Buzz
The Nobel Peace Prize often sparks controversy. It has been awarded to some individuals who might not appear deserving, while others who truly earned it were left out. This list highlights ten people who were unfairly overlooked for the honor.
10. Irena Sendler
Irena Sendler, a Polish Catholic who passed away in 2008, saved the lives of 2,500 Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto between 1939 and 1945. She forged documents, created false passports, and sheltered the children in various homes throughout Warsaw.
In 1943, the Gestapo captured her and tortured her brutally, demanding information about the location of the Jewish people she had rescued from the Ghetto. She refused to reveal any details. Condemned to death, she was spared after a bribe to the Nazi officer overseeing her, who abandoned her in a forest with all four of her limbs broken.
Despite her injuries, she recovered and immediately returned to her mission of saving Jews from the Ghetto. She was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 but was overlooked in favor of Al Gore. She passed away at the age of 98.
9. Mohandas Gandhi
Mohandas Gandhi was assassinated in 1948. He began his journey for India's independence from Britain in 1916 and achieved success in 1947 when Louis Mountbatten transferred control of India from Britain to the Indian people. Gandhi is often credited with singlehandedly defeating the British Empire without resorting to violence.
He received nominations for the Nobel Prize in five years: 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947, and 1948. A total of 19 people nominated him during those years, with Ole Colbjornsen, a member of the Norwegian Parliament, being the one to nominate him the first three times. Between 1939 and 1947, he either received no nominations or the Swedish Academy refused to consider any during the War. Furthermore, in the years leading up to 1937, he was never nominated by anyone.
A rule exists stating that death before being awarded the Nobel Prize makes a person ineligible, whether nominated or not. However, it is likely the Academy could have awarded him the prize posthumously without any objections. In such a case, they could have recognized him for the year 1948, potentially replacing Cordell Hull as the recipient for 1945. Hull is mentioned in another Mytour list.
It is possible that his 'experiments' with underage children (item 8) hindered his chances of receiving the Nobel Prize, but as previously mentioned, most people would likely have accepted his award despite these controversial actions.
8. Abdul Sattar Edhi
As the leader of the Edhi Foundation in Pakistan, Abdul Sattar Edhi is a philanthropist who opened a modest medical shop in Karachi in 1951 with his limited personal funds, aiming solely to assist anyone in need. Though he had minimal medical knowledge, his mission was to help others. He claims that he helps because it brings him joy, just as an evil person enjoys causing harm.
Edhi has been providing care to people in Karachi and across all areas with Edhi Foundation branches around the world, offering treatment at exceptionally low costs. He began the foundation with contributions from friends and supporters in Karachi. The Foundation also runs a free maternity clinic and nursing school, where students can enroll without any charges for tuition, books, or supplies.
During the 1957 flu outbreak in Karachi, Edhi quickly set up tents where he and his team treated people at no cost. With donations, he purchased an ambulance, which he personally drove to accident scenes and to his clinic or hospitals. Despite the Edhi Foundation operating with a $10 million budget, Edhi refuses to take any of the money for himself. While it may be premature for him to be included on this list, as he is still living and may win the Nobel Prize in the future, it seemed fitting given the recent 2009 Peace Prize and the fact that he was also considered for it.
7. Jose Figueres Ferrer
Jose Figueres Ferrer served as the President of Costa Rica three times. During his first term, he granted women the right to vote, asserting that while men might be physically stronger, there is no difference in the mental capabilities of men and women. He also abolished Costa Rica's military, arguing that a police force was sufficient for domestic law enforcement, and that an army only exists for the potential of invading other nations. He believed no neighboring country had any intention of invading Costa Rica.
After nationalizing Costa Rica's banking system and establishing a welfare state, Ferrer took steps to outlaw Communism. He led the creation of a new constitution, ensured public education for every citizen through state management, granted citizenship to children of black immigrants, and set up a civil service bureaucracy.
6. Dr. Feng Shan Ho
Dr. Feng Shan Ho graduated from Munich University in 1932 and was appointed diplomatic secretary in Turkey. In 1937, he was posted to Vienna, and the following year, after Hitler annexed Austria, Ho was promoted to Consul-General of the Chinese Embassy in Vienna.
After Kristallnacht, the entire population of Austria was well aware of the dire situation faced by the 200,000 Jews across the country. Their only hope for survival was to escape Europe, which could only be achieved with exit visas. However, the 1938 Evian Conference resulted in 38 countries refusing to allow Jewish immigration, and Ho was ordered by Chen Jie, the Chinese ambassador to Berlin, not to issue visas for Jews.
