'Just as the hand, field before the eye, can hide the taffest mountain, so
the routine of everyday fife can keep us from seeing the vast radiance and
the secret wonders that fill the world.'
Chasidic 18th Century
HAPPY NEW YEAR
from the
Holiday
The Righteous
Among The Nations
MICHAEL LEVEY FAMILY
Yad Vashem has a new
program to honor
righteous gentiles.
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CARL ALPERT
Special to The Jewish News
W
hen Yad Vashem was set
up by act of the Knesset
in 1953, the idea of pay-
ing tribute to non-Jews
who had risked their lives (and often
gave their lives) to save Jews during
the Holocaust, was part of the pro-
gram.
However, it was not until after the
Eichmann trial, some nine years later,
that steps were taken to implement
the idea, this at the urgent insistence
of Justice Moshe Landau, who had
presided over that trial. Those in
charge calculated that there might be
several hundred names involved, and
so it was decided to set up a grove,
with a tree dedicated to
each of the "Righteous
Among the Nations", as
they were termed.
Recommendations
poured in. Approval was
given only on the basis of
substantial corroborative
evidence, not just hearsay.
Several hundred trees
were planted, then hun-
dreds more. The total
reached a thousand, and
then 2,000, and Yad
Vashem ran out of space.
The new program calls for entering
each name appropriately on a special
Honor Wall in the Garden of the
Righteous.
There are now close to 15,000
confirmed names, and plans are
already being implemented to publish
a master Lexicon which will comprise
approximately ten volumes, divided
by countries, in suitable format. Each
volume will contain text in Hebrew,
English and the language of the
country involved, and will include
historical background information.
The first volume, dedicated to
France, with about 1,600 names, is
scheduled to appear early next year.
The following volume will list
close to 5,000 names from Poland.
Others on the list include
Holland, 4,000 names; Belgium, 900;
Ukraine, 850; Czechia and Slovakia,
360; Hungary, 360; Lithuania, 360;
Germany, 310; Russia and Belo-
Russia, 240; Italy, 200; Greece, 200.
Poland heads the list because in
that country there is an official gov-
ernment agency which gathers and
helps authenticate information. In
some other places, especially in the
former Soviet Union, it has not
always been easy to obtain bone fide
names because even the principals
concerned are not always eager to be
known. It was uncomfortable to be
known as a rescuer of Jews, and some
were boycotted or otherwise ill-treat-
ed by their neighbors. The situation
in western Europe, of course, was
quite different.
There have been a few cases where
the individual refused to accept the
honor, responding, in effect, we don't
need medals for having done what we
thought was right. In isolated cases,
the individual refused the honor
because he disagreed with Israel's pol-
icy toward the Palestinians.
More than 60 of the Righteous
have come to live in Israel, often
because they married Jews. The most
frequent cases are of gen-
tile women who married
the men they had saved.
Catholics predominate on
the lists because they lived
in countries where the
worst of the Nazi atrocities
were perpetrated.
No decisions have been
made as yet with regard to
distribution of the Lexicon
— to libraries, institutions,
or offered for public sale.
Yad Vashem is still seeking
financial support for the
project. The Dutch Government
recently promised support for publi-
cation of the volume dedicated to
deeds of Dutch citizens.
Originally built to accommodate a
maximum of 300,000 visitors a year,
Yad Vashem now finds it necessary to
expand in order to receive in excess
of 1,500,000. The library contains 40
million documents, the world's
largest collection on the Holocaust.
The lexicon project is headed by
Professor Yisrael Gutman. The chair-
man of the directorate of Yad
Vashem, Avner Shalev, terms it "a
means by which the Jewish people
can thank the Righteous Among the
Nations who were sources of light in
those abysmally dark years. It is
important as a major source for
research, and has monumental value
as an educational tool of historical
and humanitarian significance for the
generations to come."
Yad
Vashem
will list
each
name.