cover image The Courage to Care: Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust

The Courage to Care: Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust

Carol Rittner. New York University Press, $45 (157pp) ISBN 978-0-8147-7397-0

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. (September 17)