Waitstill Hastings Sharp (1902–1984) was a Harvard College graduate and Unitarian minister. He was the son of naturalist author and professor Dallas Lore Sharp and Grace Hastings and a descendant of Thomas Hastings (colonist) who came from the East Anglia region of England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634. The Sharps were recruited by members of the American Unitarian Association, including Robert Dexter to accept a posting in Czechoslovakia, as representatives of a new program to help endangered refugees. With his wife Martha Sharp, in 1939 he administered relief to hundreds of endangered Jews and other refugees in Prague. In the following year, Waitstill and Martha traveled to southern Europe to continue a relief and rescue program for endangered refugees as representatives of the newly formed Unitarian Service Committee. While visiting southern France, Waitstill worked closely with the World YMCA to help Czech servicemen to escape from Vichy France. Waitstill also forged a collaboration with Varian Fry to look after Fry's refugee clients in Lisbon. In this capacity, Waitstill personally escorted the novelist Lion Feuchtwanger from Marseille to America.[1]
In 2006, Waitstill Sharp and Martha were named by Yad Vashem as Righteous among the Nations. They were the second and third Americans so honored (the first being Varian Fry).
A documentary chronicling their heroic efforts is being produced by their grandson, Artemis A.W. Joukowsky, III, through the support and partnership of WETA, PBS, the Unitarian Universalist community, several well known foundations and many individuals. There is a trailer available on the film's web site, http://journeytofreedomfilm.com/
There is also an educational curriculum, now being used by several school systems, and an archive, including pieces featured at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. More information at http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10007198