In honor of the Righteous Gentiles who at the risk of their own lives and the lives of their families, saved Jews during the Nazi Holocaust (1933-1945).
Please join us in dedicating The Garden of the Righteous Gentiles on Sunday, December 11, 1983 at 2:30 P.M.
at the Jewish Community Center
101 Garden of Eden Road
Wilmington, Delaware 19803
“These were the Righteous in their Generation.”
Genesis 6:9
Memorial Is Dedicated
Sunday, Dec. 11, 1983, is a historic day for Delaware — at once a solemn and a happy day. At 2:30 p.m. begins the ceremony formally dedicating Wilmington’s Garden of the Righteous Gentiles. The Garden is the first monument in the United States to honor Christians who, at the risk of their lives and the lives of their families, saved Jews from the hands of the Nazis during the Holocaust.
On Nov. 16, 1981, a crowd gathered on the lawn in front of the Jewish Community Center to witness a tree-planting ceremony by Holocaust survivors residing in Delaware. Those trees, each of which honors specific Christians, were the beginning of the Garden of the Righteous Gentiles.
Now, two years later, permanent bronze plaques replace the temporary wooden markers which had been unveiled by survivors or their representatives at the tree-planting ceremony. And a formal landscaped entrance greets visitors to the Garden. Raised lettering on a cement background proclaims:
THIS GARDEN HONORS RIGHTEOUS GENTILES WHO SAVED JEWISH LIVES DURING THE NAZI HOLOCAUST 1933-1945
Nine of the Christians whom we honor in our Garden saved Jews who later came to live in Delaware. In another case, the survivor’s daughter lives in Delaware. The names of two Righteous Gentiles, unknown by the survivors they saved, are honored with a tree dedicated to The Unknown Righteous Gentile.
One Christian couple, honored in our Garden for their heroic efforts in Holland, now reside in Delaware.
In still another case, a Christian is honored by a Delawarean whose fellow townspeople in White Russia were saved.
One tree honors Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved an estimated 100,000 Hungarian Jews. And one tree honors the people of Denmark, who saved most of their country’s Jews from death at the hands of the Nazis.
The Christians we honor here, in this Garden that will grow and blossom in our front yard for as long as life and freedom exist on this corner of the globe, are truly among the heroes of human history.
By risking their lives to save Jews from death during the Nazi Holocaust, they rose up to proclaim with their actions that love and decency could flourish amidst the most unthinkable barbarism the world has ever known.
On the following pages, we proudly present their stories in print for the first time.
Six Million of our brothers and sisters, parents and grandparents, went to their deaths because they were Jews, and the world stood silent. We, the Jewish community of Delaware, hereby dedicate this garden to a few of the Righteous Gentiles who chose to act rather than to remain silent. We honor these brave souls for all time.