The new books on their works emphasize the confusion at the time and the difficult decision they had to save.
Deborah Dwork, the director of the Holocaust, Genocide, and humanitarian, Devola Dwork, who is liar and liar at the University of New York University, Deborah Dwork. The ground has grown more and more.
To commemorate the victims of the Holocaust, which was marked every year on January 27, it was released before the international anniversary, and the manager of the UN Holocaust Education Outry Program, TRACEY PETERSEN, interviewed Debórahdwork at the United Nations Headquarters. I started by asking her about her. Book title.
This interview is edited for clarity and length
Debórahdwork: I called it as a saint. They did something surprising in a non -religious sense. They did miraculous things. They saved people by helping people to go ahead, arriving in the sea, finding safe ports, wearing clothes, dressing, and evacuating.
At the same time, almost all of them lied. They broke the rules and played true, fast and loose to achieve their goals.
Tracey PeterSen: Why did you write this book?
UN Publishing/Steven Bone Holtz
The author of a saint and a liar.
Debórahdwork: I wanted to convey the story of an American who went to Europe while everyone who was worried about danger was trying to go in the opposite direction. Their first ideas were rescue activities, but their duties changed to trying to affect rescue. I wanted to know who they were and what they urged them.
We started in Prague in 1939 before the United States began to war before the war was declared. What made you promote Waitstill and Martha Sharp? They were pairs of Unitarian who were married to Czechoslovakia from their church.
The situation has worsened for the political opposition and the Jews of the Nazi administration. Nevertheless, Sharps began to work in illegal activities, hoping to save lives.
Tracey PeterSen: In general, did the outside world know what was happening in Czechoslovakia at the time?
Debórahdwork: The loss in the Sudetenland area is part of the Munich agreement signed by major European leaders, and has handed over the Czechoslovakia lump without fire.
As you can imagine, this is like a headline, and the Boston’s Unity leadership first says, “We must do something: Germans have taken Sdetenland Land” in Munich’s agreement. did. The refugees are running away to Prague. They need help. They need clothes. They need a shelter. They need medical care. They need food. “
Tracey PeterSen: How dangerous was these American aid workers?
Debórahdwork: Waitstill Sharp said that the Yankees like skating on thin ice. One of the methods that his job exposed him dangerously was that he did illegal currency trading, as it was very difficult to collect funds to collect money for rescue activities. 。 But if the administration learned this, he would have been imprisoned and probably tortured.
Tracey PeterSen: Why did refugees go to Shanghai and come from?
Debórahdwork, even before the war, German Jews, political opposition, Nazi -occupied Austria, and Czechoslovakia desperately sought to leave Europe and reach a safe place.
As it happened, Shanghai was just a place because they didn’t need a visa to land there. Therefore, by the time the war occurred in September 1939, about 20,000 refugees were gathering in Shanghai, which had been under Japan since 1937.
US Holo Coast Memorial Museum/Yadva Shem
The Jews of the RUS of Subculture Patissers receive the selection process in the Auschwitz Birkenau lamp in Poland.
The U.S. Department of State and the Jewish Jewish Jewish Jewish Distribution Committee (JDC) helped to send Laura Margoris to Shanghai and proceed to the next destination, but the war intervenes and she is a very useful to help them. With a small resource, I will stay in a city under occupied. Make up their needs. They needed medical, food and shelters. The children needed education. For some reason, she had to try to meet the needs of this community separated from other regions in the world.
Tracey PeterSen: The numbers are amazing. You were refused for women, children, refugees, incredible fear, anxiety, visa … aid workers may be shaken by their emotions, perhaps Did you reflect on how to help some people when you should help others? Do you have a sense of confusion?
Debórahdwork: definitely. Thousands of people needed help. Which case do you attend when you wake up in the morning? What were the standards?
Unitarian had a specific standard. They wanted to rescue those who help the Democratic government after the end of the war. Of course, most of them were men, most of them were middle or middle classes. Most of the education level is high. That was the idea. However, living on the ground had its own dynamics. And in Prague, Martha and Waitstill have helped all kinds of people.
In contrast, the quaker did not have such calculations. Their goal was to help everyone who needed help. This was a sharp and clear difference between Unitarian Agenda and Quaker Agenda. In fact, they are frustrated by Unitarian people who say that quakers have no principle, and quakers say that Unitarian has no principle.
Tracey PeterSen: In many ways, these stories have revealed that successful rescue can be a matter of luck and timing.
Debórahdwork: We all know the unreasonable and unreasonable people to affect our lives. Lucky, timing, coincidence, passion, sympathy, anti -feeling. But when thinking about the past, we remove those factors. I think it happened because of things. Sometimes they happened for the reason, but sometimes happened.
We hope that you can learn and act from these events, you can do activities, and you can say that initiative is possible.
