Waitstill Hastings Sharp (1 May 1902 – 25 February 1983) was an American Unitarian minister who was involved in humanitarian and relief work in Czechoslovakia and southern Europe in 1939 and 1940, just before and during World War II.

Sharp graduated from Boston University with an undergraduate degree in Economics and English in 1924,[3][1] from Harvard Law School with an LL.B.

A social worker involved with local internationalist and peace groups, Martha remained his ministry partner throughout his outreach and rescue work in Europe during the Second World War.

[4] The accession to power of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party in Germany in 1933 led to the flight of refugees, mostly Social Democrats, communists and Jews, to Czechoslovakia.

[10][11] In November 1938 the American Unitarian Association (AUA) sent its Director of Social Relations Robert Dexter to Czechoslovakia on a fact-finding mission.

[14][15] Initially the Sharps attempted to cooperate with the Czech government on rescue and relief projects for refugees, but the uncontested German invasion of Czechoslovakia on 15 March 1939 ended that effort.

He dispensed funds to other organizations to feed refugees and also spent money to accumulate food, anticipating shortages in the near future.

In mid-September 1940, the two of them organized the escape of several prominent intellectuals and their wives: Heinrich and Golo Mann, Franz Werfel, and Lion Feuchtwanger.

[25] Hearkening back to his Czechoslovakian experience, Waitstill, during his time in France, had taken up the plight of about 1,000 Czech soldiers and their families stranded and interned at Agde, a French seaport.

His plan to get all of them out on a merchant ship failed because of tightening immigration controls by the Vichy government, but about 400 of the soldiers later escaped by boat to Spain.

[26] Waitstill returned to Boston, disillusioned about the state of the world and apparently wishing to become only a Unitarian clergyman again, although he was a popular speaker and accepted jobs to work in Europe and Cairo after his resignation from his parish in 1944.

Like many of the people engaged in similar activities in the lead-up and during World War II, Waitstill Sharp never talked much about his experiences in Europe.

His grandson, Artemis Joukowsky III, of Sherborn, Massachusetts, began collecting information about his grandparents in 1976 and persuaded Ken Burns to make a documentary film about them.

[36] On 9 September 2005, Martha and Waitstill Sharp were named by Yad Vashem as Righteous among the Nations, the second and third Americans to receive this honor (the first being Varian Fry).