The Holocaust stands as one of humanity’s darkest chapters, a period when cruelty seemed limitless. Yet, amid the horror, a handful of individuals and families displayed astonishing courage, cunning, and sheer willpower to stay alive. In this roundup we explore 10 amazing ways people outwitted death, turned the tables on their oppressors, and emerged with stories that still inspire today.

10 Amazing Ways to Survive the Holocaust

From daring prison breaks to secret underground lairs, each tale below shows how ordinary folks became extraordinary heroes when faced with unimaginable evil.

10 Kazimierz Piechowski

During the five‑year lifespan of Auschwitz, roughly 1.1 million souls perished, yet only 144 managed to slip away. Among those rare escapees was Kazimierz Piechowski, whose breakout with three comrades reads like a Hollywood thriller.

Piechowski’s resistance began before Auschwitz itself. In 1939, the nineteen‑year‑old fled Poland, only to be captured at the Hungarian border while trying to join the underground. Eight months later he boarded the second transport ever sent to Auschwitz, making him one of the camp’s earliest prisoners.

Inside the camp he was forced to construct sections of the facility and to move the bodies of men, women, and children shot by the SS. Prisoners endured 15‑hour workdays, and some, like Piechowski, earned positions that granted them a glimpse of the Nazis’ execution schedules. A friend, Eugeniusz Bendera, learned he was slated for death and whispered a daring plan to Piechowski: they needed a car, but a car alone wouldn’t be enough.

Having access to the storerooms filled with uniforms and ammunition, Piechowski loosened a bolt on a trapdoor leading to the coal cellar on a Saturday, June 20 1942, when guard presence was lighter. The quartet collected containers of kitchen waste and told a guard they were tasked with removing it, receiving permission to exit the main camp.

They pilfered four SS uniforms; Bendera used a copied key to infiltrate the garage and commandeered the fastest car on the premises—the commander’s own vehicle. Approaching the main gate, they hesitated, unsure if a pass was required. The gate remained shut, and Piechowski, now dressed as a senior officer, barked in flawless German, demanding the gate be opened or face retribution. The terrified guard obeyed.

After a two‑hour forest drive, the men abandoned the car and fled on foot. Piechowski and Bendera later joined the Polish Home Army, fighting the Nazis directly. Piechowski later claimed that their escape prompted the infamous practice of tattooing inmates with numbers, a chilling identifier that persists in Holocaust memory.

9 The Stermer Family

While French explorer Michel Siffre set a 1962 record for underground living, a far more harrowing subterranean story unfolded in 1943. Thirty‑eight Jews, including the Stermer family, hid beneath the wheat fields of western Ukraine for an astonishing 344 days.

Their secret was uncovered in 1993 when American caver Chris Nicola, exploring Priest’s Grotto—the world’s tenth‑longest cave—noticed shoes, buttons, and other remnants suggesting long‑term habitation. Locals confirmed the items had lingered for decades.

Nicola met the Stermers, who recounted sheltering in a cavern that offered fresh water but forced them to scavenge for food. Men ventured above ground to barter grain or pilfer vegetables, while the underground kitchen ground flour on a millstone. The group endured scurvy and lost up to a third of their body weight, yet miraculously none fell gravely ill.

Collecting firewood proved perilous; the noisy activity attracted Ukrainian police after a grain run. A sack of food jammed the cave entrance, leading the authorities to assume the Jews were armed and had multiple exits, so they waited. No one emerged for six weeks, and the collaborators eventually gave up.

When the Red Army drove the Germans away, a surface helper slipped a note in a bottle through the cave entrance. Shulim Stermer, then in his twenties, recalled the surreal feeling of stepping into daylight without fearing death. All thirty‑eight who entered emerged alive.

8 Leo Bretholz

At seventeen, Leo Bretholz fled Austria in 1938 as Nazi persecution intensified. His mother bought him a ticket to Trier, near the German‑Luxembourg border, and he crossed the Sauer River into Belgium, beginning a seven‑year odyssey of dodging capture, hiding in ditches, monasteries, and ghettos.

Arrested in 1940, he escaped by tunneling beneath a fence. Six more arrests followed, but his most audacious escape occurred on November 5 1942. Crammed into a cattle car bound for Auschwitz, Bretholz and a fellow prisoner spent the day prying at the bars. As darkness fell, they waited for a curve that slowed the train, then leapt from the moving vehicle, evading searchlights and guards.

After the war, Bretholz joined a Jewish resistance group, forging IDs and hunting German troops. He later emigrated to the United States, becoming a pivotal witness in lawsuits against the French rail company complicit in transporting Jews to death. He chronicled his daring escape in the book Leap Into Darkness.

7 The Sobibor Breakout

One‑third of the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust perished in three eastern‑Poland camps between March 1942 and October 1943. Sobibor, one of those death factories, deceived arrivals by claiming showers would prevent disease, only to herd them into gas chambers.

The Nazis kept roughly 600 “work Jews” alive, constantly rotating them to thwart rebellion. By summer 1943, Soviet forces approached, and Heinrich Himmler ordered the camp’s erasure. The remaining workers realized their fate was sealed when train arrivals ceased, prompting a desperate plan.

