The B’nai B’rith World Center-Jerusalem and Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael (KKL-JNF) held on April 24, for the 23rd consecutive year, a joint Holocaust commemoration ceremony on Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah). This is the only Yom HaShoah event dedicated annually to commemorating the heroism of Jews who endangered their own lives to rescue fellow Jews during the Holocaust. The ceremony took place at the B’nai B’rith Martyr’s Forest “Scroll of Fire” Plaza at 10 a.m. Israel time, with an overflow crowd of some 800 people in attendance.

The B’nai B’rith Martyr’s Forest is the world’s largest Holocaust memorial and the most significant joint B’nai B’rith–KKL-JNF project, memorializing the victims of the Holocaust with six million trees planted on 4,500 acres in the picturesque Jerusalem mountains near Moshav Kesalon. At the pinnacle of the forest stands the “Scroll of Fire,” created by renowned sculptor Nathan Rapoport, which invokes the destruction of the Jewish people in the Holocaust and its revival in the State of Israel.

Speaking at the ceremony, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said in his first speech since presenting credentials to President Isaac Herzog earlier this week, “The ceremony today is a beautiful reminder that God has been at work in this land; prophecies have been fulfilled—dry bones live again and the desert blooms…From the beginning of time, God had a people, and he had a place and he had a purpose. The Jewish people are those people; this is the place, and the purpose is to be His light and his presence in this world. I come today with an extraordinary sense of awe and wonder of the resilience of the Jewish people and the State of Israel. Nothing less than a miracle.” Huckabee added, “I do not understand anti-Semitism or the hatred that history has inflicted upon the Jewish people. The animosity toward them makes no sense; it is irrational, baseless, and directed at those who have done no wrong. I come today not as a Jew, but as one who believes in ‘The Book,’ and I believe that those who bless Israel will be blessed, and those who curse Israel will be cursed. I come to bring blessing, and I stand not behind you, but with you—because you are everything we hope the world will be.”

Amb. Zoltán Szentgyörgyi, ambassador of Hungary to Israel, said that the bravery of the Jewish rescuers who risked their lives to save others challenges the false narrative that Jews were only victims—they were also resisters, rescuers, fighters and protectors. Their legacy stands as a testament to integrity and moral courage in the face of absolute evil…But remembrance must also be paired with responsibility—not only individual, but national. Hungary, like all nations, carries the burden of confronting its past. There were times in our history—including during the Holocaust and the Second World War—when the state failed to protect all its citizens. That failure has left wounds we must continue to acknowledge and address. Today, there is a clear and unequivocal understanding that the state has a moral and political obligation to safeguard every one of its citizens, regardless of their origin, religion, or background. Discrimination, anti-Semitism and humiliation have no place in a just society, and cannot be tolerated. Confronting the crimes of the 20th century is not just a historical task, but a living responsibility—one that defines the kind of country we aspire to be.”

Reflecting on Hungarian citizen Omri Miran who was kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, and remains in captivity, Szentgyörgyi said that “as we reflect on the past, we are also painfully reminded that the work of remembrance, vigilance and protection is not over…Never again” must not become an empty phrase we utter once a year. It must be a living commitment—one that obliges us to stand against terror, to speak out against anti-Semitism wherever it emerges and to fight for the safety and dignity of every human being.”

Luis Har, who was taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7, and released in a daring IDF military operation after 129 days in captivity, said, “How much our people suffered throughout the generations, and yet we are here. This is wisdom in the fact that when we are truly together, we are capable of anything, despite it all. We never lost hope and we always knew that the Jewish people don’t leave anyone behind. What kept us going in captivity was our faith, the knowledge that we would come out. The very fact that I am here is proof of that.” He called for all the remaining 59 hostages—living and dead—to be rescued. “I ask everyone to be a united and special people—and to save them all.”

Other speakers included Mira Zar of KKL-JNF; Haim Katz, chairman, B’nai B’rith World Center-Jerusalem; and Brigadier General Barak Mordechai, Border Police training base commander. Holocaust historian Professor Patrick Henry (editor, Jewish Resistance Against the Nazis, Catholic University Press, 2014) lit the memorial flame.

During the ceremony, the “Jewish Rescuers Citation” was conferred posthumously on 14 rescuers who operated in France, Hungary, Libya, Holland and Poland. The citation—a joint program of the B’nai B’rith World Center and the Committee to Recognize the Heroism of Jewish Rescuers during the Holocaust—has recognized 658 heroes since its inception in 2011 in an effort to help correct the generally held misconception that Jews failed to come to the aid of fellow Jews during the Holocaust. Past rescuers have operated across numerous countries, including Germany, the Netherlands, France, Slovakia, Greece, Russia, Yugoslavia, Ukraine, Austria, Belarus, Italy, Poland, Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Hungary, Denmark, Czechia, Lithuania and Belgium.

