Heroine of the Day

This week's NYJW has a piece about Clara Bauer, a woman who rescued and gave refuge to Jews during the holocaust. She was honored this week by Israel:

Mrs. Ambrus-Baer, second from left, received Yad Vashem’s designation as a Righteous Gentile during a ceremony Friday at the Israeli Consulate General in Manhattan. Her husband of 60 years, Julian Ambrus, left, was a member of the Hungarian resistance in World War II. The couple, who moved to the United States in 1950, live in Buffalo, where they worked in the medical field.

The Baer family saved several hundred Jews during the Holocaust, Julian Ambrus said. When German soldiers came to the Baer home, they would be warned that the family’s dogs “were very vicious.” Which they weren’t. The lie bought time for the Jews inside to hide.

The family also bribed German guards to bring Jews to safety.

“I never expected this,” Mrs. Ambrus-Baer said. “I took it for normal that somebody saves people’s lives.”

Definitely earns her the Heroine of the Day designation.