On October 14 1943, at 4 p.m., the conspirators lured eleven guards into individual traps, severed phone lines, and readied for mass escape. However, a guard’s discovery of a dead colleague raised the alarm. A rebel vaulted onto a table, shouting for everyone to run and proclaim their suffering to the world.

During the breakout, Nazi forces killed 250 prisoners; of the 58 who survived, 16‑year‑old Thomas Blatt was wounded and left for dead by a farmer. He later settled in California, published memoirs, and testified in 2009 against SS guard Jan Demjanjuk, becoming one of the few survivors to interview a perpetrator.

6 The Arshanskaya Sisters

In the bitter winter of 1941, Nazi troops overran Kharkov, Ukraine, hanging Jews from lampposts and forcing thousands on a 20‑kilometre march. Fourteen‑year‑old Zhanna and her twelve‑year‑old sister Frina Arshanskaya were among the 13,000 crammed into a tractor factory meant for 1,800.

Their father bribed a Ukrainian guard with a golden pocket watch to secure one daughter’s release. He urged Zhanna to flee, believing the older sibling had a better chance of survival. Zhanna never saw her father again, but reunited with Frina within days. The sisters ended up in an orphanage that forged new identities for them.

Zhanna, a piano prodigy since age five, attracted a local tuner who offered the girls a spot in a musical troupe that performed for the occupying Nazis. Their talent turned them into a prized commodity; the Germans kept them alive to entertain, despite being identified as Jews.

Even after being denounced, the Nazis could find no proof, so the sisters remained. The troupe eventually traveled to Berlin, and when Allied forces liberated the area in 1945, the girls were placed under the care of American officer Larry Dawson. Zhanna later married his brother David, moved to the United States, and kept a cherished sheet of music—her only tangible memory of life before the war—safely stored in a safety‑deposit box.

5 Stanislaw Jerzy Lec

Polish poet and journalist Stanislaw Jerzy Lec attempted to flee to Romania when the Nazis invaded, only to be captured and sent to the Ternopil concentration camp. There, guards forced him into the woods, handed him a shovel, and ordered him to dig his own grave.

When one guard grew bored and hungry, he was left standing beside Lec while the others fetched supper. Seizing the moment, Lec struck the guard in the neck, killing him. He later immortalized the act in a brief poem that juxtaposes the grave‑digger and the one who digs his own grave.

Donning the dead guard’s SS uniform, Lec escaped to Warsaw, where he joined the Polish resistance. He leveraged his literary talents to publish underground newspapers and write anti‑Nazi leaflets, fluent in German. By war’s end, he had risen to the rank of major in the Polish army, fighting on the front lines against the Nazis.

4 Yoram Friedman

Born in 1934 in the Polish town of Blonie, Yoram Friedman was five when Nazi forces arrived. By 1942, his family was forced into the infamous Warsaw Ghetto, where three‑quarters of the 400,000 inhabitants were murdered.

Friedman survived an early escape when a group of Jewish orphans raided farms for food. After that group dissolved, he knocked on Polish farmers’ doors, begging for aid. After numerous rejections and beatings, a Catholic woman named Magda took him in, teaching him prayers, giving him a new name, and warning him never to urinate near Poles lest his circumcision betray him.

When the SS suspected Magda of harboring a Jew, they burned her home, but Friedman slipped away. He survived by climbing high into trees, sleeping while tied to branches, and subsisting on wild berries and whatever animals he could catch. A brief, tragic reunion with his father ended when his father was shot in a potato field.

Adopting the Catholic identity “Jurek,” Friedman found work on a farm. An accident in a wheat grinder caused his arm to be amputated after doctors refused treatment upon learning his Jewish background. After the Soviets liberated the region, he entered an orphanage, later being rescued by a Jewish agency and immigrating to Israel. Though illiterate at arrival, he earned a master’s degree in mathematics and taught for decades. His life inspired the 2013 film Run Boy Run.

3 Rolf Joseph

The Joseph brothers, Rolf and Alfred, grew up in Berlin as Jewish teenagers during the rise of Hitler. Their father had fought for Germany in World I, fostering a fragile hope that the family might survive the Nazi onslaught.

By the early 1940s, their parents had been arrested and deported, leaving the brothers to fend for themselves. To avoid detection, they lived apart, meeting only on Wednesdays at 11 a.m. In 1942, a German soldier seized Rolf, dragging him to Gestapo interrogation where he was brutally whipped to reveal Alfred’s whereabouts. Rolf refused, and the next day he was slated for transport to Auschwitz.

During the transfer, Rolf seized a pair of pliers from a toolbox, pried open his handcuffs, and, with fellow prisoners, broke a plank from the side of the cattle car, leaping to freedom. However, his respite was brief; en route to Berlin he was betrayed, recaptured, and severely beaten, resulting in epilepsy.

Undeterred, Rolf feigned scarlet fever by scratching his skin, prompting the Nazis to move him to a hospital. A guard stationed outside his third‑floor room allowed Rolf to jump from the window, breaking part of his spine in the process. He crawled back to his former hiding place, where the woman who had sheltered them relocated them to land on Berlin’s outskirts. The brothers survived until Soviet liberation in 1945, after which Rolf pursued a career as an engineer.

