Heritage Florida Jewish News - Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice

Wilfrid Israel risked his own life to save tens of thousands of Jews during the Holocaust.

Yad Vashem refuses to recognize and honor him. Yad Vashem refuses to recognize and honor the more than 200 Jews identified so far by the Israeli Committee, Jews who Rescued Jews during the Holocaust. B'nai Brith International recognizes them.

Haim Roet, himself a child survivor of the Holocaust because a Jew saved his life from the Nazis, tried for many years to get Yad Vashem to change their policy. Haim, and a few other Jews organized themselves into a committee to seek out, vet, and honor what should have been done and was not.

Every year, at the Scroll of Fire in the Jerusalem Forest, under the sponsorship of B'Nai Brith International, Haim Roet's group honors Jews who they vetted during the preceding year, Jews who rescued Jews during the Holocaust.

Yad Vashem's mandate is to document the full story of the Holocaust. They have an entire division whose sole job is to investigate, recognize and honor non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust, the Righteous Among the Nations award.

Yet, Yad Vashem refuses to document, to remember, to honor Jews who risked their lives because they argue Jews are obligated to risk their lives to save a fellow Jew. The very philosophical underpinnings of the State of Israel is a State where Jews defend and save Jewish life.

There is no religious halacha that mandates a Jew must risk their life to save another Jew.

During the Holocaust, saving Jews could and did risk instant death by the Nazis. Many Jews did not act but some incredible Jews did.

How can Yad Vashem claim to be fully documenting the history of the Holocaust if they adamantly refuse to recognize Jews who saved Jews?

Wilfrid Israel was a Jew who chose to save Jews at the risk of his own life.

Who was Wilfrid Israel?

Wilfrid Berthold Jacob Israel was born July 11, 1899, into a liberal Jewish family of extreme wealth. His mother Amy, granddaughter of the Chief Rabbi of the U.K., Herman Adler, insisted he be born in London.

Wilfrid, however, grew up in Berlin, where his father, Berthold, was the owner and manager of N. Israel, the largest department store in Germany..Following WWI, traveling the world collecting Oriental and Indian art, Wilfrid was deeply affected by the economic and social human suffering he encountered. Associating with British Quakers, he joined with them to help.

The associations he established with the British Quakers would prove critical to the rescue of Jews and his establishment of the Kindertransport.

When the Nazis took control of Germany in 1933, Wilfrid decided to use his fortune to try and get Jews to safety. By 1938, Wilfrid was running the "Hilfsverein," the main German Jewish organization helping Jews get out of Germany.

He had already saved thousands of Jews when Kristallnacht occurred. Wilfrid recognized the changed danger and knew the West would not save Jews, but they might save children. Using his contacts with the British Quakers, working round the clock, and using his own funds to build a network of support politically and socially, the British establishment relented and agreed to take 10,000 unaccompanied Jewish children to England. Wilfrid escaped Germany, returning to London in the summer 1939 only after he saw that the last Kindertransport was safely on its way.

For the next number of years, British intelligence relied upon Wilfrid for insights and connections into Germany. In 1943, Wilfrid flew to Spain with 1500 lifesaving visas to Palestine for trapped Jews. June 1, 1943, returning over the Bay of Biscay, his plane was shot down by Nazi fighters. His body was never located.

Much of Wilfrid's rescue work, his support for Jews, Israel, and humanity were never publicized. Some have surmised because he was afraid his homosexuality would become known.

Only very recently has his story come out and the personal price he paid.

His friend, Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, described him as "a man of great moral stature, dedicated to the service of others".

Albert Einstein, another friend, wrote about Wilfrid after he learned of his death, "Never in my life have I come in contact with a being so noble so strong and as selfless as he was – in very truth a living work of art. In these times of mass‑misfortune, which so few are able to stand up to, one feels the presence of this "chosen one" as a Liberator from despair for mankind." .

Wilfrid Israel

Wilfrid Israel was a philanthropist, a humanitarian, a socialist, and a strong supporter of Zionist enterprises. He saved more Jews than any single person had during the Holocaust.

There is a memorial to him, erected by the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation. It is located in Spain overlooking the Bay of Biscay next to a memorial for Leslie Howard whom Israel met on the flight that was downed by Nazi fighter planes.

There is no memorial in Israel to Jews who chose to rescue Jews at the risk of their own lives during the Holocaust.

Jerry Klinger is the founding president of the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation, which has placed monuments and plaques across the United States and in other countries detailing the history of Jewish individuals and communities.