Albert Battel Albert Battel ( 21 January 1891 – 1952 ) was a German Wehrmacht army lieutenant and lawyer recognized for his resistance during World War II to the Nazi plans for the 1942 liquidation of the Przemyśl Jewish ghetto . He was posthumously recognized as Righteous Among the Nations in 1981 . Life and military career . Battel was born in Klein - Pramsen ( Prężynka ) , Prussian Silesia . After serving in World War I , he studied economics and jurisprudence in Munich and Breslau ( Wrocław ) . As a fifty - one - year - old reserve officer , Battel was stationed in Przemyśl in southern Poland as the adjutant to the local military commander , Major Max Liedtke . When the SS prepared to launch their first large - scale “ resettlement ” ( liquidation ) action against the Jews of Przemyśl on July 26 , 1942 , Battel , in consort with his superior , ordered the bridge over the River San , the only access into the Jewish ghetto , to be blocked . As the SS commando attempted to cross to the other side , the sergeant - major in charge of the bridge threatened to open fire unless they withdrew . All this happened in broad daylight , to the amazement of the local inhabitants . Still later that same afternoon , an army detachment under the command of Oberleutnant Battel broke into the cordoned - off area of the ghetto and used army trucks to evacuate up to 100 Jews and their families to the barracks of the local military command . These Jews were placed under the protection of the Wehrmacht and were thus sheltered from deportation to the Belzec extermination camp . The remaining ghetto inmates , including the head of the Judenrat , Dr . Duldig , underwent “ resettlement ” in the following days . After this incident , the SS authorities began a secret investigation into the conduct of the army officer who had dared defy them under such embarrassing circumstances . It turned out that Battel , though himself a member of the Nazi Party since May 1933 , had already attracted notice in the past by his friendly behaviour toward the Jews . Before the war , he had been indicted before a party tribunal for having extended a loan to a Jewish colleague . Later , in the course of his service in Przemyśl , he was officially reprimanded for cordially shaking the hand of the chairman of the Jewish Council , Duldig . The entire affair reached the attention of the highest level of the Nazi hierarchy . No less a figure than Heinrich Himmler , the Reichsführer - SS , took an interest in the results of the investigation and sent a copy of the incriminating documentation to Martin Bormann , chief of the Party Chancellery and Adolf Hitler ' s right - hand man . In the accompanying letter , Himmler vowed to have the lawyer expelled from the Nazi party and arrested immediately after the war . All this remained unknown to Battel . In 1944 , he was discharged from military service because of heart disease . He returned to his hometown Breslau , only to be drafted into the Volkssturm and fall into Soviet captivity . After his release , he settled in West Germany but was prevented from returning to practice law by a denazification court . Battel died in 1952 . Recognition . Battel ’ s stand against the SS came to be recognised only a long time after his death ; most notably , through the tenacious efforts of the Israeli researcher and lawyer Dr . Zeev Goshen . On January 22 , 1981 , almost 30 years after his death , Yad Vashem recognised Albert Battel as Righteous among the Nations .