Agnes Grunwald-Spier – författare

Thanks to Thomas Keneally’s book Schindler’s Ark, and the film based on it, Schindler’s List, we have become more aware of the fact that, in the midst of Hitler’s extermination of the Jews, courage and humanity could still overcome evil. While 6 million Jews were murdered by the Nazi regime, some were saved through the actions of non-Jews whose consciences would not allow them to pass by on the other side, and many are honoured by Yad Vashem as ‘Righteous Among the Nations’ for their actions.As a baby, Agnes Grunwald-Spier was herself saved from the horrors of Auschwitz by an unknown official, and is now a trustee of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust. She has collected together the stories of thirty individuals who rescued Jews, and these provide a new insight into why these people were prepared to risk so much for their fellow men and women. With a foreword by Sir Martin Gilbert, one of the leading experts on the subject, this is an ultimately uplifting account of how some good deeds really do shine in a weary world.

Thanks to Thomas Keneally’s book Schindler’s Ark, and the film based on it, Schindler’s List, we have become more aware of the fact that, in the midst of Hitler’s extermination of the Jews, courage and humanity could still overcome evil. While 6 million Jews were murdered by the Nazi regime, some were saved through the actions of non-Jews whose consciences would not allow them to pass by on the other side, and many are honoured by Yad Vashem as ‘Righteous Among the Nations’ for their actions.As a baby, Agnes Grunwald-Spier was herself saved from the horrors of Auschwitz by an unknown official, and is now a trustee of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust. She has collected together the stories of thirty individuals who rescued Jews, and these provide a new insight into why these people were prepared to risk so much for their fellow men and women. With a foreword by Sir Martin Gilbert, one of the leading experts on the subject, this is an ultimately uplifting account of how some good deeds really do shine in a weary world.

Who Betrayed the Jews? is a groundbreaking study that examines the various ways Jews were betrayed by their fellow countrymen during the Holocaust. In many cases they regarded themselves as a person of their nation first and a Jew second, so persecution came as a terrible shock to them. Many had fought for their country in the First World War, but this offered very little protection – not even for those awarded Germany's Iron Cross. They were forced out of their professions and universities. Their neighbours and school friends betrayed them to the authorities. The authorities ‘legally’ withdrew their rights and stripped them of their businesses under Aryanization policies. Many who professed to be Christian were affected by the Nazis’ racial laws and found themselves and their children categorised as ‘halfbreeds’. Bodies such as the police and railway companies co-operated with the Nazis in transporting Jews to their deaths or to be subjected to unspeakable medical experiments. The betrayal did not end in 1945 as there is evidence of Holocaust survivors being attacked as and when they returned home.Agnes Grunwald-Spier MBE reveals, among other accounts, the story of the slave labourers who toiled for German firms and international companies like Ford; the fate of Jewish Olympians who were murdered; and the impact of Nazi policies on figures such as Margaret Thatcher and Coco Chanel.