I bought this a few days ago at a used book sale, mostly based on Gilbert's reputation as a historian. It was generally a good book, but I didn't enjoy it as much as Andre Stein's Quiet Heroes or Hidden Children or Eva Fogelman's Conscience and Courage.
It was a good survey of the many stories of rescuers during the Holocaust, but I think that Gilbert tried to cram too many stories into too short a space. As a result, the stories were not given the detail that they deserve, and the reader moves along at an almost frantic pace. This is a shame, since I think that had he focused on just a few of the stories the impact of the book would have been much greater. In addition, Gilbert chose to categorize his stories by region, and as a result lacked a more comprehensive narrative like the one found in Fogelman's Conscience and Courage, where she looked not only at the stories of rescue but also the motivations of the rescuers.
One thing that I did appreciate was Gilbert's emphasis of how rare rescuers really were (especially in Eastern Europe). At the start of each section he lists the number of people from that country or region are recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations, which helps to drive home how few people were willing to rescue Jews (and conversely how many were willing to aid the Nazis either out of hatred or a desire to obtain reward money).
The Righteous was a good read, but if you are looking for a book on rescuers during the Holocaust I would recommend either of Stein's books or Fogelman's book before this one.
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