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How a German Lawyer in Holland Saved Thousands of Jews
(JTA) Emily Burack - Hans Calmeyer was a German lawyer who, starting in March 1941, was assigned to adjudicate cases in which a person's Jewish status was in doubt. He oversaw 5,600 such petitions and is credited for saving thousands of Jewish lives. Calmeyer made it easier for petitioners to claim that they were not Jewish. "In two-thirds of the cases, he decided in favor of the petitioner, knowing that he was being cheated," said Laureen Nussbaum, 92, author of Shedding Our Stars: A Story of Hans Calmeyer and How He Saved Thousands of Families Like Mine. Calmeyer declared Nussbaum's mother "not Jewish" and the family was allowed to remove the yellow stars on their clothing. "It wasn't true, my mother was half-Jewish," Nussbaum said. Calmeyer engaged in a kind of low-key sabotage to thwart the Nazi agenda, working within the existing power structure to save as many Jews as possible. Yad Vashem declared Calmeyer a Righteous Among the Nations in 1992.