By Jerry Klinger
Over 28,000 extraordinary human beings from over 40 countries have very deservedly been recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations. The Righteous risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.
They did not have to save Jews. It would have been very understandable if they chose not to risk their lives or the lives of their family and communities to save Jews.
Yad Vashem is clear about its obligation officially begun in 1963. “Yad Vashem was established to perpetuate the memory of the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust. One of Yad Vashem’s principal duties is to convey the gratitude of the State of Israel and the Jewish people to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.”
From the same forty countries, not one single Jew has ever been honored or recognized by Yad Vashem for, like the Righteous Among the Nations, risking their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.
Does that mean that no Jew, during the Holocaust, risked their life to save another Jew?
Does that mean that Yad Vashem has no interest in Jews who saved Jews?
Ironic… Israel was founded by Jews to save Jews. Theodor Herzl’s vision of a Jewish homeland, a refuge from danger, was created by Jewish life, money, and will. It is true there were many non-Jews who shared and helped, for differing reasons, establish Herzl’s vision and Israel. In the end, then, today, and tomorrow, it will be Jews and Jewish blood that will keep Israel as the Jewish safe haven it is.
Yad Yashem has many reasons for its failure and continuing refusal to recognize Jews who saved Jews during the Holocaust.
Whatever the reason, the result is the same.
Yad Vashem’s mission to tell the story of the Holocaust is incomplete, a failure in this respect.
There have been small, organized efforts in Israel to recognize Jews who saved Jews during the Holocaust. After long years of frustration, Haim Roet, himself a Jewish child during the Holocaust whose life was saved by a Jew, organized a group that associated with B’Nai Brith. Over the years they have vetted and honored hundreds of Jews who saved Jews during the Holocaust. One of the Jews they recognized was Wilfrid Israel.
Wilfrid Israel, at the risk of his life, used his position and personal fortune to save over 20,000 Jews during the Holocaust.
Wilfrid Israel saved more Jews during the Holocaust than any Jew. His name and deeds are known by few and remembered by even fewer.
Wilfrid could have used his personal fortune and position as the head of the German Jewish community to just save himself and his family. He chose otherwise. As a moral, decent human being and a homosexual, Wilfrid knew clearly what the Nazis would do to him.
Wilfrid chose to stay and save lives.
Wilfrid knew he could not save the world. Wilfrid knew, if he can’t save the world, he can save a life. If he can save even a single life, the Talmudic dictum is, he has saved a world complete.
June 1, 1943, on a mission for The Jewish Agency to save another 1500 Jews, Wilfrid’s plane was shot down over the Bay of Biscay by the Luftwaffe. He has no grave. He had no memorial of honor.
The Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation (JASHP) has undertaken a major effort to honor and create memory for Wilfrid. Jews who chose to save Jews during the Holocaust deserve better than Yad Vashem has given them.
The first part of a four-part effort to honor Wilfrid was completed at the Hoop Lane Crematorium Holocaust Rescuer Wall in Golders Green, London. A public plaque for Wilfrid was just placed.
JASHP is looking to place a marker on the home he lived in, Riverside Drive, in Golders Green. JASHP is building a major memorial to him in Israel that will be dedicated in October. On the memorial will be carved, “If you can’t save the world, save a life.”
JASHP’s goal is to “encourage” the British Jewish community to support Wilfrid’s recognition as a British Hero of the Holocaust.
Will it happen? Time will tell.
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Jerry Klinger is the President of the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation, www.JASHP.org