Egyptian Doctor Is First Arab Recognized as Righteous Among the Nations
My Brother?s Keeper: The ?Righteous Among The Nations,? medal is given to non-Jews who opposed the Nazis? treatment of Jews during World War II. Image by Getty Images
JERUSALEM — An Egyptian doctor was recognized as a Righteous Among the Nations for helping to save a Jewish family during the Holocaust — the first Arab to be so recognized.
Dr. Mohamed Helmy was recognized by the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, the institution announced Monday. The memorial also cited Frieda Szturmann, a German woman, for working with Helmy to rescue the family.
Yad Vashem is searching for the rescuers’ next of kin to posthumously honor their relatives in a ceremony and present them with the certificate and medal of the righteous.
Until the next of kin is identified, the certificates and medals will be on display in the ”I am My Brother’s Keeper: 50 Years of Honoring Righteous Among the Nations” exhibition at Yad Vashem.
Helmy settled in Berlin after completing his medical studies there. He suffered discrimination and was forbidden to work under the Nazi regime. He spoke out against Nazi policies and hid a Jewish friend at a cabin he owned and arranged to hide other members of her family at Szturmann’s home, according to Yad Vashem.
Letters written decades ago by the Jewish Holocaust survivors on behalf of their rescuers were discovered in the archives of the Berlin Senate and recently submitted to Yad Vashem.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