2 The Chiger Family

Lwów, Poland, housed one of the largest Nazi‑created ghettos, with 200,000 Jews, many of them refugees from Germany. In June 1943, the Germans liquidated the ghetto, slaughtering thousands. Weeks earlier, Ignacy Chiger led a small group that tunneled through their building’s floor using only cutlery, seeking refuge.

The group was discovered by Polish sewer workers, including chief supervisor Leopold Socha, who sympathized with their plight. Socha guided them into the city’s sewage system, a grim network that drained into the swift Poltwa River. Early in their 14‑month subterranean ordeal, a child’s uncle fell into the river and drowned.

Living among rats, battling floods, and enduring cramped spaces, the family faced constant terror. Heavy rain would inundate their section, forcing parents to cling to the ceiling to breathe. Krystyna Chiger developed an acute fear of rain, listening for drops and panicking at the slightest sound. Both of her children contracted measles but survived; a pregnant woman in the group gave birth, and the infant’s cries threatened discovery, leading the family to suffocate the baby with a washbasin before discarding it into the river.

Out of the original 21, only ten survived the ordeal. When Soviet forces arrived, Krystyna emerged alive, though her younger brother Paweł, who had scant memories of life above ground, remained terrified of daylight and people, often pleading to return underground.

1 Michael Kutz

When Nazi troops seized Nieswiez, Belarus in June 1941, ten‑year‑old Michael Kutz found his world turned upside down. The occupying forces forced the town’s 4,500 Jews into labor, assigning Kutz to clean streets and toilets by day while secretly trading textiles for food at night to support his mother.

On October 30, the Nazis ordered every Jew to congregate in the town square. Those deemed fit for work were segregated to remain alive; the rest, including children, were slated for execution. The condemned were marched five kilometres into the countryside, many shot en route, before being forced to strip completely and stand beside a mass grave.

Instead of a swift execution, the captors ordered the remaining victims to jump into the pit, burying them alive. Kutz hesitated; an officer smashed his head with a rifle, sending him tumbling into the grave. He recalled frantically moving dead bodies, trying to breathe, and finally experiencing a haunting silence.

Summoning every ounce of strength, Kutz clawed his way upward through the morbid heap, emerging alone, naked, and terrified. He fled until he reached a convent, where nuns supplied him with clothing and a modest meal. Though they feared harboring a Jewish runaway, Kutz continued alone.

Eventually, he linked up with Russian resistance fighters who admired his survival of the burial pit. He spent three years fighting in the forest alongside them. Of the town’s 4,500 Jews, only twelve survived. Kutz later penned his memoir If, By Miracle, inspired by his mother’s parting words: “If, by miracle, you survive, you must bear witness.” His story stands as a testament to resilience amid the darkest of circumstances.

The 10 facts conclusively prove that the Holocaust really happened, and it’s chilling to realize that denial still persists. In the face of mountains of documentation, survivor testimony, and physical remnants, the evidence is overwhelming and undeniable.

10 The Jewish Population Dropped By A Third

Back in 1939, the global Jewish community numbered roughly 16,600,000. By the time the war finally ground to a halt, that figure had shrunk by about a third, leaving only around 11,000,000 souls, despite a half‑decade of births during the conflict.

The Nazi bureaucracy was obsessively tracking those numbers, aiming to drive the European Jewish count to zero. We have concrete proof: in 1943, Heinrich Himmler ordered a chilling report titled “The Final Solution of the European Jewish Problem,” a document that openly endorses the systematic annihilation of Jews.

This statistical dossier listed the remaining Jewish populations across Europe, proudly noting the steady decline and taking a grotesque pride in Germany’s role in achieving those reductions.

As the report boasted, “Altogether, 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.”

10 Facts Conclusively Highlight Demographic Collapse

9 The Gas Chambers

The infamous gas chambers that facilitated mass murder were left standing after the war, albeit heavily damaged by Nazi attempts to erase evidence through demolition and dynamite.

Those efforts failed. The chambers remained structurally intact, complete with doors sealed by airtight gaskets designed to keep lethal gases from escaping. A construction order from the Auschwitz office explicitly describes the doors as “gas‑tight.”

Investigators also uncovered roof perforations that match survivor accounts of Zyklon B being poured from above. Residue analysis confirms the presence of hydrogen cyanide, the active component of Zyklon B, cementing the chambers’ role in the genocide.

8 Catalogs Of Cremated Bodies

A June 28, 1943 memo from Auschwitz administrator Karl Bischoff lists an astonishing 4,756 cremations performed in a single 24‑hour period.

While the figure sounds implausible, crematorium operators corroborated it. One such worker, Henryk Tauber, testified that “on average we incinerated 2,500 bodies a day.”

The crematoria were originally built for single‑body cremations, yet the Nazis forced them to operate beyond capacity. Tauber explained that they often packed four or five bodies per furnace, sometimes cramming up to eight at once, to meet the murderous quotas.

