The Righteous Among the Nations () is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe all of the non-Jews who, out of altruism, risked their lives in order to save Jews from being exterminated by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust. The term originates from the concept of , a legal term used to refer to non-Jewish observers of the Seven Laws of Noah.
Endowment
Criteria of the Knesset When Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, was established in 1953 by the Knesset, one of its tasks was to commemorate the "Righteous Among the Nations". The Righteous were defined as non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.
Since 1963, a commission headed by a justice of the Supreme Court of Israel has been charged with the duty of awarding the honorary title "Righteous Among the Nations". Guided in its work by certain criteria, the commission meticulously studies all documentation including evidence by survivors and other eyewitnesses, evaluates the historical circumstances and the element of risk to the rescuer, and then decides if the case meets the criteria. Those criteria are:
Only a Jewish party can put forward a nomination. Helping a family member or helping a Jew who converted to Christianity is not ground for recognition. Assistance has to be repeated or substantial. Assistance has to be given without any financial gain expected in return (although covering expenses such as food is acceptable).
The award has been given without regard to the social rank of the helper. It has been given to royalty such as Princess Alice of Battenberg, Queen Mother Helen of Romania and Queen Elisabeth of Belgium but also to others like the philosopher Jacques Ellul, Salvadoran diplomat José Castellanos Contreras, German industrialist Oskar Schindler, Polish singer Mieczysław Fogg, Amsterdam department store employee Hendrika Gerritsen, and Italian Roman Catholic priest Father Rufino Niccacci.
Reception in Jerusalem
A person who is recognized as Righteous for having taken risks to help Jews during the Holocaust is awarded a medal in their name, a certificate of honor, and the privilege of having the name added to those on the Wall of Honor in the Garden of the Righteous at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem (the last is in lieu of a tree planting, which was discontinued for lack of space). The awards are distributed to the rescuers or their next of kin during ceremonies in Israel, or in their countries of residence through the offices of Israel's diplomatic representatives. These ceremonies are attended by local government representatives and are given wide media coverage.
Israeli citizenship and legal benefits The Yad Vashem Law authorizes Yad Vashem "to confer honorary citizenship upon the Righteous Among the Nations, and if they have died, the commemorative citizenship of the State of Israel, in recognition of their actions". Anyone who has been recognized as "Righteous" is entitled to apply to Yad Vashem for the certificate. If the person is no longer alive, their next of kin is entitled to request that commemorative citizenship be conferred on the Righteous who has died.Honoring the Righteous
In total, men and women from 51 countries have been recognized, amounting to more than 10,000 authenticated rescue stories. Yad Vashem's policy is to pursue the program for as long as petitions for this title are received and are supported by evidence that meets the criteria.
Recipients who choose to live in the State of Israel are entitled to a pension equal to the average national wage and free health care, as well as assistance with housing and nursing care.
Recipients settled in Israel At least 130 Righteous non-Jews have settled in Israel. They were welcomed by Israeli authorities, and were granted citizenship. In the mid-1980s they became entitled to special pensions. Some of them had settled in British Mandatory Palestine before Israel's establishment shortly after World War II, or in the early years of Israel, while others came later. Those who came earlier often spoke fluent Hebrew and have integrated into Israeli society. Children and grandchildren of Righteous Gentiles are entitled to a temporary residence visa in Israel, but not Israeli citizenship.
Non-Jewish initiatives for the Righteous
Christian honours One Righteous Among the Nations, Saint Elizabeth Hesselblad of Sweden, has been canonized a saint in the Catholic Church. Eight others have been beatified: Giuseppe Girotti and Odoardo Focherini of Italy, Klymentiy Sheptytsky of Ukraine, Bernhard Lichtenberg of Germany, Sára Salkaházi of Hungary (and with origins in Košice, Slovakia), Pavol Peter Gojdič of Slovakia, and Józef and Wiktoria Ulma of Poland (together with their children).
Maria Skobtsova of Paris and her companions are recognised as martyrs in the Eastern Orthodox Church. Her feast day is 20 July.
When Algerian Catholic nun Marguerite Bernes was recognised by the Israeli Holocaust memorial centre Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations in 1974, she said of this honour that "we simply did our duty."
Giuseppina De Muro, an Italian Catholic nun who saved over 500 people from deportation to concentration camps, was declared Righteous Among the Nations in 2024.
Secular honours
In 2015, Lithuania's first street sign honoring a Righteous Among the Nations was unveiled in Vilnius. The street is named Onos Šimaitės gatvė, after Ona Šimaitė, a Vilnius University librarian who helped and rescued Jewish people in the Vilna Ghetto.
In Zvolen, Slovakia, the Park of Generous Souls commemorates the Righteous Among the Nations from Slovakia.
Beginning in 2018, China's most significant World War II museum, the War of Resistance Museum, features China's Righteous Among the Nations and other Chinese figures who helped Jews escape Europe.
Number of awards by country , the award has been made to 28,707 people. Yad Vashem emphasises that the table is not representative of the effort or proportion of Jews saved per country, and notes that these numbers "are not necessarily an indication of the actual number of rescuers in each country, but reflect the cases that were made available to Yad Vashem."
