A Petal among Thorns Trivia Quiz

Answer: July 20, 1944

The assassination attempt is aptly named the 20 July Plot and had the aims of executing Hitler and making peace with the Western allies. Army officer Claus von Stauffenberg took a briefcase full of explosive and placed it next to Hitler; this briefcase was unintentionally moved, saving Hitler's life.

The officer was executed the next day by firing squad for his role in the plot, the first of almost 5000 people to die as Hitler attempted to round up civilians and soldiers who were plotting against him.

Answer: Lithuania

Sugihara was the vice consult of the Japanese embassy in Lithuania. Many Lithuanian Jews, as well as Polish Jewish refugees, were unable to leave the country. At great personal risk to his life and career, as most of these refugees did not meet the criteria for Japanese visas, as well as the risk of the ire of Japan's largest ally, Nazi Germany, Sugihara issued over 2,000 10-day visas to non-qualified Jewish refugees, who were able to travel to Japan and escape the Holocaust, as well as Soviet rule in Lithuania.

As estimated 100,000 people alive in 2020 were the descendants of recipients of Sugihara's visas.

Answer: Oskar Schindler

Schindler initially moved to Poland motivated by profit and greed; he employed 1,200 Jewish workers at his factory when Poland was annexed by Germany. Initially a ruthless businessman, Schindler's moral compass would prove to be more important than money, as he would spend the next 6 years wasting away his fortune on bribes to senior German officers in order to keep his workers safe.

Answer: Miep Gies

Miep, alongside her husband Jan, hid the Franks and four other Jewish people in the company's upstairs rooms for over two years. After the capture and eventual death of seven of eight people hiding in the complex, Miep was the one who retained Anne's diary, and she later gave it to her father Otto, after the war was over.

He would go on to publish the diary which gained worldwide recognition after Anne's death.

Answer: Syndrome K

Nazi officials would not search the hospital for fears of contracting the disease, which they were told was highly contagious, fatal, and presented with symptoms of dementia and seizure. Italian Jewish patients were encouraged to froth and cough loudly if any Nazi official was even in their vicinity, in order to keep the ruse going.

Answer: Raoul Wallenberg

Wallenberg rented 32 buildings in Budapest and housed Jewish refugees there, declaring the buildings to be sovereign Swedish territory given his status as a diplomat. These buildings eventually housed around 10,000 people. Wallenberg would also provide protective passports to allow Hungarian Jews to leave the country. During the Soviet invasion of Budapest, Wallenberg disappeared and was said to have died two years later from a heart attack by Soviet officials, who had accused him of being a spy.

Answer: Nicholas Winton

After a brief visit to Czechoslovakia, he compiled a list of children and worked on ensuring that the legal requirements to have them brought to the UK were met. Of the 669 children whose lives he saved, over half have more been traced. During a BBC broadcast in 1988, many of the children, now adults, that Winton saved stood up and applauded him more than 40 years later.

Answer: His ship

The sea captain was transporting almost 1000 Jews to Cuba, where they were rejected at port. Knowing that going back to Germany would have meant a certain death for his passengers, he instead elected to attempt dropping the people off in the United States and Canada, but both countries rejected the refugees. Eventually, he was able to secure safe passage for them in Belgium, where they were accepted by the Belgian government. Schroder was assigned a desk job as punishment for his behavior.

Answer: Ukraine

The boys were cared for by many Greek Orthodox monks who had been fighting Soviet religious persecution following the revolution in Russia over 20 years earlier. After the war was over, Sheptysky was held as a political prisoner by the Soviet government until his death in 1951 at 81 years of age.

Answer: Sara Salkahazi

The sister was executed by the Hungarian pro-Nazi fascist party "Arrow Cross" for her actions during the war. In her diaries, she had made a pledge to God that she was willing to give up her life to ensure the safety of the other sisters involved in her rescue efforts. She was beatified in 2006.