Much has been written about the selfless men and women who sheltered, fed, and arranged for the escape of Jewish refugees from Nazi-occupied countries during World War II. "In the Garden of the Righteous," by Richard Hurowitz, offers a detailed description of rescue missions carried out by non-Jews in France, Italy, Poland, Germany, Greece, Lithuania, and Denmark. If these heroes and heroines were caught, they risked not only their professional standing, but also their families' safety, and in some cases, their lives.

More than forty pages of endnotes and a fifteen-page selected bibliography attest to the copious research that went into this fascinating book. There are riveting accounts of the deeds of Aristides de Sousa Mendes, a Portuguese consul general stationed in Bordeaux who issued visas enabling thousands of Jews to flee their oppressors; ringmaster Adolf Althoff and his wife, Maria, who hid a Jewish family in their circus for years; Gino Bartali, a champion cyclist who joined the underground in Assisi and delivered false ID papers that he hid in his bicycle; and Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara, social worker Irena Sendler, and Pastor Andre Trocmé, all of whom thwarted the Nazis with a combination of guile, ingenuity, and chutzpah.

When these righteous gentiles were praised for their altruism, they insisted that they behaved as any decent person would under the circumstances. Irena Sendler, who died at ninety-eight, expressed remorse for not smuggling more children out of the Warsaw Ghetto. This is an astonishing statement from an individual who, along with her colleagues, saved approximately twenty-five hundred boys and girls. No one can fail to be inspired by the actions of these people who refused to turn their backs when so many Jews faced deportation and death. In the words of Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, "We must learn from them, and in gratitude and hope, we must remember them."

In the Garden of the Righteous was an inspiration. The Holocaust was absolutely horrible and I'm so very glad to know that there were those who felt the need to rescue as many as they could. I've been doing a lot of reading about the horrors of the Holocaust. I know that if I lived during that time in any of those Nazi invaded countries, I would have done all that I could to help.

The stories in the book just goes to show that there are indeed guardian angels. Those who were willing to risk their lives for the cause. I feel tremendous righteous anger toward Hitler and his cohorts, or really anyone who would take it upon themselves to discriminate and kill those who are different from themselves. I adhere to the belief of live and let live. I believe that love conquers hate, but I'm not naive. I know that there are some very evil people in this world. But there are many who are truly good and will fight for what is right, as was proven in the book. I look forward to a day when discrimination will be at a bare minimum. Wishful thinking on my part, but I can dream.

All in all, I thought that In the Garden of the Righteous was insightful and heartwarming, aside from the bearings and killings, the uprooting and the food deprivation, all of the atrocities. I give it 5 stars.