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I went looking for Holocaust ‘upstanders.’ I found a Nazi rescuer who chose conscience over complicity.

JL;DR SUMMARY Lilly and Joyce Kamen are expanding their "Upstander Stories" series for young readers by spotlighting Otto Busse, a lesser-known figure who defied Nazi policies during World War II. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

HolocaustYad VashemNazi GermanyJewish ResistanceChildren's LiteratureBialystokOtto BusseUpstander StoriesChasia BielickaHaika Grossman

Places mentioned

Białystok, Podlachia, Poland
"In March of 1943, Busse was discharged from the military gendarmerie and reassigned by Brix to Bialystok in eastern Poland."
Jerusalem, Israel
"Otto Busse, center, visiting Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, Oct. 31,1961."
Haifa, Haifa District, Israel
"When I then set foot on Israeli soil in Haifa I was greeted by my friends from the old days after 18 years."
Sovetsk, Kaliningrad, Russian Federation
"While he was in Bialystock, Otto learned that his brother had been imprisoned in Tilsit, East Prussia (now Sovetsk in Russia) for his own opposition to the Nazi ideology."
Kyiv, Ukraine
"Soon after Otto returned to Germany he was captured by the Russians while following Nazi orders to gather Wehrmacht soldiers scattered near the front. For five years, until Nov. 29, 1949, Otto was held in Kiev as a prisoner of war doing reconstruction work."
Nes Ammim, Haifa District, Israel
"Several years later, Haika arranged for Otto and Erna to live in Nes Ammim, a settlement in Israels Western Galilee, founded in 1963 by German and Dutch Christians."

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Retrieved 2026-01-26 18:00:31 UTC
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