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Holocaust. There is perhaps more of a lesson in the story of the rescuers -- the heroes than even in the atrocities. Most of the victims unfortunately had no control -- no choice in their destiny. The rescuers, on the other hand, had choices. They could have chosen to have looked the other way -- as many around the world did. But not the heroes. The heroes made a decision. They chose to risk their own lives, their family's, and they often risked their homes and their own comfort to help save thousands of Jews.
    At the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Center in Jerusalem, there is a section called: Righteous of the Nations, set up in 1953 to honor the rescuers. As of January 2011, Yad Vashem has recognized 23,788 Righteous Among the Nations from 45 countries. This in no way represents the entire list of rescuers. Some countries will not allow names of rescuers to be reported. Yad Vashem will only accept names of Righteous Gentiles, as they are called, when there are witness testimonies to prove the rescue. Yad Vashem admits that many times the Jewish person died even with the assistance.
    For every rescuer there were many anonymous accomplices -- people who helped, but who chose to remain anonymous. The anonymous accomplices would leave packages of food or supplies on a doorstep in the middle of the night. The anonymous accomplices would give a signal when a Nazi soldier approached. Many were accomplices just by remaining silent -- by not saying anything, even when they knew that their punishment could be torture or execution.

Chapter 11 - Zegota: Polish Secret Organization
     
     
     
    Zegota, also known as the Konrad Zegota Committee, was the cryptonym for the clandestine underground organization that provided assistance to the Jewish people living in Nazi-occupied Poland. Rada Pomocy Żydom, as it was called in Polish, was run by the Polish Government in Exile and was organized by both Jews and non-Jews from numerous underground political parties.

    Zegota helped to save about 4,000 Polish Jews by providing food, medical care, money and false identification documents. Zegota played a large part in placing Jewish children with foster families and orphanages and church institutions. In Warsaw, Żegota's children department was run by Irena Sendler, who managed the placement of approximately 2,500 of the 9,000 Jewish children smuggled out of the Warsaw Ghetto.
    Many members of Zegota were memorialized in Israel in 1963 with a planting of a tree in the Avenue of the Righteous at Yad Vashem.

Irena Sendler a.k.a, Irena Sendlerowa
     
     
     

    Zegota appointed Irena Sendler, a Polish social worker, the head of its children's department. When the Nazis began destroying the Warsaw ghetto when the Nazis began destroying the Warsaw ghetto, Irena Sendler started a large-scale campaign to rescue the children who lived there. A total of 2,500 children were saved, brought out of the ghetto and hidden in Polish families, orphanages and monasteries. They received false identities and other help. In 1943, the Gestapo arrested Sendler, tortured her and sentenced her to death.
    The Zegota council managed to bribe German guards and have Sendler released, and until the end of the war, she lived under a false name. After 1945, she worked at the social welfare department of Warsaw, contributing to the establishment of orphanages and rest homes for those who had lost their families in the war. Sendler also managed the department of medical education at the Ministry of Health, where she put forward an initiative to open high schools for girls who wanted to become nurses.
    In 1983, the Israeli Yad Vashem institute honored Sendler with the Righteous Among the Nations medal, and in 2003 Sendler received the Order of the White Eagle. In 2006, the Children of the Holocaust association and the American "Life in a Jar" foundation, with the Polish foreign ministry's support, established the Irena Sendler Award "For Healing the World." In 2007, Irena Sendler