The Moses of Rovno: The Stirring Story of Fritz Graebe, a German Christian Who Risked His Life to Lead Hundreds of Jews to Safety During t

by Douglas K. Huneke

Book Overview

"Fritz Graebe's courage justifies our faith in humankind." --Elie Wiesel, author of Night "This book combines a story of high moral passion with all the excitement of a spy thriller. Fritz Graebe, who... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0396087140
• ISBN13: 9780396087144
• Release Date: January 1985
• Publisher: Dodd Mead
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.

Customer Reviews

"Another Schindler", With Insights into the Holocaust in the Ukraine

Fritz Graebe, a German engineer, saved the lives of Jews (and Poles) by keeping them as workers and being partly successful in warding off their murderers by various means (p. 90). He spent time in the eastern Ukraine, but mostly in Volhynia (Sdolbonov-Zdolbunow-Zdolbuniv, Rovno-Rowne-Rivne, and Dubno). He witnessed the mass shootings (and burials of often severely-wounded) Jews by Nazis and their Ukrainian collaborators. Later, he testified about these events at war crimes trials in Germany. Interestingly, Graebe had ties with the Polish Underground (p. 136), but this, unfortunately, is not elaborated. While in the Sdolbonov area, Graebe also witnessed the aid of local Poles to fugitive Jews: "Graebe recognized the man as Fritz Germ. A day earlier, Graebe had watched as Germ led an SS officer and several militiamen through the streets outside of, and adjacent to, the ghetto. Germ would point to a certain house, always one occupied by Polish citizens, and the guards would crash through the door or a window, emerging with a family and the Jews whom they had hidden. The fate was the same for the rescuers as it was for the Jews. This occurred at four or five different homes." (p. 84). For all of the current emphasis upon Poles and Jews being unequal victims, the experiences of individuals from both groups were often not that different. Huneke, while discussing the challenges that Graebe faced as a rescuer, comments: "It required still other skills and patience to meet panicked Jews and Polish peasants who would do nearly anything to protect themselves and their families. These trapped, defenseless people were nearly as unpredictable as the war itself." (p. 38). And, while caring for his workers, Graebe was hampered by official Nazi policies: "The Jews were permitted to receive only eighty percent of the wages earned by the Polish civilians. But wages really did not matter that much; what the people needed was food." (p. 120). It would be a mistake to think that the Ukrainian collaborationist police merely assisted their German Nazi overseers. To the contrary, they tormented and killed Jews with great initiative and zeal. While at Rovno (July 13, 1942), Graebe had to repeatedly use armed force to ward off the Ukrainian collaborationist police's attempts against his Jewish workers (p. 55, 59, 62). Note that: "Ukrainians were killing every Jew that passed their rifle sights." (p. 62). Huneke also comments: "Many of the militiamen behaved like sadists. It was more than bloodlust that led them to seek out the youngest children. They seemed almost gleeful whenever they found a mother with an infant. Ripping the child from its mother's arms, they would rush from house to house, holding the screaming infant by the leg. Then they ritualistically would whorl the child several times overhead and smash it against a pillar. From his vantage point Graebe saw such acts of terror repeated again and again in front of terror-stricken mothers. There was no wa