"The Rescuers" is a collection of interviews from people who helped saved Jewish citizens during the Holocaust, and the reading for today was focused on rescues in Belgium and France. Belgium was one of the countries that was able to save a lot of their Jewish people, especially the children that lived there. The CDJ was a organization that worked with the government of Belgium in order to help the rescue of Jews, mainly to file new paperwork for the Jewish citizens so they would appear Aryan on their birth records. Whether it be a singular male, female, or mother-daughter duo, the citizens of Belgium really worked together in order to protect Jews that were being taken by Nazi forces. People such as the mother-daughter duo saved many people, thirty in their case, by changing their names and race on their birth records. The most interesting rescuer from Belgium, in my opinion at least, was the woman who ran the school in Belgium that saved a lot of boys. Her altruism really shined through when she discussed how important it was to count them as they came back from the forest and to also kiss them goodnight every night. Even in times of dark and sadness, she gave the boys there something to look forward to every night. France was much harder to save Jews, but because of their loyalty as a country, they were able to protect a good amount of Jewish citizens. The town that saved so many Jews is probably considered the most important rescuer in France. The town all worked together in order to save Jews, and that truly shows the altruism that the citizens of La Chambon had.
Overall, I thought Belgium was very interesting when it came to the Rescuers because the people there all seemed to do their job of saving Jewish people, and didn't even think about it. It really showed the altruistic side of saving Jewish people during the Holocaust because none of them "did it for money", but instead did it simply because it was the right thing to do. The people in France are similar in the respect they deserve, but I personally thought the people of Belgium were more interesting.