For the entire six years of World War II, Ho risked his own safety by defying this order. By 27 October 1938, he had issued 1,906 visas, some to Jews and others to non-Jews. The exact number of Jews he saved may never be known, but considering he issued nearly 2,000 visas within his first six months, it is likely he saved thousands of lives. The saying, 'Whoever saves one life saves the world entire,' rings true in his case. He passed away at the age of 96 and has since been dubbed 'China's Schindler.'
5. Cesar Chavez
Often referred to as 'the Mexican Martin Luther King,' Cesar Chavez was deeply disturbed by the horrific working conditions endured by Latino laborers in California. He co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, now known as the United Farm Workers, and became a prominent civil rights activist. In 1958, he was appointed national director of the Community Service Organization. His persistent efforts to secure better wages and working conditions for farm laborers culminated in success in 1966.
Following this, Cesar Chavez worked to limit the influx of illegal immigrants into the United States, fearing they would take jobs from legal Mexican citizens. In California, his birthday is now observed as a state holiday. Chavez passed away in 1993, and the following year, he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton.
4. Stephen Biko
After Nelson Mandela's imprisonment in 1964, Steve Biko emerged as the leading figure in the anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa. He founded the Black Consciousness Movement, advocating for a global 'brotherhood of man.'
Biko played a pivotal role in organizing protests that culminated in the Soweto Uprising in June 1976. Though he preached non-violence, his message was not always followed, leading to the brutal slaughter of schoolchildren by Apartheid police during the uprising.
The authorities eventually captured Biko, and over the course of September 11-12, 1977, they brutally beat him to death.
3. Venerable Pope Pius XII
On April 28, 1935, four years before the outbreak of World War II, Eugenio Pacelli, who would later become Pope Pius XII, delivered a speech that attracted worldwide attention. Addressing an audience of 250,000 pilgrims in Lourdes, France, the future pope declared that the Nazis were 'miserable plagiarists who dress up old errors with new tinsel.' He criticized the Nazis for their ideologies, whether they supported social revolution, followed a false worldview, or adhered to the cult of race and blood. When Pacelli became pope during the war, he spoke out strongly in defense of the Jews, particularly in 1943 during the mass arrests. The Vatican’s official newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, published an article condemning the internment of Jews and the confiscation of their property, earning the wrath of the Fascist press, which labeled the paper 'a mouthpiece of the Jews.'
Before the Nazi invasion, Pope Pius XII had been working tirelessly to facilitate Jewish emigration from Italy. After the invasion, he shifted focus to finding places of refuge for them. The Pope issued orders for religious buildings to shelter Jews, even at great personal cost to their occupants. He lifted the restrictions on the cloistered rule of monasteries and convents, allowing them to be used as hiding places. Thousands of Jews, with estimates ranging from 4,000 to 7,000, found refuge in 180 known places of shelter across Vatican City, churches, basilicas, Church administrative buildings, and parish houses. Others were hidden in Castel Gandolfo, the Pope's summer residence, private homes, hospitals, and nursing homes. Pope Pius XII personally took responsibility for caring for the children of Jews who had been deported from Italy.
The impact of Pope Pius XII's actions in defense of the Jewish people was profound. The Chief Rabbi of Rome, Rabbi Zolli, converted to Catholicism during WWII, taking the name Eugenio in honor of the Pope.
2. Oskar Schindler
Oskar Schindler became the most renowned member of the Avenue of the Righteous for his efforts to save 1,200 Jews during World War II. He employed them in his munitions factories from 1943 until the end of the war, constantly placing himself in grave danger as the Nazis knew his workers were Jewish.
Schindler was highly persuasive, having already paid millions to the Nazi Party. He argued that his workers were more valuable to the Wehrmacht in producing pots, pans, and ammunition. However, secretly, he had them sabotage the ammunition to ensure it would fail.
1. Dorothy Day
Dorothy Day (November 8, 1897 – November 29, 1980) was an American journalist, devout Catholic convert, and distributist. In the 1930s, she collaborated with Peter Maurin to establish the Catholic Worker movement. This nonviolent, pacifist movement has continued to provide direct aid to the poor and homeless while advocating for nonviolent action on their behalf. Revered within parts of the U.S. Catholic community, Day is being considered for sainthood. Among her posthumous honors are the Courage of Conscience Award from the Peace Abbey in 1992 and induction into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 2001 in Seneca Falls, New York.