7 Photographs Of Open‑Air Pits

When the death toll overwhelmed the crematoria, the Nazis resorted to massive open‑air pits to dispose of bodies. Remarkably, we possess photographs of these horrific scenes, captured by a courageous prisoner who smuggled film out in a toothpaste tube.

Additional aerial reconnaissance photos from 1944, taken by Allied aircraft that inadvertently flew over Auschwitz, reveal thick plumes of smoke rising from these pits, providing undeniable visual proof of the mass burnings.

6 The Reinhard Death Camps

Operation Reinhard was the codename for three pure extermination camps in southern Poland: Treblinka, Belzec, and Sobibor. Unlike Auschwitz, which also housed forced‑labor prisoners, these camps existed solely to murder.

Archaeologists have uncovered mass graves at each site, containing cremated remains and fragmented bone shards, confirming the scale of the slaughter.

In 1943, Allied forces intercepted a coded telegram reporting on the Reich’s “Reinhard” camps. The message, initially ignored, was decoded years later and revealed a death tally: Belzec – 434,508; Sobibor – 101,370; Treblinka – 713,555.

Collectively, these three camps accounted for an estimated two million victims by war’s end.

5 The Gas Vans

Some extermination sites employed mobile “gas vans.” These large, black vehicles featured airtight cargo compartments where victims were locked inside. When the engine ran, exhaust fumes—rich in carbon monoxide—filled the sealed space, causing death by asphyxiation.

German officers left behind correspondence complaining about the vans’ design. Dr. August Becker wrote that he ordered “all men be kept as far away from the vans as possible” during gas applications to protect their safety.

Another officer suggested re‑engineering the exhaust system so the gas entered from the top, while yet another lamented the shortage of vans, noting that “the three S‑vans we have are not sufficient for the weekly transports of Jews.”

4 Anne Frank’s Diary

Holocaust deniers have tried to dismiss Anne Frank’s diary as a fabricated hoax, alleging it was concocted by her father for profit. One detractor even called it “just one more fraud in a whole series of frauds … supporting the ‘Holocaust’ legend.”

The Dutch government, however, conducted forensic examinations that unequivocally validated the diary’s authenticity. Handwriting analysis confirmed consistency with Frank’s known script, and the style matched that of a teenage girl.

Material analysis showed the paper, ink, and glue were all manufactured before the early 1940s. Since those specific supplies became scarce after the war, their presence further disproves any post‑war forgery theory. Moreover, investigators discovered that Frank kept a second draft, whimsically rewriting her narrative under the pseudonym “Robin.”

3 Witnesses To The Babi Yar Massacre

The Babi Yar massacre, one of the most heinous single‑day killings, saw 33,771 Jews shot into a Ukrainian ravine in September 1941. While only a few survivors escaped, both victims and perpetrators later corroborated the horror.

German truck driver Hofer recounted that victims were forced to lie atop the bodies of the dead, while a police marksman methodically shot each Jew in the neck. He emphasized the indiscriminate nature of the slaughter—men, women, and children were all shot, with children often lying with their mothers.

Executioner Kurt Werner echoed this gruesome testimony, stating he spent the entire morning in the ravine, continuously firing on the victims.

2 The Einsatzgruppen Reports

As the German army advanced into the Soviet Union, mobile death squads known as the Einsatzgruppen trailed behind, systematically murdering Jews and other groups. These squads killed at least one million people before being halted.

Remarkably, 194 of the 195 weekly reports they sent to Berlin survived. Each report detailed dates, victim counts, and ethnicities, overwhelmingly indicating Jewish victims.

One chilling entry reads, “I consider the Jewish action more or less terminated as far as Einsatzkommando 3 is concerned. 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 doubt that Adolf Hitler was fully aware of, and approved, the systematic extermination of Jews. He avoided leaving a paper trail by never signing an official order, yet ample evidence confirms his direct involvement.

In 1922, Hitler told Josef Hell, “Once I really am in power, my first and foremost task will be the annihilation of the Jews.” Joseph Goebbels later wrote in his diary that “the Fuhrer is determined to clean the table” regarding the Jewish question, and that the war made the annihilation inevitable.

Goebbels also recorded in 1923 that when mobs burned synagogues, Hitler ordered the police withdrawn, saying, “Let the demonstrations go on. The Jews must for once feel the people’s fury.”

While Hitler preferred verbal commands to avoid documentation, SS officer Adolf Eichmann later recalled that Reinhard Heydrich told him in 1942 that “the Fuhrer had ordered the physical destruction of the Jewish opponent.”

Even without a handwritten decree, Hitler’s name appears on the ominous “Report to the Fuhrer on Combating Partisans,” which listed 363,211 Jews executed and bore the notation “Shown to the Fuhrer.”

When the world watched the rise of Hitler and the ensuing nightmare of the Holocaust, a handful of unlikely sanctuaries rose to the occasion. These ten locations – ranging from a tiny Welsh village to a bustling Caribbean port – became lifelines for Jews and other persecuted peoples, providing shelter, community, and a chance to survive. Below we explore each of these extraordinary havens, illustrating how compassion, bravery, and sometimes opportunistic politics converged to create safe harbors in the darkest of times.

