difficult to estimate precisely how many people Foley kept from ending up in concentration camps, but the numbers are likely more than 10,000 Jews.

Foley risked his life by bending the rules in Berlin, and the papers he issued helped Jewish families escape quasi-legally to Britain or Palestine, which was controlled by Britain at the time. He also went into internment camps on several occasions and helped them escape. He protected several in his home until he could get them forged documents. He wasn’t recognized for his efforts saving Jews during his lifetime, but since his death in 1958, he has been recognized by numerous governments, including the British government, which has designated him as a British Hero of the Holocaust, and the Israeli government, which identified him as Righteous Among the Nations.^[6]

4 Albert Göring

For anyone who has studied the people responsible for many of the events of WWII, they likely know the name Hermann Göring. He was the head of the Luftwaffe and a leading member of the Nazi party. Fortunately, he wasn’t the only member of his family, as his brother, Albert Göring, worked in opposition to his brother’s efforts. Albert was opposed to the Nazis from the beginning, and never supported his brother or his work. During the war, he helped Jews and other minorities persecuted by the Nazis in various ways. He used his influence to get his former Jewish boss, Oskar Pilzer, freed after the Nazis arrested him, and subsequently aided him and his family in escaping from Germany.

He forged his brother’s signature on various transit documents, allowing numerous dissidents and Jews to escape. He was eventually caught, but his last name got him out of trouble. He also sent trucks to concentration camps asking for workers, but the trucks would unload its ‘cargo’ in an isolated area, where they could escape. Göring was questioned during the Nurenberg Tribunal, and several people testified on his behalf, resulting in his release. He was vilified following the war due to his name and association with his brother, but he is now recognized as another hero of the Holocaust who saved the lives of many persecuted people.^[7]

3 Nicholas Winton

Nicholas Winton was a British humanitarian who actively worked to save as many children as he possibly could as World War II began to break out in Europe. He supervised the saving of 669 children, most of whom were Jewish, from Czechoslovakia shortly before the war started. Winton started this effort in 1938 when he created an organization with the mission of aiding Jewish children at risk from the Nazis. He set up an office at the table in his hotel room, and through some bureaucratic meddling, he gained permission to allow any refugees under the age of 17 legal entry into Britain, provided they had a place to stay and £50 meant for their return trip to their home country.

His efforts included writing politicians, asking if they would take any refugees. Sweden was the only other nation besides Britain to take any of the children. He managed to save 669 children, though he believed he could have saved more had the United States and other countries taken in some of the refugees. He went unrecognized for his efforts for 50 years, but in 1988, he was invited to the BBC program That’s Life! He was reunited with several of the children he saved, all of whom were adults. He was dubbed the “British Schindler” by the press. In 2003, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for “services to humanity, in saving Jewish children from Nazi Germany occupied Czechoslovakia.”^[8]

2 Carl Lutz

Carl Lutz was a Swiss diplomat who served as the Swiss Vice-Consul in Budapest, Hungary, from 1942 until the conclusion of World War II. By the end of the conflict, he saved more than 62,000 Jews in the largest Jewish rescue operation of the war. His actions saved half the Jewish population of Budapest, Hungary, from being deported to concentration camps. He accomplished this when, in 1944, after the Nazis occupied Budapest, he received special permission to issue 8,000 letters to Hungarian Jews, allowing them to emigrate to Palestine.

Skirting the rules, he applied the letters to whole families instead of individuals, but his real trick was to issue tens of thousands of letters, all numbered between one and 8,000. By doing this, he was able to save tens of thousands of people, but it wasn’t the only thing he did to save Jews. With the help of many others, he established 76 safe houses in and around Budapest, declaring them annexes of Swiss property, making them safe from Nazi soldiers. Because of his work, more than 62,000 were spared from the death camps, and he has since been recognized with the title of Righteous Among the Nations by the Israeli government.^[9]

1 Irena Sendler

Irena Sendler was a Polish social worker and nurse who fought against the Nazi occupation of Poland via the Polish Underground. During the war, she worked in Warsaw for the Department of Social Welfare and Public Health, but her more important activities were carried out under less than official channels. She actively worked to save Jewish children alongside a network of like-minded workers, most of whom were women. Sendler helped to smuggle Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto and then provided them with false identity paperwork, indicating they belonged to Polish families willing to take the children in as their own. She also placed some in orphanages, and with Catholic nuns in convents.

She was suspected of participating in the Polish Resistance, and in 1943, she was arrested by the Gestapo but managed to hide the list of children she had on her at the time. Doing so saved the lives of countless people, which included the children and the people protecting them. She was scheduled to be executed, but escaped after the ?egota, the Polish Council to Aid Jews, bribed the German officials. Following the war, Sendler continued to work various humanitarian causes, and in 1965, the Israeli government recognized her as Righteous Among the Nations. She also received the Order of the White Eagle, the highest honor bestowed by the government of Poland.

