Goering - rightous gentile

[browsing deer]

But not Herman, Albert.

Facinating story about Herman's younger brother who saved at least 34 people while his Berman killed millions. one person can do a lot.

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In the Third Reich, other than Hitler himself, was there a more infamous name than Goering — Germany’s second in command, the bombastic Reichsmarshall, commander of the Luftwaffe, and arch anti-Semite?

And yet, on the eve of Yom HaShoah, Yad Vashem is considering whether Hermann Goering’s younger brother Albert is among the Chasidei Umot Ha’Olam, the “Righteous Among The Nations,” Israel’s highest honor for non-Jews who during the Holocaust risked their lives to save Jews. Hermann knew what Albert was doing, but Hermann loved his brother more than Hermann hated Jews, and he hated Jews very much.

Stories are told that Albert saved on the streets of Vienna and from out of Dachau and Terezin. He stopped Nazis who were beating Jews, but of course he would, said cynics, Albert himself was a Jew. Rumors had it that Albert was really fathered by his mother’s Jewish lover, their family doctor, Dr. Hermann von Epenstein. Hermann was thoroughly devoted to Albert despite the rumor — or because of it, to deny a difficult truth.

A spokesperson for Yad Vashem told us by e-mail that a file on Albert Goering has been opened at Yad Vashem’s Righteous Among the Nations Department, a preliminary step before that department’s presentation to the Commission for the Designation of the Righteous. The commission, made up of Holocaust researchers, historians and survivors, is chaired by a retired Supreme Court justice. “There has to be firsthand evidence by survivors or unequivocal archival documentation,” said the spokesperson, “describing the circumstances of the rescue and showing the nominated person took great risks to save Jews.”

But did Albert really take the risks of, say, Oskar Schindler or Raoul Wallenberg, others honored as “righteous,” if Albert knew Hermann would always save him? Hermann called off the Gestapo at least four times.


Read more at The Jewish Week | Connecting the World to Jewish News, Culture, and Opinion

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[fanger]

Nothing to do with Palestine/Israel

 

[browsing deer]

Another interesting story...

For decades, Pearl Good kept the secret of the motor repair shop on Subocz Street and of the German army officer who declared her an essential war worker when really she was just darning socks.

It was only when the 75-year-old Holocaust survivor returned to the street in Vilnius, Lithuania, six years ago that a tale of heroism began to be uncovered that has led to an unusual ceremony in Jerusalem today to honour the commandant of a Nazi slave labour camp where hundreds of Jews died but many others were saved.

Israel's Holocaust memorial council, Yad Vashem, will declare Major Karl Plagge righteous among the nations, alongside men such as Raoul Wallenberg and Oskar Schindler, for an elaborate deception that saved about 250 Jewish lives.

But the honour has only been bestowed after a long campaign by Mrs Good's son, Michael. Dr Good, a family physician who lives in Connecticut, began exploring the story of Plagge after visiting Subocz Street with his mother.

"She never talked to us about how she survived, but there she told me about this mysterious officer, Major Plagge, who she said saved her life and the lives of her parents and 250 other Jewish prisoners," he said.

"She was waving her cane and saying, 'He was better than Schindler.'

"I was just very struck that a Wehrmacht staff officer, a major, would be trying to save Jewish prisoners."

Plagge, an engineer, joined the Nazi party in 1931 in the belief that it would restore Germany's fortunes, but he became disillusioned with its racial ideology. By 1938, he was godfather to a boy called Konrad Hesse who had a half-Jewish mother, and had left the party.

At the outbreak of war he was conscripted and sent to oversee an army motor pool in Vilnius.

more at...Honour for German major who saved 250 Jews