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Edited on Tue Jul-20-04 01:34 PM by JPZenger
Unfortunately, almost everyone who resisted Hitler in any form within Germany was dead before the end of the war. We have all heard of the attempt to kill Hitler with a bomb in his bunker, but there were actually many assasination attempts. Each one almost worked.
Here's a few more examples of heroes resisting Hitler. There also are some great stories about Norweigian resistance fighters skiing into a chasm to destroy Hitler's heavy water plant in Norway, as well as many stories of brave members of the French Resistance.
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The following is paraphrased from www.us-israel.org.
Raoul Wallenberg was a Swedish diplomat who was personally responsible for saving the lives from the Nazis of over 80,000 Jewish people in Hungary. While working in Palestine in the 1930s, Wallenberg first met Jews that had escaped Hitler's Germany. Their stories of the Nazi persecutions affected him deeply. During WWII, Wallenberg was a businessman of neutral Sweden, which allowed him to travel through Nazi-occupied territory and learn his way around the German bureacracy. He also was fluent in many languages.
By 1944, the extent of Hitler's plans to kill millions of Jews began to be known to the outside world. Hungary had been a relatively peaceful place, with 700,000 Jews still living in the country at the beginning of 1944. Hitler invaded Hungary in March 1944. Then the deportations of Jews started to the Auschwitz and Birkenau death camps.
Hungarian Jews sought help from the embassies of the neutral countries, where provisional passes were issued for Jews with special connections to these countries. The Swedish diplomats negotiated with the Germans that the bearers of these protective passes would be treated as Swedish citizens.
In 1944, the U.S. established The War Refugee Board (WRB), an organization with the purpose of saving Jews from Nazi persecution. The WRB soon realized that serious attempts were being made from the Swedish side to rescue the Jewish population in Hungary. The WRB called a committee with prominent Swedish Jews to discuss suitable persons to lead a mission in Budapest for an extensive rescue operation. Raoul Wallenberg was chosen because of his knowledge of Hungary, even though some considered him too young and inexperienced. Raoul was the right man-a quick thinker, energetic, brave and compassionate.
Wallenberg was appointed a diplomat in Budapest to start a rescue operation for the Jews. Before he left, Wallenberg demanded full authorization to deal with whom he wanted without having to go through diplomatic channels. The request was personally approved by the Swedish Prime Minister and King.
By the time Raoul Wallenberg arrived in Budapest in July 1944, the Germans under the leadership of Nazi SS Officer Adolf Eichmann had already sent away more than 400,000 Jewish men, women and children. When Wallenberg came to Budapest, only about 230,000 Jews were left.
Eichmann was now preparing a plan to exterminate the whole Jewish population in Hungary. He wrote to Berlin that "the technical details will take a few days."
The Hungarian Head of State helped to delay the deportations. Wallenberg also received assistance from the head of the Red Cross. He rented buildings for the Red Cross and put signs like "The Swedish Library" and "The Swedish Research Institute" on its doors. These buildings were then used as hiding places for Jews.
Raoul Wallenberg did not use traditional diplomacy. Instead, he used everything from bribes to extortion threats. Much of the money for the bribes came from the Roosevelt Administration.
Raoul Wallenberg's first task was to design a Swedish protective pass to help the Jews against the Germans and Hungarians. He had previous experience that both the German and Hungarian authorities were weak for flashy symbols. He therefore had the passes printed in yellow and blue with the coat of arms of the Three Crowns of Sweden in the middle, and added the appropriate stamps and signatures on it. Of course Wallenberg's protective passes had no value whatsoever according to international laws, but it provoked respect. To begin with Wallenberg only had permission to issue 1,500 passes, but the number soon rose much higher.
Wallenberg personally controlled a staff of several hundred Jewish workers to issue the passes and to assist other Jews. However, the assistance from the Hungarian government soon collapsed when the Hungarian leader was overthrown by the Nazis. This again gave Adolf Eichmann a free hand to continue the terror against the Jews.
