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Dutch Businessman Saved Hundreds of Jewish Lives during the Holocaust
(Ha'aretz) Judy Maltz - In the new documentary "Forgotten Soldier," British-Jewish philanthropist Lady Irene Hatter recounts the story of her late father, Dutch businessman Salomon ("Sally") Noach, who helped hundreds of Jewish refugees escape the Nazis in southern France. Noach was living in Brussels when the Germans invaded Belgium in 1940 and fled to the south of France, where he served as a translator for the Dutch consul in Lyon. Noach would often embark on freedom missions - entering prisons and holding centers where Jewish refugees were detained before deportation to the death camps, and releasing them using forged papers supplied by the Resistance which proved they were not Jewish. Often, bribes and gifts to guards and police officers were necessary. With these fake documents, the refugees were able to board ships bound for Spain and Portugal, and from there to the Caribbean and South America. In August 1942, Noach walked into the local Lyon courthouse and pulled out 118 prisoners. The next day, he presented false documents he had personally drafted to prove that 432 mostly Polish Jews held in a stadium were Dutch, and won their release. He fled soon after, making his way to England.