Jaap polak biography

Home Groups Talk More Zeitgeist. Author Page. Work Explorer Reviews. Popular Recent. Work Explorer. A moving story told in letters that Jaap and Ina passed between them in Westerbork transit camp and Bergen-Belson.

Jaap polak biography

He attended a Jewish elementary school until age 12, and then entered a commercial high school, where he studied accounting. When Margrit was 18, she and her father discovered letters written between him and her mother, chronicling their courtship in Westerbork and Bergen Belsen. She translated and annotated the letters which have subsequently been published as a book, filmed as a documentary and presented as an opera, all entitled Steal a Pencil for Me.

Ina Polak was the daughter of Abraham Soep, owner of the second largest diamond factory in Amsterdam. A member of the board of the Jewish Council, Soep was able to keep his daughter relatively safe in Westerbork, where she worked in the laundry rather than dismantling batteries, which was her original job. Some of the diplomats who, like George Mantello in Geneva, played a role in helping Jewish and other refugees to flee the Nazis:.

Hiram Bingham IV: U. Credited with helping to rescue about 2, people, including the artist Marc Chagall and author Leon Feuchtwanger between and Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz: German naval attache in Copenhagen, Denmark, inhe secretly alerted the Danish resistance that the Nazis jaap polak biography planning to deport Danish Jews. More than 6, Jews — more than 90 percent of the total in Denmark — were transported overnight by sea to neutral Sweden.

Among them was pianist-comedian Victor Borge. Chiune Sugihara: Japanese diplomat in Lithuania, issued about 3, transit visas to Jews to get them out of Europe as the Nazi invasion loomed. Upon his return home he was fired from the Japanese Foreign Service. Feng Shan Ho: Chinese consul in Vienna, defied direct orders and issued many visas to Jews who then escaped the Nazi occupation of Austria.

His visas got many Jews out of concentration camps. His government reprimanded him and removed him from his post in May Carl Lutz: Swiss diplomat in Budapest,credited with saving thousands of Jews by setting up dozens of safe houses and issuing thousands of letters of safe passage. He helped distribute certificates of Salvadoran citizenship signed by George Mantello at the Salvadoran consulate in Geneva.

After the war he was formally chided by his bosses for allegedly overstepping his authority. Raoul Wallenberg: Swedish diplomat, directly rescued 20, Jews from the Holocaust by distributing false Swedish passports or sheltering them on diplomatic territory. As they ate breakfast in the dining room, guests and staff stopped by to see them off.

As Jack stood up to leave, I approached him, stuck out my hand, and said forcefully, "Next year. Lawrence J. Haas International Business Times. Most of all, Jack has been an educator, speaking at schools, churches, synagogues, and other organizations to impart his six lessons: Don't discriminate. Don't generalize. Don't be a bystander.

Work for peace. Enjoy the simple things in life. We are living in a wonderful country and we all need to work together to make this a better world. But this can only be achieved if people learn the lessons of the Holocaust.