Hubert Isaac Pollack (1903 - 1967) was a German Jew whose clandestine activity prior to the Holocaust enabled him and his associates to save a large number of Jews. After his immigration to Israel he served in the Hagana and the Israeli Defense Forces.
Pollack was born in Berlin to Wilhelm and Johanna. He studied at the University of Berlin from 1921 to 1927 where he earned a PhD in economics and philosophy. From 1923 to 1929 he worked at the offices of Keren Hayesod - The United Israel Appeal in the state of Rhineland Westphalia-Bonn. During the years 1930 to 1933 he managed the office of statistics of the Jewish Community of Berlin. From 1933 to 1939 he was a consultant with the Palestine office of the community in Berlin. During those years he worked with Capt. Francis Frank Foley, a British Intelligence officer positioned in Berlin and whose cover title was the director of the visa office at the British Embassy. Together with Foley and Wilfrid Israel, who was his manager at the Jewish Assistance Company (Hilfsverein der deutschen Juden), they created an organization which operated in total secrecy and was under imminent threat. There was a clear designation of responsibilities: Wilfrid received requests from Jews, made lists of the names, raised the required funds and transferred them to Pollack. Pollack created contacts with Gestapo officers and gave them the names he received from Wilfrid, together with the bribes. Foley supplied the exit visas, prioritizing Jews who already blacklisted by the Gestapo. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] The story of this organization is related in the film The Essential Link: The Story of Wilfrid Israel from Yonatan Nir.
In August 1939, aided by Foley he left Berlin with his family and made his way to Palestine.
Based on Pollack's testimony, parts of which were given during the Eichmann trial in 1961, Yad VaShem awarded Foley the title of Righteous Among the Nations. [6] [7] For details regarding their mutual operations see the book Foley: The Spy Who Saved 10,000 Jews by Michael Smith.
Pollack raised donations from survivors and former Berliners to commemorate Foley by planting a tree in his name in a Jewish National Fund (KKL) forest near the entrance to Kibbutz Har'el on the way to Jerusalem.
Pollack served in the Hagana while working for the British Mandate government. He fought during the siege on Jerusalem and continued as a research officer with the Israeli Intelligence Corps until he retired. Pollack died a week after the Six Day War (1967), not knowing that Foley would be honored by the Jewish people.
Varian Mackey Fry was an American journalist. Fry ran a rescue network in Vichy France that helped approximately 2,000 to 4,000 anti-Nazi and Jewish refugees to escape Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. He was the first of five Americans to be recognized as "Righteous Among the Nations", an honorific given by the State of Israel to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.
Chiune Sugihara was a Japanese diplomat who served as vice-consul for the Japanese Empire in Kaunas, Lithuania. During the Second World War, Sugihara helped thousands of Jews flee Europe by issuing transit visas to them so that they could travel through Japanese territory, risking his job and the lives of his family. The fleeing Jews were refugees from German-occupied Western Poland and Soviet-occupied Eastern Poland, as well as residents of Lithuania. In 1985, the State of Israel honored Sugihara as one of the Righteous Among the Nations for his actions. He is the only Japanese national to have been so honored. The year 2020 was "The Year of Chiune Sugihara" in Lithuania. It has been estimated as many as 100,000 people alive today are the descendants of the recipients of Sugihara visas.
Aristides de Sousa Mendes do Amaral e Abranches GCC, OL was a Portuguese consul during World War II.
During World War II, some individuals and groups helped Jews and others escape the Holocaust conducted by Nazi Germany. Since 1953, Israel's Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem, has recognized 26,973 persons as Righteous among the Nations. Yad Vashem's Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, headed by an Israeli Supreme Court justice, recognizes rescuers of Jews as Righteous among the Nations to honor non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazi Germany.
Irena Stanisława Sendler, also referred to as Irena Sendlerowa in Poland, nom de guerreJolanta, was a Polish humanitarian, social worker, and nurse who served in the Polish Underground Resistance during World War II in German-occupied Warsaw. From October 1943 she was head of the children's section of Żegota, the Polish Council to Aid Jews.
Righteous Among the Nations is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis for altruistic reasons. The term originates with the concept of "righteous gentiles", a term used in rabbinic Judaism to refer to non-Jews, called ger toshav, who abide by the Seven Laws of Noah.
Major Francis "Frank" Edward Foley CMG was a British Secret Intelligence Service officer. As a passport control officer for the British embassy in Berlin, Foley "bent the rules" and helped thousands of Jewish families escape from Nazi Germany after Kristallnacht and before the outbreak of the Second World War. He is officially recognised as a British Hero of the Holocaust and as a Righteous Among the Nations.
