Stories of Courage and Courageous Acts

Our Aim:

To illustrate how individual peoples of different faiths helped to saved Jews from the horror of the Nazi death camps.

To illuminate how individuals could risk their lives to help fellow human beings, despite the risk to themselves and their loved ones.

To promote community cohesion: to encourage people of different faiths and different cultures to have tolerance and mutual respect.

The Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, list thousands of individuals who they acknowledge as “Righteous Amongst the Gentiles”. We have selected just a few amongst those many.

But we believe our selection offers an insight into the diverse cultures and beliefs of individuals be they Protestant, Catholic, or Orthodox Christians, or Sunni or Shia Muslims, Our selection also depicts individuals from Western or Eastern Europe which had very different social, economic and political circumstances,

Our selection of these people shows not only their bravery but how cunning and subterfuge were often employed and how in one case the Nazi discredited theory of Germans being descended from a mythical Aryan super race, was used to save many Jews of Iranian origin,

As this Exhibition is being held in Porto, we wish to pay particular homage to the memory of Aristides de Sousa Menzies who to overcome his own personal dilemmas if not demons, so that thousands of Jews could escape from Bordeaux and in many cases arrive in Porto to emigrate to the USA.

Finally, whilst this Exhibition has a single focus on the acts of bravery that saved Jews from the clutches of the Nazis, we acknowledge also the suffering of many others particularly that of Romanies and Gay men. We are also note that the Nazi experiments on extermination methods were first practiced on those Germans who the Nazis thought were inferior in intellect or with physical disabilities. But we note that due to public opposition by churches the programmes were stopped or curtailed. Even during the later Nazi occupation of much of Europe where there was some opposition to their policies of rounding up Jews, there was some success.

Maybe we should learn this one lesson from the Holocaust: the Nazis always preferred to operate with the passive support of the majority even if that support was backed up with intimidation and terror.