Holocaust Remembrance Day: Heroines of the Holocaust

In 2005, the United Nations designated January 27 as an annual International Holocaust Remembrance Day. This date was selected because it was the same date that the largest Nazi concentration camp, Auschwitz, was finally liberated in 1945.

As stated in a 2009 tribute to the Holocaust (see article, "The Holocaust DID Happen"), the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem has a feature called the "Avenue of the Righteous," honoring Christians and other non-Jewish people who, at the risk of their own lives, hid or rescued Jews from the horrors of Hitler's Nazi regime.

Most people have heard of Oskar Schindler, a Polish businessman who saved 1,000 Jewish people by employing them and falsifying their records, through the Steven Spielberg movie "Schindler's List."

Along with Schindler, here are some Christian heroines of the Holocaust who are also honored at Yad Vashem.

Miep Gies, Holland - Miep Gies was a secretary to Otto Frank, a Jew. She concealed the Frank family for over two years. Gies is the person responsible for saving fifteen year-old Anne Frank's diary (the famous Diary of Anne Frank, who died in Bergen-Belsen only two weeks before the concentration camps were liberated).

Anne Frank's diary ended up being instrumental in some of the Nazi war trials.

Miep Gies recently died at 100 years old (January, 2010), and was the last survivor of those known for helping the Jewish people during the Holocaust. She was Austrian, but had married a Dutchman.

See a succinct telling of Gies' life and heroic acts here at Associated Press.

Irena Sendler, Poland - Irena Sendler single-handedly organized efforts to save 2,500 Polish children. She and her group of non-Jewish underground volunteers worked tirelessly, every day at the risk of their own lives, to smuggle the children through all sorts of channels. Cleverly, she devised a plan for the Jewish children to be taken in by Protestant and Catholic families to conceal their identity. She saved every single child's name and location in glass jars so they could be re-united with their families after the war.

When Sendler was discovered, she was tortured with both legs and feet broken. But a German officer listed her as executed and helped her escape.

Sendler, who passed away in 2008, was nominated for a 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. Instead, it went to Al Gore for his global warming work. Sendler's story of bravery is captured here at the "Life in a Jar" Project by a group of Kansas schoolchildren.

Corrie ten Boom and Betsie ten Boom, Holland - The ten Boom sisters and their father Casper owned a clock shop in Haarlem, Holland (now a Museum). They used a hidden room in their upstairs residence to hide a large number of Jewish people. When it was thought safe, the people would come out into the house for meal and prayer times. The ten Booms even provided kosher food.

On the day of their discovery, the Gestapo dragged all three ten Booms, plus a nephew who had helped them, to the Ravensbrück concentration camp.

Corrie was the only one of the four to survive the death camp. She is famous for writing the book, The Hiding Place (with John and Elizabeth Sherrill), telling all the events that happened in occupied Holland and at the shop.

In the book, Corrie also tells of the miracles of how she smuggled a Bible into her barracks, and how she and Betsie told many other captives about the Gospel.

Corrie ten Boom later established halfway houses for survivors of the Holocaust to get re-adjusted and relocated into outside life.

Her most amazing testimony came at a speaking engagement, where she was approached by an ex-officer of the Nazi regime - one of the very men who had guarded her in prison. He had come to know Jesus, and was begging her forgiveness!

Corrie said,
"I discovered it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world's healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself" (page 215, The Hiding Place).

This article originally appeared here at the Underground Online Magazine.

Sheryl Young is a Jewish believer in Jesus and author of the book, "What Every Christian Should know about the Jewish People" (subtitled): Improving the Church's Relationship with God's Original Chosen Nation.

Sources:
Miep Gies died at 100 - 1/11/2010;
Irena Sendler; Sendler Nobel Peace Prize lost to Al Gore;
The ten Boom Museum;
The Hiding Place, amazon.com.