A new documentary codirected by Ken Burns creates one of the memorable stories of courage coming out of the tragedy of the Holocaust. We will speak with the codirector of "Defying the Nazis: The Sharps' War," . You are listening to KPBS Midday Edition. I'm Alison St. John enjoy listening to KPBS Midday Edition. They were asked to leave their home, their families and their children to risk their lives in [ NULL ] occupied Europe. The story of this amazing couple Martha Sharp is told in a new documentary codirected by Ken Burns. When they answered the call of their church they created one of the memorable stories of courage to come out of the tragedy of the Holocaust. Maureen Cavanaugh spoke with the grandson of the sharps Artemis Czajkowski. 17 people had already turned down the attended -- the church's request. Why did the sharps say ask? That is the question that started me on this journey. I think in their heart of hearts they had a deep sense of anger and frustration with the lack of response of the US government to stop the evil ambitions of Hitler and his third Reich. They felt that they had to do something to help people who were in danger. This started because the Unitarians had a sister church in Prague. That church leader said, don't send us money send us Americans. We need Americans to help us, they are the only people that the Nazis are afraid of. What is an expert from the film with the tran seven -- Sharp's . At 11 AM we stood in the town square and saw Hitler standing in the window of the palace. He began to speak, he sounded wilder than the broadcasts we've heard on the radio. He was nearly ecstatic, I thought. He looks just as he does in those pictures. We realized that we were living in the frontlines against [ NULL ] is him . Weight still looked at me and whispered, coverage. They were right there in the thick of things, with that? Absolutely. Right on the frontlines of saving lives, they were trained for this, they had to learn on the job. Part of the passion they brought was that they were helping individual people they could connect to. Largely Jewish, many social Democrats would been imprisoned or killed by the Nazis. What we know now is remarkable. The Holocaust is one of those great calamities of world history. They were there, trying to prevent it on the frontlines helping others. You bring up a point, did they receive any training at all and how to do things like avoid detection or keep their move secret? Minimal. They did, on their way to Europe stop in London and meet with Quakers and Unitarians who it already been in Prague. They did get a one-day training on code writing, how to secretly communicate with people. Remember, this is before cell phones or any communication, they literally were on the run helping people escape. They were physically moving, you have to imagine Prague in 1939, it was full of [ NULL ] spies and by the time they got there the Nazis have invaded . Then they have to make it check choice -- choice. They made the choice to stay. That becomes a defining moment of the story, the courage to stay and go into the underground, work with the social Democrats, with the Jews, the Quakers to try to get as many people out. The sharps came back to the US from Czechoslovakia. They are then asked to go back, the Unitarian church asked them to go to France. This time, they pushed back on that request. Yes. They knew how bad it was. They knew that as a mother and father, they were leaving their children to do this work. The first trip was overwhelming. I think they suffered from posttraumatic stress, in terms of all the people that they lost an that were killed. Going back was too scary for them, because of their kids. The Unitarians are desperate and they have these very important Jews and liberals and what they called culture traders, people of ethics and culture and writers, these people were in danger. The Unitarians commanded that my grandparents go back in June 1940, just after Hitler has invaded France. Now, there is a Vichy, France and they are working there, largely and Marcel -- Marseilles. They are your grandparents, when did you first hear this story? I was a ninth grader in New York. I was given an assignment by an amazing teacher, at the Allen Stevenson school. The assignment was to interview someone of moral courage. I came home and I said mom, who should I interview? She said talk to your grandmother, she did some cool things during World War II. Little did I know, this woman was right on the frontlines of fighting fascism. She was really someone who as a result of that interview, changed my life. One of the cute side stories, it was the only A I ever gotten high school, this was a big moment in my life. It changed me and it changed me fundamentally. What she taught me, loving others and things, they did extraordinary things. I was deeply touched by their own story as I was learning it, I never knew it as a child. While I was going through my own divorce. I felt it was important and as did Ken Burns to show this part of their story, so we think of heroes not just as comic book heroes, but people who struggle and other parts of their lives. How many people did your grandparents help save? We now know, and verifications with the Holocaust Museum in DC and 40 other scholars, they directly rescued 130 people. This is by physically taking them from Prague or from southern France to freedom. We know that their numbers were much higher, we are finding people all the time. There's a lovely family that just found me about six months ago. Mister Levy said he wanted to meet me because he heard the stories of my grandfather helping his. I just want to thank you, he said. That's it's a beautiful about the story, the enormous number of people that the sharps helped who are now coming in saying we are part of that story too. Part of the thing is that every time they rescued someone they would burn the records. There is no record of the people that they saved. The documents I found that started the project, where the people they were still trying to help at the end of the war. I don't think my grandmother ever knew whether any of those people were helped. I've been speaking with Artemis Joukowsky , codirector of the documentary "Defying the Nazis: The Sharps' War,". "Defying the Nazis: The Sharps' War," airs tonight on KPBS television at 9:00 .
Unitarian minister Waitstill Sharp and his wife Martha didn't want to leave their young children or their Massachusetts home on the eve of World War II. But they couldn't turn down a request from church leadership to help rescue Jews, dissident journalists and intellectuals from the Nazis.
A Unitarian church in Prague, in then Czechoslovakia, called out for help from its American counterparts, asking for American citizens to help secret people out of the city to London and New York. The Sharps, untrained in spycraft, were soon in the midst of Germany's invasion of Prague and saw Adolf Hitler speaking from Prague Castle.
“We realized we were living on the front lines against Nazism,” Martha Sharp wrote.
The Sharps' story is the focus of a new Ken Burns documentary, "Defying the Nazis: The Sharps' War," airing Tuesday at 9 p.m. on KPBS-TV. Artemis Joukowsky, a grandson of the Sharps, co-directed the film.
Joukowsky said he was able to verify the Sharps directly rescued 130 people from Prague and Vichy France, but he said that the number is likely much higher. They secured visas, evaded the Gastapo and helped refugees cross the mountainous border between France and Spain on foot.
"Every time they rescued someone they burned the records, so there’s no record of all the people they saved," Joukowsky said. "The documents I found that started this whole project were really the people they were trying to help at the end of the war. And I really don’t think my grandmother ever knew if any of those people were ever helped."
Joukowsky joins KPBS Midday Edition on Tuesday to discuss how he first learned of his grandparents' mission and how it impacted their marriage.
