the Raoul Wallenberg of Iran

This is a story we don't hear very often. An Iranian man, Abdol-Hossein Sardari, saved probably about 2000 Jews from the holocaust.Sardari was a member of the royal Qajar dynasty in Iran and a devoted diplomat. In 1941 he issued falsh passports to Iranian Jews living in France.

He even made up a clever plan to fool the Nazis, making them believe that the Iranian Jews were part of an Aryan sect, "Djuguten".

"Sardari never sought recognition for his work during his lifetime, insisting he had only been doing his duty. He died a lonely death in a bedsit in Croydon, south London, in 1981, after losing his ambassador's pension and Tehran properties in the Iranian revolution.

He was posthumously recognised for his humanitarian work in 2004 at a ceremony at the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Los Angeles."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16190541