February 5, 2026 — Houston, Texas
Published online in the Jewish Herald-Voice by Judy Bluestein-Levin
Program at HMH honors diplomats who, with visas and courage, defied orders and saved Jewish lives.
Photo by JHV: Daniel Bissonnet
They didn’t carry weapons or command armies. Armed instead with visas, passports and an unshakeable moral conscience, a small group of diplomats defied orders so they could save Jewish lives during the Holocaust. Their actions were the focus of a program marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day at Holocaust Museum Houston on Tuesday, Jan. 27.
The event, “Beyond Duty: Righteous Among the Nations,” was a collaboration between HMH, the Consulate General of Israel to the Southwest United States and American Jewish Committee-Houston. It included both an exhibit and a panel discussion.
Opening the program, HMH CEO Gary Weisserman emphasized the urgency of remembrance amid rising antisemitism.
“The Holocaust did not begin with murder. It began with words, with slurs, propaganda and the normalization of targeted hatred,” he said. “Antisemitism is not just a problem for Jews. Historically, it has been a warning sign, a harbinger of broader dangers, including the spread of other forms of hatred and the breakdown of civil society.
“These lessons aren’t abstract. They are urgently relevant in a world experiencing rising antisemitism, deepening polarization and growing threats to democratic values, and they are especially critical at a time when Holocaust denial, distortion, inversion and weaponization are increasingly widespread.”
Wrapping up his comments, Weisserman said, “May this evening strengthen our resolve so that the words ‘never again’ are not only spoken but lived.”
Israeli Consul and Deputy Chief of Mission to the Southwest Elad Shoshan delivered remarks reflecting on the legacy of the Righteous Among the Nations, the ongoing threat of antisemitism and, in what may have been the most poignant moment of the evening, speaking of the recent return of Ran Gvili, the final hostage held by Hamas. His body was returned to Israel on Jan. 26.
“We promised we would bring him home,” said Consul Shoshan. “He was the first to enter and the last to leave. Ronnie is back; a hero of Israel.” He also drew a line between Holocaust memory and today.
Representatives of government were in the audience and on the dais. Standing in for Houston Mayor John Whitmire was Michael Nichols, director of the City of Houston Housing and Community Development department. Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare also delivered remarks.
The heart of the program was a panel of diplomats, each representing a figure named Righteous Among the Nations. The discussion was deftly moderated by Rachel Schneider, director of AJC Houston region.
“AJC works globally to protect Jewish communities, combat antisemitism, strengthen Israel’s place in the world and strengthen democratic values by building trusted relationships with leaders and diplomats around the world,” Schneider said.
“Tonight’s conversation is about moral courage during the Holocaust, at a time of mass persecution and indifference, [when] a very small number of individuals chose to act.”
The panel consisted of Swedish Consul General Anna Hammarlund Blixt; Consul General of Italy Mauro Lorenzini; Ambassador Emeritus to Germany Dr. Edmund Duckwitz; and Consul General of Ecuador Luis Espinosa Salas.
Hon. Blixt spoke about Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who helped save tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews.
“[Raoul Wallenberg] was sent to Budapest during the summer of 1944 … with a very specific mission, and that was to help save as many Hungarian Jews from Nazi persecution and deportation as possible,” Blixt said. “Although he only stayed in Budapest for about six months, he established Swedish-protected safe houses and issued hundreds of Swedish protective passports.
“They were actually all fake,” Blixt noted, “but he did it in such a convincing way that these were seen as being real, and saved many people from deportation.”
In 1945, Wallenberg was detained by Soviet forces and disappeared.
“He represents the idea that public service carries ethical responsibility and diplomacy can be used to protect human life,” Blixt said.
Hon. Lorenzini described Italian rescuer Giorgio Perlasca, who posed as the Spanish consul general in Budapest.
“He wasn’t a person of power. He was a simple person,” Lorenzini said. “What happened is that he found himself in a position [to act], and he choose to do it.”
Perlasca saved more than 5,000 Jews and helped prevent the destruction of the Budapest ghetto, which housed 65,000 Jews.
Dr. Duckwitz shared the story of his uncle, Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz, who warned the Danish resistance in 1943 of Nazi plans to deport Danish Jews.
“They were able to organize a big group of fishermen and people who had boats … the rescue of the Jewish community,” he said. “My uncle himself convinced the head of the German Coast Guard that, that night, the ships should stay in the port for technical revision.”
As a result, approximately 6,000 Danish Jews escaped to Sweden – 90% of the Danish Jewish population. “What is very impressive,” Duckwitz added, “is that after the war … their whole houses were untouched. So, the Danish population did their all to protect the property of their former Jewish neighbors.”
Hon. Salas highlighted the actions of Ecuadorian diplomat Dr. Manuel Antonio Muñoz Borrero, who issued passports to Jewish refugees at the request of Rabbi Avraham Israel Jacobson.
“If somebody comes today with this kind of story, I may say, ‘No,’” Salas said. “How can I deliver an Ecuadorian passport to a person who has no connection with Ecuador?”
Despite direct orders to restrict visas, Muñoz Borrero continued. “He knew he issued the passports to non-Ecuadorian citizens,” Salas said, “but he was convinced that that was the right thing to do, so he did it.”
The panel concluded with a discussion on education and memory, particularly as the number of living Holocaust survivors continues to decline.
“As time passes by, there are fewer and fewer survivors who can tell young people their story,” Duckwitz said. “I’m quite concerned … because more and more, even in Germany, there are discussions of why do we still need history lessons at school?”
“But it’s not just about history because antisemitism is present today,” Blixt said. “In Sweden, we make sure that the Holocaust is taught in schools. It’s important that we continue to educate and that we foster the younger generations with sort of a moral compass, but also with compassion and with respect for human rights and democracy and the rule of law.
“When we connect and when we interact, it makes it so much more difficult to hate.”