10 Sosua

10 havens during the war: Sosua’s story of resilience

By the close of the 1930s, the Nazi machine had forced hundreds of thousands of Jews out of their homes, scattering them across continents. President Franklin D. Roosevelt convened an international conference at Evian, France, hoping to devise a coordinated response to the refugee crisis. Representatives from 32 nations gathered for nine days, each expressing sympathy yet offering little beyond their existing immigration quotas. The Great Depression loomed large, and financial scarcity was repeatedly cited as a convenient excuse for inaction.

Amid this global reticence, the Dominican Republic emerged as the sole nation willing to make a substantial commitment. Dictator Rafael Trujillo announced a bold pledge to admit up to 100,000 Jewish refugees. While his motives were far from altruistic—seeking financial aid, international rehabilitation after his brutal campaign against Haitians, and a desire to “whiten” the population—his offer nonetheless opened a door that few others would.

In practice, logistical hurdles meant that only about 800 refugees actually reached Dominican soil. The majority settled in the underdeveloped coastal town of Sosua, where each family received a modest plot of land and a few livestock. Adjusting to agrarian life proved challenging for many former professionals, yet the community quickly adapted, establishing a synagogue, a school, and a thriving social fabric that turned a desperate exile into a vibrant new beginning.

9 Bolivia

Between 1938 and 1941, more than 20,000 Jewish refugees found a new home in Bolivia, thanks largely to the extraordinary efforts of Mauricio Hochschild. A tin‑mining magnate who had once lived in Germany, Hochschild was horrified by the atrocities unfolding in his former homeland. Leveraging his wealth and political connections—particularly his friendship with General German Busch, Bolivia’s military president—he advocated for the admission of Jewish refugees as a means to bolster the nation’s labor force.

Hochschild didn’t stop at advocacy; he personally financed the passage of over 9,000 refugees. These refugees first disembarked in Chile, then boarded a train that became affectionately known as the “Jewish Express” on its journey to La Paz. Upon arrival, Hochschild ensured they had housing, employment within his enterprises, and even funded a school for their children, creating a supportive ecosystem that helped the newcomers rebuild their lives.

His humanitarian crusade did not go unnoticed. Once the Bolivian authorities realized the scale of his assistance, Hochschild earned the nickname “the Bolivian Schindler,” a testament to his pivotal role in saving countless lives during a period when many nations turned a blind eye.

8 Haiti

Among the lesser‑known sanctuaries of the Holocaust era, Haiti stands out for its compassionate response despite limited resources. During the Evian conference, a Haitian diplomat boldly offered to accept up to 50,000 Jewish refugees—a proposal that, while ultimately rejected by the broader international community, demonstrated Haiti’s willingness to act.

Undeterred, Haitian officials stationed throughout Europe worked tirelessly to issue as many visas as possible. Their efforts succeeded in bringing roughly 300 Jewish refugees to the Caribbean island, where they were greeted with warmth and understanding. Haiti’s own history of suffering under colonial oppression fostered a deep empathy toward those fleeing Nazi persecution.

For many, Haiti served as a temporary haven—a safe stopover while awaiting United States immigration approvals. Though most did not remain permanently, the gratitude they felt toward the Haitian people for providing a brief, life‑saving respite was profound and enduring.

7 Shanghai

When most nations slammed their doors shut, Shanghai remained an open port where entry required neither visas nor passports. Approximately 17,000 Jewish refugees escaped the tightening grip of Europe by making their way to this bustling Chinese metropolis. The city’s laissez‑faire immigration policy turned it into a lifeline for those desperate to flee persecution.

Life in Shanghai, however, was far from idyllic. The city teemed with overcrowded neighborhoods, with refugees crammed into dilapidated apartments or makeshift barracks. Those with some means managed to secure modest rooms, while the destitute endured cramped conditions. Yet the refugees displayed remarkable resilience, carving out livelihoods as bakers, café owners, shopkeepers, builders, teachers, and physicians, doing whatever they could to survive.

The Japanese occupation of Shanghai introduced a new set of challenges. The Nazis’ “Final Solution” was proposed to the Japanese, urging them to either transport the Jewish community to death camps or abandon them to starvation on deserted barges. The Japanese authorities, however, chose a different path, confining Jews to the Hongkou district—later known as the Shanghai Ghetto—while refraining from systematic extermination.

Within the ghetto, scarcity of food and clothing, coupled with disease, made daily life precarious. Nevertheless, cultural and religious life persisted: community gatherings, prayer services, and even school outings continued despite the hardships. When the war finally ended, most Shanghai Jews emerged alive, their survival a testament to both their tenacity and the relative mercy shown by the occupying forces.

6 Sweden

Officially neutral throughout World War II, Sweden initially appeared to tilt toward Germany, granting passage to German troops and supplying iron ore to the Nazi war machine. Early in the conflict, the country imposed strict limits on Jewish immigration, mirroring the restrictive policies of many other nations.

