How should we honour the ‘angels’ of the Holocaust when they’re gone?

Yom HaShoa is Israel and the Jewish people’s day of remembrance for the Shoa, or Holocaust. It falls this year on 8th April. Its official Hebrew name means ‘Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day’, emphasising how we should remember not only the six million Jews who were killed by the Nazis, but also the heroes like those who rose up against their persecution in the Warsaw Ghetto.

There is also another group of heroes we should remember. Their actions provide a model of human decency we should all seek to emulate. An apparently disparate group from varied backgrounds, they are known as the ‘Righteous Among the Nations’ – special people who have been recognised for saving the lives of Jewish people. Some were diplomats or industrialists; others were peasants or nuns. Many of them risked everything to protect others, often with scant resources with which to do so. If they were caught, their fate would be the same as that of the Jews they sheltered.