Of the 60 people named in the text of the project, five are poles: Alexander Schadow, Constanty Rocicki, Stefan Renewicz, Julius Kuhl and Henrik Slawek. The first four belong to the so-called Ladoś group – A group of Polish diplomats from Berne, in cooperation with Jewish circles, issued fake passports and citizenship certificates to Latin American countries in the names of Jews threatened with the Holocaust. Slawek was a delegate to the Polish government-in-exile, who in a similar way helped refugees from Poland escape in Hungary, including Jews, in collaboration with, among others, Josef Antal.
Other names include the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg or the Japanese Shione Sugihara, who helped rescue Jews in Lithuania.
“These diplomats from more than 20 countries risked everything to help Jews escape Nazi-occupied Europe,” said Kane, a former US vice presidential candidate. Hagerty, a former US ambassador to Japan, said the medal nominees were shining examples “in a time of unimaginable darkness in the world and through individual actions of hope and courage, they have saved so many lives.”
The Congressional Gold Medal is the United States’ highest civilian award. The first recipient of the medal was George Washington in 1776. 173 people have been honored so far.
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