When we reflect on the heroes of the Holocaust, names like Oskar Schindler, the German businessman who rescued over 1,200 Jews, often come to mind. However, another remarkable figure emerged during this dark chapter in history: Abdol Hossein Sardari, an Iranian diplomat who risked everything to save Jews from Nazi persecution. His story is one of courage, deception, and unwavering moral conviction in the face of overwhelming odds.

Iranian diplomat Abdol Hossein Sardari saved thousands of French Jews during the Holocaust. In 1979, the mullahs destroyed all of his possessions. pic.twitter.com/Wnz5yxa99T

— Avi Kaner ابراهيم אבי (@AviKaner) May 5, 2024

 Sardari was not your typical hero. Born into a prominent Iranian family, he enjoyed the privileges of Persian royalty, including an education abroad and influential political connections. He began his diplomatic career in Paris in 1937, serving as a junior diplomat. As France fell to the Nazis in 1940, he was promoted to head of Consular Affairs, tasked with overseeing the well-being of Iranians in Paris.

Within this community were a couple of hundred Iranian Jews, many of whom had fled Iran during the Iranian Bolshevik Revolution or had moved to Paris seeking economic opportunities. They lived relatively well, owning homes and celebrating holidays with grand festivities, until the Nazis imposed their brutal regime.

The situation for Jews in France took a drastic turn on September 27, 1940, when the Nazis mandated that all Jews register with the police. Sardari observed the escalating harassment and discrimination against non-Aryans, realizing the gravity of the situation. Jews began losing their jobs, being barred from public life, and facing arrest. The French government required Jews to carry ID cards marked with the word "Juif" in bold red letters.

While the Nazis classified Iranians as related to the original Aryans, which offered some protection, Sardari felt a moral obligation to protect all Iranians, including Jewish ones. He could not stand idly by as his fellow citizens faced persecution.

Sardari's clever deception

To save the Iranian Jews, Sardari employed a bold and cunning strategy. He hosted lavish parties at the Iranian embassy, inviting German officials and winning their trust. This approach allowed him to build connections that would prove invaluable in his efforts to protect the Iranian Jews.

Using his legal education, Sardari crafted an elaborate deception. He wrote to the Vichy government, claiming that the Iranian Jews were not actually racially Jewish, but rather "Jugutis," a group of purebred Iranians who had adopted certain Jewish practices. He argued that they should be considered Aryan because of their blood and cultural heritage. This audacious claim was a fabrication, yet it was designed to exploit the Nazis' twisted racial logic.

Sardari's arguments gained traction within the Nazi bureaucracy, prompting further investigation into his claims. Meanwhile, he took advantage of his position to issue blank passports and visas from the embassy's vault, granting hundreds of Iranian Jews the means to escape persecution without revealing their Jewish identity.

As the war progressed and the situation worsened for Jews in France, Sardari's efforts intensified. In 1941, as British and Russian forces invaded Iran, the Iranian government recalled Sardari. Undeterred, he continued his mission, even after losing his salary and enduring hardships. He went without food and heat, yet his resolve remained unshaken. His appeals eventually reached Adolf Eichmann, the infamous SS officer responsible for organizing the Final Solution. Although Eichmann dismissed Sardari's claims as "Jewish tricks," Sardari's unwavering commitment led to a remarkable outcome.

Despite Eichmann's rejection, Sardari's efforts bore fruit. German officials began to accept his pleas, and soon, the Vichy authorities exempted the so-called Jugutis from anti-Jewish legislation. Sardari's work initially focused on Iranian Jews, but as word spread, he found himself helping French and non-Iranian Jews as well.

The aftermath and legacy

His actions saved countless lives, and he became a hero among the Iranian Jewish community in Paris. However, upon returning to Iran, he faced legal charges for his actions. He spent ten days in jail for issuing visas to non-Iranians before being released through intervention.

After the Iranian Revolution in 1979, Sardari's life took a tragic turn. The new Islamist government seized his property, stripped him of his ambassador's pension, and executed his nephew, who was the previous prime minister. Fearing for his life, Sardari fled to England, where he lived in poverty until his death in 1981.

Years later, Yad Vashem reached out to him for details about his life-saving work. In his response, Sardari humbly stated, "As you may know, I had the pleasure of being the Iranian Consul in Paris during the German occupation of France, and as such, it was my duty to save all Iranians, including Iranian Jews."

Abdol Hossein Sardari's story is a testament to the power of individual conviction and moral courage. He faced immense pressure and danger yet chose to act righteously, saving lives at great personal risk. His legacy serves as a reminder of the impact one person can have in the fight against injustice, and it challenges us to consider what we would do in similar circumstances.

The post The Iranian Muslim who saved Jews from the Holocaust appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin visited a synagogue Sunday ahead of the evening start of Yom Kippur and said more than 7,000 police and soldiers were protecting Jewish services this weekend. France has Europe's largest Jewish community.

