During World War Two, infamously known for the Holocaust, during which six million Jews were systematically murdered, there were many non-Jews who dared to save the life of Jews while scarifying their own life. One of those was Abdol Hossein Sardari.
To point to one person, is to point to Oskar Schindler, an ethnic German and industrialist, about whom much was written and films were produced.
Saving The French Jews From The Nazis
Though Schindler was a German spy and a member of the Nazi party, during the Holocaust he has been accredited with saving the lives of 1,200 Jews. He employed these Jews in his factories, which were located in what is now the Poland and the Czech Republic countries.
One day, Dr. Fariborz Mokhtari, Iran-born University of Vermont political science professor, came across the book The Persian Sphinx: Amir Abbas Hoveyda and the Riddle of the Iranian Revolution by the author Abbas Milani, (The Puzzle of Hoveyda). The book tells the story of Iran’s Prime Minister Amir-Abbas Hoveyda.
Amir-Abbas Hoveyda
Amir-Abbas Hoveyda was an Iranian economist and politician who served as Iran’s Prime Minister from January 27, 1965 to August 7, 1977 – a 13 years tenure – which was the longest serving Prime Minister in Iran’s history. After the Iranian Islamic Revolution, the newly established Islamic Revolutionary Court tried him for “waging war against God” and “spreading corruption on earth” and he was executed.
Amir Abbas Hoyeyda was an educated and well-read man who knew Arabic, French, English and German though he did not attend the Sorbonne; his younger brother, Fereydoun Hoveyda, received a doctorate in the Sorbonne, France, and was later Iran’s permanent Ambassador to the UN. Both brothers had attended the American School in Beirut, Lebanon, when their father served as Iran’s envoy.
Milani’s book rumors that Prime Minster Amir Abbas Hoveyda’s uncle was an Iranian diplomat who worked in Paris and helped Jews escape the wrath of the Nazi murdering machine. The book also tells that Hoveyda frequently visited his uncle’s Parisian residence, while studying at the Sorbonne in Paris, France.
Who Is Abdol Hossein Sardari
Out of sheer curiosity, Dr. Mokhtari contacted the publisher of Milani’s book who then directed him to the book’s author, who then directed him to three people who told him the entire story about Abdol Hossein Sardari, the young Iranian diplomat and the son of an affluent Iranian family who was assigned to join Iran’s diplomatic ranks in France.
Sardari, known as a social butterfly, hosted Parisian parties that attracted Europe’s crème de la crème as well as Nazi officers who were known for their party-going custom.
When Sardari became aware of what the Nazis were doing to the European Jews, using his connections and influence, including the one he had made with the Nazis who frequented his glamorous parties, he issued hundreds of fake passports to Jews. These passports enabled them to flee Europe to Iran, known to be a safer place for Jews.
The Book, and The Lion
Dr. Mokhtari started to write his book “In the Lion’s Shadow: The Iranian Schindler and His Homeland in the Second World War” in 2002 and published it in 2011.
Prior to the Islamic revolution, the lion’s image was depicted in the center of Iran’s flag. After the Islamic revolution the lion image was taken out of Iran’s flag. Meaning, Sardari emphasized the lion, the national symbol of Iran.
Connecting to Schindler
The Oskar Schindler story was the subject of the Schindler’s Ark 1982 novel, and subsequently the 1993 film Schindler’s List, that reflected Schindler’s life as a speculator, initially motivated by profit, but ended showing extraordinary initiative, obstinacy, and devotion in order to save the lives of his business’ Jewish employees.
Abdol Sardari saved a remarkable number of Jews, a number greater than the number of Jews Oskar Schindler saved, and thus, the subtext of the book, ‘The Iranian Schindler and His Homeland In The Second World War’ is very significant.
Make Sardari’s Heroism Known
While his role as a military leader was important, General Dwight D. Eisenhower was equally crucial in the documentation of Nazi viciousness and the truth of the Holocaust tragedy.
Sardari is reported to have issued some 500 passports for Jews to escape the Nazis. Considering that single passport was often issued to an entire family, or at least to mothers and their children, the 500 passports may very well have saved the lives of more than 2000 Jews. Indeed, a Gestapo document claimed and also complained that Sardari had saved over 2000 “stateless people” by granting to them Iranian travel documents.
Yad Vashem is Israel’s Holocaust commemoration center.
Now it is the time to make it known and tell and retell Abdol Hossein Sardari’s heroism story, possibly also in a film. However, Abdol Sardari refused to receive the accolades he deserved, among them being honored with “Righteous Among the Nations,” the non-Jewish individuals honored by Yad Vashem for risking their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.
Sardari knew that what he was doing was simply the right thing to do, literally the only thing to do. No matter what, loud accolades he well deserves as it will inspire the next generations.
For his uniqueness, Sardari deserved our full-fledged accolades.
