MEDAL OF HEROISM
Jack Kent, Righteous Among the Nations recipient, flanked by wife Roza, grandsons Spencer, Dylan, and son Martin
On April 29, 2003, commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn and Israeli and Polish diplomats joined in presenting Jack Kent with Israel’s highest honor, the ‘Righteous Among the Nations’ award. Hahn, Israeli and Polish Consul Generals, Council members Jack Weiss and Antonio Villaragosa, and Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, joined together in solidarity with community members at the Museum of Tolerance to honor the memory of the victims of the Nazi Holocaust. At the Wiesenthal Center commemoration, the State of Israel bestowed the honor of Righteous Among the Nations upon Jack Kent, Jan Bartczak, and Olga Chaplanova, for their courage in saving Jewish victims during the Holocaust. Special guests at the ceremony were honoree Jack Kent and his wife Roza, whom he rescued as a young girl upon her escape from the Rohatyn ghetto, after two Nazi massacres, resulting in the murder of 6,500 men, women and children.
Los Angeles TV and radio media interview Jack Kent
The Righteous Among the Nations award is an additional stipulation in the law requiring Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority, to honor “the Righteous Among the Nations who risked their lives to save Jews.”
Since 1963, a commission headed by an Israeli Supreme Court justice has been charged with the duty of awarding the title “Righteous among the Nations.” The commission is guided in its work by certain criteria and meticulously studies all pertinent documentation, including evidence by survivors and other eyewitnesses. In order to arrive at a fair evaluation of the rescuer’s deeds and motivations, the commission takes into consideration all the circumstances relevant to the rescue story.
Oskar Schindler
Perhaps the most famous recipient of the Righteous Among the Nations title is Oskar Schindler, also from a middle-class Catholic family, whose experiences were brought to the screen in Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-winning masterpiece Schindler’s List. Schindler, a Nazi himself, turned against his compatriots and risked his life to save over 1,200 Jews. In 1999, documentary filmmaker Martin Kent wrote, directed and produced, Oskar Schindler, The Man Behind the List, a documentary special on the life of Oskar Schindler for A&E’s acclaimed Biography television series.
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
I tip my hat to the exemplary courage and heroism of Jack Kent and others like him who helped save many lives during the Nazi regime.
martin
your father was a great man and he deserves a medal of herosim i cant imagine what he went through but all i can say hes a great man thanks martin for the email for this site it means alot god bless
Oskar Schindler, Mr. Kent, and many others all deserve the Righteous among the Nations award for their tireless and often thankless work in driving back the shadow of hatred that enshrouds our world.
In answer to an earlier question, about why Hitler and the Nazis came to hate the Jews so much, I think the answer is simple: Hitler, and most of those who became high officials in the Nazi Party, found themselves dirt – poor during the Depression that swept over the world from 1929 to 1942. In those days, they saw some Jewish people in their neighborhoods who remained fairly affluent, suffered little economic loss; while they, themselves, were scrabbling in garbage heaps for a place to sleep, and lining up at soup kitchens for a bowl of watery gruel and a piece of stale bread. The disparity between them may have been what triggered the hatred; at least in Hitler. The others were but weak – minded sheep following Hitler’s lead into genocide.
I still have to watch some of the clips, which I will certainly do later. You’ve done a brilliant job and your father certainly deserves that medal and many more.
I have been interested in the Holocaust since I was a little girl. My
Great Grandparents (my Grandparents were Polish), lost their lives in Auschwitz. I have been doing my own research for some years now.
To me, Oskar Schindler was a great man for helping to save so many lives. How wonderful that your Father received the same medal!!
I plan on going to Germany – there is a need inside of me to go to Auschwitz. the need to see it for myself.
Your family history is remarkable and I’m so grateful to know that there really are good people in this world. I’ll be sure to look at your website and if you wouldn’t mind maybe use it as a source for my paper? I’m not Jewish, and I don’t have any Jewish history but I am Polish
I don’t believe that I have any links to the Holocaust or any ancestors from it but I’ve always been close to my Ima (grandmother), she and I are practically obsessed with learning as much as we can about history, and the Holocaust, as a gloomy and horrid time it was, is one subject we both agree on that there will always be more and more accounts and events to learn about each day.
Your father deserved the Righteous Among the Nations medal. He was heroic in his actions. Men such as Reinhardt Tristan Heydrich, Heinrich Himmler, Adolf Eichmann, and of course, most of all, Adolf Hitler took anti-Semitism to such an extreme that no one should be allowed to forget, ever the evil that they manifested and spread throughout Europe and the world. Thank you for sharing the dignity and courage your father showed in defying the Nazis and saving your mother.
I think what your father done was wonderful. I enjoyed your website. Keep up the good work.
I sincerely appreciate the efforts taken by good citizens of the world
like you to tell the current generation of people the horror, torture,
mental agony and pain unleashed by the Nazi regime.
My support on a personal level will always be with you in all your
ventures to present the tragic history of holocaust.
God bless you.
Jay,
Bangalore, India
That Hitler was an anti-Christ, I have no doubt. I believe that this much evil had to have been a manifestation of that Personal Evil we call Satan. And I believe that Hitler survived all thos assassination attempts due to intervention of that Evil. It led him, protected him, and nurtured his terrible hatred, a hate that I believe has cut him off from God’s Grace.
