136) Abba Kovner Founder of the Ha-Nokmim Resistance Movement Born: 14 March 1918, Either Russia or Belarus (Sources Vary) Died: 25 September 1987, HaMerkaz, Israel He was also a Poet and Writer. Ha-Nokmim functioned in the forests outside of Vilna in modern-day Lithuania during the Shoah. Ha-Nokmim means The Avengers. The Avengers destroyed over 180…
132) Hans Scholl Founding Member of the White Rose Resistance Movement Born: 22 September 1918, Germany Died: 22 February 1943 AD, Munich, Germany His sister Sophie was another member of the movement. Their father was very anti-Nazi and was upset when his five children all joined The Hitler Youth Movement (for the boys) and the…
122: Alfréd Wetzler Escaped Auschwitz alongside Rudolf Vrba Born: 10 May 1918, Trnava, Slovakia Died: 8 February 1988, Bratislava, Slovakia Alfréd and Rudolf wrote a forty-page long document detailing what they saw and experienced within the camp during the two years they were imprisoned there. Today the document is known by two names, The Vrba-Wetzler…
120) Corrie ten Boom Survived Ravensbrück Concentration Camp and Later Wrote About her War Experiences Born: 15 April 1892, Amsterdam, Netherlands Died: 15 April 1983, Placentia, California, United States of America Original Name: Cornelia ten Boom She was the third operator of her family’s watch shop in Haarlem, Netherlands and she celebrated one hundred years…
120) Henryk Ross Photographer in the Łódź Ghetto Born: 1 May 1910, Warsaw, Poland Died: 1 May 1991, Israel Before the war he was a sports photographer for a local newspaper. In May of 1940, Henryk was moved into the Ghetto on account of his Jewish heritage. He soon secured a posting as one of…
94) Motke Zeidel One of the Last Jews to Escape Ponar—an Infamous Village Where Thousands of Lithuanian Jews were Murdered During the Shoah Born: 1925, Swenciany, Poland (Present-day Swenciany, Lithuania) Died: 2007, Israel Original Name: Mordechai Zeidel Survivor of Vilna and the Last Survivor of the Burning Brigade. When Motke was eighteen years old, he…
94) Anne Frank Her personal writings The Diary of a Young Girl are read by almost every child growing up in the United States and many countries around the world Born: 12 June 1929, Frankfurt, Germany Died: February 1945, Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp, Germany Original Name: Annelies Frank Anne had a sister three years older than…
86) Willem Arondeus Artist & Nazi Resistance Fighter Born: 22 August 1894, Naarden, The Kingdom of the Netherlands Died: 1 July 1943, Haarlem, The Kingdom of the Netherlands Willem left home at the age of seventeen and severed contact with his family after they did not support him when he came out as gay. When…
56) Nicholas Winton Organizer and Leader of the Czech Kindertransport Born: 19 May 1909, Hampstead, London, United Kingdom Died: 1 July 2015, Slough, United Kingdom He saved 669 Jewish Children from Czechoslovakia on the eve of World War II. Nicholas was a stockbroker preparing to head on a ski vacation in 1938 when a friend…
52) Tuvia Bielski More than a Family Man Born: 8 May 1906, Navahrudak, Belarus Died: 12 June 1987, New York City, New York, United States of America He served in the Polish Army both before the war and during World War II. However, after he was released from duty, he made it his personal mission…