New book: Righteous Behind Barbed Wire

In Germany, there are few reminders of human rights activist Armin T. Wegner and Auschwitz survivor Ludwig Wörl. In the Nazi period, both of these non-Jewish Germans stood up for their Jewish compatriots, actions for which they were honored after the war as Righteous among the Nations by the Israeli Holocaust Memorial Center, Yad Vashem.

Unlike the Righteous from neutral, hostile or German-occupied countries, Wegner and Wörl opposed the policy of their own government headed by dictator Adolf Hitler. Although they were citizens of the ‘perpetrators’ nation’, they stood up for the victims. In that way they showed themselves as immune to anti-Semitism and the murderous lust many compatriots either did not resist or, worse, took part in.

In addition to caring about the fate of Jews in Germany, Wegner and Wörl had another thing in common: they were themselves victims of persecution by the Nazis and were political prisoners in Hitler’s concentration camps. How did they get there, and what did they do to defend their fellow Jews from Nazi hatred?

Kevin Prenger is a writer of World War II history, living in his native Netherlands. He is the chief editor of the website TracesOfWar.com and also contributes to the Dutch online history magazine Historiek.net. 

Righteous Behind Barbed Wire

Armin Wegner & Ludwig Wörl

ISBN: 9798336367638

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