CountryNumber of awardsNotable recipients 7,318 Andrzej Bogucki, Jan Karski, Maria Kotarba, Irena Sendler, Irena Adamowicz, Benedykt Kraskowski, Irene Gut Opdyke 6,137 Willem Arondéus, Corrie ten Boom, Casper ten Boom, Betsie ten Boom, Miep Gies, Frits Philips, Johan van Hulst, Gerrit van der Veen, Bep Voskuijl, Henk Zanoli, Jan Zwartendijk, Hannie Schaft, Walraven van Hall, Elisabeth Hermsen. 4,303 Anne Beaumanoir, Jeanne Brousse, André and Magda Trocmé 2,713 Klymentiy Sheptytsky 1,819 Queen Elisabeth of Belgium 924 Ona Šimaitė, Kazys Binkis, Sofija Kymantaitė-Čiurlionienė, Kazys Grinius 887 Endre Szervánszky, Sára Salkaházi 810 Carlo Angela, Gino Bartali, Giuseppina De Muro, Giuseppe Girotti, Odoardo Focherini, Giorgio Perlasca, Lorenzo Perrone 683 666 Oskar Schindler, Wilm Hosenfeld, Hans von Dohnanyi, Bernhard Lichtenberg, Gustav Schröder, Karl Plagge, Maria von Maltzan 639 Pavel Peter Gojdič 365 Queen Helen, Queen Mother of Romania, Princess Alice of Battenberg, Damaskinos of Athens, Chrysostomos Dimitriou, Loukas Karrer 231Nikolay Kiselyov, Fedor Mikhailichenko, Maria Skobtsova 141 138 Jānis Lipke 133 Ivan Vranetić 129 Victor Kugler 115 Ella Lingens, Kurt Lingens, Karl Motesiczky 79 75 Arslan Rezniqi 69 Queen Helen, Queen Mother of Romania 68 49 Nurija Pozderac, Derviš Korkut 49 Paul Grüninger, Carl Lutz 24 22 Danish resistance movement 22 Frank Foley, Sofka Skipwith, Jane Haining 20 Dimitar Peshev, Stefan I of Bulgaria, Cyril of Bulgaria, Pavel Gerdjikov 16 10 10 Raoul Wallenberg, Elizabeth Hesselblad 9 Ángel Sanz Briz, Eduardo Propper de Callejón 5 Varian Fry, Martha Sharp, Waitstill Sharp, Roddie Edmonds, Lois Gunden 3 Uku Masing 3 Tole Madna 3 José Maria Barreto 3 Aristides de Sousa Mendes, Carlos Sampaio Garrido 2 Luis Martins de Souza Dantas, Aracy de Carvalho 2 Samuel del Campo, Maria Edwards McClure 2 Ho Feng-Shan, Pan Junshun 1 Ámparo Otero Pappo 1 Manuel Muñoz Borrero 1 Mohammed Helmy 1 José Castellanos Contreras 1 Sergei Metreveli 1 Mary Elmes 1 Chiune Sugihara 1 Victor Bodson 1 Petar Zanković 1 Selahattin Ülkümen 1 Paul Nguyễn Công Anh
See also
British Hero of the Holocaust Called by Name European Day of the Righteous Individuals and groups assisting Jews during the Holocaust List of Righteous Among the Nations by country Righteousness Virtuous pagan Żegota
Notes
References
Bibliography The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations – Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust, Editor-in-Chief: Israel Gutman. ISBN 0976442582. Yad Vashem The Heart Has Reasons: Holocaust Rescuers and Their Stories of Courage, Mark Klempner, , The Pilgrim Press. Righteous Gentiles of the Holocaust: Genocide and Moral Obligation, David P. Gushee, , Paragon House Publishers. The Lexicon of the Righteous Among the Nations, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem. (volumes: Poland, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Europe I, Europe II). To Save a Life: Stories of Holocaust Rescue, Land-Weber, Ellen, , University of Illinois Press. The Seven Laws of Noah, Lichtenstein, Aaron, New York: The Rabbi Jacob Joseph School Press, 1981, . The Image of the Non-Jew in Judaism, Novak, David, , Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press, 1983. The Path of the Righteous: Gentile Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust, Paldiel, Mordecai, , KTAV Publishing House, Inc. Among the Righteous: Lost Stories from the Holocaust's Long Reach into Arab Lands, Robert Satloff, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, (PublicAffairs, 2006) . When Light Pierced the Darkness: Christian Rescue of Jews in Nazi-Occupied Poland, Tec, Nechama, , Oxford University Press. Zegota: The Council to Aid Jews in Occupied Poland 1942–1945, Tomaszewski, Irene & Werbowski, Tecia, , Price-Patterson. "Tolerance in Judaism: The Medieval and Modern Sources", Zuesse, Evan M., in: The Encyclopaedia of Judaism, edited by Jacob Neusner, A. Avery-Peck, and W.S. Green, second edition, , Leiden: Brill Publishers, 2005, Vol. IV: 2688–2713. When Courage Was Stronger Than Fear: Remarkable Stories of Christians Who Saved Jews from the Holocaust by Peter Hellman, second edition, , Marlowe & Company, 1999. Rescue and Flight: American Relief Workers Who Defied the Nazis, Subak, Susan Elisabeth, University of Nebraska Press, 342 pp., 2010. Ugo G. Pacifici Noja e Silvia Pacifici Noja, Il cacciatore di giusti: storie di non ebrei che salvarono i figli di Israele dalla Shoah, Cantalupa Torinese, Effatà, 2010, (in Italian), . Paul Greveillac, Les fronts clandestins : quinze histoires de Justes (in French), Nicolas Eybalin publishing, 2014 ().
External links
The Righteous Among the Nations at Yad Vashem. Its online exhibitions include: "Their Fate Will Be My Fate Too…" Teachers Who Rescued Jews During the Holocaust Spots of Light: Women in the Holocaust
Heroes and Heroines of the Holocaust at the Holocaust Survivors' Network Rescuers at the Jewish Virtual Library The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous at JFR.org Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State at the American public television broadcaster PBS zyciezazycie.pl, a site commemorating Poles who gave their lives to save Jews Gardens of the Righteous Worldwide Committee Essay: "Paying the ultimate price" by Irena Steinfeldt, The Jerusalem Post, 14 April 2009.