Historical overwiew of nonviolence

Complementary Slides

“The Righteous among the Nations”

Étienne Godinot Translation : Claudia McKenny Engström .28.05.2015

“ The Righteous among the Nations ”

Are categorised in these slides the people who took the greatest risks during the Second World War to protect and save people threatened by the Nazi regime, in particular the Jews.

This admirable action led without violence, in humanity and compassion for human beings does not inscribe itself in a nonviolent strategy. But if millions had acted as such, history would be quite different.

The expression “righteous among the nation”, in Judaism, comes from Talmud. The title righteous among the nations was given in 1953 by Israeli Memorial Yad Vashem, dedicated to the Holocaust victims.

Photos :

- Righteous among the nations medallion

-The wall of the righteous among the nations, Holocaust memorial, Paris.

Jules-Géraud Saliège

(1870-1956), Catholic Bishop, then Archbishop of Toulouse and Cardinal. Denounces anti-Semitism already in 1933, racism in 1939. In August 1942, informed of the existence of an extermination camp, he commands a pastoral letter condemning the treatment reserved for Jews be read in all Churches of the diocese. Denounces Jews’ deportation, the STO (obligatory labour in Germany) and Nazi exactions.

Arrested by the Gestapo on 9th June 1944, he is saved thanks to health issues (medulla paralysis), his age and a nun’s protest. The German soldiers in charge of his investigation said he had to go and ask for instructions, and never came back.

At the Liberation, protests against the injustices and violence committed by partisans.

Photo below : The pastoral letter of 23rd August 1942.

Courageous French Bishops

If a great part of French bishops secretly engaged to protect Jews, only a few publically protested against anti Jew raids :

•Aimable Chassaigne (Tulle), •Jean Delay (Marseille), •Pierre-Marie Gerlier (Lyon),

•Jean-Joseph-Aimé Moussaron (Albi) ,•Paul Rémond (Nice),•Jules-Géraud Saliège (Toulouse), •Pierre-Marie Théas (Montauban),•Edmund Vansteenberghe (Bayonne)

Photos :

- Pierre-Marie Gerlier

- Pierre Marie Théas, arrested by the Gestapo on 9 th June 1944. In March 1945, he was at the initiative, with Marthe Dortel-Claudot, of the Franco-German reconciliation movement foundation, that later will become the Pax Christi movement.

Aristides de Souza Mendes

(1885-1954), Portuguese consul in Bordeaux from 1938.

Received the circular nr. 14 in 1939 from Salazar government, which forbid Portuguese consuls to deliver visas to Jews, stateless persons, refugees, Russians, etc. Warned by his friend Rabbi Kruger, he disobeys and delivers visas in Bordeaux and then Bayonne, which also meant establishing his office on the street after having been relieved from his functions by Salazar. He saved between 8 000 and 10 000 people during the war.

Sentenced in Lisbon to a light punishment, the dictator prolongs it and he ends his life in misery. Rehabilitated after his death in 1988 by Portuguese National assembly.

Édouard Vigneron

(1886-1972), Former soldier in the First Word War, Chief of the Foreigners police office in Nancy in 1940, he has in charge to control foreigners. With his deputy Pierre Marie and their men, Charles Bouy, Henri Lespinasse, François Pinot, Émile Thiébault, Charles Thouron, they stop a raid against the Jews on 19th July 1942.

Warned the day before that a similar raid to the one at the Vel d’Hiv in Paris would happen in Nancy, they spent all day warning the Jewish families and gave them real-fake identity cards not carrying the mention “Jew ”, thus allowing them to reach the free zone. Instead of the 385 Jews expected, 18 Jews were arrested in Nancy.

Photo below : The Nancy Echo on 19th October 1940 announced the status of Jew is published in the official journal (book of laws).

Edouard Vigneron and Nancy police

E. Vigneron, arrested and transferred to the Feldkommandantatur Tribunal 591, is sentenced to 3 months imprisonment and dismissed (forced retirement).

These sanctions were clement : most probably, German authorities did not want, by using a harder repression, to encourage a civil disobedience action by police forces, a publicity that might have been contagious.

He will be reintegrated on 1st December 1944, with retroactive effect.

Photo : Pierre Marie, deputy to Edouard Vigneron.

Paul Ersnt Grüninger

(1891-1972), Swiss school teacher, then police officer in St. Gall canton at the Austrian border.

In August 1938, to help Jews into Switzerland, and with his superior, Valentin Keel’s agreement, modifies the dates of the refugees arrival, delivers fake ID, and even helps them physically cross the border, thus helping more than 2 000 refugees, and raises funds for them.

Temporarily suspended, an investigation is led in March 1939, he is dismissed in May, sentenced in December for violating his duty. He works partially during the 30 years of his life after.

“ I acted for noble motives, as man and civil servant ”.

Felix Kersten

(1898-1960), Masseuse born in Estonia and trained in Helsinki (Finland), then Berlin by Dr. Kô, a Tibetan therapist using a powerful method. Heals members of Dutch royal family, and also SS chief Heinrich Himmler, who suffered from unbearable pains, which he cured during 5 years.