As the full horror of the Holocaust became undeniable, Swedish public opinion shifted dramatically. The nation opened its borders, becoming a sanctuary for thousands of refugees. A pivotal moment occurred in 1943 when the Danish government, under increasing pressure from German forces, resigned in protest, leaving Danish Jews vulnerable to Nazi deportation.

In a remarkable act of solidarity, Swedish citizens and officials facilitated the rescue of more than 7,500 Danish Jews. Resistance members, local volunteers, and ordinary neighbors coordinated clandestine operations, ferrying the Jews across the Øresund Strait to safety. Sweden also extended protection to roughly 900 Norwegian Jews and safeguarded its own modest Jewish population of about 7,000, illustrating a profound transformation from cautious neutrality to active humanitarianism.

5 Ecuador

Before the outbreak of World War II, Ecuador’s Jewish community numbered fewer than twenty individuals. Yet between 1933 and 1943, the South American nation welcomed approximately 2,700 Jewish refugees fleeing persecution in Europe.

The Ecuadorian government expected these newcomers to integrate into agricultural work—a stark contrast to many refugees’ professional backgrounds as accountants, dentists, and other specialists. This mismatch led to widespread difficulty; numerous families struggled to adjust to farming life, and many of the chicken farms established for sixty families ultimately failed.

Undeterred, the refugees turned to other trades. Furniture‑making blossomed as a viable industry, with Jewish artisans introducing steel and iron components previously unseen in Ecuadorian craftsmanship. Some individuals succeeded beyond expectation, founding businesses that have endured to this day, illustrating how adversity can spark innovation and lasting economic contributions.

4 Zakynthos

Zakynthos, a sun‑kissed Greek island in the Ionian Sea, was home to a modest Jewish community of 275 souls during the Nazi occupation. Their survival hinged on the courageous actions of Bishop Chrysostomos Demetriou and Mayor Loukas Karrer, who defied German orders to protect the island’s Jews.

In October 1943, German commander Berenz arrived and demanded that all Jews observe a curfew and display a conspicuous sign on their doors. Bishop Chrysostomos argued passionately that the Jews were integral members of the island’s society and should not be subjected to mistreatment. Berenz, unmoved, threatened deportation regardless of the bishop’s pleas.

Mayor Karrer responded by warning the Jewish families and ensuring they were hidden within Christian homes across the island. A year later, Berenz returned, demanding a comprehensive list of every Jew on Zakynthos within 24 hours, under penalty of death. The mayor and bishop convened once more, crafting a daring response.

They submitted a list containing only their own names and a letter addressed directly to Hitler, declaring that the island’s Jews were under the bishop’s protection. Berenz forwarded these documents to the German High Command, awaiting guidance. The result? The order to deport the Zakynthos Jews was rescinded, and the German forces withdrew. All 275 Jewish residents survived the war, a testament to the moral bravery of the island’s leaders.

3 Philippines

From 1937 to 1941, roughly 1,200 Jewish refugees escaped the tightening grip of Nazi Germany by finding sanctuary in the Philippines, then a Commonwealth under United States oversight. Most arrived from Austria and Germany, fleeing increasingly harsh anti‑Semitic legislation.

President Manuel Quezon, anticipating the looming refugee crisis, sought to admit as many skilled Jews as possible. Although the United States would not grant visas to those lacking financial means, Quezon orchestrated a plan to bring 10,000 Jewish professionals—including doctors, accountants, a rabbi, and even a conductor—to the archipelago. This initiative reflected both humanitarian concern and a desire to benefit from the refugees’ expertise.

The transition was not without challenges. The refugees faced dramatic culture shock: tropical weather, unfamiliar cuisine, and new languages. Yet the Filipino population welcomed them with generosity, allowing the newcomers to live freely and integrate into society. Their relative safety was shattered in 1941 when Japanese forces invaded. While the Japanese did not share Hitler’s genocidal agenda and treated German passport‑holders as allies, the war turned the islands into battlefields, with bombings, land mines, and a rising death toll. Despite these hardships, many Jewish refugees survived the conflict, deeply grateful for the period of safety the Philippines provided before the war’s end.

2 Llanwrtyd Wells

In the heart of Wales lies the modest town of Llanwrtyd Wells, a place that, during the Holocaust, opened its arms to more than 130 Czechoslovakian Jewish children. These youngsters arrived via one of Nicholas Winton’s famed rescue trains, finding themselves in a community unaccustomed to foreign visitors but eager to help.

The town’s hotel was transformed into a boarding school, providing the children with a semblance of normalcy. They attended regular classes, played on local playgrounds, and were cared for by townspeople who took on parental roles. One local shopkeeper even drove the youngsters to sporting events on weekends, ensuring they experienced the joys of childhood despite the turmoil raging abroad.

After the war, many of these children learned that their parents had perished in Europe. Some stayed in Wales, while others returned to the continent to reunite with surviving relatives. As adults, many of them have returned to Llanwrtyd Wells, paying tribute to the town that offered them safety, warmth, and a treasured childhood amid the horrors of the Holocaust.

1 Le Chambon‑Sur‑Lignon

While countless individual acts of heroism occurred during the Holocaust, the mountainous region of Le Chambon‑sur‑Lignon in southern France stands out for its collective bravery. The predominantly Protestant villages rallied together, sheltering thousands of refugees—approximately 3,500 Jews, mostly children, alongside Spanish Republicans, anti‑Nazi Germans, and French resistance members.

