An Iranian official risking his life to save Jews? This scenario, while unlikely nowadays, actually happened during the Holocaust.
Abdol Hossein Sardari, often hailed as the “Iranian Schindler,” disagrees with that title; he was Sardari, and Schindler was Schindler; comparing the two men takes away from what they both did.
Sardari was a notable Iranian diplomat who played a crucial role in saving the lives of hundreds of Jews during World War II. Born into a prominent family in Iran, Sardari entered the diplomatic service and, by the outbreak of World War II, was stationed in Paris as the Iranian Consul General.
When Nazi Germany invaded France in 1940, Sardari found himself in a position where he could assist the Jewish community, particularly Iranian Jews, who were facing severe persecution.
Despite the official stance of neutrality adopted by Iran, Sardari took personal risks to aid Jews in need. Leveraging his diplomatic status and his intimate knowledge of Iranian and European legal systems, he devised several innovative strategies to protect Jews from deportation and extermination.
In June 1940, following the German invasion of France, Iranian ambassador Anoushirvan Sepahbodi left for Vichy in the unoccupied zone to reconstitute the Embassy there. This left Sardari, the Consul General of Iran, in charge of consular affairs in Paris. There was a sizeable community of Iranian Jews in Paris when the Nazis invaded and occupied the city.
One of Sardari’s most significant contributions was his issuance of hundreds of Iranian passports to Jewish families, irrespective of their actual nationality.
By doing so, he effectively shielded them from Nazi racial laws. Moreover, Sardari argued that Iranian Jews did not fall under the same racial categories as European Jews according to Nazi ideology, exploiting the regime’s pseudo-scientific racial theories. He claimed that Iranian Jews, known as “Djougoutes” or “Juguten,” were actually of Aryan descent, thus not subject to the same oppressive measures.
The number of blank passports in Sardari’s safe is estimated to have been between 500 and 1,000.
Sardari’s efforts were not without personal cost. He continued his humanitarian mission despite increasing pressure from the Iranian government. This eventually stripped him of his diplomatic immunity and support due to the country’s political shifts and the complexities of maintaining neutrality during the war. Nevertheless, Sardari remained committed to his cause, even using his own financial resources to support those he was helping.
Eliane Senahi Cohanim was seven years old when she fled France with her family.
She remembers clutching her favorite doll and lying as still as she could, pretending to be asleep, whenever their train came to a halt at a Nazi checkpoint.
“I remember everywhere, when we were running away, they would ask for our passports, and I remember my father would hand them the passports and they would look at them. And then they would look at us. It was scary. It was very, very scary.”
Mrs Cohanim and her family were part of a small, close-knit community of Iranian Jews living in and around Paris. Her father, George Senahi, was a prosperous textile merchant, and the family lived in a large, comfortable house in Montmorency, about 25km (15.5 miles) north of the French capital.
Like others in the Iranian Jewish community, Mr Senahi sought help from the young head of Iran’s diplomatic mission in Paris.
Abdol-Hossein Sardari was able to provide the Senahi family with the passports and travel documents they needed for safe passage through Nazi-occupied Europe. This month-long journey was still fraught with danger.
“At the borders, my father was always really trembling,” recalls Mrs Cohanim, but she adds that he was a “strong man” who had given the family “great confidence that everything would be OK.”
After the war, Sardari returned to Iran but lived without the recognition he deserved for many years. It wasn’t until later in his life that his heroic efforts began to receive acknowledgment. His story is a remarkable testament to individual courage and moral conviction in the face of overwhelming adversity. Abdol Hossein Sardari passed away in 1981, leaving behind a legacy of bravery and compassion that continues to inspire many around the world.
In recent years, various organizations and researchers have worked to bring Sardari’s story to a broader audience, ensuring that his contributions are remembered and honored alongside those of other great humanitarians of the Holocaust era.
Sardari has been honored by Jewish organizations, such as the convention in Beverly Hills and the Simon Wiesenthal Center, on multiple occasions. Sardari never took any credit for what he did. When Yad Vashem asked him in 1978, three years before he died a poor exile in London, about his wartime activities, he responded, “As you may know, I had the pleasure of being the Iranian consul in Paris during the German occupation of France, and as such it was my duty to save all Iranians, including Iranian Jews.
Responding to an inquiry from The Times of Israel, the Director of the Righteous Among the Nations department at Yad Vashem, Dr. Joel Zisenwine, explained the institution’s decision not to add Sadari to the list of over 27,360 others who have been honored for saving Jews.
“The case of Abdol Hossein Sardari is familiar to Yad Vashem and the Commission for the Designation of Righteous among the Nations,” Zisenwine told The Times of Israel. “The commission reviewed the documents in the past but found insufficient documentation to award him the title Righteous among the Nations.”
Zisenwine added, “Firsthand accounts of survivors providing details about the circumstances of rescue and documentation regarding the rescue are among the basic criteria needed to be recognized as Righteous Among the Nations.”
Sources
https://www.lowellmilkencenter.org/programs/projects/view/abdol-hossein-sardari/hero
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/abdol-hossein-sardari-1895-1981
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-16190541
https://iranwire.com/en/category/special-features/sardari-project
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