Abdol Hossein Sardari

Abdol Hossein Sardari, (c. 1895 - 1981) was an Iranian statesman and diplomat who saved the lives of many Jews during the Holocaust. [ [http://www.iranian.com/History/2004/March/Sardari/index.html THE IRANIAN: Saving Jews in World War II, Abdol Hossein Sardari Qajar, Fariborz Mokhtari, Fatemeh Aman ] ] He is known as the "Schindler of Iran" [http://users.sedona.net/~sepa/sardari.pdf] and was the uncle of Fereydoun Hoveyda.

Sardari was in charge of the Iranian consular office in Paris in 1941. There was a sizeable community of Iranian Jews in Paris when Adolf Hitler invaded and occupied the city. Leaning on an agreement between Germany and Iran which protecting all Iranian citizens against German acts of aggression, Sardari was able to protect these Iranian Jews, whose families had been present in Iran since the time of the Persian Empire. (Cyrus the Great personally ordered the Jews of Babylonia to be freed from Babylonian slavery.) He very strongly argued this point to the Germans and specifically ascertained that the Iranian Jews were protected under these statutes. The Nazis grudgingly agreed and accordingly, many Persian Jews were saved from harassment and eventually deportation by the Nazi regime.

But Sardari went further. Once he realized the full nature of Nazi ambitions, he began issuing hundreds of Iranian passports for non-Iranian Jews to save them from prosecution. To safeguard his plan, he did not ask for permission, and felt that support by the Iranian leadership was implied. His moral obligation had no religious boundaries, he was a Muslim himself, and his actions were later confirmed and applauded by the government of Iran. [ [http://users.sedona.net/~sepa/sardarij.html Iran - Sardari and the Jews of Paris during World War II ] ]

Abdol Hossein Sardari has been honored by Jewish organizations such as the convention in Beverly Hills, and the Simon Wiesenthal Center on multiple occasions. [ [http://www.wiesenthal.com/site/apps/s/content.asp?c=fwLYKnN8LzH&b=253162&ct=285846 Search - Simon Wiesenthal Center ] ]

Media

*"Zero Degree Turn" ("Madare sefr darajeh"), a popular Iranian TV series (2007) was loosely based on Sardari's actions in Paris. The focus of the series is an Iranian Muslim who falls in love with a Jewish woman while studying in France during World War II and later desperately looks for ways to save her and other Jews from the imminent threat of deportation.

Notes

ee also

*Iranian culture
*Cyrus cylinder