THE RESCUERS, the latest film from
Executive Producer Joyce D. Mandell and
Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Michael
King, uncovers the largely unknown
stories of 13 heroic and courageous
diplomats who, at tremendous personal
cost, saved tens of thousands of Jews
during World War II. The film follows
Stephanie Nyombayire, a young Rwandan
anti-genocide activist who lost 100
members of her family in the Rwandan
Genocide of the 1990s, and Sir Martin
Gilbert, the renowned 20th century and
Holocaust historian, as they travel
across 15 countries and three continents
interviewing survivors and descendants
of the diplomats. Nyombayire and Gilbert
explore “the mystery of goodness” and
“moral courage in the face of danger” in
contemplating the horrors of the past,
in part, to better understand what
should be done to stop the ongoing
genocide in Darfur and elsewhere.
Often going against their own
government policies, many of the
World War II diplomats, who were not
Jewish, willingly sacrificed their
careers, families and livelihood,
working desperately to save people
they didn’t know. Their actions
raise the question of the mystery of
goodness. What leads one person and
not another, to do the right thing
regardless of the consequences they
may face? What causes one human
being to bypass praise or reward for
his action, and just do something
good and right because his instinct,
soul and spirit knew he had to, at
all costs and by any means
necessary?