The Righteous: The Unsung Heroes of the Holocaust

Rating:
Summary: Interesting topic, but a disjointed book lacking analysis
Review: This book has gotten a lot of praise for its treatment of a subject that has been overlooked for too long. That being said, this book -- as a work of history -- has some serious flaws. It is a collection of anecdotes, lacking analysis.

Each chapter contains scores of tales and anecdotes of rescue. The author does little to link them up. He provides scant analysis contrasting his different anecdotes or establishing patterns of rescue (e.g. those who did it for money vs. those who acted out of religious belief or ideology, cities vs. villages, etc.). The chapters are arranged by country or geographical region of Europe, but there is hardly any discussion explaining why some countries had higher rates of rescue than others. It doesn't seem as if Gilbert has a working thesis that he wishes to defend through his evidence. Rather, it seems that he went to the Yad Vashem archive and collected as many interesting tales of rescue as he could find and then categorized them by country for his book.

Because it is filled with many, many interesting stories, this book will chiefly be of interest to "lay readers" or armchair historians with an interest in Holocaust studies. Professional historians and scholars of the Holocaust may use this book as a resource (esp. for teaching), but they will quickly stumble upon this book's limits.

Rating:
Summary: Conglomeration of Rescue Stories Broken out by Region
Review: This book isn't so much "written" as it is "assembled." On the other hand, the research task accomplished here is gargantuan, and it's a good deed to make these testimonies easily accessible under one cover.
There were a larger number of good people who helped Jews and put not only their own lives at stake, but the lives of their families, than I imagined. Many of whom gave their lives and those of their families in their effort.
Splitting meager rations of food among too many people, creating special hiding places around their homes, smuggling documents, all to save the lives of neighbors and strangers; all these selfless acts and more are recorded to offer a different view of ordinary citizens during the War.
Mostly the rescuers are Christian because of the region, but there are a few Muslims in the mix and even a few sympathetic German soldiers.
One story that I was familiar with, I was kind of disappointed with the treatment it received in this volume. A Polish woman named Irene Opdyke saved 9 Jews under the very nose of a German Major. One day, he accidentally caught her with those she was hiding. The book (p. 45) says she was able to convince the Major "somehow" not to turn her and the Jews in. It does not say that she bartered her innocent 17-year-old body on an on-going basis for the lives of the Jews she protected. (I have not read it, but her book is called "In My Hands"). I don't know a 17-year-old who can figure out how to bag groceries let alone hide 9 Jews from a German Major in his own home.
I suspect there was much more of this kind of exploitation going on than the book would lead one to believe. Not an especially good read, but a good deed, and uplifting information.

Rating:
Summary: Conglomeration of Rescue Stories Broken out by Region
Review: This book isn't so much "written" as it is "assembled." On the other hand, the research task accomplished here is gargantuan, and it's a good deed to make these testimonies easily accessible under one cover.
There were a larger number of good people who helped Jews and put not only their own lives at stake, but the lives of their families, than I imagined. Many of whom gave their lives and those of their families in their effort.
Splitting meager rations of food among too many people, creating special hiding places around their homes, smuggling documents, all to save the lives of neighbors and strangers; all these selfless acts and more are recorded to offer a different view of ordinary citizens during the War.
Mostly the rescuers are Christian because of the region, but there are a few Muslims in the mix and even a few sympathetic German soldiers.
One story that I was familiar with, I was kind of disappointed with the treatment it received in this volume. A Polish woman named Irene Opdyke saved 9 Jews under the very nose of a German Major. One day, he accidentally caught her with those she was hiding. The book (p. 45) says she was able to convince the Major "somehow" not to turn her and the Jews in. It does not say that she bartered her innocent 17-year-old body on an on-going basis for the lives of the Jews she protected. (I have not read it, but her book is called "In My Hands"). I don't know a 17-year-old who can figure out how to bag groceries let alone hide 9 Jews from a German Major in his own home.
I suspect there was much more of this kind of exploitation going on than the book would lead one to believe. Not an especially good read, but a good deed, and uplifting information.

Rating:
Summary: Conglomeration of Rescue Stories Broken out by Region
Review: This book isn't so much "written" as it is "assembled." On the other hand, the research task accomplished here is gargantuan, and it's a good deed to make these testimonies easily accessible under one cover.
There were a larger number of good people who helped Jews and put not only their own lives at stake, but the lives of their families, than I imagined. Many of whom gave their lives and those of their families in their effort.
Splitting meager rations of food among too many people, creating special hiding places around their homes, smuggling documents, all to save the lives of neighbors and strangers; all these selfless acts and more are recorded to offer a different view of ordinary citizens during the War.
Mostly the rescuers are Christian because of the region, but there are a few Muslims in the mix and even a few sympathetic German soldiers.
One story that I was familiar with, I was kind of disappointed with the treatment it received in this volume. A Polish woman named Irene Opdyke saved 9 Jews under the very nose of a German Major. One day, he accidentally caught her with those she was hiding. The book (p. 45) says she was able to convince the Major "somehow" not to turn her and the Jews in. It does not say that she bartered her innocent 17-year-old body on an on-going basis for the lives of the Jews she protected. (I have not read it, but her book is called "In My Hands"). I don't know a 17-year-old who can figure out how to bag groceries let alone hide 9 Jews from a German Major in his own home.
I suspect there was much more of this kind of exploitation going on than the book would lead one to believe. Not an especially good read, but a good deed, and uplifting information.