https://newsblaze.com/world/eurasia/abdol-hossein-sardari-an-iranian-of-azerbaijani-descent-the-like-of-schindler_167034/
The subject of this story, first published March 22, 2014, was recently brought up by the Consul General of Azerbaijan to the United States West Coast. The reason for his interest is that the hero of this story, Abdol Hossein Sardari, was Iranian, of Azerbaijani descent.
The story of Abdol Hossein Sardari is about the moral compass of right thing to do, no matter what, when there is a calling.
Abdol Hossein Sardari reminds us of Oskar Schindler
Oskar Schindler was an ethnic German industrialist, a German spy, and member of the Nazi party. Schindler has also been credited with saving the lives of 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust, by employing them in his factories, which were located in what is today Poland and the Czech Republic.
Abdol Hossein Sardari served as an Iranian diplomat in Paris, and he used his position to save the lives of many Jews from the Nazis’ deadly claws.
Fariborz Mokhtari, Ph.D. discovers the rather covert Abdol Hossein Sardari story
Fariborz Mokhtari, Ph.D., born in Iran, a retired professor of political science from the University of Vermont and at Saint Michael’s College. Fariborz read the book ‘The Persian Sphinx: ‘Amir Abbas Hoveyda and the Riddle of the Iranian Revolution‘ by Abbas Milani, (The Puzzle of Hoveyda), which tells the story of Iran’s Prime Minister Amir-Abbas Hoveyda*, the longest-serving – 13 years – prime minister in Iran’s history. After the Iranian Revolution, or the 1979 Revolution, Hoveyda was tried for “waging war against God” and “spreading corruption on earth” and was executed.
In Milani’s book Dr. Mokhtari read about a mentioned rumor that there was an Iranian diplomat who worked in Paris and helped Jews escape the wrath of the Nazi’s methodical Jew killing machine. That diplomat was Abdol Hossein Sardari, Amir Abbas Hoveyda’s uncle. Noting, while studying at the Sorbonne University, in Paris, France, Mr. Hoveyda, who later became Iran’s prime minister, frequented his uncle’s Parisian residence.
Curiosity led Mr. Mokhtari to contact the publisher of the book who directed him to the author, who then directed him to three people who were able to tell him the entire story about the young Iranian diplomat, Abdol Hossein Sardari, a son of an affluent Iranian family who was assigned to join Iran’s diplomatic ranks in France.
As this fascinating story goes, Mr. Sardari was a social butterfly who threw many parties that attracted the crème de la crème of the Parisian and beyond society as well as high ranking Nazi officers.
When Mr. Sardari realized what the Nazis were doing to the Jews in Europe, he wanted to save lives. He started to use the connections and influence he collected throughout his social life, including the ones he had made with the influential Nazis who attended his parties. Over a period of time he issued hundreds of fake Iranian passports that enabled Jews to flee Europe to a safer place, to Iran.
It is believed that Abdol Hossein Sardari issued some 500 fake passports. Considering that a single passport was often issued for entire families, or at least to mothers and their children, the 500 passports may very well have saved over 2000 Jews. Indeed, a Gestapo document claimed/complained that the Iranian diplomat had managed to save over 2000 “stateless people” by granting them Iranian documents.
Mokhtari’s Pride in Sardari’s Heroism
Mr. Mokhtari takes pride in Sardari’s heroism, equating his deeds to Schindler’s.
In 2002 Mr. Mokhtari began to write his book, ‘In the Lion’s Shadow: The Iranian Schindler and His Homeland in the Second World War‘, published in 2011.
