Country of origin |
Awards |
Notes |
Poland | 6,532 | The largest contingent.[3] It includes a wide variety of both individuals of different occupations and, organized activists, including Irena Sendler (Polish social worker who served in Polish Underground and Żegota resistance organization in Warsaw, saving 2,500 Jewish children); Jan Karski (who reported on situation of Jews in occupied Poland); Tadeusz Pankiewicz (Kraków pharmacist), Henryk Sławik (social worker); Rudolf Weigl (scientist); Stefan Korboński (politician), Sister Bertranda (Catholic nun); Eryk Lipiński (artist); Franciszek and Magdalena Banasiewicz (painter and his wife); Irena Adamowicz (scout leader); Maria Kotarba (Polish Resistance fighter); the Podgórski sisters (store clerks); Józef and Wiktoria Ulma (family of farmers murdered together with their six children for helping Jews); Leopold "Poldek" Socha (sewer inspector, hid a group of Jews in remote corner of Lviv sewers); writer/activist Zofia Kossak-Szczucka; and Karolina Juszczykowska (kitchen worker for Organization Todt, hid Jews in her home for which she was executed).[4] See Polish Righteous Among the Nations for additional names. |
Netherlands | 5,413 | On a population of 9 million in 1940 the figure represents the largest per capita number: 1 in 1,700 Dutch was awarded (Poland: 1 in 3,700; population of 24,300,000 ethnic Poles in 1939).[5] Includes two persons originally from the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). Includes Corrie ten Boom; Frits Philips who ran Philips during the German occupation; Gertruida Wijsmuller-Meier, who helped save about 10,000 Jewish children from Germany and Austria just before the outbreak of the war (see Kindertransport); she also managed the last transport to the UK on May 12, 1940 on the last ship leaving the Netherlands; Jan Zwartendijk, who as a Dutch consular representative in Kaunas, Lithuania, issued exit visas used by between 6,000 and to 10,000 Jewish refugees; includes the people who hid and helped Anne Frank and her family, like Miep Gies. Also includes the Salvation Army major Alida Bosshardt and the founder of VPRO Radio, theologian Nicolette Bruining.[6] Remarkable is the relatively large number of Protestant ministers and their wives that participated and were awarded. Also includes the German lawyer Hans Calmeyer,[7] who was recognized for his activities in the Netherlands during the war. Also includes Caecilia Loots, a teacher and antifascist resistance member, known for saving Jewish children during the war.[8] Henk Zanoli returned his medal in 2014 after some of his family members were killed in an IDF airstrike.
Also uniquely includes three organisations or collectives: the collective participants of the so-called "Amsterdam dock strike" (better known as the February strike, about 30-50,000 people who on 25/26 February 1941 took part in the first strike against persecution of the Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe);
the whole village of Nieuwlande (117 inhabitants) that set up a quota-system under then alderman and later resistance fighter Johannes Post;
and the resistance group, NV groep (for saving Jewish children).
In Denmark, France, and Norway, as well, a group of people was recognized as a single entity. |
France | 3,760 | In January 2007, French President Jacques Chirac and other dignitaries honored France's Righteous in a ceremony at the Panthéon, Paris. The Legion of Honour was awarded to 160 French Righteous for their efforts saving French Jews during World War II.[9] Also includes Johan Hendrik Weidner, head of the Dutch-Paris Underground whose organization saved over 800 Jews and over 100 allied airmen. |
Ukraine | 2,472 | Daniil Tymchina,[10] hieromonk of the Univ Lavra (2008); Klymentiy Sheptytsky, the Archimandrite of the Studite monks of Greek-Catholic Monastery (1995); Stepan Omelianiuk (1982)[11] |
Belgium | 1,665 | Includes Queen Elisabeth of the Belgians. Also includes Jeanne Daman, who helped rescue two thousand Jewish children from the Nazis by taking them to shelters.[12][13][14] |
Lithuania | 871 | See Lithuanian Righteous Among the Nations, including Kazys Binkis and Ona Šimaitė |
Hungary | 810 | Including Zoltán Lajos Bay (physicist:"father of radar-astronomy"); Béla Király (commander, 56 freedom fighter) ; Géza Ottlik (author); Endre Szervánszky (composer); Paulina and Ilona Kolonits (the latter a documentary film director); Father Raile Jakab, S. J.; Margit Slachta (social activist); Blessed Sára Salkaházi, S.S.S. (Roman Catholic nun), Karig Sára[15] |
