Press release: Discover the heroes who saved countless lives from the Nazi Holocaust

Journalists sitting and writing in notepads

3 Noveber 2024

They risked their lives to save others: new Gresham College lecture to help people discover the heroes who saved countless lives from the Nazi Holocaust  

Professor ­Debórah Dwork to give The Alfred Wiener Holocaust Memorial Lecture on Wednesday, 20 November, online and in central London 

They risked their lives to save others, but these Second World War heroes are barely known.  

Now, a rare chance to hear their story is coming to London this month.  

For The Alfred Wiener Holocaust Memorial Lecture, Professor ­Debórah Dwork is to visit Gresham College for the talk, entitled Saints and Liars: The Untold Stories of Americans Who Saved Endangered People from the Nazis. 

She unearths the history of Americans who risked their lives to save people who would otherwise be victims of Nazi Germany, often at great risk to themselves. 

Professor Dwork will highlight how luck, timing, and spontaneous decisions shaped these missions, and will urge us to reframe the way we think about, analyse, and write about the past.   

She said: “Zooming in on individual people in specific places at particular times, Saints and Liars tracks the development of actions on the ground: the dazzling heroics and daily grind of desperate relief and rescue operations.”   

Those who took part in the rescue missions included Unitarians, Quakers, and Jews, but few are known today, with their names eliciting barely a flicker of recognition.  

Who were these intrepid people who perceived possibilities for action where others saw none? 

Professor Dwork’s talk will be an opportunity to discover the stories of these individuals, particularly women who embraced the independence and transformative impact of their relief efforts. 

It will be given at Gresham College’s base in Barnard’s Inn Hall, Holborn, London. 

Starting at 6pm on Wednesday, 20 November, entry is free, and it is also broadcast live online. It will last an hour.  

In-person places can be booked online via Gresham College’s website, https://www.gresham.ac.uk/whats-on/saints-and-liars-untold-stories-amer…;

ENDS 

Notes to Editors  

Images available on request 

For more information about this story or to arrange an interview with a Gresham Professor please contact: Phil Creighton press@gresham.ac.uk  

About Gresham College  
Gresham College has been providing free, educational lectures - at the university level - since 1597 when Sir Thomas Gresham founded the college to bring Renaissance Learning to Londoners. Our history includes some of the luminaries of the scientific revolution including Robert Hooke and Sir Christopher Wren and connects us to the founding of the Royal Society.  

Today we carry on Sir Thomas's vision. The College aims to stimulate intellectual curiosity and to champion academic rigour, professional expertise and freedom of expression. www.gresham.ac.uk  

Gresham College is a registered charity number 1039962 and relies on donations to help us encourage people's love of learning for many years to come. For more details or to make a gift, visit our website.