The phenomena of Jewish rescue and the inspiring stories of many hundreds of Jews who labored to save their endangered brethren throughout Europe from deportation and murder have yet to be fully researched and receive appropriate public attention. Many who could have tried to flee or hide themselves decided to stay, which exposed them to danger as they endeavored to rescue others; some paid for it with their lives. With great heroism, Jews in Germany and every country across Axis and occupied Europe employed subterfuge, forgery, smuggling, concealment and other methods to ensure that Jews survived the Holocaust or assisted them in escaping to a safe haven. In doing so, they foiled the Nazi goal of total annihilation of the Jews.

Recipients of the citation this year are:

1. Helena Merenholc (1907-1997, Poland)–Provided false documents and found hiding places for Jews with the Polish Council to Aid Jews (Żegota).
2. Janina Rechtleben-Wojciechowska (1900, Poland-1980, England)–Her apartment served as a hiding place for fugitive Jews, weapons and money, and as a meeting place for members of the Polish resistance movement.
3. Maurycy Herling-Grudziński (1903-1966, Poland)–Smuggled Jews out of the Warsaw Ghetto and hid them in his home. Established a program of financial assistance for Jewish refugees hiding on the Aryan side of Warsaw.
4. Madeleine Dreyfus (1909-1987, France)–As a member of the “Circuit Garel” she found hiding places for Jewish children with Christian families in villages and led groups of Jewish children by train to the hiding places.
5. Lore Durlacher/ Ora Goren (1920, Germany-1992, Israel)–As a member of the Westerweel group in the Netherlands, she provided food stamps and forged papers to Jews in hiding and helped smuggle them out of the Westerbork detention camp.
6. Naomi Mayer (1924, Hungary-1945, Switzerland)– Took under her wing two Polish Jewish brothers aged four and five, who traveled as stowaways on the Budapest Aid and Rescue Committee train, hiding and caring for them throughout their detention in Bergen-Belsen.
7. Peter Jablonski (1921, Poland-2011, Canada)–Rescued a wounded child and two other Jews in a bunker he had built himself in Warsaw.
8. Oscar Schoenfeld (1923, Hungary-2004, Israel)–Found safe houses and provided food, water and suitable clothing for Jewish refugees who escaped to Hungary from Poland and Czechoslovakia.
9. Witold Góra (1900-1994, Poland)–Stole documents from the Gestapo station located in the same building that housed a laundromat where he worked and used them to forge identity cards that saved dozens of Jews from death in the Treblinka extermination camp. He rented and financed safe houses for escapees from the Warsaw ghetto.
10. Pinchas Ostrowski (1922, Poland-1983, Israel)–Exploited his position as director general of a provincial Ministry of Agriculture in eastern Poland (during Soviet rule after the war) to initiate a dangerous diversionary measure in order to extricate a 10-year-old Jewish orphan held at the home of his Polish rescuer. He also issued travel documents that allowed 70 Polish Jewish refugees to leave for Israel.
11. Rabbi Josef Gean (1882, Libya-1960, Israel)–Established an illegal hospitality enterprise for hundreds of Jewish refugees who arrived in Libya from Europe during the anti-Semitic Italian regime.
12. Lolek Lehrer (1916-1943, Poland)–Under a false identity as a railway worker, he helped Jews escape from Poland to Slovakia.
13. Jean-Charle Leon Lachtchiver (1931, France-2019, Israel)–As a child, he was active in the underground arm of the “Hanoar Hatzioni” Zionist Youth movement. He hid forged documents and identity cards in his textbooks and passed on information about what was befalling the city’s Jews.
14. Zvi Henryk Zimmerman (1913, Poland-2006, Israel)–Zionist activist and member of the “Sneh” rescue underground in the Krakow ghetto, he infiltrated Hungary and approved the veracity of thousands of forged Polish Aryan papers for Jews as a diplomat appointed by the head of the Polish Delegation, Righteous Among the Nations Henryk Slawik, endangering his life. Along with Slawik, he established an orphanage, rescuing 100 Jewish children by placing them under Christian identity.

Click here to read more about recipients of this year’s Jewish Rescuers Citation.

Click here to watch the full commemoration ceremony.

Contact:

Alan Schneider, Director, B’nai B’rith World Center +972-52-5536441

Golan Yossifon, Spokesman +972-52-5625135