Welcome
Welcome to the website of the Institute for the Study of Rescue and Altruism in the Holocaust (ISRAH), a nonprofit corporation.
This website is dedicated to telling the story of the many thousands of courageous men and women who saved the lives of countless Jews and other refugees during the Holocaust. The website is also dedicated to documenting the numerous organizations and networks involved in aiding Jews.
This website was created to be a comprehensive list of all of those individuals and organizations who helped the Jewish community survive the worst catastrophe in its history.
Many of these stories are being told here for the first time. The website is dedicated to showing that there were large networks of individuals and organizations willing to risk their lives and the lives of their families to help others. This website will integrate the stories of Jewish and non-Jewish rescuers and organizations.
This website is a product of more than 20 years of intense research.
This website is dedicated to the memory of those individuals who said yes to life.
This information is being freely disseminated for the purpose of education. You may share this information freely, but we ask that you please credit "Institute for the Study of Rescue and Altruism in the Holocaust" when using materials. Please let us know if you will be posting any of this material or linking to it from another site.
Table of Contents
Rescuers:
Rescue by Country
Rescue by Governments and Leaders
Rescue Organizations
Diplomatic Rescue
Rescue by Religious Organizations
Jewish Rescuers
Fact Sheet
Diplomatic Rescue Fact Sheet
Chronology of Jewish History - New!
Rescue Timelines
Rescue Bibliography
About Us:
ISRAH
Visas for Life
Acknowledgements
The Institute for the Study of Rescue and Altruism in the Holocaust (ISRAH), a nonprofit corporation, was founded in 2006 as an educational organization. It was formed for the purpose of conducting research, disseminating information, promoting awareness of, and honoring individuals for the rescue of Jews and other victims of the Nazis and their collaborators during the Holocaust. ISRAH is an umbrella organization of the Visas for Life: The Righteous and Honorable Diplomats Project and the Jewish Rescuers Project. The Visas for Life Project was created in 1994 to document the role of diplomats who saved Jews and others during the Holocaust. During the process of creating exhibits and publishing materials, we discovered that there were numerous Jewish individuals helping these diplomats. Until recently, there was very little published on Jewish rescuers.
For years, the story of rescue in the Holocaust has been largely underrepresented. Thousands of books have been published on the murderers and their collaborators, yet there are only a handful of books on the righteous men and women who risked everything to help others. ISRAH promotes awareness of these stories. Our principal aim is to show that institutions and individuals could successfully defy the genocidal policies of the Nazis and their allies.
ISRAH’s goal is to recognize these heroic men and women in order to encourage others to emulate the acts of these courageous people in times of conflict. Many of these individuals and organizations have never been honored for their activities.
This website documents the stories of state institutions, rescue and relief organizations, diplomats, church groups, and individuals who were actively involved in rescuing or assisting refugees and other victims during the Holocaust, 1933-1945.
We also document and honor Jewish rescue organizations and individuals. Jewish rescuers were often at the greatest risk for helping their fellow Jews. Many of these individuals also have yet to be officially honored.
If you have information about rescue in the Holocaust that is not included, we would be happy to review the material for inclusion in this website. You can contact us at visasforlife@cs.com.
ISRAH
Primary activities of ISRAH include: writing articles, scholarly papers and books; curating and disseminating traveling exhibits related to rescue and altruism in the Holocaust; preparing an educational curriculum, website(s) and documentaries on rescue; organizing public programs; and nominating individuals for the title of Righteous among the Nations by Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center.
ISRAH will establish its own system to recognize and honor individuals for their altruistic behavior during the period of the Holocaust. Its activities to recognize and honor individuals for altruistic behavior include issuing commemorative medals and certificates. This program will be displayed on this website.
ISRAH will document and honor numerous men and women who were active in rescuing Jews and others, but who have not been recognized or honored by Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center. Yad Vashem’s list of rescuers is not comprehensive, as it relies solely on nominations, primarily by individuals who were rescued. Furthermore, Yad Vashem does not recognize Jewish rescuers. ISRAH will draw on both primary and secondary research on rescue in deciding who is to be documented and honored. These will include the members of prominent rescue organizations. For example, Varian Fray, of the Emergency Rescue Committee, was honored by Yad Vashem in 1994, yet the other 50 members of the Committee have yet to be officially recognized for their activities in Marseilles, France, 1940-1943. In addition, ISRAH will recognize both Jewish and non-Jewish rescuers.
As of 2017, Yad Vashem recognizes 26,513 individuals from 51 countries for rescuing Jews in the Shoah. Yet, there were many tens of thousands of other individuals who were active in rescuing Jews who have not been recognized. This site will shine a light on these heroic men and women and their organizations.
ISRAH will promote awareness of rescue and altruism in the Holocaust to European governments whose citizens participated in rescue and relief activities. It will encourage other organizations to establish their own systems to recognize altruistic individuals. In cases where individuals were punished for their altruistic activities during the Holocaust, ISRAH will encourage these institutions and governments to rehabilitate the reputations of these rescuers.
ISRAH works with the families of the rescuers honored in project. It also works with individuals who were rescued during the Holocaust, 1933-1945, and their families and descendants. It coordinates with the governments of the rescuers, particularly in the case of diplomatic and other state-sponsored rescuers, to obtain photographs, documents and other materials relating to the rescue activities. We will share these photographs, documents, oral histories and other materials with institutions, organizations and researchers, so that they may be as widely disseminated as possible.
Visas for Life Project
The Visas for Life Project was founded in 1994 with the goal of studying the role of diplomats in rescuing and aiding Jews and other refugees throughout the world during the period of the Holocaust. Diplomatic rescue took place throughout Nazi-occupied Europe, neutral Europe, and throughout the world. Diplomatic rescuers operated in and represented more than 36 countries. Please click here for a comprehensive list of diplomatic rescuers.
The Project initiated a series of traveling exhibits on diplomatic rescue that were presented at the United Nations in New York and Geneva, at the Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration, at the Simon Wiesenthal Center Museum of Tolerance, and at the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust. The exhibit was presented in more than 200 venues throughout the world.
Jewish Rescuers Project
ISRAH has also created a database of Jewish rescuers. Many tens of thousands of Jews operated throughout the world to organize efforts to save their fellow Jews from being murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators. This database provides a list of Jewish individuals and rescue organizations, along with non-Jewish individuals and organizations who aided them in their efforts. Please click here for the Jewish Rescuers website.
Please check back with us often, as we will be adding a large amount of material on the rescue of Jews throughout Europe.
Prepared by Eric Saul, Executive Director, Institute for the Study of Rescue and Altruism in the Holocaust, a nonprofit corporation. Eric Saul’s biography is available here.
What’s New
Diplomatic rescue took place throughout Nazi-occupied Europe, neutral Europe, and throughout the world. Diplomatic rescuers operated in and represented more than 36 countries. The Diplomatic Rescue page provides information about diplomatic rescue and a comprehensive list of diplomatic rescuers.
We are now coordinating with the International Committee for the Lados Group. We have just launched a website, which describes the rescue activities of this historic group. Please visit the website at TheLadosGroup.com.
Comments and Feedback
Please let us know if you have any comments about the website, or if you have any additions or corrections to our data.
If you are aware of rescue activities of an individual who has not been documented, we would be very much interested in this information.
You can contact us at VisasForLife@cs.com.
Content last updated September 11, 2022