Actress's Relative Saved Thousands From Nazis

The grandfather of actress Helena Bonham Carter will be honored this week when he is named as one of the Righteous Among The Nations by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust remembrance organization in Israel.

Bonham Carter, who is filming the new Harry Potter film in Surrey, last night paid tribute to her mother's father, Eduardo Propper de Callejón, who helped to save thousands of refugees from Nazi persecution. 'He was such a modest man and he was never acknowledged for what he did,' she said. 'I don't think I fully appreciated it myself until now.'

Sixty-eight years ago, Propper de Callejón held the wartime post of Spanish First Secretary in Bordeaux. For three perilous days in June 1940, he enabled a succession of refugees to flee to safety across the border into Spain.