In addition to these ten amazing humanitarians, there were thousands of brave men and women working underground and behind the scenes to save people from the Holocaust. While they can’t all be detailed on a list like this one, they should all be remembered for their bravery and sacrifice.
If you would like to help in the education and remembrance of the Holocaust and its survivors, please consider donating to organizations like The Zachor Holocaust Remembrance Foundation, The UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation, or any of the amazing non-profit charities out there working to ensure something like the Holocaust never happens again.^[10]

10 Havens During The Holocaust

Most of us are aware of the work of Oskar Schindler thanks to the film Schindler’s List. Less well known are the “Righteous Among the Nations.” These are non-Jewish people recognized by Israel as having put their own lives on the line during the Holocaust to rescue Jewish people from the Nazis. Like Schindler, they worked at great personal risk to help men, women, and children escape from Nazi occupied territories to freedom. Some rescued a few, some rescued thousands, but all are remembered for their bravery and compassion.

10. Morris Saxe Took 79 Jewish Orphans to Canada

Georgetown, Ontario, Canada was a long way from any of the fighting in WWII. But that was the place Morris Saxe, a Jewish dairy farmer, called home. He had come to Canada in 1902 and by all accounts was a hardworking man. When he learned what was happening to Jews in Europe in the lead up to the war, he wanted to help but there were only so many options available to a farmer in Canada. So he made an appeal to the Canadian government – he asked for 79 Jewish orphans from Poland who lost their parents in the First World War to be sent to Canada on the condition that he train them as farmers.

Canada’s government allowed it to happen and Saxe ended up opening a farm school in 1928, years before the formal start of WWII. The school only lasted for two years, apparently a result of poor funding and trust issues with the main funder, but by then the 79 visas had already been issued. 

9. Mary Elmes Smuggled Hundreds of Children in Her Trunk

Mary Elmes was an Irish Quaker who had worked with the London Ambulance Unit and later at a children’s hospital during the Spanish Civil War. When France became occupied during the Second World War, Elmes worked with other Quakers to help save Jewish children as Jews were being rounded up with French police. 

She would take children under the age of 16, with their parents’ permission, from the Riversalte concentration camp and drive them into the Pyrenees mountains between France and Spain. She hid them in the trunk of her car.

By 1942, 2,289 Jews were taken from Riversalte to the Drancy internment camp where they would ultimately be transported to the extermination camps. It’s said 84% of the children escaped deportation, mostly thanks to Mary Elmes. There is no formal accounting of numbers but it’s estimated to be in the hundreds.

8. Abdol Hossein Sardari Saved Thousands

Iran declared itself neutral just as World War II was starting and thus was not involved in combat on either side. But that doesn’t mean Iran had no involvement at all. Abdol Hossein Sardari was the Consul General of Iran and the sole diplomat in Paris after the Iranian ambassador left the city in 1940. 

At the time, Iran was declared an Aryan nation by Germany because of strong trading between the two countries. This gave Sardari an in as he fought to declare Iranian and other Middle Eastern Jews as ethnically the same as any other Persian and not technically Jewish. He claimed that those Jewish people, called Jugutis, might still practice Judaism but biologically they were not Jews and were therefore exempt from any efforts to restrain their movements or imprison and harm them.

It’s believed Sardari may have saved as many as 2,000 Iranian Jews and others from the region in this way, by appealing to Nazi officials using their own language and ideals against them and convincing them that those he was trying to save were not really who the Nazis were opposed to in the first place. 

7. Ho Feng Shan Gave Thousands of Chinese Visas to Jews in Vienna

We chiefly think of WWII as being a war between several superpowers and then smaller nations that were allied with one side or the other in a lesser or support capacity. One country that is often overlooked in the history of the war is China, who was allied with American and British forces chiefly against Japan. They formally joined the alliance in December 1941.

Dr. Ho Feng Shan was a Chinese diplomat posted in Vienna during the war. From 1938 to 1940, Ho issued Chinese visas to Jews trying to flee Austria in numbers we may never know. It’s possible he helped tens of thousands of Jewish people escape, but many of the records are long gone so a proper accounting cannot be made. At least one surviving visa issued was numbered above 4,000, so it’s a safe bet that at least that many escaped thanks to his efforts.

It’s believed Ho was one of the first diplomats in the world to start helping Jews at a time when many others were still on the fence, not eager to start any potential issue with the Nazi regime. Ho issued visas to anyone who wanted them, whether or not they even wanted to go to China. He wasn’t pretending to do anything other than save as many people as he could. All of this was done in direct opposition to the wishes of his superiors who wanted no visas issued. 

Ho never told anyone what he did for his entire life. He died at age 96 in 1997. Not even his wife and children knew.

6. Chiune Sugihara Defied Orders to Give Japanese Visas to Jews

Despite their military involvement in the Second World War, not everyone in Japan agreed with their country’s position. One such individual was Chiune Sugihara, Japan’s diplomat in Lithuania during the war. As people fled Germany and other occupied territories, Lithuania was one of the countries that saw a massive influx of refugees.

