A Stranger’s Kindness Helped Boy Escape the Nazis Who Would Go On to Win Nobel Prize–And He Never Knew it
By Andy Corbley – Jun 15, 2022
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What would you do if in the middle of the night, a stranger asked you to legally declare your financial support for an immigrant family that you would never meet—and hadn’t even arrived in your country yet?
That was essentially the proposition that Barnet Yudin, a Russian-American Jew, faced one night in 1938 when a stranger, who was going door-to-door, appealed to the man asking if he could help a Jewish family from Germany flee to North America.
While Yudin hadn’t gone on to be the doctor he dreamed of being, he and his family lived comfortably in Belleville, New Jersey—and his job as a paint salesmen brought in a healthy $120 a month.
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“None of these people would exist today without Barnet Yudin,” David said, emphasizing the difference that Yudin’s choice made.
Joe Yudin, a great-grandson, told Nat Geo that his grandfather didn’t say, “Is this kid going to win the Nobel someday, or play shortstop for the Yankees? He did what he did because it was right and didn’t mention it to anybody. He definitely had this big picture of what humanity should be like.”
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I heard stories about the “affidavit of support” and how difficult it was to get through the bureaucrats in the USA.
What a difference from today when criminals work across the southern border with impunity.
Here a fellow that did the right thing. Even though no one knew about it for generations later.
(Ever heard that old Irish adage about “good works only count if done in secret”. Funny, I learned that from my maternal English Protestant grandmother who wanted to teach me about my maternal grandfather’s “heathen Irish culture that has a few good points”. ROFL!)
Here’s an example!
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Reinke Faces Life 