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"I came to assure ... members of France's Jewish community of the protection of the state," Darmanin told reporters. "Because we know that Jews are particularly targeted by Islamist attacks and we should obviously protect them."

Darmanin defended authorities' handling of a double stabbing Friday outside the former offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, saying intelligence services have prevented 32 potential terrorist attacks over the past three years.

Coordinated Islamic extremist attacks on Charlie Hebdo's Paris newsroom and a kosher supermarket in January 2015 killed 17 people, and Friday's stabbing came as the trial into those attacks is under way.

The suspected assailant in Friday's attack told investigators that he was targeting Charlie Hebdo after it recently republished caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, according to a judicial official. Two people were wounded and several suspects are in custody.

One suspect arrested after Friday's stabbing was later released – and his lawyer says that he had tried to stop the assailant and should be considered a hero instead.

Lawyer Lucie Simon told France-Info that her client, a 33-year-old French resident from Algeria identified only as Youssef, chased the attacker. Simon said the assailant threatened Youssef with a kitchen cleaver, so Youssef fled and told police – who promptly arrested him.

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On July 16, 1942, thousands of French policemen under the Vichy regime arrested more than 13,000 Jews, including more than 4,000 children, and ceded them to the Nazis, who put them in internment camps. Fewer than 100 survivors would come back to France after the deportation.

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France had denied responsibility for the roundup until 1995, when former President Jacques Chirac recognized the country's wrongdoing.

Parly's voice crackled and eyes welled with tears as she said France "has betrayed its own children."

"The Vel d'Hiv roundup [named for the Vélodrome d'Hiver, a bicycle velodrome where most of the victims were temporarily held] has left a wound in France's soul, a deep scar that will not heal and that we should never heal since this gaping hole in our soul reminds us that our values are not infallible," she said. "At any moment, what we consider our accomplishments could be threatened, baffled, destroyed."

Parly said the National Memory Day should encourage the country to "never again … turn a blind eye," especially amid a resurgence of hateful acts against the Jewish community.

Parly's comments come after a series of Jewish graves in France were desecrated with swastikas earlier this year, prompting crowds to protest anti-Semitism in Paris.

The number of anti-Semitic acts in the country has surged by 74% in 2018, according to Interior Ministry figures.

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Ariel Kendall, director general of the Qualita organization, the umbrella organization for French immigrants in Israel, told Israel Hayom on Tuesday that "the continued drop in the number of French immigrants to Israel is very painful.

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"The situation in France, a country that currently suffers from numerous anti-Semitic incidents and increasing instances of violence against Jews, provides an opportunity to prompt many Jews from France to make aliyah, and Israel is missing that opportunity because it isn't prepared to take in immigrants from France and hasn't laid out any strategic plan that will allow it to absorb and settle tens of thousands of immigrants in an appropriate, effective manner," Kendall said.

Kendall warned that if Israel does not create absorption solutions that address employment, education, and housing for French Jews, as it does for immigrants from other countries, the Jews of France will remain in danger or prefer to leave France for a third country.

"They won't come to Israel, and that's a shame," he said.

Qualita recently conducted a survey among some 800 new immigrants from France. The results showed that the new immigrants faced a number of difficulties upon arriving in Israel, the main one being finding work. According to the study, 40% of French immigrants are unemployed.

The problem of unemployment affects not only the new immigrants themselves, but also deters other French Jews from making the move, fearing that they, too, will be unable to find work. According to Qualita, the French immigrant population includes hundreds of registered nurses who are unable to work in Israel because the country does not recognize their qualifications, even though the Israeli health care system lacks trained nurses.

Other professionals who qualified in France, including psychologists and engineers, arrive in Israel to find that their training, too, is not recognized by the Israeli regulatory bodies and they are therefore unable to work in their professions.

Some French immigrants take any available work to support themselves, such as telemarketing. Others choose to keep their jobs in France to support their lives in Israel, meaning constant travel back and forth, which has been termed "Boeing aliyah." Still others despair and wind up returning to France.

The Qualita survey showed that 10% of French immigrants return to France within three years of making aliyah.

In addition, the survey indicated that the government's Immigration and Absorption Ministry does very little to help French arrivals. Only one-quarter of respondents said that the ministry was doing well in helping French immigrants integrate, and only 27% said they took advantage of services offered by the ministry beyond the initial benefits extended to all immigrants and an introductory Hebrew course.

The survey also appears to bust the myth that French immigrants are "snatching up" property. Some 60% of respondents said they did not own the homes in which they lived, and half the French immigrants who rent homes pay 4,000-6,000 shekels ($1,100-$1,700) a month in rent.

The French immigrants are urging the relevant authorities to put together a plan to help Jews from France and as Israel heads into the second election of 2019 are calling on politicians to right the wrong and create a special plan tailored to the needs of French Jewish immigrants.

The post 'Without an emergency plan, French Jews will stop making aliyah' appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.