Abdol Hossein Sardari

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Abdol Hossein Sardari, (c. 1895 - 1981) was an Iranian politician and diplomat who saved the lives of many Jews during the holocaust. [1] He is known as the "Schindler of Iran"[2] and was the uncle of Fereydoun Hoveyda.

Sardari was in charge of the Iranian consular office in Paris in 1941. There was a sizeable community of Iranian Jews in Paris when Hitler invaded and occupied the city. Leaning on an agreement between Germany and Iran, protecting all Iranian citizens against German acts of aggression, Sardari was able to protect these Iranian Jews, who had been considered Iranian citizens since the time of the first King of Iran, Cyrus the Great (who himself had ordered the Jews of Babylonia to be freed from Babylonian slavery). He very strongly argued this point to the Germans and specifically ascertained that the Iranian Jews were protected under these statutes. The Nazis finally agreed and accordingly, many Persian Jews were saved from harassment and eventually deportation by the Nazi regime.

But Sardari went further. Once he understood the full horror of Nazi ambitions, he began issuing hundreds of Iranian passports for non-Iranian Jews to save them from prosecution. To safeguard his plan, he did not ask for permission, and felt that support by the Iranian leadership was implied. His moral obligation towards humanity had no religious boundaries, he was a Muslim himself, and his actions were later confirmed and applauded by the government of Iran.[3]

Abdol Hossein Sardari has been honored by Jewish organizations such as the convention in Beverly Hills, and the Simon Wiesenthal Center on multiple occasions.[4]

[edit] Media

  • Zero Degree Turn (Madare sefr darajeh), a vastly popular Iranian TV-series (2007) was loosely based on Sardari's actions in Paris. The focus of the series is an Iranian Muslim who falls in love with a Jewish woman while studying in France during WW2 and later desperately looks for ways to save her and other Jews from the imminent threat of deportation.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ THE IRANIAN: Saving Jews in World War II, Abdol Hossein Sardari Qajar, Fariborz Mokhtari, Fatemeh Aman
  2. ^ http://users.sedona.net/~sepa/sardari.pdf
  3. ^ Iran - Sardari and the Jews of Paris during World War II
  4. ^ Search - Simon Wiesenthal Center

[edit] See also

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