Chronology of Rescue by Charles "Carl" Lutz, Switzerland
Carl Lutz (1895-1975) was the first neutral diplomat in Budapest to rescue Jews. He is credited with inventing the Schutzbrief (protective letter) for Jewish refugees in Budapest. After March 19, 1944, the Germans occupied Hungary and the new government of Döme Sztojay closed the Hungarian borders to Jewish emigration. In tough negotiations with the Nazis and the Hungarian government, Lutz obtained permission to issue protective letters to 8,000 Hungarian Jews for emigration to Palestine. Using a ruse and interpreting the 8,000 “units” not as persons but as families, he and his staff issued tens of thousands of additional “protective letters." He established 76 Swiss safe houses throughout Budapest and, with the help of his wife Gertrud, liberated Jews from deportation centers and death marches. In 1942-43, in cooperation with the Jewish Agency for Palestine, Lutz had helped 10,000 Jewish children and young people to emigrate to Palestine. Lutz worked with hundreds of Jewish volunteers who helped him process the protective letters and distribute them throughout Budapest. Lutz was told that as long as he stayed in Budapest, his protectees would survive. He is credited by Jewish relief agencies with saving 62,000 Jews from the Nazi Holocaust. Carl Lutz was made Righteous Among the Nations by Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Authority in 1965. In addition, he has been declared an honorary citizen of the State of Israel. Carl Lutz died in 1975 at the age of 80.
March 30, 1895
Carl Lutz is born in Walzenhausen, Canton Appenzell, Switzerland.
1910-1913
Carl Lutz apprentices and receives commercial training with a textile company in St. Margrethen, Switzerland.
1913
Carl Lutz emigrates to the United States.
1913-1918
Carl Lutz works in Granite City, Illinois, USA.
1918-1920
Lutz studies at Central Wesleyan College, Warrenton, Missouri, USA.
June – September 1920
Obtains summer job as correspondent at Swiss Legation in Washington, DC.
1920-1926
Lutz is named Chancellor at Swiss Legation, Washington, DC.
He enrolls at George Washington University (law and history).
1924
Lutz is awarded Bachelor of Arts, Washington University, Washington, DC.
1926-1933
Serves as Chancellor, Swiss Consulate, Philadelphia.
1933-1934
Lutz is Chancellor, Swiss Consulate, St. Louis.
1935
Carl Lutz marries Gertrud Fankhauser.
1935-1941
Lutz is named Vice-Consul at Swiss General Consulate, Jaffa; he is also responsible for the German interests and the Swiss Consulate, Tel Aviv.
September 1939
Lutz intervenes on behalf of 2,500 German nationals in Palestine who were being deported as enemy aliens by the British.
September 1, 1939
Germany invades Poland. World War II begins. This is the first major Blitzkrieg (lightening war) of World War II. It is devastatingly effective. 48 German divisions with 1,400 aircraft invade on three fronts. Poland’s soldiers are outnumbered three to one by Germany’s 1.5 million men. Poland collapses in three weeks. 2,212,000 Polish Jews come under Hitler’s control.
Aktion [operation] Tannenberg is started. Einsatzgruppen [special troops] are sent to murder Jews, Polish soldiers, political leaders and intellectuals in Poland. According to some records, nearly 500,000 Polish Jews and other civilians are killed.
A euthanasia program to kill physically and mentally handicapped people in Germany begins. It is called Operation T-4. Hitler authorizes doctors to kill mentally and physically disabled persons.
September 3, 1939
In response to the German invasion of Poland, France, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand officially declare war on Germany. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain forms a wartime cabinet with Winston Churchill as the First Lord of the Admiralty.
September 17, 1939
Soviet Army invades and occupies Poland’s eastern section. The army enters virtually unopposed. In accordance with the Molotov-Ribbentrop agreement, the Soviet Union invades Poland from the east. By October 1939, the Second Polish Republic is split in half between two totalitarian powers. Germany occupies 48.4 percent of western and central Poland.
September 21, 1939
Chiefs of Einsatzgruppen, in cooperation with German civil and military leaders, are ordered to establish Jewish ghettos in Nazi-occupied Poland. The aim of the ghettos is to segregate Jews from Polish society. The plan is to murder Jews slowly by starvation and disease, to kill them by shooting them on the spot, and eventually to deport them.
May 10, 1940
Germany invades the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. 136 German divisions participate in the invasion. Germans enforce anti-Jewish measures in each area. In the wake of the German invasions, more than 8 million persons are displaced all over Europe. In Belgium, there are between 85,000 and 90,000 Jews, among whom 30,000 are refugees. In Holland, there are 140,000 Jews. 110,000 are native Dutch Jews, and 30,000 are refugees from Germany and Austria. In Luxembourg, the Jewish population is 3,500, many of whom are German and Austrian refugees.
May 12, 1940
Germany invades France.
May 20, 1940
Concentration camp established at Auschwitz, Poland. It will become the largest and deadliest death camp in the Nazi system. More than 1.2 million including 438,000 Hungarian Jews, and tens of thousands of others, will be systematically murdered there.
June 14, 1940
First deportation to Auschwitz death camp arrives.
June 18, 1940
A police regulation for immigrants is instituted in Switzerland. It regulates the entry of military and civilian refugees.
July 10, 1940
Hitler orders the implementation of the invasion of England, called Operation Sea Lion. He orders the Luftwaffe to attack British air bases, convoys and ports. Battle of Britain begins.
September 27, 1940
Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis alliance is signed.
1941-1942
Carl Lutz serves as executive in Berne, Law Section of Federal Political Department.
February 5, 1941
Reinhardt Heydrich states in memorandum that he sees the “later total solution to the Jewish problem” is to “send them off to whatever country will be chosen later on.”
