Hiding, sheltering, and borrowing identities: avenues of rescue during the Holocaust

During the immediate aftermath of the Holocaust, the focus of research was directed at the actions of the murderers and at resistance. That situation changed gradually during the 1960s and 1970s. The rescue of Jews, a major aspect of Holocaust history, started to attract the attention of scholars. Still, the focus was mostly on governments and organizations. The initiation of Yad Vashem's recognition program for the Righteous Among the Nations also drew public attention to the acts of individual rescuers in areas under Nazi control. Over the course of the last three decades, important studies have been published that investigated the rescuers and their acts. Yet even today, many aspects of the rescue activities require further research. Moreover, the aspect of Jewish initiatives and individual experiences deserves more attention. Yad Vashem's eighteenth biannual conference, titled "Hiding, Sheltering and Borrowing Identities as Avenues of Rescue during the Holocaust," brought together a large number of international scholars to discuss new approaches and the current state of research on the topic. This volume, based on a selection of papers that were presented at the conference, aims to provide an overview of the multi-faceted landscape of academic studies on the rescuers and the rescued. --