The Other Schindlers (37 page)

Yad Vashem was created by the Knesset in 1953 as the Jewish people’s living memorial to the 6 million Jewish victims of the Holocaust. It was intended to be a world centre for four main aspects: documentation, research, education and commemoration of the Holocaust. Yad Vashem is today a dynamic and vital place of intergenerational and international encounter. At the same time, one of its principal roles is to demonstrate the gratitude of the State of Israel and the Jewish people to those non-Jews who helped rescue Jews in that darkest time. Since 1963 the authority has run its worldwide Righteous Among the Nations scheme. This is run by a public commission headed by a Supreme Court judge.

Moshe Bejski, who as we have already seen was on Schindler’s list, emigrated to Israel after the war and became a judge. He told no one of his wartime
experiences
until, in 1961, he gave evidence to the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem. As a result he became involved with commemoration and subsequently joined the Commission of the Righteous. He soon became president and wrestled with the moral dilemma of who should be awarded the ‘Righteous’ title and who denied. He ensured that his own rescuer was honoured but this was problematic as there was a philosophical divide over which rescuers were considered worthy.

Apparently there was an issue over honouring Schindler because of his
lifestyle
. The original chair of the Righteous Commission, Judge Moshe Landau, was looking for heroes with no flaws, who had saved Jews and had a virtuous lifestyle. Bejski, with his close relationship to Schindler, knew him ‘warts and all’, and was looking for ordinary flawed people. He said to Schindler’s detractors that had he not been the type of man he was, he would not have had the verve to achieve his outrageous rescue. He defended other ‘dubious’ rescuers – a prostitute who served Nazi officers but hid Jews and the SS officer George Duckwitz, the
trade attaché in the German Embassy in Copenhagen. As soon as he heard of the plan to deport the Danish Jews he told the Danish authorities, even though he was a Nazi.
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However, Dr Paldiel, former Director of the Department of the Righteous, has argued that Avner was incorrect in his article when he claimed Landau was looking for the perfect Righteous. He claims Landau’s objections to Schindler ‘stemmed from Schindler’s forceful takeover of two Jewish firms in Krakow during the initial period of the Nazi occupation, and even threatening force to bring this about’.
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Gabriele Nissim, an Italian journalist, spent three years visiting Bejski, who died in March 2007 aged 86, while writing his book
Divine Grace
. He told me about Bejski’s theory of the ‘inherent consistency of the rescuer’s gesture, which has to be triggered by a genuinely humanitarian spirit’.
3

The Yad Vashem website gives very full details about the award of the title ‘Righteous Among the Nations’. The awards could be deemed somewhat
arbitrary
, in as much as they are dependent on survivors telling Yad Vashem about the rescuer and providing the appropriate documentation. It is a tragic fact that,
inevitably
, it is only the participants in successful rescues who can become involved in the process. There were undoubtedly many, many courageous rescuers whose attempts failed and consequently they and their charges were discovered and paid with their lives.

Most Righteous were recognised as a result of requests made by the Jews they rescued. But sometimes survivors could not overcome the difficulties of dealing with the painful past and didn’t take any action. Others were not aware of the programme or were unable to apply, particularly those who lived behind the Iron Curtain during the years of communism in Eastern Europe. In other cases, the survivors may have died before they could make the request. Titles and medals, however, are still being awarded even now, sixty-five years after the end of the war, as with Soeur St Cybard, recognised in November 2009.

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