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Oskar Schindler is widely regarded as one of history's most remarkable humanitarians. The German businessman heroically rescued over 1,200 Jews from the brutalities of the Holocaust, a remarkable act that inspired both a book and an Oscar-winning movie.
Despite Schindler's heroism, he wasn't the only one. We've previously shared the story of John Rabe, the 'Oskar Schindler of China.' Throughout the 20th century, many others with nothing to gain and everything to risk took a stand against cruel regimes, saving thousands of lives.
10. The Cardinal Who Resisted Torture
On September 11, 1973, Augusto Pinochet orchestrated the overthrow of Chile's democratically elected president. What followed was an unrelenting spree of torture and murder, as right-wing death squads roamed the capital, hunting down dissidents. With death imminent for anyone who remained, most of the regime's opponents fled the country. But Cardinal Archbishop Raul Silva Henriquez refused to leave.
Even though moderate Catholics were among Pinochet's primary targets, Cardinal Silva not only stayed in Chile—he formed a group dedicated to helping people survive the regime's persecution. The Committee for Cooperation for Peace provided financial aid, legal support, and refuge for those hunted by the dictator. When the group could no longer protect its members, the Cardinal personally hid them under his bed. When Pinochet ordered the committee to be shut down in 1976, Cardinal Silva simply renamed it and relocated it to Santiago's cathedral, exploiting a loophole in Chilean law that gave the dictator no authority over the site.
The Cardinal was instrumental in helping tens of thousands escape persecution. Without his bravery, Chile today would be a far emptier country.
9. The Smuggler Who Challenged Communism
Travel back 40 years, and Eastern Europe was a difficult place to live. Czechoslovakia was under Soviet control, and East Germany was held tightly by the Stasi. However, not everyone was intimidated. For Rainer Schubert, the Berlin Wall presented an opportunity to challenge communism—97 times, to be exact.
As one of East Germany's top people smugglers, Schubert became highly skilled at helping citizens escape the regime’s grip. In one unforgettable operation, he smuggled two individuals out of Prague by concealing them beneath a live tiger. Despite the constant threat of imprisonment, torture, and death for even one illegal trip to the West, Schubert managed to run his smuggling network for three years, saving nearly 100 people from a life of despair.
In 1975, the Stasi finally caught up with Schubert and sentenced him to nine years in one of the most notorious prisons in the country. Even though he was told he wouldn’t survive, Schubert endured, ultimately proving the Stasi wrong one last time.
8. The Stockbroker Who Saved Czechoslovakia’s Children
In 1938, British stockbroker Nicholas Winton had been planning a winter skiing trip, but a request from a friend led him to Prague instead. What was supposed to be a holiday turned into a mission as Winton spent a Christmas visiting Jewish children’s camps across the city. Horrified by the future that awaited these children, Winton made a pledge to ensure their safety by bringing them to England.
At that time, the British government had already reached its quota for refugees. So, Winton returned to the UK and personally appealed to the Home Office, offering to fund the children’s journey and personally find them places to live. Eventually, the government relented. After all, how many children could one man really bring to Britain?
Try 669.
In the final months before World War II erupted, Winton managed to arrange for five entire trains to carry Jewish children to safety. Today, it is believed that over 6,000 people are alive because of him. In the Czech Republic, Winton is regarded as a national hero. And in one of the most emotional moments of his life, when he appeared on a British TV show in 1988, the host asked the audience to stand if they owed their lives to Winton. To his astonishment, nearly every person in the audience rose to their feet, many in tears.
7. The Strangers Who Saved Rwanda’s Orphans
In 1994, Rwanda became the site of one of the deadliest genocides of the 20th century. Hutu extremists unleashed a horrifying campaign of violence, massacring 800,000 Tutsis in just 100 days. It was a brutality almost beyond belief. Yet amid this chaos, three remarkable individuals came together to rescue over 400 orphaned children.
