# Nobody Knows Yet: reading and image notes This is an incomplete selection of people whose stories show care, courage, discovery or creative work. It is shaped by the sources we have found and the limits of this project. Being included is not an endorsement of everything a person did. Being left out says nothing about someone’s worth or contribution. The collection keeps familiar names, less familiar names, artworks, documents, craftspeople, scientists, and the anonymous present together. The pauses and changes in scale are reading rhythm, not a classification of the people. Dates can be approximate. The short descriptions simplify lives and claims. [Corrections are welcome](mailto:hello@worthbuilding.org?subject=Nobody%20Knows%20Yet%20correction), including corrections to a name, a date, a quotation, a photograph or a credit. ## Opening portraits and factual corrections ### Siddhartha Gautama The palace, marriage and departure story is presented as a traditional account, not as an independently established contemporary biography. Buddhist accounts differ, including on the timing of Rahula's birth. - Donald S. Lopez Jr., [Buddha: sources of the life](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Buddha-founder-of-Buddhism#ref230766). - [Birth and early life](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Buddha-founder-of-Buddhism/Previous-lives#ref230768), including the wife and infant son in the familiar departure account. - Kathryn Selig Brown, [Life of the Buddha](https://www.metmuseum.org/essays/life-of-the-buddha), The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The existing English wording of Dhammapada verse 1 is marked as a paraphrase. For a credited translation, see [Acharya Buddharakkhita's translation](https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/dhp/dhp.01.budd.html). It is not quoted here as that translator's exact wording. ### Albert Einstein - [Nobel biographical account](https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1921/einstein/biographical/) for the patent-office period, scientific work, and marriages. - [Marriages, relationships and children](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein#Marriages,_relationships_and_children), with references to the published correspondence and biographical scholarship, for the 1914 separation and his sons' return to Switzerland. - American Institute of Physics, [The Nuclear Age](https://history.aip.org/exhibits/einstein/nuclear1.htm), for the 1939 letter and Einstein's changed position under the threat of Hitler. “Lifelong pacifist” was not adopted: it would conceal a consequential change in his position. The personal line uses the separation and living arrangements rather than a general verdict on his character. Signing the letter is not presented as participation in the Manhattan Project. ### Ludwig van Beethoven - Beethoven-Haus Bonn, [Beethoven](https://www.beethoven.de/en/beethoven), on his hearing loss and life. - Beethoven-Haus Bonn, [Chronology: Beethoven in Vienna](https://www.beethoven.de/en/g/zeittafel-beethoven-in-wien), for the 1802 testament, 1824 Ninth Symphony, and custody dispute following his brother's death in 1815. The personal complication is stated as the custody dispute over Karl. The page does not diagnose Beethoven or reduce his relationships to a character label. The testament passage is an English rendering of an excerpt from the document. ### Fibonacci - J. J. O'Connor and E. F. Robertson, [Leonardo Pisano Fibonacci](https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Fibonacci/), MacTutor, University of St Andrews. “Brought Hindu–Arabic numerals to Europe” was changed to “helped popularise,” naming Liber abaci and his education in North Africa. The shorter original line assigned too much of a longer transmission to one person. ## Rescue, care and Jewish lives Added 21 introductions on 14 September 2026. These include people who rescued Jews, Jewish people whose work protected or improved other people's lives, and Jewish figures in philosophy, community life and Holocaust testimony. This is a selection of well-documented contributions, not a ranking of lives. The biographies credit colleagues and organisations where the work was shared. The sources below support the new sketches and dates: - **Maimonides (c. 1135–1204)**: [National Library of Israel · biography](https://www.nli.org.il/en/discover/judaism/figures/maimonides). - **Moses Montefiore (1784–1885)**: [Jewish Museum London · biography](https://jewishmuseum.org.uk/collections/bevis-marks-synagogue/some-remarkable-people/). - **Henrietta Szold (1860–1945)**: [Maryland State Archives · biography](https://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc3500/sc3520/013500/013568/html/13568bio.html); [Supporting record 1](https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/life-rescuer-eva-michaelis-stern-dark-times). - **Waldemar Haffkine (1860–1930)**: [National Library of Israel · biography](https://www.nli.org.il/en/education/teaching-resources/primary-sources/nnl_edu997013134939305171); [Supporting record 1](https://digital.sciencehistory.org/works/nagxmsq). - **Lillian Wald (1867–1940)**: [Henry Street Settlement · biography](https://www.henrystreet.org/about/our-history/lillian-wald/). - **Aristides de Sousa Mendes (1885–1954)**: [Yad Vashem · biography](https://wwv.