The Rosenstrasse protest on Rosenstraße took place in Berlin during February and March 1943. This demonstration was initiated and sustained by the non-Jewish wives and relatives of Jewish men and mischling, those of mixed Jewish and Aryan heritage, who had been arrested and targeted for deportation, based on the racial policy of Nazi Germany. The protests, which occurred over the course of seven days, continued until the men being held were released by the Gestapo. The Rosenstrasse protest is considered to be a significant event in German history as it is the only mass public demonstration by Germans in the Third Reich against the deportation of Jews. In describing the protests, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer states, "There were demonstrations, public protests against random arrests, - first dozens, then hundreds, then thousands of women, who demanded in unison "Give us back our men!" The protest by the women of the Rosenstrasse made the Nazi regime retreat as German propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels order for a release of the men, including approximately 1,800 Berlin Jews. The Gestapo in their "Final Solution" had herded together these men into the Jewish community house on Rosenstrasse near Alexanderplatz, who were then subsequently freed by order of Goebbels."
Alfréd Israel Wetzler, who wrote under the alias Jozef Lánik, was a Slovak Jewish writer. He is known for escaping from Auschwitz concentration camp and co-writing the Vrba-Wetzler Report, which helped halt the deportation of Jews from Hungary, saving up to 200,000 lives.
Jan Zwartendijk was a Dutch businessman and diplomat. As director of the Philips factories in Lithuania and part-time acting consul of the Dutch government-in-exile, he supervised the writing of 2,345 visas for Curaçao to save Jews from the Holocaust during World War II. In 1997, Yad Vashem recognised him as Righteous Among the Nations.
Carl Lutz was a Swiss diplomat. He served as the Swiss Vice-Consul in Budapest, Hungary, from 1942 until the end of World War II. He is credited with saving over 62,000 Jews, the largest rescue operation of Jews of the Second World War.
Wilfrid Berthold Jacob Israel was an Anglo-German businessman and philanthropist, born into a wealthy Anglo-German Jewish family, who was active in the rescue of Jews from Nazi Germany, and who played a significant role in the Kindertransport.
Aracy de Carvalho Guimarães Rosa was a Brazilian diplomatic clerk who has been recognized with the title of Righteous Among the Nations.
Selahattin Ülkümen was a Turkish diplomat and consul in Rhodes during the Second World War, who assisted Jewish community in the island with Turkish citizenship to avoid deportation during the Holocaust. In 1989 Israel recognized him as among the Righteous Among the Nations and listed his name at Yad Vashem.
A number of Arabs participated in efforts to help save Jewish residents of Arab lands from the Holocaust while fascist regimes controlled the territory. From June 1940 through May 1943, Axis powers, namely Germany and Italy, controlled large portions of North Africa. Approximately 1 percent of the Jewish residents, about 4,000 to 5,000 Jews, of that territory were murdered by these regimes during this period. The relatively small percentage of Jewish casualties, as compared to the 50 percent of European Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust, is largely due to the successful Allied North African Campaign and the repelling of the Axis powers from North Africa.
Mordecai Paldiel born Markus Wajsfeld is a lecturer at Stern College and Queens College in New York.
Refik Veseli was an Albanian photographer and formerly a co-founder of the Albanian Institute of Monuments. He was decorated along with his family by the state of Israel as Righteous Among the Nations for saving Jews during the Second World War.
The Essential Link: The Story of Wilfrid Israel is a documentary by Israeli director Yonatan Nir. The film, which is inspired by Naomi Shepherd's book Wilfrid Israel: German Jewry's Secret Ambassador, exposes the story of Wilfrid Israel - a wealthy Jewish businessman and owner of Berlin's largest department store in the 1930s, who was involved in the saving of tens of thousands of Jews and played a key role in the Kindertransport rescue operation. The film was produced by Highlight Films and premiered at the 2017 DocAviv International Film Festival. Among the major rescue efforts and operations, that are described in the film are the Kindertransport and the "Triangle" that beyond Wilfrid Israel included also Captain Frank Foley and Hubert Pollack, which saved according to estimations around 10,000 Jews.
The Hardaga family was a traditional Muslim family that lived in the capital of Bosnia, Sarajevo. The house where they lived was inhabited by Mustafa and his wife Zejneba, Mustafa’s brother Izet and his wife Bachriya.
Henryk Rolirad was a Polish food–systems engineer who was recognized as a Righteous among the Nations for saving Jews during World War II.