The community’s moral compass was shaped by a deep aversion to Hitler’s anti‑Semitic rhetoric. Having endured persecution themselves under the Catholic Church, the villagers were determined not to repeat history’s cruelty. When a Quaker liaison secured the release of Jewish children from a southern French internment camp, a local pastor immediately offered homes throughout Le Chambon, prompting a wave of generosity that spread across the surrounding hamlets.

Word of the region’s safety traveled quickly, drawing more refugees seeking shelter. Villagers employed clever tactics—hiding people in plain sight, providing forged documents, and integrating newcomers into daily life to mask their presence. Some refugees remained hidden for the war’s entirety, while others were guided across the Swiss border to freedom.

Through this coordinated effort, an estimated 5,000 refugees survived, their lives saved by a community that chose compassion over fear, proving that collective action can outweigh even the most tyrannical oppression.

While millions perished under the Nazi regime across Europe, a handful of survivors emerged to share their testimonies and, in many cases, to build celebrated careers in film, literature, and beyond. These 10 amazing celebrities not only endured the horrors of the Holocaust but also went on to shape popular culture and keep history alive.

10 Amazing Celebrities Who Survived the Holocaust

Robert Clary, originally born Robert Max Wilderman in Paris in 1926, entered the entertainment world as a child prodigy, singing on French radio at age twelve. By 1942 the Nazi machine had transported him to the Ottmuth concentration camp in Poland, and shortly thereafter his forearm was marked with the tattoo “A5714” before he was shipped to Buchenwald. There, the SS forced him to perform a song for their troops every other Sunday – a grim gig that he later recalled as a key factor in his survival: “Singing, entertaining, and being in kind of good health at my age, that’s why I survived…”

Clary remained in Buchenwald until Allied forces liberated the camp on April 11, 1945. He was the sole survivor of thirteen family members sent to the camps; twelve were murdered at Auschwitz. After the war he returned to Paris, discovered three surviving siblings, and promptly resumed his performing career. Tours in the United States led him to meet Eddie Cantor, who would become his father‑in‑law, and he later achieved worldwide fame as Corporal Louis LeBeau on the TV series Hogan’s Heroes.

9 Meyer Gottlieb—Producer

Meyer Gottlieb entered the world just after Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939. His earliest memories of the conflict are stark: “I have no memories of joyous events. The first real memories of a childhood I have are after I came to America.” His family fled eastward, eventually finding themselves in a Ukrainian labor camp. As a toddler, he recalled his father cradling his infant brother in a tallit and slipping him out of the camp for a proper burial.

Later, Gottlieb remembered his father, a Polish Army officer, boarding a black bus to fight the Germans – a sight he never saw again. After four years of war, the family was moved to a displaced‑persons camp in the U.S. sector of occupied Germany. Emigrating to America, Meyer produced blockbusters such as Master and Commander and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, eventually rising to become president of Samuel Goldwyn Films.

8 Imre Kertész—Novelist

Born in Budapest in 1929, Imre Kertész attended a segregated boarding school for Jewish youths. In 1944, at fourteen, he was rounded up with fellow Hungarian Jews and shipped to Auschwitz. He was soon transferred to Buchenwald, where he claimed to be sixteen and a laborer to avoid immediate execution – a ruse that saved his life. He survived until Buchenwald’s liberation the following year.

After the war, Kertész completed high school in 1948 and worked as a journalist, only to lose his position when his newspaper fell under communist control. He turned to writing, producing seventeen books. His most renowned novel, Fatelessness, follows a fifteen‑year‑old boy’s ordeal in Buchenwald, Auschwitz, and a camp called Leitz, and was later adapted for the screen. In 2002, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature for “writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history.”

7 Ivan Klíma—Playwright

Ivan Kauders, later known as Ivan Klíma, was born in Prague in 1931 and grew up unaware of his Jewish ancestry. When the Nazis occupied Czechoslovakia in 1938, his father was sent to the Theriesenstads concentration camp in November 1941, followed a month later by his mother. The family remained there until the Red Army liberated the camp in May 1945. Theriesenstads was a holding camp that routinely shipped its inmates to Auschwitz, yet the Klíma family survived its four‑year ordeal.

After the war, the Soviet‑backed Czech regime drew Klíma into its communist fold. He channeled his camp experiences into his writing, describing them as “the liberating power that writing can give.” A prolific playwright and professor at the University of Michigan, Klíma earned honors such as the Magnesia Litera award and the Franz Kafka Prize.

6 Curt Lowens—Actor

Curt Lowens, born Curt Löwenstein in Olsztyn, Poland, in 1925, moved with his family to Berlin as the Nazis rose to power, seeking refuge among the city’s sizable Jewish community. Soon after, the family fled to the Netherlands, hoping to board a ship to the United States. The German invasion halted those plans, and for two years the Lowens managed to avoid deportation. In 1943, however, Curt and his mother were captured and sent to the Westerbork transit camp, only to be released through his father’s connections. The family then went underground.

