The book is called "Diplomat Heroes of the Holocaust," and perhaps the most telling thing about it is that it is very slim....

Richard C. Holbrooke, former ambassador to the United Nations, made that point during a ceremony, held Jan 24 at Park East Synagogue on Manhattan's East side, to mark the book's publication.

During the years of Nazi persecution and then mass murder of Jews, Mr. Holbrooke noted, Europe's embvassies and consulates were filled with thousands of officials, but very few of them proved willing to toss aside protocol and instructions to save the lives of people threatened with death in the camps. The heroes mentioned by Mr. Holbrooke include

Feng Shan Ho, China's consul general in Vienna who earned a reprimand and loss of his post for freely issuing visas to Shanghai;

Jan Zwartendjik, a businessman serving as honorary Dutch consul in Kaunas, Lithuania and Chiune Sugihara, a consul general (and spy) for Japan. The two men issued thousands of documents providing for the entry of Jews into the Dutch-controlled Caribbean island of Curacao;

Raoul Wallenberg, the young Swedish envoy who worked night and day distributing passports and providing safe housing, food and medical care while the pro-Nazi Arrow Cross movement committed anti-Semitic outrages and the Red Army closed in on the city;

Aristedes de Sousa Mendes, an aristocratic Portuguese consul general in Bordeaux from 1938 to July 1940, issued visas all day and all night, waived fees and the filling in of names and traveled to the Spanish border to make sure the refugees were able to cross. He confronted Spanish border guards when necessary --and continued to sign visas. For these actions he was stripped of his authority and dismissed from the diplomatic service by his superiors in Lisbon.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/03/us/03beliefs.html?ref=us

Irene Gut, a young Polish nurse, courageously helped save a dozen Jews from the Holocaust. by hiding them in the basement of the home of a factory boss for whom she worked as a housekeeper. Her story is the subject of a play currently (3-09) at the Walter Kerr Theater on Broadway entitled "Irena's Vow" by Dan Gordon. Tovah Feldshuh plays Irene Gut Opdyke. A review of the play is linked below.