Italy | 610 | Including Laura and Constantino Bulgari,[16] Giovanni Palatucci, Lorenzo Perrone, Angelo Rotta, Francesco Repetto, Giorgio Perlasca,[17] the cyclist Gino Bartali and the Blessed Odoardo Focherini[18] |
Belarus | 601 | Including Vanda Skuratovich and Mariya Yevdokimova[19] |
Germany | 553 | Including Oskar Schindler, the businessman who saved more than 1,000 Jews by employing them in his factory; Captain Gustav Schröder who commanded the "Voyage of the Damned"; Wehrmacht officers Wilm Hosenfeld, Heinz Drossel, Karl Plagge, and Albert Battel; resistance fighter Hans von Dohnányi, and writer Armin Wegner |
Slovakia | 539 | Including Pavel Peter Gojdič, Dr. Michal Majercik and his wife Anna[20] |
Greece | 321 | Including Archbishop Damaskinos of Athens and Princess Alice of Battenberg |
Russia | 189 | Including Nikolay Kiselyov |
Latvia | 134 | Including Jānis Lipke |
Serbia | 131 | See Serbian Righteous Among the Nations |
Czech Republic | 114 | Victor Kugler |
Croatia | 109 | See: List of Croatian Righteous Among the Nations |
Austria | 95 | Including Irene Harand, Florian Tschögl, and Kurt Reinhard (List of Austrian Righteous Among the Nations) |
Moldova | 79 | Includes the Stoyanov family [21] |
Albania | 69 | See List of Albanian Righteous Among the Nations |
Romania | 60 | Includes Queen Helen of Romania, Traian Popovici (known for saving 20,000 Jews of Bukovina from deportation) and Prince Constantin Karadja, credited by Yad Vashem with saving more than 51,000 Jews[22] |
Norway | 52 | See List of Norwegian Righteous Among the Nations; the Norwegian Underground is listed as one group |
Switzerland | 45 | Including Carl Lutz, who helped save tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews [23] |
Bosnia and Herzegovina | 42 | Includes Roza Sober-Dragoje and Zekira Besrević, Mustafa and Zejneba Hardaga, Izet and Bachriya Hardaga, Ahmed Sadik [24][25] |
Armenia | 24 | Includes Taschdjian (Tashchiyan) family [26][27] |
Denmark | 22 | As per their request, members of the Danish Underground who participated in the rescue of the Danish Jews are listed as one group. The fishermen who transported Danish Jews to Sweden in 1943, however, were ineligible because they had been paid.[28] |
United Kingdom | 21 | This list includes Major Frank Foley but excludes Sir Nicholas Winton (who was of Jewish parentage) |
Bulgaria | 20 | Dimitar Peshev; Metropolitan Stefan of Sofia and Metropolitan Kiril of Plovdiv of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church |
Macedonia | 10 | Including Smiljan Franjo Čekada, Boris Altiparmak[29] and Stojan Siljanovski[30] |
Sweden | 10 | Including Raoul Wallenberg, Per Anger, Ivan Danielsson,[31] Lars Berg,[32] Valdemar Langlet, Nina Langlet, Elow Kihlgren, Erik Perwe, Elisabeth Hesselblad and Erik Myrgren |
Slovenia | 7 | Including Zora Piculin [33] |
Spain | 6 | Ángel Sanz Briz, José Ruiz Santaella and his wife, Carmen, and Eduardo Propper de Callejón |
United States | 5 | Varian Fry, Martha and Waitstill Sharp, Lois Gunden,[34][35] and Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds[36] |
Turkey | 3 | Selâhattin Ülkümen, Necdet Kent, Namık Kemal Yolga |
Estonia | 3 | Uku and Eha Masing and Polina Lentsman |
Brazil | 2 | Luis Martins de Souza Dantas and Aracy de Carvalho Guimarães Rosa |
Republic of China (1912–1949) | 2 | Pan Jun Shun and Feng-Shan Ho (provided approximately 2,000 visas to Jews in need during his tenure as ambassador of ROC to Vienna in 1938) |
Indonesia | 2 | Tole Madna, Mima Saina[37] |
Portugal | 2 | Aristides de Sousa Mendes, issued 30,000 visas to people escaping the Nazis In France. Carlos Sampaio Garrido sheltered about 1,000 Jews in safe-houses in Budapest and gave them Portuguese documents to leave the country. |
Chile | 1 | Maria Edwards McClure[38] |
El Salvador | 1 | José Castellanos Contreras (provided Salvadoran citizenship papers to approximately 13,000 Central European Jews) |
Georgia | 1 | Sergei Metreveli |
Ireland | 1 | Mary Elmes[39] |
Japan | 1 | Chiune Sugihara (provided approximately 3,400 transit visas to Jews in need) |
Template:Manchukuo | 1 | Kiichiro Higuchi in the Otpor Incident of 1938 let the many Jewish refugees stranden on the Soviet Union-Manchukuo border to enter Manchuria for further move to Shanghai or Japan |
Luxembourg | 1 | Victor Bodson (former Justice Minister and Chairman of the Luxembourg House of Representatives; saved approximately 100 Jews) |
Montenegro | 1 | Petar Zankovic |
Cuba | 1 | Ámparo (Otero) Pappo |
Ecuador | 1 | Manuel Antonio Muñoz Borrero |
Egypt | 1 | Mohammed Helmy[40] |
Peru | 1 | José Maria Barreto[41] |
Suriname | 1 | William Arnold Egger |
Vietnam | 1 | Paul Nguyễn Công Anh |
Total | 25,271 |
As of 1 January 2014 |