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Swiss American Historical Society Review

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Joy Laudie

Keywords

Switzerland, Swiss-American, Nazis, Holocaust

Abstract

Yad Vashem was created in 1953 by the Israeli parliament as a memorial to the Holocaust. Since its inception over 21,000 non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews from the Nazis have been singled out as "Righteous Among the Nations." Mordecai Paldiel has been the director of the Department for the Righteous at Yad Vashem for the past twenty-five years. His position has allowed him to monitor the investigations of cases in which men and women are nominated for recognition in saving Jewish lives. The work has opened his eyes to a new aspect of human behavior; caring for someone else, even risking ones own life for the benefit of another with no tangible ulterior motive. Mr. Paldiel, believing that these accounts can have an impact on the way subsequent generations view the Holocaust, has publicized many of these rescues. He stated in Harry Cargas's Voices from the Holocaust, "The greatest sin would be to allow these stories just to gather dust and do nothing with them. If we see so much of evil on T. V., in the movies, and in stories, and if we write so much about Mengele and Hitler and the Damjanyuks and so on, wouldn't it be a measure of justice to be fascinated by those who did acts of goodness?" Paldiel's books include The Path of the Righteous: Gentile Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust (1993), Sheltering the Jews: Stories of Holocaust Rescuers (1997), Saving the Jews (2000), and in early 2007 he released yet another book entitled The Righteous Among the Nations: Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust.

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