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An ancient Jewish tradition teaches that if a person saves one life it is as if he or she has created an entire world. A number of famous people such as Oskar Schindler and Miep Gies courageously applied this teaching by saving the lives of Jews during the Holocaust.

However, scores of far less well-known people also found spiritual, emotional and moral resources to shelter Jewish neighbors, friends, family members and business associates.

Though dwarfed by the millions of Europeans who, because of anti-Semitism, apathy or pure fear and helplessness, refused to help their Jewish neighbors, these "Righteous Gentiles" found within themselves what social psychologist Eva Fogelman calls the "rescuer self" that kept them going against all odds to defend these innocent people from Nazi brutality throughout World War II.

A number of the rescuers were Catholic and deeply motivated by their faith. Stories abound of Catholics throughout Europe who sheltered Jews during the war, individually and in underground networks of churches, convents, seminaries and monasteries.

Irena Sendler, a Polish social worker, spirited 2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw ghetto prior to its liquidation, hid them and kept meticulous records so that they could retain their Jewish identities.

At age 17, without the benefit of extended family and living alone, Stefania Podgorska made the decision to hide seven Jews - at times, right under the noses of SS officers who would have murdered her along with her refugees.

She kept on because she heard God telling her that all would be well and directing her how to save her friends.

Stories also exist of Catholic clergy such as Archbishop Jules-Géraud Saliège of Toulouse who acted with such courage and devotion out of deeply religious conviction. There is even documentation about a priest who, despite being anti-Semitic, sheltered a Jewish boy from the Nazis.

His reason? He had a responsibility to love his neighbor as himself, his feelings about Jews notwithstanding.

Rescuers had a love for their fellow human beings, a belief in a law higher than that of human dictators and a refusal to be cowed by hatred and terror.

For Catholics, these foundations were made stronger by their firm conviction that Jesus' compassion for all human beings is the preeminent model for a life of faith and service.

Would any of us have the courage to risk our well-being and that of our loved ones in order to shelter someone in need of refuge from persecution and hatred?

The rescuers who risked their lives during the Holocaust teach us about the human capacities for decency and courage that transcend ethnic and religious boundaries.

Their actions send the message that it is not enough to believe that each person is created in God's image: Each of us is commanded to act upon that core belief.

(Dan Ornstein is rabbi of Congregation Ohav Shalom in Albany.)

(05/20/10) [[In-content Ad]]

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