Promotional Information

Story of the unsung heroes and heroines of the Holocaust, the 'Righteous Gentiles', brave individuals all over occupied Europe who hid, protected and helped Jews.

About the Author

Sir Martin Gilbert was Winston Churchill's official biographer, and one of Britain's leading historians of the twentieth century. An honorary fellow at Merton College, Oxford, he was knighted in 1995 'for service to British history and international relations'. He died in 2015.

Reviews

A timely book for a new century... The questions raised in this book lie at the heart of our humanity.
*Guardian*

Martin Gilbert brings together some remarkable stories of courage and ingenuity.
*Independent*

The paperback of the year was Martin Gilbert's THE RIGHTEOUS. It is heartbreaking yet inspiring, an account of people who risked their lives, and worse, to shelter Jews during the Second World War. I beg everyone to read it.
*Independent on Sunday*

Retold here by Martin Gilbert with his customary quiet authority ... the stories of the many "righteous" remembered by Gilbert in his account of human goodness, are the true seeds of hope that survived the Holocaust.
*Financial Times*

Two implicit demands are made of us by Gilbert's powerful book. They are, most obviously: where would you and I have stood? And the question which also provides the probable answer: what if the 19,000 [Righteous] had been 19 million?
*The Scotsman*

A timely book for a new century... The questions raised in this book lie at the heart of our humanity. * Guardian *
Martin Gilbert brings together some remarkable stories of courage and ingenuity. -- Matthew J. Reisz * Independent *
The paperback of the year was Martin Gilbert's THE RIGHTEOUS. It is heartbreaking yet inspiring, an account of people who risked their lives, and worse, to shelter Jews during the Second World War. I beg everyone to read it. * Independent on Sunday *
Retold here by Martin Gilbert with his customary quiet authority ... the stories of the many "righteous" remembered by Gilbert in his account of human goodness, are the true seeds of hope that survived the Holocaust. -- A. C. Grayling * Financial Times *
Two implicit demands are made of us by Gilbert's powerful book. They are, most obviously: where would you and I have stood? And the question which also provides the probable answer: what if the 19,000 [Righteous] had been 19 million? * The Scotsman *

Books have been written about individuals who risked their own safety to aid Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe. Yet this comprehensive examination by noted historian Gilbert (The First World War, etc.), recounted largely through first-person accounts by the Jews they rescued, is an important contribution. These thumbnail sketches of rescuers, their methods and, in some cases, the horrors they endured as a result of their courageous choices haven't previously been gathered in one volume. The result of 25 years of research sparked by witnessing Oskar Schindler's 1974 funeral procession in Jerusalem, Gilbert's country-by-country examination reveals as much about quiet dissent in Nazi-occupied Europe as it does about the human spirit. "For anyone who is honoured today for saving Jewish lives, there were ten or more who did the same," says one rescuer. In Vilna, a German officer, Maj. Karl Plagge, protected Jews from 1939 until 1944, by employing them in his Motor Vehicle Repair Park. In Germany, a young slave laborer, her feet frozen from working outdoors in the snow, was given a pair of shoes by an elderly couple in a remote wooded area; she never learned their names. The number of accounts is overwhelming, and fitting them all in one volume requires that each, to a degree, be given short shrift. But the very fact that there were so many tales of courage is reason to take heed of this heartening aspect of one of history's darkest moments. 32 pages of b&w photos, 20 maps. (Feb. 4) Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.