The faith of the Holocaust rescuers: Christians inspired to courageously save lives

Yad Vashem(Photo: Unsplash/YangJing)

The many stories of those who secretly worked to save Jewish lives and resist the Nazis in WWII are deeply fascinating and moving. They were often driven by a deep faith that God was protecting and helping them in their work.

Amid the deep darkness of World War II, there are many shining lights of courage, love and determination who opposed the Nazis and sought to protect and hide Jewish people from destruction. There were at least 28,000 lights in fact, who Yad Vashem would later award the title of "Righteous among the nations" due to evidence of their loving actions.

Many were Christian, a small number now famous, but most of these great heroes are little known today.

Here are some of these heroes and the faith that inspired them:

Corrie ten Boom

One of the best known of the Christian Holocaust rescuers, Corrie and her devout family lived in Haarlem in Holland, quietly doing good works. When the Nazis invaded, they were horrified. Corrie's father, Casper, had a clear theology about the horrific attacks on the Jewish people they began to witness with their own eyes: "I pity the poor Germans, Corrie. They have touched the apple of God's eye." The family's response was to welcome Jews into their home and create a "hiding place" in their attic in case of raids, which became the title of her famous book and a film about the events.

Sadly one day the Gestapo arrived, and the entire family was arrested. Most died in captivity though they would still encourage and share their faith with their fellow inmates. Corrie survived the war, writing and speaking movingly of her sister Betsie's death in the diabolical Ravensbruck camp where they were imprisoned. Corrie recorded her sister's famous quote, all the more poignant for the hellish place she was in: "There is no pit so deep, that God's love is not deeper still."

Monsignor Jules-Géraud Saliège

Monsignor Saliège, the Archbishop of Toulouse during wartime, was horrified by the actions of the Nazis he witnessed all around him. When non-French Jews began to be rounded up and sent away, he ordered a pastoral letter to be read in every pulpit on August 23, 1942, describing the "dreadful sight" of the deportations: "The Jews are men, the Jewesses are women. The foreigners are men and women. One cannot do anything one wishes to these men, to these women, to these fathers and mothers. They are part of the human race; they are our brothers like so many others. A Christian cannot forget this."

Though the Nazi-collaborating authorities tried to forbid the reading of the letter and demanded a retraction, the "Saliège bomb," as the letter became known, had a powerful reach. It would be published much wider than the diocese, and emboldened many other bishops, priests, religious and resistance fighters to work against the evil plans of the Nazis.

Ivan & Serafima Yatsyuk

David Prital (previously Prinzental) had been hiding in a Polish household but like many of his fellow Jews he was forced to find a new place of refuge. He was guided to the home of Ivan Yatsyuk, a peasant in a Baptist community that had a particular love for the Jewish people. On his arrival, the situation was understood immediately. Ivan said to his wife: "God brought an important guest to our house. We should thank God for this blessing," as told by historian Sir Martin Gilbert in his great book celebrating the rescuers: "The Righteous: the unsung heroes of the Holocaust".

Prital was astounded by his welcome: "They kneeled down and I heard a wonderful prayer coming out of their pure and simple hearts, not written in a single prayer book.... Was it a dream? Was it possible that such people still existed in this world?"

Before their first meal together, the couple read a chapter of the Bible. "This is the big secret," thought Prital. "It is this eternal book that raised their morality to such unbelievable heights. It is this very book that filled their hearts with love for the Jews." He would survive the war.

Saveliy & Oksana Mironiuk

Another Baptist couple, the Mironiuks (or Mironyuks), lived in the same region and were asked by the Yatsyuks to shelter Prital and other Jewish people at various different times. In late 1943, when a young Jew in hiding, Ignacy Shats, was in the Mironyuks' home, German soldiers and Ukrainian policemen began to conduct searches in the village. Realising there was no time to hide, the Mironiuks "fell on their knees and began to pray" according to the website of Yad Vashem, the international Holocaust Remembrance organisation. "The Germans, who conducted the search, overlooked their home and Shats was saved. The Mironyuks and all the other Baptists in their community saw this as a miracle and for many years afterwards members of the community told the story." Shats would survive the war.

Father Marie-Benoît and Fernande Leboucher

Father Marie-Benoît faithfully forged identity papers, issued baptismal certificates, and arranged hiding and escape for the many Jewish people who sought his aid – in all he saved 4,000 lives.

He told a distressed Mdme Leboucher whose Jewish husband was held in a camp to pray, as God loved the Jewish race. It was good advice, and the beginning of an astonishing adventure, as they worked together to help as many Jews as they could.

The woman's new faith was bolstered when undergoing a terrifying ordeal. While hiding six Jewish refugees in her home, the apartment block was subject to a random search by the Gestapo. Her guests urged her to turn them in, so she could avoid a fate worse than death for hiding them. Instead, she decided to pray: "Fr Benoît, I am calling you through heaven, as you told me to do. Help me now!" as recounted in her memoir of her experiences.

The terrified group waited quietly as they heard heavy boots tramping up and down the staircase outside, as the other apartments were searched. Inexplicably, their flat remained unmolested. This apparent miracle emboldened Mdme Leboucher in her mission: "Since that day, an almost supernatural strength was within me. The more dangerous the mission, the more exciting I found it ... I would hear an interior voice saying, 'Go. Don't be afraid.'" She would never doubt the existence of a good God from that point onwards.

Reverend Otto Mörike

Rev Otto, like many other members of the Confessing Church in Germany, was outspoken in his opposition to the Nazis. For publicly criticising the government, he was beaten by a mob and deprived of ministerial positions. He spoke boldly of the judgement that would fall on Germany as a result of their actions: "Aggression against the church and the Christian faith as well as the abolishment of justice and morality are the beginning of a trend that will earn the condemnation by God and therefore the destruction of our country."

He earned the title of "Righteous among the Nations" for hiding a Jewish couple in his house, and finding them other places to stay.

Wilm Hosenfeld

Probably one of the most difficult awards of the 'Righteous among the Nations' title was that of this German soldier and member of the Nazi Party in 2008. But Hosenfeld's actions in helping a number of Jews – most famously, musician Władysław Szpilman as portrayed in the film The Pianist – grew out of his deep personal faith and his growing horror at the Nazi violence that he saw all around him.

He wrote on September 1, 1942: "Because humanity had to be shown where its godlessness was taking it ... This denial of God's commandments leads us to all the other immoral manifestations of greed: unjust self-enrichment, hatred, deceit and sexual license resulting in infertility and the downfall of the German people. God allows all this to happen ... to show mankind that without him we are only animals in conflict, who believe we have to destroy each other. We will not listen to the divine commandment: 'Love one another'... and must die, guilty and innocent alike."

He had observed atrocities against the Jewish people first-hand, and would write home: "With horrible mass murder of the Jews, we have lost this war. We have brought an eternal curse upon ourselves and will be forever covered with shame. We have no right for compassion or mercy; we all have a share in the guilt. I am ashamed to walk in the city."

This is just a small number of the faithful who worked to save innocents during WWII, inspired and strengthened by the love and power of God.

Heather Tomlinson is a freelance Christian writer. Find more of her work at https://heathertomlinson.substack.com/ or via X (twitter) @heathertomli