Books like The Righteous by Martin Gilbert

Martin Gilbert, renowned for his comprehensive histories of the Holocaust and World War II, shifts focus to the extraordinary acts of altruism that occurred within the same period. Drawing on twenty‑five years of research, he details the lives of hundreds of non‑Jews who, amid Nazi occupation, risked their own safety to protect Jewish neighbors from deportation and death. From the Greek Orthodox Princess who hid families in Athens, to the Polish woman known as the “Angel of Lvov” who secured false baptismal certificates, to Albanian Muslims who disguised Jews as their own, Gilbert chronicles the diverse professions and ordinary backgrounds of these rescuers. His work underscores the profound moral conviction that, according to Jewish tradition, the act of saving one life equates to saving the whole world.

First publish date: 2002