Jan Karski is unique among the many hundreds of righteous gentiles for his singular effort to bring the truth of Hitler's campaign against the Jews to light in Western Europe and the United States.

He was born in 1914, in a diverse neighborhood of Lodz, Poland, whose population was primarily Jewish. Karski served in a variety of diplomatic posts even before joining the Polish ministry of foreign affairs in late 1939. His career was put on hiatus, however, with the outbreak of World War II and his subsequent conscription into the army. He was taken prisoner by the Red Army early in his service, and narrowly avoided death at the hands of the Russians by taking part in a prisoner transfer that sent him to Germany. Karsi escaped from the train while en route to a POW camp, and made his way back to Warsaw. Upon his return to his native country, Karski immediately joined the resistance movement in Poland, one of the first of its kind.

Corrie ten Boom was born in 1892, to a family of Dutch Reformed faith in the Netherlands. Even before the German occupation of the Netherlands during World War II, the ten Boom family had a history of concern for Jewish people. Her father owned a small jewelry store in the Jewish section of the city, and they joined with their Jewish neighbors in Sabbath worship and Bible study. Her grandfather had supported efforts to improve Jewish-Christian relations in the nineteenth century. Her brother, Willem, a minister in the Dutch Reformed Church, had been assigned to convert Jews to the Christian faith. Rather than force conversions, however, he studied anti-Semitism and opened a nursing home for people of all faiths that eventually became a safe house for Jewish refugees during the war.

In the space of a mere six months, from July 9, 1944, to January 17, 1945, Swedish architect and businessman Raoul Wallenberg was able - both directly and indirectly - to save 100,000 Jews from extermination.

Wallenberg was born in 1912 to a prominent and successful family in Sweden, a privilege that allowed him to study architecture abroad at the University of Michigan. While there, he studied hard, finished early, and graduated-along with future President Gerald Ford-at the top of his class. The market for architects in Sweden was small, however, so after graduating he moved first to Cape Town, South Africa, and then to Haifa, in what was then Palestine (now Israel), to take a job in a Dutch bank office. It was there, in Haifa, that Wallenberg first met Jewish people who had escaped the Nazi persecution that was beginning to take root in Germany. Their stories affected him deeply.

The term "Righteous Gentile" is traditionally used to refer to those Gentiles who have been a great help to the world's Jewish communities in times of persecution. On this page, you can read about Righteous Gentiles who helped save Jewish people during the Holocaust:

• Carl Lutz: Putting the Dictates of God Before Those of Man

• Forgiving as the Messiah Forgave: The Life of Corrie Ten Boom

• "For Me There's No Choice": The Life of Raoul Wallenberg

• Jan Karski: The Man Who Tried to Stop the Holocaust

The definition of the term "Righteous Gentile" can be expanded to include those who have been involved with saving the lives of Jewish people by helping us come to know Jesus as our Messiah.

• Read about some modern-day Righteous Gentiles within Chosen People Ministries.