Sugihara began issuing visas to Jews that would allow them to stop in Japan on their way to somewhere else, places like Curacao, for instance. Others wanted to head to the US or Canada or Australia. The fact they didn’t actually have a destination visa didn’t actually matter, of course. The goal was just to get them out of danger by fleeing to safer places. The end result was that, over six weeks, Sugihara issued an astounding 2,139 handwritten visas and potentially saved over 6,000 Jews. All while his superiors in Japan kept demanding he stop doing so as refugees kept showing up with no money and no actual destination plan. 

5. Aristides de Sousa Mendes Issued Thousands of Visas

Portuguese diplomat Aristides de Sousa Mendes was stationed in France during WWII. Portugal was officially neutral during the war but dictator Antonio de Oliveira Salazar has banned Jews from entering the country and offered no aid. Fortunately, Sousa Mendes did not feel the same.

Disobeying the rules set down from his superiors, Sousa Mendes began issuing passports to Jews in France. He was in Bordeaux from 1939 to 1940 and what he had done did not go unnoticed. But it was the dedication to getting it done that made the difference. He worked tirelessly, issuing literally thousands of passports in a relatively short time, and managed to distribute a staggering 30,000 of them. The refugees were able to flee France for Lisbon in Portugal before spreading out all over the world. Many traveled to the United States as Portugal’s neutral status made travel much easier. 

4. Ángel Sanz Briz Issued Thousands of Fake Spanish Passports

Diplomat Ángel Sanz Briz was instrumental in saving the lives of at least 5000 Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust. He forged fake passports claiming that they were Spanish citizens. He got permission from the Hungarian government, where he was stationed, to issue passports to just 200 Jews of Spanish birth. He surreptitiously turned that into 200 families. Then from there he just kept increasing the number for as long as he could. 

Briz was able to pull off his scam by invoking a law from 1924 that granted citizenship to the descendants of Sephardic Jews who were all kicked out of Spain back in 1492. It was a farce, to be sure, but one that saved lives. 

3. Geertruida Wijsmuller-Meijer Saved 10,000 Jewish Children

Sometimes called Auntie Truus, Geertruida Wijsmuller-Meijer was a Dutch banker and seemed to have been motivated to get into social work after the First World War. Though she had no children of her own she worked tirelessly to help Jewish orphans and refugees, relocating them to the Netherlands and the UK. It’s said she and those who helped her did everything from bribing train officials to charming Nazis when necessary. At one point she even took a personal meeting with Adolf Eichmann, one of the major architects of the Holocaust, and convinced him to let her take 600 Jewish orphans to the Netherlands. 

Wijsmuller organized the Kindertransport, transporting children from any Nazi occupied areas ranging from Germany to Austria to France and seeing them safely to Allied territories. Even as borders closed and her ability to transport them diminished, she would still bring food and supplies when she could. As many as 10,000 children were saved thanks to her efforts. 

2. Constantin Karadja Saved Tens of Thousands

Constantin Karadja was a Romania diplomat during the war when his country was allied with the Germans. He saw firsthand the treatment of Jews by the Nazis, including Jews of Romanian origin, and requested many times that officials in Bucharest do something to help their people. Unfortunately, there were strong threads of antisemitism in Romania at the time as well and Karadja’s pleas often fell on deaf ears.

When Romania opted to include “Jew” as a label on Romanian passports, he successfully fought against the change, arguing it would do nothing but make things worse for people. And while his protests may have had some effect, it was his continued issuing of travel documents that had the greatest impact and led to around 51,000 people being saved from deportation and Nazi death camps. 

1. Carl Lutz of Switzerland is Credited With Saving 62,000 Jews

It’s startling that Switzerland’s Carl Lutz is not more well known than he is. Lutz may have single-handedly saved more lives during the Holocaust than any other person and though it’s by no means a competition, his story is one that more people should know. 

Stationed in Hungary as a diplomat, Lutz has been credited with leading the largest diplomatic rescue operation of the entire war. Hungary began deporting Jews to Germany in 1944 and when Lutz’s protests failed to make any changes, he took matters into his own hands. He started by issuing letters of protection which put Jews in Hungary under Swiss protection.

Now here’s the thing about Lutz’s letters. They were all numbered from 1 to 7,800 or 8,000 (sources differ on that matter). They were to be issued one per person. Lutz issued them not to individuals but families. And when he ran out, he started again at one. His hope was that the Nazis would not look into it enough to realize he was reissuing numbers. 

After that move, Lutz rented 76 buildings that then became Swiss diplomatic sites, all of which he set up to house more Jews under Swiss protection where they received food, shelter and medical care. He and his wife literally walked with Jews during the death marches, pulling them out of line and showing papers to Nazi officials declaring them under Swiss protection. 

Historians believe, thanks largely in part to his ruse with letters of protection, that Lutz may have saved as many as 62,000 Jews.