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When Light Pierced the Darkness: Christian Rescue of Jews in Nazi-Occupied Poland
Everyone knows the name of Anne Frank but few people remember anything about the people who sheltered her. Who were the rescuers and what motivated them to risk their lives for persecuted Jews? Clearly such people deserve to be remembered and honored. And clearly an understanding of their
motivations may help us cultivate such behavior in our own day.
This book focuses on such "righteous Christians." Tec, herself a Holocaust survivor helped by Christians, vividly recreates through hundreds of cases what it was like to pass and hide among Christians and what it was like to rescue Jews. Limiting her compass to Poland, where anti-Semitism was
particularly extreme, the author interviewed dozens of people now living in many lands and also examined a vast array of published accounts and unpublished testimonies yielding case histories of over 500 Polish helpers. As the book preserves for posterity the heroism of such people as Celka, the
impoverished governess, and her paralyzed father, who took into their one-room apartment a Jewish child, refused to baptize her without her family's permission, and even fed her before they themselves ate, or Dr. Felix Kabus, who developed and frequently performed an operation that camouflaged
circumcision, or the famous anti-Semitic author who wrote publicly about what was happening to the Jews, the book fills a significant gap in our knowledge of the Holocaust.
Considering the influence of such factors as class, education, religion, political persuasion, and friendship between the victims and rescuers, Tec finds only two common characteristics among this incredibly diverse an overpowering need to help others under any circumstances and an
intense individualism. The rescuers were "individuals who did not rely on the opinions of others." Tec writes.
About the Author :
Nechama Tec, Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Connectucut, is also the author of Dry Tears .
motivations may help us cultivate such behavior in our own day.
This book focuses on such "righteous Christians." Tec, herself a Holocaust survivor helped by Christians, vividly recreates through hundreds of cases what it was like to pass and hide among Christians and what it was like to rescue Jews. Limiting her compass to Poland, where anti-Semitism was
particularly extreme, the author interviewed dozens of people now living in many lands and also examined a vast array of published accounts and unpublished testimonies yielding case histories of over 500 Polish helpers. As the book preserves for posterity the heroism of such people as Celka, the
impoverished governess, and her paralyzed father, who took into their one-room apartment a Jewish child, refused to baptize her without her family's permission, and even fed her before they themselves ate, or Dr. Felix Kabus, who developed and frequently performed an operation that camouflaged
circumcision, or the famous anti-Semitic author who wrote publicly about what was happening to the Jews, the book fills a significant gap in our knowledge of the Holocaust.
Considering the influence of such factors as class, education, religion, political persuasion, and friendship between the victims and rescuers, Tec finds only two common characteristics among this incredibly diverse an overpowering need to help others under any circumstances and an
intense individualism. The rescuers were "individuals who did not rely on the opinions of others." Tec writes.
About the Author :
Nechama Tec, Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Connectucut, is also the author of Dry Tears .
276 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1986
209 people want to read
About the author
Nechama Tec
27 books26 followersNechama Tec (née Bawnik) (born 15 May 1931) is a Professor Emerita of Sociology at the University of Connecticut.[1] She received her Ph.D. in sociology at Columbia University, where she studied and worked with the sociologist Daniel Bell, and is a Holocaust scholar. Her book When Light Pierced the Darkness (1986) and her memoir Dry Tears: The Story of a Lost Childhood (1984) both received the Merit of Distinction Award from the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith. She is also author of the book Defiance: The Bielski Partisans on which the film Defiance (2008) is based, as well as a study of women in the Holocaust. She was awarded the 1994 International Anne Frank Special Recognition prize for it.[2]
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 18, 2018
An analytical and often moving account of how and why Polish Christians took great risks to help Jews escape the Nazis.
... To illustrate the risks ... a decree was issued … Jews who, without authorization, leave the residential district to which they have been assigned will be punished by death. The same punishment applies to persons who knowingly provide hiding places for Jews ... later, a poster went up announcing the deaths of 8 Jews executed for leaving the ghetto
... escape required reaching the Christian world … bribing ghetto guards … smuggling out through secret passages … slipping away during deportation ... the slightest mistake meant death
... if an illegal departure was discovered … family members and others would be killed ... and the Nazis kept exact records … knew if someone was missing … knew that person's family, neighbors, co-workers, etc
... some of those who helped Jews were socially prominent Catholics … did they feel guilty that their antisemitism had contributed to Jewish destruction?
... To illustrate the risks ... a decree was issued … Jews who, without authorization, leave the residential district to which they have been assigned will be punished by death. The same punishment applies to persons who knowingly provide hiding places for Jews ... later, a poster went up announcing the deaths of 8 Jews executed for leaving the ghetto
... escape required reaching the Christian world … bribing ghetto guards … smuggling out through secret passages … slipping away during deportation ... the slightest mistake meant death
... if an illegal departure was discovered … family members and others would be killed ... and the Nazis kept exact records … knew if someone was missing … knew that person's family, neighbors, co-workers, etc
... some of those who helped Jews were socially prominent Catholics … did they feel guilty that their antisemitism had contributed to Jewish destruction?
June 6, 2019
I found this an engaging and informative book. The author managed to create an analytical book while including personal testimonies that engaged the readers emotions. There are so many books about the Holocaust but this one felt unique as the author wasn't telling one person's story rather telling the stories to understand the "Why?" of people actions both on the side of the rescuer and the rescued.
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November 28, 2009Poland tends to get a bad rap concerning the Holocaust, and it's true that it was harder to help Jews in Poland than in (say) Denmark. Nevertheless, there were rescues in Poland, and it's a mistake to assume that anyplace was completely in thrall to the Nazi viewpoint. This book redresses the balance somewhat.
July 27, 2014
A very eye-opening book. Definitely something that is glossed over during the horrors of the Holocaust but which needs to be understood in order to remember that even in the times of greatest struggle, there will always be people who value helping others.
June 5, 2012
An intriguing study of what motivated Christian Poles to protect Jews during the holocaust. (Poland was ground zero of the Nazi's genocidal efforts.)
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews