The Righteous

Story of the unsung heroes and heroines of the Holocaust, the 'Righteous Gentiles', brave individuals all over occupied Europe who hid, protected and helped Jews.

A timely book for a new century... The questions raised in this book lie at the heart of our humanity.

Martin Gilbert brings together some remarkable stories of courage and ingenuity.

The paperback of the year was Martin Gilbert's THE RIGHTEOUS. It is heartbreaking yet inspiring, an account of people who risked their lives, and worse, to shelter Jews during the Second World War. I beg everyone to read it.

Retold here by Martin Gilbert with his customary quiet authority ... the stories of the many "righteous" remembered by Gilbert in his account of human goodness, are the true seeds of hope that survived the Holocaust.

Two implicit demands are made of us by Gilbert's powerful book. They are, most obviously: where would you and I have stood? And the question which also provides the probable answer: what if the 19,000 [Righteous] had been 19 million?

'He who saves one life, it is as if he saved an entire world' 
 
The Holocaust will be forever numbered amongst the darkest of days in human civilisation. Yet even in that darkness, there were sparks of light. Many will recognise the names of Oskar Schindler, Raoul Wallenberg and Miep Gies. But there were thousands of others throughout Europe who risked their own lives to save Jews from the Nazis and their horrific campaign of obliteration that was the Holocaust. 
 
By the beginning of 2002, more than 19,000 non-Jews had been recognized as Righteous (Among the Nations) by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem. Some were officials, some were clergy; others were citizens of countries who united in their efforts to protect Jews. Many were merely individuals who had the courage to stand up against a growing tide of collaboration and simply say: 'We did what we had to do'. 
 
Martin Gilbert, the foremost British historian of the Holocaust, here presents the evidence collected over many years. Cumulatively, these accounts, from every occupied country in Europe, from the Baltic to the Mediterranean, from the Atlantic to the Black Sea, and from inside the Third Reich itself, form an inspiring tribute to those heroic individuals who, without thought to the risk to their own lives, dared to challenge barbarism, and hold out the hand of rescue to the Jews of Europe.

Auschwitz And The Allies

'A story that needs to be remembered. It is here told by a real historian.whose style is the more moving by being objective and controlled' - Hugh Trevor-Roper, The Times

One cannot write too highly of Martin Gilbert's industry and literary abilities in making the world aware of the fullness of this hideous tale...A brilliant book

Auschwitz is now a name of horror without parallel...Why did it remain relatively unknown for so long? Martin Gilbert has set out to explore this contradiction

A story that needs to be remembered. It is here told by a real historian...whose style is the more moving by being objective and controlled

An unforgettable contribution to the history of the last war

When Hitler announced that the result of the war in Europe would be 'the complete annihilation of the Jews', he did so in 1942, not only in public, but before an enormous crowd in Berlin. The Allies heard, but, astonishingly, they did not listen. 
 
In 1944, Allied reconnaissance pilots, searching out industrial targets in the area, repeatedly photographed Auschwitz. The pictures, apparently overlooked by the Allies, were routinely filed in government archives and not examined until 1979. 
 
First-hand reports on the horrors of the death camps came to the West by 1944 in the person of two escaped Auschwitz prisoners. Their testimonies, and those of subsequent escapees, were either ignored or dismissed. 
 
Despite the fact that, the same year, Churchill himself had ordered feasibility studies for air strikes on Auschwitz, the RAF not only did nothing, but eventually passed the buck to the Americans, who also did nothing. This book explains the reasons why.

Martin Gilbert

The Official Biography

&lsquo;By far the most lucid, comprehensive and authoritative account of Churchill that has been offered in a single volume&rsquo; Daily Telegraph 
 
Drawing on decades of unprecedented access to Winston Churchill&rsquo;s family and estate, this classic bestseller remains the definitive biography of Britain&rsquo;s greatest prime minister. At once intimate and vastly ambitious, it transforms our understanding of who Churchill was and what he accomplished. 
 
&lsquo;A masterpiece of scholarship . . . Explores the strategic labyrinths of two world wars with an enviable clarity.&rsquo; Guardian 
 
&lsquo;Gilbert is, above all, a marshaller of material on a gigantic scale . . . The nakedness of the narrative proclaims its honesty, its unpretentiousness and its erudition.&rsquo; The Times 
 
&lsquo;One of the greatest histories of our time.&rsquo; Margaret Thatcher 
 
&lsquo;Genuinely riveting . . . Genius, courage, generosity, humour and imagination shine through.&rsquo; Financial Times 
 
&lsquo;A stupendous book. He has told the truth.&rsquo; A. J. P. Taylor 
 
&lsquo;The greatest adventure story of the century.&rsquo; Sunday Telegraph

Churchill: A Life

About us

About Us (Header 4)

Best-Jane-Austen-quotes_Online-Desktop_Penguin

James-Baldwin

Marian-Keyes

haruki-murakami-320×320-1

Richard-Osman

Malorie Blackman

Lisa-Jewell

Charlie-Mackesy

Authors (Header 3)

Children&#039;s

Company

Discover

Fiction

Non-fiction

Penguin Classics

Penguin Shop (Header 5)

Useful links

Work with us

sectionTitle

isEnabled

anchor

anchorLabel

prhuk/featured-book

prhuk/praise-section

maxBooks

showViewMore

prhuk/books-section

hideAuthorAlert

formName

iterableDivision

iterableBrand

buttonText

description

heading

legalText

successHeading

successText

image

alignment

variation

prhuk/email-section

prhuk/series-section

prhuk/biography-section

prhuk/articles-section

prhuk-authors

The perfect gift? A Penguin Shop gift card

Martin Gilbert

Books by Martin Gilbert

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter