German army sergeant who was executed for assisting Jews during the Holocaust. Born in Vienna in 1900, Anton Schmid enlisted in the German army in 1938. Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union, he was assigned to the Vilnius ghetto in Lithuania in the autumn of 1941. In Vilnius, Schmid met many Jewish workers who were assigned to perform various tasks in and around his office. Shocked when he witnessed the execution of Jews a few miles from Vilnius in Ponary, Schmid resolved from that point to assist the Jews in any way possible.

Schmid hid Jews in three houses of which he had charge. He also did everything in his power to free people from the Lakishki jail. In addition, Schmid was involved with the Jewish underground, transporting members of the Resistance in his truck and supplying them with identity papers.

In January 1942, Schmid was arrested for assisting the Jews. On 25 February, he was brought before a military tribunal for his actions. Found guilty, Schmid was shot by a firing squad on 13 April 1942. Schmid is credited with saving the lives of more than 250 people. On 16 May 1967, the Israeli government posthumously awarded Schmid the "Righteous among the Nations" medal.

Craig S. Hamilton

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Further Reading
Arendt, Hannah. Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. New York: Viking, 1963.; Gilbert, Martin. The Righteous: The Unsung Heroes of the Holocaust. New York: Henry Holt, 2003.; Gushee, David P. Righteous Gentiles of the Holocaust: Genocide and Moral Obligation. 2d ed. St. Paul, MN: Paragon House, 2003.; Gutman, Israel. "Schmid, Anton." Encyclopedia of the Holocaust. Vol. 4, p. 287. New York: Macmillan, 1990.; Rittner, Carol, and Sondra Myers, eds. The Courage to Care: Rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust. New York: New York University Press, 1986.