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/microsoft%20word%20-%206032.pdf). - **Gisi Fleischmann (1892–1944)**: [JDC Archives · biography](https://archives.jdc.org/exhibits/in-memoriam/gisi-fleischmann/). - **Recha Freier (1892–1984)**: [Youth Aliyah · history](https://kiju-aliyah.de/historie/); [Supporting record 1](https://www.gedenkstaette-stille-helden.de/en/silent-heroes/biographies/biographie/detail-545); [Supporting record 2](https://wwv.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/ready2print/pdf/jews-rescue-panels.pdf). - **Carl Lutz (1895–1975)**: [Swiss foreign ministry · biography](https://www.aboutswitzerland.eda.admin.ch/en/carl-lutz-the-swiss-man-who-saved-tens-of-thousands-of-jews); [Supporting record 1](https://www.eda.admin.ch/content/countries/hungary/de/home/bilaterale-beziehungen/carl-lutz.html). - **Ludwig Guttmann (1899–1980)**: [International Paralympic Committee · biography](https://www.paralympic.org/news/stoke-mandeville-70-celebrating-sir-ludwig-guttmann); [Supporting record 1](https://wellcomecollection.org/works/gqhkfsft); [Supporting record 2](https://paralympichistory.org.au/article/ludwig-guttmann-father-of-the-paralympic-movement/). - **Ho Feng-Shan (1901–1997)**: [Yad Vashem · rescue record](https://collections.yadvashem.org/en/righteous/4044460). - **Albert Sabin (1906–1993)**: [Sabin Vaccine Institute · biography](https://www.sabin.org/about/our-history/dr-albert-b-sabin/); [Supporting record 1](https://libapps.libraries.uc.edu/liblog/2015/11/the-jewish-hospital-cincinnati-jews-in-medicine/). - **Tuvia Bielski (1906–1987)**: [USHMM · the Bielski partisans](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-bielski-partisans); [Supporting record 1](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/tuvia-bielski). - **Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972)**: [Stanford King Institute · biography](https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/heschel-abraham-joshua). - **Varian Fry (1907–1967)**: [USHMM · biography](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/varian-fry). - **Oskar Schindler (1908–1974)**: [USHMM · biography](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/oskar-schindler). - **Nicholas Winton (1909–2015)**: [USHMM · the children’s rescue](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/nicholas-winton-and-the-rescue-of-children-from-czechoslovakia-1938-1939); [Supporting record 1](https://hmd.org.uk/resource/sir-nicholas-winton/). - **Ruth Gruber (1911–2016)**: [International Center of Photography · biography](https://www.icp.org/exhibitions/ruth-gruber-photojournalist); [Supporting record 1](https://www.safehavenmuseum.com/story); [Supporting record 2](https://www.ushmm.org/antisemitism/podcast/voices-on-antisemitism/ruth-gruber). - **Gertrude B. Elion (1918–1999)**: [Nobel Prize · biography](https://www.nobelprize.org/stories/women-who-changed-science/gertrude-elion); [Supporting record 1](https://www.nasonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/elion-gertrude.pdf); [Supporting record 2](https://www.invent.org/inductees/gertrude-belle-elion). - **Adolfo Kaminsky (1925–2023)**: [National WWII Museum · biography](https://www.nationalww2museum.org/about-us/notes-museum/adolfo-kaminsky). - **Elie Wiesel (1928–2016)**: [USHMM · biography](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/elie-wiesel); [Supporting record 1](https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1986/wiesel/facts/); [Supporting record 2](https://eliewieselfoundation.org/about-night/). Maimonides' birth year is approximate; records differ between 1135 and 1138. Haffkine's dates follow the Science History Institute and National Library of Israel. Fleischmann's dates follow the JDC Archives. Ho Feng-Shan's dates follow the biographical fields of Yad Vashem's record, whose narrative contains a conflicting death year. Freier founded Youth Aliyah; Szold directed its work in Palestine. The prewar rescue figure describes the organisation's work. Gruber's 982 refugees included