On April 23, 1987, the Anti-Defamation League created a unique award called “Courage to Care” to honor rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust era. The ADL Courage to Care Award was renamed in 2011 in honor of one of its first recipients, Jan Karski, a Polish diplomat and righteous gentile who provided the West with one of the first eyewitness accounts of Hitler's Final Solution.

The award is a plaque with miniature bas-reliefs that depicts the horrifying context — the Nazis’ persecution, deportation and murder of millions of Jews — that served as a backdrop for the rescuers’ exceptional deeds. It is a replica of the plaques that constitute the Holocaust Memorial Wall created by noted sculptor Arbit Blatas, who also created the Holocaust Memorial in Paris and the display in the old ghetto of Venice, Italy.

The award, based on ADL’s evaluation of the rescuers’ acts, is given during specific programs and ceremonies sponsored by ADL, which often occur several times a year.

The Courage to Care program is made possible through a generous grant from Eileen Ludwig Greenland.

Courage to Care Honorees

2018

Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus

2017

Józefa Bizior-Horyslawsky
Zofia Tomaszewski

2016

President Manuel L. Quezon

2015

Nikita Lukyanovich
Sofia Lukyanovich
Svetlana Lukyanovich

2014

John Henry Weidner

2013

Metropolitan Szeptycki
Varian Fry

2012

Dr. Feng Shan Ho
Colonel José Arturo Castellanos

2011

Count János Esterházy
Francisca Halamajowa

2010

Horst B. Lantzsch
Irena Sendler
Jaap Penraat
Arlette deMonceau Michaelis

2009

Irene Gut Opdyke

2008

Gilberto Bosques Saldívar
Eduardo Propper de Callejón
Clara M. Ambrus (Bayer)

2007

Martha and Waitstill Sharp
Khaled Abdelwahhab
Ernst Leitz II
Mefail and Njazi Biçaku

2006

Hiram (Harry) Bingham IV
Nicholas Winton
Konstantin Koslovsky

2004

Giovanni Palatucci
Dimitrios P. Spiliakos

2003

Dr. Kostas Nikolaou
Johanna Vos
The Partisans of Riccone, Italy

2002

Hans Georg Calmeyer

2000

Hannah Pick-Goslar

1999

Monsignor Beniamo Schivo

1998

The People of Bulgaria

1997

Shyqyri Myrto

1996

Renia and Jerzy Kozminski

1993

Emilie and Oskar Schindler
Alice and Paul Paulus
People of Denmark

1991

Peter Vlcko
Stefania Burzminski

1990

Mela and Alex Roslan
Friedrich Born
Marion P. Pritchard

1989

Anna and Jan Pulchalski
Le Chambon-Sur-Lignon
Chiune Sugihara

1988

Selahattin Ulkumen
Jan Karski

1987

Aristides De Sousa Mendes
Jan and Miep Gies