During the next two years of hiding, Lowens and his mother worked with Dutch rescuers, saving roughly 150 Jewish children under false identities. He also rescued two downed U.S. Army airmen, earning a commendation from General Dwight D. Eisenhower. After the Netherlands was liberated, he served as a translator for the Allies and helped capture remaining Nazi officials. Post‑war, Lowens emigrated to the United States, studied acting at the Herbert Berghof Studio, and appeared in over one hundred films and television shows.

5 Branko Lustig—Producer

Branko Lustig entered the world in 1932 to a Croatian Jewish family in what is now Croatia. Though his parents were not observant, his grandparents attended synagogue regularly. His childhood remained peaceful until the war erupted, when he was seized as a boy and shipped to Auschwitz and later Bergen‑Belsen. The majority of his family perished, but his mother survived, and the two were reunited after liberation. Weighed down to a frail 66 lb. and battling typhoid, Lustig credited his survival to a German officer from his hometown who recognized his father’s name and intervened.

Recovering after the war, Lustig launched a film career in 1955, initially with a state‑run studio in Zagreb. He later contributed to productions such as The Fiddler on the Roof (1971). His work on Schindler’s List earned him an Academy Award, and a second Oscar followed for his role in Gladiator. Throughout his long career, Lustig remained a respected producer and executive producer until his death in 2019.

4 Roman Polanski—Director

Roman Polanski was born in Paris in 1933 to a Jewish family, but the family moved to Kraków in 1936. When Germany invaded Poland, the Polanski family was forced into the Kraków Ghetto. Roman began primary school at six, only to be expelled within weeks when all Jewish children were removed. The Nazis soon required Jews to wear the blue Star of David, and soon after, his parents were deported to concentration camps.

Polanski escaped the Kraków Ghetto in 1943, surviving the rest of the war with the aid of Polish Catholics. He memorized Catholic prayers to pass as a Catholic, though his lack of catechism knowledge occasionally threatened his cover. After the war, he pursued a filmmaking career in Poland, eventually earning an Academy Award. In later years, his fame was shadowed by controversy surrounding his personal life, which has kept him from returning to the United States.

3 Leon Prochnik—Screenwriter

Leon Prochnik entered the world in 1933 to a Jewish family that owned Poland’s second‑largest chocolate factory. By 1939, the Nazi occupation forced the family to flee, prompted by a telegram from a worker warning that the Nazis were hunting his father. Their odyssey spanned Lithuania, Russia, Japan, Canada, and finally the United States. Upon arrival, U.S. Customs detained the family, a stark reminder that “America would not let Jewish refugees in at that point; it was not a very proud moment in America’s history.”

After finally settling in New York, Prochnik recalled his first night of peace as “the first night I remember sleeping without my fists being clenched.” He later earned a degree, entered the film industry, and wrote the screenplay for the cult classic Child’s Play. He also directed, edited, and produced short films throughout his career.

2 Ruth Westheimer—Sex Therapist

Karola Ruth Siegel was born in June 1928 in Wiesenfeld, Germany, into an Orthodox Jewish family that practiced their faith devoutly. In January 1939, to escape the looming Nazi threat, she was sent to an orphanage in Heiden, Switzerland. Before that, she witnessed her father’s arrest during the 1938 Kristallnacht. At the orphanage, she tended to younger children and, despite being barred from school, received clandestine books from a fellow orphan to continue learning.

Both of Ruth’s parents fell victim to the Holocaust—her father perished at Auschwitz in 1942, and her mother died sometime during the war, though the exact circumstances remain unknown. After the war, Ruth emigrated to Palestine at seventeen, joined the Haganah as a scout and sniper, and was wounded in the 1947‑49 Arab‑Israeli conflict. Later she moved to France and finally settled in the United States, where she became the world‑famous sex therapist known as Dr. Ruth. Even into her nineties, she continued to appear on shows like The View and Late Night with Seth Meyers.

1 Simon Wiesenthal—Writer & Nazi Hunter

Simon Wiesenthal was born on December 31, 1908, in what is now Ternopil Oblast, Ukraine. His family had fled the Russian Empire three years earlier to escape pogroms. His father died on the Eastern Front during World War I in 1915, leaving Simon, his younger brother Hillel, and their mother Rosa to survive on their own. After graduating high school in 1928, Wiesenthal worked as a factory supervisor in Lwów until the German invasion in 1939. The city changed hands, first annexed by the Soviets and then seized by the Nazis in 1941.

Wiesenthal was first imprisoned in the Lwów Ghetto, then transferred with his wife to the Janowska concentration camp. He survived multiple near‑deaths, escaped a liquidation, was recaptured, and finally liberated by Soviet forces, only to endure a death march that led him to Buchenwald and later Mauthausen. He survived until liberation in May 1945. The couple lost 89 relatives during the Holocaust. After the war, Wiesenthal became a famed Nazi hunter, instrumental in capturing Adolf Eichmann in 1959, and authored numerous memoirs chronicling his experiences.

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.

10 Inspiring Stories Of True Love From The Holocaust

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.

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.