non-Jewish people. Kaminsky's reported rescue totals differ, so the sketch says thousands. The Schindler sketch acknowledges his initial use of forced labour and the roles of Emilie Schindler and the prisoners. Two existing sketches were corrected in the same review: - **Irena Sendler**: the often-cited total of about 2,500 children belongs to a wider rescue network. Her sketch now describes her part in organising help. [USHMM memorial](https://main.ushmm.org/information/press/in-memoriam/irena-sendler-1910-2008). - **Janusz Korczak**: the offers of escape came from friends. The sketch no longer leaves the impression that the Nazis offered him a formal reprieve. [USHMM biography](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/janusz-korczak-1). ## Image records and credits The page now uses **400 distinct images**. All 21 introductions added on 14 September 2026 have a photograph or historical illustration. Maimonides is represented by a later illustration, not a portrait made during his lifetime. A further source review supplied the four initially missing portraits: - **Aristides de Sousa Mendes**: the 1940 portrait matches the named image in the [family photo bank](https://web.archive.org/web/20250513070135/http://sousamendes.org/prog/banque-photos.php). Credit: Comité Sousa Mendes, Famille de Sousa Mendes. The site's [general terms](https://web.archive.org/web/20250814084358/http://sousamendes.org/prog/infos-legales.php) allow educational noncommercial reproduction. The displayed credit links these reuse terms rather than asserting public-domain status. - **Ho Feng-Shan**: the [Commons record](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%E4%BD%95%E9%B3%B3%E5%B1%B1.jpg) identifies a 1937 printed source and gives a publication-based public-domain rationale. This is a different portrait from the initially considered file. - **Tuvia Bielski**: the [Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation](https://www.jewishpartisans.org/partisans/tuvia-bielski) credits “Novogrodek, The History of a Jewish Shtel, www.novogrudek.com” for this photograph. JPEF's [reuse terms](https://www.jewishpartisans.org/elearning/faq) allow unchanged reuse with credit to JPEF and the archival source. The original image file is served without cropping, retouching or re-encoding. - **Adolfo Kaminsky**: the portrait appears on page 113 of [Zapruder, no. 39 (2016)](https://storieinmovimento.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Zap-39_12-Voci.pdf#page=2). [Storie in Movimento](https://storieinmovimento.org/2016/03/07/trentanovesimo-numero/) states that its website content uses [CC BY-NC-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/). This image is reproduced under that published licence. The photograph has no separate rights notice in the article; its photographer is not identified. Credit names the publication, not the interviewers. The embedded JPEG is served unchanged. Photograph upload or digitisation dates are not treated as portrait dates. The Fry and Sabin image credits say the creator is not recorded: the source fields contain subject details or an uploader instead of a photographer. The Lutz credit retains Fortepan and its named donors in a shorter form. The review record is kept at `lab/nky-source-review.json`, with retrieval time, source URLs, creator metadata, licence names and links, and available restrictions. It includes 398 Commons records and two separately dated external image records. The metadata pass is evidence of what the source records state. It is not an independent legal clearance, an assertion of model releases, or evidence that the people pictured endorse this project. Visible credits now discard hidden Wikimedia interface text, decode entities correctly, and say “Creator not recorded” where the source supplies no creator. Unknown creators are not guessed. Source records and applicable licence links are available with each credit. “No restrictions” source labels are displayed as “No known restrictions.” Image licences vary and apply to the individual images. They do not license the whole website. Follow the terms linked from the relevant source record when reusing an image. The supplied dates and locations are the selected source context, not claims about an individual's life beyond the photograph. ## The anonymous present The documentary photographs remain part of the collection. Their people are not assigned invented identities, quotations, or promised future achievements. The selection appears in a spatial sequence rather than thematic bins. “Show photograph notes” reveals the available context, creator credit and source links; the full credits also remain available at the end of the page.