Joachim_von_Zedtwitz
Joachim von Zedtwitz (6 June 1910 – 10 October 2001) was a physician who helped Jews escape Nazis during World War II, for which he received the title Righteous Among the Nations on 14 December 1994. To make arrangements to have refugees transported to Poland, he worked with Milena Jesenská, teachers from the British Institute in Prague and local guides at Moravská Ostrava. The refugees travelled to Katowice in Poland where another group of people helped them reach England or France. This route became obsolete when the Germans invaded Poland.
Jesenská was arrested in November 1939 and was sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp, where she died on 17 May 1944. Zedtwitz was arrested and interrogated by the Gestapo in March 1940. He assumed the manner of a mentally ill patient and was put into a psychiatric hospital for 15 months. After his release, he continued to work within the resistance movement until the end of the war. After the war, he settled in Switzerland, where he attained citizenship in 1980. He practiced medicine and pursued creative interests.