Righteous Among the Nations

Introduction 
During the Holocaust, helping Jewish people could cost you your job, your freedom, or your life. Millions of people knew what was happening and chose to look away. But some did not. The Righteous Among the Nations are the non-Jews who risked everything to save Jewish lives during the Holocaust. They forged documents, hid families, smuggled children, and leveraged whatever power or resources they had to keep others alive. Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust memorial authority, has formally recognized more than 28,000 of them from 51 countries, and many more stories remain unknown. This video introduces five of those rescuers: Varian Fry, Irena Sendler, Martha and Waitstill Sharp, Chiune Sugihara, and the community of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon. 

It also explores what scholars have learned about the traits and circumstances that shaped rescuers' choices, and what it meant, in practical terms, to keep making that choice again and again under conditions of extreme risk. Studying rescuers doesn't minimize the scale of the Holocaust or shift focus away from its victims. It does something essential: it shows that even in the darkest circumstances, human agency existed. People made choices. And those choices mattered. 

How to Use this Guide 
This guide will support students and educators in understanding who the Righteous Among the Nations were, what drove them to act, and what their stories reveal about moral courage and human choice during the Holocaust. The activities in this guide work best when students have some foundational knowledge of the Holocaust. If this video is students' first introduction, consider pairing it with additional historical context before or after viewing.