Deeply committed to his identity as a German and a Jew, Baeck became one of the most important leaders  of German Jewry in its struggle to survive under Nazism.  He refused several opportunities to flee to safety in other lands, saying, "I will go when I am the last Jew alive in Germany."

Remaining in Berlin, he assisted others, especially the youth, in getting out.  With dignity and courage, he represented the Jewish community in its negotiations with the Nazis.  Although his international reputation made the Gestapo hesitate to destroy him, he, too, was finally incarcerated.

Ignoring his own predicament, while in Theresienstadt, he dedicated himself to helping his people in their misery.  He lectured to them secretly on Plato, Aristotle, Spinoza, and Kant.  Without telling them what was happening at Auschwitz, he comforted them, preparing them to face death with composure.  Never did he permit himself to despair.

When the last Jew had been cared for at Theresienstadt, Baeck went to live in London.  Though physically scarred by the ordeal he had survived, he retained the resilient spirit that had characterized his life.  Until his death in 1956, he lectured in England and at the Hebrew Union College in the United States.  He continued to share his knowledge and wisdom, his deep moral commitment to those aspects of Judaism and philosophy that had sustained so many through the twentieth century's most horrifying years.