Redress
October 20, 2013
A member of the family of the first Arab honoured by Israel for risking his life to save Jews during the holocaust says the family isn’t interested in the recognition, the Associated Press news agency reports.
The Egyptian doctor, Mohamed Helmy, was honoured posthumously in September by Israel’s Vad Yashem holocaust memorial for hiding Jews in Berlin during the Nazis’ genocide, but a family member tracked down by AP in Cairo said her relatives wouldn’t accept the award.
“If any other country offered to honour Helmy, we would have been happy with it,” Mervat Hassan, the wife of Helmy’s great-nephew, told the news agency.