He succeeded * in getting from the Reichsführer the cancellation of 3 million Jews’ deportation in the region of Lublin in Poland and the liberation of concentration camp prisoners.

In March 1945, he succeeded in convincing that the camps not be dynamited before the allies’ arrival. He saved several thousands of lives.

* thanks to his friendships at the Finnish, Swedish and Dutch embassy, and thanks to the secret help from Rudolf Brandt, Himmler personal secretary.

Chiune Sugihara

(1900-1986), Japanese diplomat, in charge of opening a Japanese consulate in Kaunas, Lithuania. Asks his minister to deliver transit visas for Polish Jews who wanted to reach Palestine or the USA, which is refused three times.

He disobeys his minister and delivers 2 000 visas on official paper, and approximatively 4 000 on free paper. Forms lacking, he writes everything down by hand, sometimes working more than 10 hours a day.

On 2nd August 1940, he receives the order to close the consulate and go to Berlin, but does not do anything about it until 28th August. After the war, he is forced to leave the diplomatic corps. Becomes a salesman in Moscow in 1960.

André et Magda Trocmé

(1901-1971), French minister and protestant theologian, founder of the Cevenol college.

Starts preaching in 1934 in the village of Chambon-sur-Ligon (Haute Loire). Calls the population to actively resist non-violently and organises it.

With his wife Madga, the protestant community, the SCI, the Salvation Army, the Quakers and the CIMADE, etc., makes of Chambon a place of refuge for Jews, anti-Nazi Germans, Frenchmen escaping the STO : raises funds, makes fake papers, warning networks, elaborates escape channels, opens a school. It is estimated 5 000 Jews were saved.

Sabine et Miron Zlatin

Sabine Chwast (1907-1996), Polish Jew, flees in 1920 Polish anti-Semitism, marries in Nancy Russian Jew Miron Zlatin, born 1904. In 1940, the couple leaves for Montpellier, and then settles in a small village of the Ain, Izieu. They create in May 1943 a house for the children of Izieu (photo below) for Jewish children, passage point in a network for saving lives. At least 105 children, Jews for the most part, were taken care of from May 1943.

On 6th April 1944, Lyon Gestapo led by Klaus Barbie, arrested 44 children in the camp and 7 teachers present. Sabine is in Montpellier where she seeks help to disperse the children. After the raid, she engages in resistance. At the Liberation, she works at the hotel Centre Lutetia, managing refugees as they return from the camps. In July 1945, she learns that her husband and the children were brought to Auschwitz and exterminated.

Oscar Schindler

(1908-1947), German Sudetenland industrial, member of the Nazi party. Makes his fortune directing the Deutsche Emailwaren-fabrik, factory specialised in kitchen batteries close to Plaszow internment camp, south of Krakow.

He takes advantage of his good relations with chief of camp Avon Göth, who gives him workers among the numerous Jews interned.

Later, touched by their fate, sides with them and helped by his wife Emily as well as Jews Itzhak Stern, saves the lives of more than 1 100 Jews, avoiding them extermination camp by working for him in a factory integrated in the Brünnlitz camp.

Orchestrates the bankruptcy of this factory, namely to save Jews and not slow down allies’ intervention with weapon production.

Irena Sendlerowa

(1910-2008), Born Irena Krzyzanowska, Polish resistant. Organises the clandestine passage of 2 500 Jewish children from the ghetto in Warsaw to nearby towns.

Transports the children in tool boxes in her plumber truck and trains her dog to bark to cover sounds in case of police control.

Arrested and tortured by the Gestapo, liberated by prison guards bought by Zegota, a clandestine movement helping Jews.

Had written the names of the children and the one of their foster families on a list she kept in a jar in her garden. 2000 children were found thanks to it.

Raoul Wallenberg

(1912-1947 ?), Swedish diplomat in Budapest, his mission was to contribute to saving Jews in Hungary.

Along with his homologue Per Anger, delivered Swedish temporary passports, stating their beholders were waiting to be repatriated. Negotiates with Nazi officials such as Adolf Eichmann, in order to obtain the annulment of deportations.

He saves several thousand Jews, between 30 000 and 100 000.

Arrested in January 1945 by the Red Army, probably suspected of being a US spy. He is probably executed in 1947 by the Soviets.

Odette Rosenstock et Moussa Abadi

O. Rosenstock (1915-1999), obliged by the status of Jew to leave her function as doctor, becomes a midwife. She joins her husband Moussa Abadi in Nice. Engages in resistance and becomes Sylvie Delatre. She puts into place, with her husband, the clandestine network Marcel, to save children.

Contacts pastors, mayors of small villages and secular institutions susceptible of helping with hiding places. Moussa asks P. Paul Rémond, Nice bishop, to open catholic institutions. They hide 527 children. Every day, Odette goes to each one to check their physical and moral health, and pay their stay.

Arrested in April 1944 by French militia, delivered to the Gestapo, incarcerated in Drancy, sent to Auschwitz Birkenau and then Bergen Belsen, freed in spring 1945.

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