American heroes honored at Holocaust ceremony

HEROES- Martha and Waitstill Sharp, above, prepare for their mission to Europe in 1939. The Unitarian couple were honored posthumously for courage in helping refugees escape Czechoslovakia during the Nazi occupation. Below, from left, the Rev. Betty Stapleford; the Rev. Bill Sinkford, president of the Unitarian Universalist Association, and Tom Stapleford at Yad Vashem Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem for the ceremonies. See story, upper right.

In Jerusalem, the Yad Vashem Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority has honored thousands of non-Jews as "Righteous Among the Nations" for their rescue work helping Jews and others escape Nazi persecution before and during World War II.

Three are Americans. The names of two, the Rev. Waitstill Sharp and his wife, Martha Sharp, were added posthumously to the memorial in a ceremony this past summer.

Among those who traveled to Jerusalem for the ceremony honoring the Sharps were the Rev. Dr. Betty Stapleford, minister of the Conejo Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, and her husband, Tom Stapleford.

"It was an honor to be a part of this ceremony in the country that came into being to provide a home for the descendants of many who escaped from the terrors of Holocaust," said Betty Stapleford. "It reinforced my deep-felt belief that we must never allow such atrocity to happen again. We must strive to fill the shoes of such great humanitarians as Waitstill and Martha Sharp."

The Sharps' grandson, Artemis Joukowsky III, now in his 40s, decided that the little-known story of his grandparents' courage could inspire a new generation of human rights activists.

The Sharps were Unitarian activists- Waitstill a Unitarian minister in Massachusetts, and Martha a trained social worker. They sailed for Europe on behalf of the American Unitarian Association in February l939 on a service mission to Czechoslovakia.

They arrived in Prague as Nazi troops were marching into the city, which held 250,000 refugees. Their anticipated sixmonth mission became a six-year stay. During that time Martha helped many refugees make border crossings to safety or across cities to friendly embassies.

Meanwhile, Waitstill was setting up an underground escape route for those who needed support, primarily intellectuals, antiNazi political leaders and children, one of whom attended the ceremony at Yad Vashem to bear witness to the Sharps' efforts to help her and others stay alive.

While in Portugal, the Sharps started an organization promoting human rights that was the forerunner of the current Unitarian Universalist Service Committee which, working with other agencies, is giving aid to women and others in Darfur in an effort to bring peace and justice to that war-torn region.

To honor Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Conejo Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Thousand Oaks hosted a guest speaker at the April 22 service.

Jerry Fowler, staff director of the Committee on Conscience guiding the genocide prevention activities of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., spoke about the Holocaust and lessons learned for modern day crises such as Darfur.

For more information, visit www.cvuuf.org .