?In the Garden of the Righteous brilliantly describes how in the midst of the brutality of the
Holocaust and the collaboration acquiescence and passivity of millions there were people who
risked their lives to save others out of a sense of shared humanity. This book is more timely
than ever.??Stuart E. Eizenstat author of Imperfect Justice: Looted Assets Slave Labor and
the Unfinished Business of World War II These powerfully illuminating and inspiring profiles
pay tribute to the incredible deeds of the Righteous Among the Nations little-known heroes who
saved countless lives during the Holocaust. Less than a century ago the Second World War took
the lives of more than fifty million people more than six million of them were systematically
exterminated through crimes of such enormity that a new name to describe the horror was coined:
the Holocaust. Yet amid such darkness there were glimmers of light?courageous individuals who
risked everything to save those hunted by the Nazis. Today as bigotry and intolerance and the
threats of fascism and authoritarianism are ascendent once again these heroes' little-known
stories?among the most remarkable in human history?resonate powerfully. Yad Vashem the
Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem has recognized more than 27 000 individuals as ?Righteous
Among the Nations??non-Jewish people such as Raoul Wallenberg and Oskar Schindler who risked
their lives to save their persecuted neighbors. In the Garden of the Righteous chronicles
extraordinary acts at a time when the moral choices were stark the threat immense and the
passive apathy of millions predominated. Deeply researched and astonishingly moving it focuses
on ten remarkable stories including that of the circus ringmaster Adolf Althoff and his wife
Maria the Portuguese diplomat Aristides de Sousa Mendes the Italian cycling champion Gino
Bartali the Polish social worker Irena Sendler and the Japanese spy Chinue Sugihara who
provided hiding places participated in underground networks refused to betray their neighbors
and secured safe passage. They repeatedly defied authorities and risked their lives their
livelihoods and their families to save the helpless and the persecuted. In the Garden of the
Righteous is a testament to their kindness and courage.