Wallenberg kept on fighting and stood directly up to Eichman face-to-face at the risk of his own life. In many cases, Wallenberg was able to save Jews from German troops and Hungarian collaborators using only bluster, firmness and his personal courage.
Now Raoul started 30 "Swedish houses" where the Jews could seek refuge. A Swedish flag hung in front of the door and Wallenberg declared the house Swedish territory. The population of the "Swedish houses" soon rose to 15,000.
The other neutral legations in Budapest started to follow Wallenberg's example and issued protective passes. A number of diplomats from other countries were inspired to open their own "protective houses" for Jewish refugees.
Toward the end of the war, when the situation became increasingly desperate, Wallenberg issued a simplified form of his protective pass, one copied page with his signature alone. In the existing chaos even that worked. He used his friendship with the wife of the foreign minister to make his passes valid.
Then, Eichmann started his brutal "death marches" of thousands of starving and tortured Jews on foot. Wallenberg ran up and down the lines handing out protective passes, food and medicine. He threatened and he bribed until he managed to free those with Swedish passes.
When the Nazis transported the Jews in trains, Wallenberg intensified his rescue efforts. He even climbed the train wagons, stood on the tracks, ran along the wagon roofs, and stuck bunches of protective passes down to the people inside. The German soldiers were ordered to open fire, but were so impressed by Wallenberg's courage that they deliberately aimed too high. Wallenberg could jump down unharmed and demand that the Jews with passes should leave the train together with him.
In January 1945, Wallenberg found out that Eichmann planned a total massacre in the largest ghetto. The only one who could stop it was the commander of German troops in Hungary.
Wallenberg also found one high-ranking police officer who was willing to help. He went to the German General to deliver a note explaining that Wallenberg would make sure that the general would be held personally responsible for the massacre and that he would be hanged as a war criminal after the war. The massacre was stopped at the last minute thanks to Wallenberg's action.
Two days later, the Russians arrived and found 97,000 Jews alive in Budapest's two Jewish ghettos. In total 120,000 Jews survived the Nazi extermination in Hungary.
Most sources credit Wallenberg with saving 80,000 to 100,000 of the Hungarian Jews.
When the Soviets moved into Hungary, Wallenberg met them and asked for a meeting. He was not heard again, and apparently died years later in a Soviet prison.
As for Eichman, he escaped to South America. Then in 1960, Israeli agents captured him. He was tried and executed in Israel.
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On the first night of Rosh Hashanah in 1943, the chief rabbi of Denmark entered the Great Synagogue in Copenhagen and announced that a Nazi persecution was pending in Denmark the next day. The Nazi Death Camps were gearing up to try to annihilate Jewish people from Europe. He ordered everyone present to leave, find hiding and warn others.
The Resistance hid Jews in homes near the sea. With the help of local fishermen, Resistance group members rowed Jews to Sweden to safety. What began as a disorganized plan to save the Danish Jews soon became highly organized. Almost overnight, a rescue plan was put into action that helped about 7,200 Jews and their 700 non-Jewish relatives escape to Sweden in less than three weeks time.
In total, the Nazis were able to capture less than 500 Jews, most of who were living in an old age home.
After liberation, the majority of the Jews returned to their homes in Denmark and found them untouched. Many of their friends and neighbors had tended to their property while they were gone.
A total of 3,000 members of the Danish resistance were killed during the war.
Almost every nation under German control suffered the death of most of their Jewish residents. The main exceptions were Hungary, where 80,000 Jewish people were saved by Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, and Denmark, where less than 2% of the Jews died.
Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust Authority, honors over 20,000 individuals who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust and confers upon these noble men and women the title of Righteous Among the Nations of the World. The members of the Danish resistance are the only Righteous to be honored as a group.
Danish citizens clearly understood the Talmudic excerpt "Whoever saves a single life is as if one saves the entire world."
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