Saviors

Saviors in History: Tatiana Romanova

World War I took an expensive toll on the Russian Empire, and the vast number of internally displaced people was one of its most dramatic consequences. Between 1914 and 1917, almost five million people were forced to leave their homes in the country’s western provinces and flee inland. Facing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis, the state — for the first time in its history — organized a census of refugees, helped in large part by a committee established in September 1914 by the Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna Romanova, the second daughter of Russia’s last monarch Tsar Nicholas II.
Grand Duchess set up Russia’s first committee to help refugees
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Saviors in History: Johannes Lepsius

After decades in obscurity, Johannes Lepsius’s name resurfaced in 2005, when the German Bundestag passed a resolution marking the 90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. The resolution, unanimously approved on June 16, 2005, stated: “The life’s work of Dr. Johannes Lepsius, who fought tenaciously and successfully for the survival of the Armenian people, must not be consigned to oblivion.”
The German “guardian angel” of Armenians
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Saviors in History: René Favaloro

An educator and cardiac surgeon, he pioneered the use of the saphenous vein in coronary bypass surgery, a technique that helped him save thousands of lives. Previously, he had spent 12 years as a doctor in a remote town in the Argentinian pampas, where he transformed living conditions by teaching basic health concepts, thus reducing child mortality and malnutrition rates.
The surgeon who gave his heart to the people
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Saviors in History: Jean Henry Dunant

“There is no man who more deserves this honor, for it was you, 40 years ago, who set on foot the international organization for the relief of the wounded on the battlefield. Without you, the Red Cross, the supreme humanitarian achievement of the 19th century would probably have never been undertaken.”
First Nobel Peace Prize winner and the man behind ICRC
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Saviors in History: Aristides de Sousa Mendes

Located on the edge of Europe, Portugal was largely untouched by World War II and the extermination of Jews and Gypsies. But here, too, there were those who refused to remain idle as tragedy engulfed the continent. Aristides de Sousa Mendes showed true courage as he intervened to help people in danger. He issued visas to 30,000 refugees, the majority of whom were Jews fleeing the Nazis, helping them to avoid certain death. Today, Mendes’s name is engraved in gold in the pantheon of the Righteous Among the Nations.
Issued visas to thousands of people fleeing Nazis
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Louis Dartige Du Fournet

Soldiers are trained to do one thing above all else: follow orders. Soldiers who disobey hands face the repercussions of insubordination. Louis Dartige Du Fournet, a vice admiral of the French Eastern Squadron that was blockading Ottoman shores near Syria in 1915, was aware of what the consequences could be should he take matters into his own hands. Nonetheless, he ordered the rescue of over 4,000 Armenian men, women and children from certain death in the foothills of Musa Dagh (Mount Moses, also known as Jebel Musa) in what is present-day southeastern Turkey.
French vice admiral who risked so much and saved so many
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Mary Louise Graffam

Born in a small American town, Mary Louise Graffam went on to have an impact greater than anyone could have predicted. She was single-handedly responsible for saving the lives of thousands of Armenians and changing their futures forever. The American missionary’s brave work and self-sacrifice during the Armenian Genocide became legendary as she sheltered and cared for survivors in Sivas while also documenting the horrors taking place around her.
The guardian angel of Armenians in Sivas
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Leslie Davis

Leslie Davis was an American diplomat, eyewitness and documenter of the Armenian Genocide. The reports he submitted to U.S. Ambassador Henry Morgenthau in Constantinople present some of the most valuable pieces of evidence of the massacres.
A U.S. Consul who sheltered Armenians and their valuables in Kharberd
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Celal Bey

The son of an official from the ministry of finance, Celal was also the grandson of one of the daughters of Sultan Abdülhamid. He graduated from the reputable college of Mülkiye, worked as a teacher, held senior positions at the ministry of education, was appointed governor of the vilayet of Erzurum and later of Edirne and of Izmir. He was minister of the interior between December 1911 and July 1912, and minister of agriculture between January and June 1913.
The Turkish official who saved thousands of Armenian lives
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Jakob Künzler

The Swiss missionary and evangelist deacon spent the first two decades of the 20th century serving the medical needs of Armenians.
Not even the loss of his right arm to typhus could dim Jakob Künzler's dedication to Armenian orphans.
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