Obama honors 4 who protected Jews during Holocaust

WASHINGTON – As he honored four people on Wednesday for risking their lives to protect Jews, President Barack Obama warned that anti-Semitism is on the rise and that an attack on any faith is an attack on all faiths.

Obama spoke Wednesday evening at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, the first sitting president to speak at the embassy. He was introduced at the event by Steven Spielberg, the Oscar-winning director of the Holocaust film “Schindler’s List” and the founder of a Holocaust history foundation.

“Too often, especially in times of change, especially in times of anxiety and uncertainty, we are too willing to give in to a base desire to find someone else, someone different, to blame for our struggles,” Obama said. “So here tonight we must confront the reality that around the world anti-Semitism is on the rise. We cannot deny it.”

Obama said all nations that value diversity and tolerance must speak out when Jews and other members of religious minorities are attacked.

The United Nations has designated Wednesday as International Holocaust Remembrance Day to commemorate the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp in 1945. Six million Jews were killed by Nazis and their collaborators during the Holocaust.

Recognized posthumously for protecting Jews from harm during the Holocaust were Roddie Edmonds of Knoxville, Tennessee; Lois Gunden of Goshen, Indiana; and Polish citizens Walery and Maryla Zbijewski of Warsaw. The honors were bestowed by Yad Vashem, the world’s Holocaust education and research center, based in Jerusalem.

Each was designated Righteous Among the Nations, an official title awarded by Yad Vashem on behalf of Israel and the Jewish people to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.

Edmonds, a master sergeant, participated in the landing of U.S. forces in Europe and was taken prisoner by the Germans. When the Germans ordered all Jewish prisoners of war to report, Edmonds defied the order by figuring out how to keep the Jewish POWs from being singled out for persecution.

Gunden, a French teacher, established a children’s home in southern France that became a haven for children, including Jews she helped smuggle out of a nearby internment camp. She protected the children when French police showed up at the home.

The Zbijewskis hid a Jewish child in their Warsaw home until the girl’s mother could take her back.

In televised remarks during the ceremony, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel remained indebted to those being honored because of the Jewish soldiers and children saved by their bravery. He also praised the U.S. and said there was an unbreakable bond between the two countries.

“We know we have no better friend than the United States of America,” Netanyahu said.