In the Garden of the Righteous: The Heroes Who Risked Their Lives to Save Jews During the Holocaust

Please join us as Roosevelt House and Hunter’s Jewish Studies Center co-host a discussion of the new book In the Garden of the Righteous: The Heroes Who Risked Their Lives to Save Jews During the Holocaust by Richard Hurowitz. This powerfully illuminating and inspiring chronicle pays tribute to the incredible and often little-known deeds of non-Jewish people who took on great danger during the Holocaust in order to save countless lives. The author will be in conversation with the Director of the Hunter College Jewish Studies Center Leah Garrett.

More than 27,000 individuals have been recognized by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem, as “Righteous Among the Nations”—a term describing non-Jewish people who risked their lives, their livelihoods, and the safety of their families to rescue their persecuted neighbors. In the Garden of the Righteous tells the remarkable stories of 10 of the most heroic among them, including: the circus ringmaster Adolf Althoff and his wife Maria; the Portuguese diplomat Aristides de Sousa Mendes; the Italian cycling champion Gino Bartali; the Polish social worker Irena Sendler; and the Japanese spy Chinue Sugihara, who provided hiding places, participated in underground networks, and helped secure safe passage.

Amid the incomprehensible horror of the Holocaust and the passive apathy of millions, these extraordinary individuals provided—as Hurowitz so poignantly shows—cause for hope. In the Garden of the Righteous is a testament to their kindness and courage.

According to a review of In the Garden of the Righteous published in The Forward, Hurowitz does “an impressive job of researching and telling these invigorating stories… [even] tracking down children and grandchildren of the rescuers, as well as Holocaust survivors, who offer intimate accounts of what these rescue missions meant, and the costs they exacted.”

Richard Hurowitz is a writer, investor, and the publisher of The Octavian Report. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Times of London, the Los Angeles Times, Time, the Daily Beast, USA Today, CNBC, the Weekly Standard, History Today, and the Jerusalem Post. He received his bachelor’s degree in history from Yale and his juris doctor from Columbia Law School.

Leah Garrett, moderator, is inaugural director of Hunter’s Jewish Studies Center and director of the college’s Hebrew and Jewish Studies program. Her books include: X-Troop: The Secret Jewish Commandos of World War II and Young Lions: How Jewish Authors Reinvented the American War Novel, which won the 2017 Jordan Schnitzer Book Award for modern Jewish history and was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award.

Support for this program has been provided by Roosevelt House Board of Advisors Member Daniel Shuchman.

Support for the Hunter College Jewish Studies Program is provided by the Eva Brust Cooper Jewish Studies Program Fund.

This event will be held in person at Roosevelt House and online via Zoom.

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