ilmFeed 

Between 1941 and 1945, millions of Jewish people suffered a genocide at the hands of the Nazis. Throughout German-occupied Europe and in some European colonial territories, Jewish people were discriminated against, persecuted, subjected to forced labour, deportation, internment and murder.

Ever since people have tried to understand how such atrocities could take place on such a large scale. Many have argued, including writer and Auschwitz survivor Elie Wiesel, that it was indifference that allowed the Nazis to carry out their ‘Final Solution.’
 
Wiesel famously said: “The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.”
 
While the Nazis and their sympathisers committed their crimes, many people looked on, but some individuals risked their lives to protect their Jewish brothers and sisters in humanity. Here are the stories of some Muslims who decided not to be indifferent to the suffering of their friends, neighbours and,  in some cases, complete strangers, but to do what was right – even if being caught meant certain execution by the Nazis. 

Abdol Hossein Sardari was an Iranian diplomat in Paris. At the time there was a sizable community of Iranian Jews in Paris.

Nazi Germany had declared Iranians to be immune to all Nuremberg Laws (laws which institutionalised the racial theories of Nazi ideology) since 1936, as they were “pure-blooded Aryans.”

Abdol Hossein Sardari, therefore, convinced the Nazis that Iranian Jews must be protected.

When he learned of the plans of the Nazis he went further than just protecting Iranian Jews. Without seeking the permission of the Iranian government, he issued Iranian passports to non-Iranian Jews.

His actions were later applauded by the Iranian government and he is credited with saving thousands of Jewish people in Paris.