In a five-hour interview with USC Shoah Foundation, Justus Rosenberg refers to himself as “small fry,” “a cog,” an unimportant person. And perhaps it was for this reason that for decades, the Bard College literature professor hadn’t let on—to his colleagues, to his students, and even, for a time, to his own wife—that he had fought and outwitted the Nazis during World War II to save thousands from persecution.

Justus Rosenberg worked with Varian Fry to rescue more than 1,000 artists and intellectuals as part of the Emergency Rescue Committee. In this clip, Rosenberg expresses frustration at having to turn away many others. Read more about Justus Rosenberg