I believe that those Righteous Among the Nations are in God’s Grace, and will be there forever. They all lived in such a way that each day was a sacrifice for them; a sacrifice of their personal safety, and in such a way that they became more vulnerable to that terrible Evil. And that kind of Righteousness comes only from God’s Grace. It comes a s a result of Faith and Belief in God’s Own Teachings for us, and in the responsibility of each of us in this world for each the other.
“Lord, am I my brother’s keeper?” said Cain to the Lord. And the Lord Answered “Thy brother’s blood cries out from the ground to My Ears, and it cries out for vengeance”. God’s reaction and punishment of Cain for the murder of his own brother should tell ua all what is Right and what is not. Schindler, Kent and all the rest who resisted that awful hatred and evil deserve to be named as heroes to us all. And they ARE. Let their names be known forever. That they have achieved a Measure of God’s Grace is without argument by anyone with Faith. May they live forever in His Glory and Loving Presence, and may they share in Our Father’s Wholeness and Love forever.
I am a student of history myself and very much intrigued by the work of many non-Jewish angels during the Holocaust. I would like to learn more about the darkest period in the history of mankind. I am really in awe of what your father did. Lets promote peace and tolerance worldwide.
The work done by Schindler was unforeseen to himself, but ended up being remarkable. The fact that he detached himself from all material things and to risk his life to save others; makes Oskar unique.
This website has made me learn a lot about how some people did great things and helped each other during the Holocaust.
Your father and Oscar Schindler are both good men and so are the other people who helped the Jews in the holocaust.
God bless all the Jews who were killed in the Holocaust and God bless the people who have come together to make a difference.
Thanks — with my respect and love
Adam Baxter
I am sure you quite proud of your Father for his actions. Great website altogether.
Its great to learn the many lessons history has taught us — many lessons which today’s leaders don’t seem to see or consider when taking action. While going through some of my own mini research I heard there were also many other people/organizations that had stood up against the Holocaust during that time. Any info on that or about its authenticity??
Hi Martin thanks for the mail. Im happy on your behalf that your father received such an great honour (in my opinion the best you can obtain ever) I do have interest in the history about all the disgusting things that happened to the 6 million Jews during the world war ll. There is no words that can describe it. Im from Denmark. My parents were fighting against the nazi germans under the war. The english airforce dropped containers for the danish resistance and my fathers job was to gather the weapons and deliver them to a hiding place and my mothers job was to hide the parachute. It sounds like it was a easy job but under the circumstances during the war they had to react very quickly. After the hiding they were involved in communication that could inform those who needed the weapons. Im just proud because i had parents who actually did somethings to fight a horrible regime that had the killing of that many people on its conscience. When im on the net and other places for that matter, see muslims or other attacking Jews because they are Jews, it simply light a red lamp in my head and im attacking it. We cant simply not as humans allow ourselves to see that kind of attack without doing somethings against it. We must do all we can to avoid the horrible things we saw during the war to happen again just in a modern form. Religions frighten me simply because they put limits on peoples freedom of movement. Im born christian but consider myself as an kind of atheist. I was a time several years ago in love with a jewish girl but the jewish religion prevented me from having a relationship with her. I know not all Jews (like all other people from different religions) stick that much to the religion, but unfortunately she did, so i had to let it go. Maybe i should have tried harder that time, but i was afraid i just made her life worse. People in my country do have liberty, justice and equality both men and women. The only place i see some small inequalities, is when speaking about pay (men and women), i dont know why, but they are there, even though they might be small. When speaking generally, all people have to work for their freedom in every way. Freedom isnt just somethings you will get without doing somethings for it (if so its totally wrong).
I think we need to understand that the persecutions against the Jewish people have been happening throughout time up until and after the Holocaust. We need to understand that ethnic cleansing or whatever name is applied to it is wrong and we need to educate all our children about this whatever our religion. Look at what the native Americans/Indians went through, the African Americans, the terror of Srebrinica and everything else that happened in the Balkans (the Muslim Holocaust???) while the UN and NATO did nothing, the horrors of Rwanda while the French looked on and only protected their own citizens while turning away from the thousands of men, women and children, all innocent, who were unmercifully butchered by people who had previously been good neighbours. Unfortunately there will always be evil out there and remember that for evil to succeed all it takes is for good men to do nothing!!!!!!!
Witaj Martin,ten komentarz będzie po polsku ponieważ po angielsku
rozmawiam i czytam jednak pisanie idzie mi z wielkim trudem.Temat zagłady
powinien być rozpropagowany jak najszerzej ponieważ nowe pokolenia mają
coraz mniej wiedzy na ten temat,a przecież była to największa katastrofa w
dziejach nowożytnego świata.Ja przeczytałem wiele książek o Holokauście
i mogę powiedzieć tylko tyle ,że należy dołożyć wszelkich starań aby to co się stało nie odeszło w zapomnienie i nie powtórzyło się.Wyrazy wielkiego
szacunku dla twojego ojca Olka,oraz dla Ciebie za tę pracę którą robisz..
TRANSLATION:
Hello Martin,
This comment is in Polish because writing in English is difficult for me.
The subject of Holocaust should be propagated as widely as possible because new generations do not know too much about it, yet it was the greatest catastrophe of a modern world. I’ve read a lot of books about Holocaust and the only thing I can say is that we must do anything possible not to allow this to be forgotten and to repeat. Great honors for your Father Olek and for you for the work you do.