Rockville Centre remembers those who helped

When 13-year-old Matthew Sackstein celebrated his bar mitzvah last Saturday at Temple B’nai Sholom, he honored Knud Christiansen, a Christian man, now 97, who risked his life to save Danish Jews during the Holocaust.

Matthew was told from an early age of the selflessness and generosity of gentiles during World War II. Matthew’s grandfather was able to leave Europe during the German takeover due to a family sponsor in America. Throughout his youth, Matthew heard stories about this time in his grandfather’s life and saw his original passport. Recently, Matthew and his parents visited the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. to better understand their family roots and to learn that part of history.

Matthew chose to pay tribute to Christiansen by participating in a program sponsored by The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous (JFR). Youngsters who participate in the JFR’s Bar/Bat Mitzvah Program are given the opportunity to learn from the rescuers’ selfless acts. The students select a specific JFR-supported rescuer and is matched with a person whose story touches their heart, enabling the child to learn about, recognize, and appreciate the heroic deeds of rescuers.  The youngster is presented with a “twinning certificate” and may relate the extraordinary story of heroism at the synagogue during their bar or bat mitzvah ceremony.

Matthew felt drawn to Christiansen’s story because he was an athlete and used his athletic abilities to help others, something that Matthew aspires to do.

Christiansen and his wife Karen joined the Danish resistance and, along with many other Danes, worked to rescue Danish Jews. Karen’s father, Dr. Holger Rasmussen, was the country’s chief naval physician as well as the physician to King Christian X. He owned a villa in Espergaerde, a coastal village north of Copenhagen, and used his home as a drop point for Jews escaping from Copenhagen. From there, thousands of Jews were able to cross the Oresund, the body of water between Denmark and neutral Sweden.

During October, November, and December of 1943, Christiansen ferried one Jew at a time across the Oresund using his Olympic racing boat and his skills as an Olympic rower. In time, the resistance began to use larger fishing boats that could carry a greater number of Jews. Even after Denmark’s Jews were safely evacuated from the country, Christiansen and Karen continued their resistance efforts until the end of the war.   

“We are very proud of the many boys and girls throughout the country, like Matthew, who realize the importance of remembrance,” said JFR Executive Vice President Stanlee Stahl.

The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous arranged for Matthew and his family to meet Christiansen and his daughter on Feb. 27 in New York City and hear first-hand the incredible story of his heroic efforts.