The Courage to Care
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- $29.99
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- $29.99
Publisher Description
The extraordinary story of a few non-Jews who risked their lives to rescue and protect Jews from Nazi persecution in Europe during World War II is told in The Courage to Care. It features the first person accounts of rescuers and of survivors whose stories address the basic issue of individual responsibility: the notion that one person can act—and that those actions can make a difference. These rescuers are true heroes, but modest ones. They did a thousand ordinary things—opening doors, hiding and feeding strangers, keeping secrets—in an extraordinary time. For this, they are known as "Righteous Among the Nations of the World."
The rescuers and survivors are from many countries in Europe—Italy, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, France, Bulgaria, Poland, Germany—and they tell their stories with simplicity and dignity. Each story is interwoven with old snapshots of rescuers and survivors, their homes, their hiding places, and the communities in which they lived.
Noted author, teacher, and human rights activist, Elie Wiesel, helps us to ask: "what made these people different?" He points out how those who helped Jews during the Holocaust "changed history" by their actions. The Courage to Care reminds readers of the power of individual action.
This compelling book is the companion volume to the award-winning film, The Courage to Care, and includes the personal narratives of the same persons in the film and many others.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This companion volume to an Academy Awardnominated documentary of the same title is edited by the film's coproducers and celebrates those "righteous Gentiles'' who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. The insightful, first-person oral reflections of rescuers, survivors and Holocaust scholars are eloquent and moving in their simplicity. Pacifism, Christianity, happy home lives, moral outrage and personal friendships are cited as factors in the acts of heroism performed by isolated individuals, as well as entire communities (the Dutch village of Niuvelande; Le Chambon in France) and countries (Denmark). Particularly striking is the modesty of the rescuers who epitomize the ``banality of goodness'': ``We still don't think what we did in the war was a big deal. . . . We don't like to be called heroes,'' says Johtje Vos, who hid 36 people in Holland. Photos.