Joachim von Zedtwitz

Joachim von Zedtwitz, who lived from 6 June 1910 to 10 October 2001, was a physician who helped Jews escape the Nazis during World War II and was named Righteous Among the Nations on 14 December 1994. He arranged for refugees to be transported to Poland, working with Milena Jesenská, teachers from the British Institute in Prague and local guides at Moravská Ostrava; from Katowice they were helped on to England or France. The Gestapo arrested and interrogated him in March 1940. He feigned mental illness and was held in a psychiatric hospital for 15 months, then continued in the resistance until the war ended. He afterwards settled in Switzerland, became a citizen in 1980, practiced medicine and pursued creative interests.