Richard’s New Book
In The Garden of the Righteous:
THE HEROES WHO RISKED THEIR LIVES TO SAVE JEWS DURING THE HOLOCAUST
“It is an understatement to say this book is timely.”
“In the Garden of the Righteous is a treasure of a book.”
By Richard Hurowitz
Publication Date: January 24, 2023
Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins
The Second World War took the lives of more than fifty million, more than six million exterminated through crimes of such enormity, a new name to describe the horror was coined: the Holocaust. Yet amid such darkness there were glimmers of light. In the Garden of the Righteous chronicles extraordinary acts at a time when the moral choices were stark, the threat immense, and the passive apathy of millions predominated. Deeply researched and astonishingly moving, it focuses on ten remarkable stories, including that of the circus ringmaster Adolf Althoff and his wife Maria, the Portuguese diplomat Aristides de Sousa Mendes, the Italian cycling champion Gino Bartali, the Polish social worker Irena Sendler, and the Japanese spy Chinue Sugihara, who provided hiding places, participated in underground networks, refused to betray their neighbors, and secured safe passage. They repeatedly defied authorities and risked their lives, their livelihoods, and their families to save the helpless and the persecuted. In the Garden of the Righteous is a testament to their kindness and courage.
Buy The Book:
“In a time when our humanity is challenged by new heights of instability and new waves of antisemitism and ethnic hatred, it is an understatement to say this book is timely. A fresh, engrossing contribution to the literature on the Holocaust, focusing on heroics rather than despair.”
“Richard Hurowitz’s heroes have little in common: They are German circus ringmasters, Greek archbishops, two-time Italian Tour de France winners, Polish doctors’ daughters, Japanese diplomats. What joins them is the refusal to surrender their consciences. Under Nazi eyes, all sheltered, supported, or rescued Jews, often at tremendous personal expense. Each believed—as the Portuguese consul who violated order after order to sign travel visas through the summer of 1940 put it—that we are all refugees. And each shines, in these stirring, spirited pages, like a beacon amid darkness”
“Richard Hurowitz has written a powerful, moving book about ten heroic rescues of Jews from the clutches of the Nazis. In the Garden of the Righteous brilliantly describes how in the midst of the brutality of the Holocaust and the collaboration, acquiescence and passivity of millions, there were people who risked their lives to save others out of a sense of shared humanity. This book is more timely than ever.”
“With great precision, heartbreaking empathy, and a flair for the dramatic, Richard Hurowitz uncovers ten extraordinary instances during World War II when a person chose to oppose the seemingly omnipresent darkness. In the Garden of the Righteous is a treasure of a book.”