When the bloodshed began, the Gisimba brothers returned to their orphanage only to find that hundreds of Tutsi refugees had taken shelter there. As half-Hutus, they were not targeted for death, provided they didn’t assist the Tutsis. Most would have turned the refugees away out of fear, but the Gisimba brothers were not most people.
For weeks, the brothers protected the children from the militia, hiding them, bribing officials, and doing whatever they could to prevent their deaths. But eventually, their efforts weren’t enough—the orphanage itself became a target. Yet fortune smiled on them.
Carl Wilkens was the only American to stay in Rwanda during the genocide. On the day the orphanage was to be destroyed, he showed up with supplies just as the killers arrived. Fearing a witness might ruin their plans, the Hutus delayed the massacre for a few hours.
That was all Wilkens needed. He immediately drove to the Prime Minister’s office and pleaded for the lives of 400 children. In an incredible turn of events, he was heard. Thanks to Wilkens’s determination, the orphanage was evacuated, and the children were given a chance to live.
6. The Poor Farmer Who Fooled the Khmer Rouge
In 1975, Cambodia fell under the brutal control of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, who ushered in an era known as Year Zero. The cities were emptied, and the entire population was sent to live in small communes. Each commune had a leader responsible for overseeing 100 people, with orders to execute anyone who disobeyed the regime. While most communes saw mass death, the one under Van Chhuon saw only one fatality.
Before the Khmer Rouge’s rise to power, Van Chhuon was one of the poorest men in Cambodia. He and his wife lived in a bomb crater, surviving on lizards. When the Khmer Rouge established a nearby camp, they concluded that the poorest person must also be the most ideologically pure.
As the head of his commune, Van Chhuon prevented widespread starvation by secretly providing extra food to his people, an act punishable by death. When the militia came searching for a so-called “enemy of the revolution,” he would tell them that another group had already apprehended the person. Once, he even entered the killing fields to beg for a fellow commune member’s life. Against all odds, both he and the person he pleaded for survived.
Throughout Pol Pot's reign, only one person died in Van Chhuon’s commune—a Khmer Rouge informant who was deemed unworthy by the regime. Even so, Van Chhuon felt deep guilt over the loss, a sentiment that reflects the greater humanity he possessed compared to the other commune leaders.
5. The Doctor Who Healed Bosnia’s Muslims
In 1992, Serb forces seized control of the central Drina valley, causing around 50,000 Bosniak refugees to pour into Srebrenica. While many of those who could fled the impending disaster, Dr. Ilijaz Pilav and four of his colleagues chose to remain. Understanding the siege was imminent, they stayed behind to keep the abandoned hospital running, ultimately saving hundreds of lives in the process.
They encountered a challenge that was nearly beyond comprehension. The hospital had been completely destroyed. There were no medical supplies whatsoever. Every day, refugees arrived with terrible injuries, desperately needing care. When the Serbs began shelling the town, the hospital was unable to accommodate all the wounded. Dr. Pilav and his team worked without rest for days on end, enduring constant mortar fire and knowing they were mere seconds from a violent death. Yet, they persevered. Despite being only 28 and lacking formal surgical training, Dr. Pilav performed 3,500 successful surgeries throughout the siege.
The town didn't survive the war. On July 11, 1995, UN peacekeepers opened the final safe zone to the Serbs, who then proceeded to massacre 8,000 men and boys in an act of genocide. Many fled, Dr. Pilav included. While he was unable to prevent the massacre, Dr. Pilav gave his patients a chance at survival—something they would never have had without him.
4. The Turkish Governor Who Said ‘No’ to Genocide
In 1915, the Ottoman Empire perpetrated the first genocide of the 20th century. Over the course of seven years, Turkish zealots exterminated 1.5 million Armenians. Across Turkey, local politicians and governors forced their Armenian citizens into death marches and gas chambers, sealing their fate.
As the former governor of Aleppo, Mehmet Celal Bey had become acutely aware of the horrific consequences of the deportations. Now overseeing the vast province of Konya, he was determined not to let his people meet the same fate. As death squads roamed the streets, Bey desperately appealed to Istanbul, pleading that there was no Armenian resistance in his region. When his pleas fell on deaf ears, he openly defied orders and orchestrated mass deportations, instead choosing to personally shelter and assist any Armenians he could. Although exact figures are difficult to verify, it is believed that he saved thousands of lives.
