Yad Vashem

Righteous Among The Nations

By James Quigley

What it’s about

The Righteous Among the Nations is all about remembering the small minority of bystanders who risked their own lives in the rescuing of Jews during the Holocaust

It is massively important that we don’t let these brave souls vanish from living memory. It was them who were the tiny number of people to do something about the holocaust despite the threats made on their own lives and those of their families.

Criteria for Recognition

• Documentation (written survivor testimonies or other) of the person in question, proving that they – a non-Jew - assisted in rescuing a Jew during the holocaust and in the process, risking their life, freedom or safety to do so.

• The documentation must include details of first contact, dates and places, details of the rescue and any dangers to the rescuers

Adelaide Hautval

• Was imprisoned at Bourges for illegally trying to travel to Paris from Vichy to attend her mother’s funeral.

• She began protesting about the incarceration of Jews into the prison and she eventually ended up wearing a yellow star with “Friend of the Jews” out of choice.

• After a year of imprisonment she was sent to Birkenau death camp.

• While there she used her psychiatric skills to care for the ill women in the camp without needing to report it. This was important because if anyone was reported to be ill then they were killed, and so every person she healed she was also rescuing from death.

• She continued her work until she was moved to help with medical experiments but immediately refused when she found they were inhumanely experimenting on Jews.

• She was moved around the various concentration camps but managed to survive until liberartion.

• Later in life she served as a major witness in a trial convicting another Nazi Doctor for his cruel inhumane experiments.

Vichy

Lessons

• From this it is clear to see that a lesson we can learn from this is that no matter how dire the situation, there is always something you can do to help.

Father Bruno Reynders• He was a priest in Belgium before the war and

was assigned chaplain of the 41st Artillery Regiment during it.

• During Belgium being occupied he sustained a leg injury and was sent to POW camps for 6 months

• On his return to Belgium he linked up with the Belgian Resistance and assisted in smuggling British pilots back to England.

• As the holocaust began he moved to a home for the blind in Hodbomont and discovered it was secretly hiding Jews.

• He became a collaborator and assisted at that location until it closed leading to him returning to his monastery at Mont-Cesar where he continued to rescue and hide Jews

• From this an underground network formed with other religious people and places began assisting him. It was often the morals instilled by religion that sparked their involvement.

• He often moved the children personally so as to make them look like part of the monastery. They had forged papers (ration cards) and changed their names. He continued until the war ended.

Hodbomont Mont-Cesar

Comparison

There is no doubt that Adelaide Hautval’s contributions saved the lives of many Jews and her bravery was selfless but Father Bruno’s underground railroad saved just as many and if not more, before they were caught. His dedication, especially in transporting the children personally and providing communication links between families involved, I believe, would have meant more to the people it affected.