Yet, this wasn’t enough for Bey. In his later writings, he expressed how, as governor, he felt like 'a person sitting beside a river, with absolutely no means of rescuing anyone from it. Blood was flowing down the river, with thousands of innocent children, irreproachable old men, and helpless women streaming towards oblivion. Anyone I could save with my bare hands, I saved, and the rest went down the river, never to return.'
3. The Woman Who Rescued Europe’s Children
Truus Wijsmuller-Meyer might be the most important humanitarian you’ve never heard of. Confronted with the atrocities of the Holocaust, she refused to settle for saving only 100 or even 1,000 lives. In less than one year, she rescued 10,000 people.
This Dutch social worker traveled deep into Nazi-occupied Vienna and personally persuaded Adolf Eichmann to allow her to transport 600 Jewish children to England. Miraculously, Eichmann agreed. And incredibly, this was just the beginning for Truus.
As Europe spiraled into war, she was everywhere, facing off with the Gestapo, bribing border guards, and acting as a one-woman anti-genocide force. In Berlin, she teamed up with Jewish rescuer Recha Freier. When Nazi forces invaded the Netherlands, she returned to Amsterdam and immediately began smuggling children across the border into Switzerland.
From November 1938 to September 1939, she managed to get about 10,000 children to safety—the equivalent of rescuing the entire population of the Falkland Islands three times over, with Vatican City thrown in for good measure. In recognition of her efforts, she was honored as “Righteous Among the Nations” by Israel—but we think the more fitting title is “superwoman.”
2. The British Rabbi Who Risked Everything To Save His People
In 1938, British Rabbi Solomon Schonfeld had every reason to be worried. With Germany pushing through more anti-Semitic laws, the future of Europe looked uncertain. But Schonfeld wasn’t one to just accept the tides of history. He was the kind of person who seized history by the neck and forced it to bend to his will.
As the shadow of the Holocaust began to creep across Europe, Schonfeld took it upon himself to rescue as many Jews as he could. He began by demanding the UK Home Office issue 500 visas for synagogue leaders and their families, a move that saved approximately 1,300 lives. Not satisfied with simply matching Schindler’s efforts, he went further, securing visas for another 500 Jewish children to escape to England before the war erupted. But the most unbelievable part came after the war.
Just months after Germany’s surrender, Schonfeld donned an army uniform marked with the Star of David and ventured deep into the heart of former Nazi lands. There, he traveled between death camps, rescuing those in dire need of help. It’s estimated that he saved 3,500 lives—almost three times the number of people saved by Oskar Schindler himself.
1. The Sikh Who Stopped The Horrors Of Partition
In 1947, when the British withdrew from India, they left behind a nation teetering on the brink of civil war. Hindu and Muslim extremists were ready to slaughter each other, and it seemed like violence was inevitable. In an attempt to quell the conflict, the government split the country into two nations, Muslim-majority Pakistan and Hindu-majority India, but the borders were drawn hastily, leaving many trapped on the wrong side. The resulting bloodshed claimed the lives of approximately one million people. However, it could have been much worse if not for Khushdeva Singh.
A Sikh doctor, Singh ran a refugee camp right at the newly drawn border. Unlike the extremists surrounding him, he made it his mission to shelter people of all faiths and treat them with equality. His most heroic actions came when local militias made it clear they planned to enter the station and kill every Muslim. Rather than let the violence take its course, Singh orchestrated a daring campaign using bribery, charm, and lies to successfully smuggle all the Muslims in his town to a safe camp. Not stopping there, Singh repeated this dangerous mission in three other towns.
When Singh visited Pakistan after the violence had ceased in 1949, Muslims whom he had saved lined up to honor him. At least 317 individuals came forward, each claiming that he had saved their lives.