February 14, 1941
Heydrich tells German foreign ministry representative in France Martin Luther, “After the conclusion of the peace, they [Jews] will be the first transported to leave fortress Europe in the total evacuation of the continent we plan.” Luther then tells his diplomatic representatives that forced Jewish emigration from German territories must take priority.
March 26, 1941
The German general staff gives the approval for the activities of the Einsatzgruppen (murder squads) in the Soviet Union. The Wehrmacht will participate directly in the murder of civilians.
March 30, 1941
Hitler informs German military leaders that the upcoming war against the Soviet Union will be a war of “extermination.”
June 22, 1941
Breaking the non-aggression pact of 1939, Hitler orders the German army to invade the Soviet Union. The plan is called “Operation Barbarossa.” Germany is now fighting a two-front war. The Wehrmacht, with 150 divisions and more than three million men, invade and occupy much of the western Soviet Union.
At the onset of Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union, the main architect of the Holocaust, Reinhard Heydrich, issues his operational guidelines for the mass anti-Jewish actions to be carried out with the participation of local gentiles. Massacres of Polish Jews by the Ukrainian and Lithuanian auxiliary police battalions follow. Deadly pogroms are committed in over 30 locations across formerly Soviet-occupied parts of Poland.
June 27, 1941
Hungary enters the war against the Allies.
July 31, 1941
Hermann Göring appoints Reinhardt Heydrich to implement the “final solution of the Jewish question.”
September 6, 1941
The Nazis forbid emigration of Jews between 18 and 45 years old. The RVE in Germany helps Jews escape to Spain and Portugal.
September 17, 1941
The beginning of the general deportation of German Jews to the death camps in Poland.
September 19, 1941
In Germany, Jews are forced to wear the yellow star.
October 25, 1941
The first part of the German army’s offensive against Moscow fails.
November 1941
The early onset of the Russian winter greatly slows the German army’s advance in the Soviet Union.
December 1941
Germany Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories declares, “As a matter of principle, no consideration should be given to economic interest…” This statement declares that killing Jews takes precedence over all other considerations, including use of Jewish labor for the war effort.
December 1-5, 1941
The German army reaches the outer suburbs of Moscow.
December 5, 1941
The Soviets launch a major counteroffensive against the German army’s attack on Moscow.
December 7, 1941
Japanese Imperial Navy attacks US forces at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
Night and Fog Decree: Hitler orders the suppression of anti-Nazi resistance in Nazi-occupied Europe. This order is carried out by the German army in Eastern Europe. Tens of thousands are murdered under this order.
December 8, 1941
The United States, Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand declare war on Japan.
Gassing of Jews begins at Chelmno extermination camp in Poland. Jews are herded into trucks and vans, where they are asphyxiated. 320,000 Jews are eventually murdered in Chelmno.
By the end of December 1941, the Nazis have murdered more than one million Jews.
December 16, 1941
The German army forces of Army Group Center, who are attacking Moscow, begin to retreat as a result of Soviet Marshall Zhukov’s counterattack.
1942
A major conference planning the murder of millions of Jews is held on January 20, 1942, in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee. Heads of major German departments gather to plan the largest organized murder in history.
2.7 million Jews will be murdered this year. The Aktion Reinhardt death camps are established in Poland. They are Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka. These camps are established with the specific purpose of murdering Jews. They are named after SS security chief Reinhardt Heydrich, who was assassinated earlier in Czechoslovakia. 1.7 million Jews are killed in these camps from March 1942 through November 1943. Most of the Jews killed are from the area of the General Government of Poland.
Numerous reports reach the Allies regarding the murder of millions of Jews in Eastern Europe.
January 1, 1942
The United Nations is founded in Washington, DC. 26 nations sign an agreement to defeat Hitler and his allies.
January 1942
Eight European governments in exile meet in London and refuse to condemn the Nazi murder of Jews in Europe. The Allies refuse to acknowledge that Jews were being targeted for murder as Jews and not just as Europeans.
January 2, 1942
Consul Lutz arrives in Budapest, Hungary.
January 20, 1942
Wannsee Conference in Berlin: Heydrich outlines plan to murder Europe’s Jews.
January 1942 to April 1945
Lutz is Vice-Consul in Budapest, chief of the Department of Foreign Interests of the Swiss Legation. Also represents the interests of the United States, Britain and several other countries that had severed relations with Hungary because of its alliance with Germany.
Carl Lutz initiates the practice of issuing Schutzbriefe (protective letters) on the basis of Palestine Certificates, in cooperation with the Budapest office of the Jewish Council for Palestine. This document is designed to protect Jewish children waiting for immigration to Palestine. Carl Lutz helped 10,000 Jewish children and young people immigrate to Palestine.
February 15, 1942
First transport of Jews murdered at Auschwitz using prussic acid (Zyklon B) poison gas.
March 1, 1942
Construction of the Sobibor death camp in Poland begins. It begins its murderous activities in May 1942.
March 12-April 20, 1942
30,000 Jews are deported to and murdered in the Belzec death camp.
April-September 1942
Switzerland admits 2,380 Jewish refugees.
July 1, 1942
The Polish government in exile issues a report to the Allied nations detailing the murder of 700,000 Jews since the German invasion and occupation in September 1939. This report reveals the use of mobile gas vans at Chelmno. Ninety Jews are murdered at a time in each of these vans by carbon monoxide. More than a thousand people are murdered a day.
July 22, 1942
Construction begins on the Treblinka death camp near Warsaw. It begins its murderous operation in August 1942. More than 870,000 Jews are murdered there. Most are from the Warsaw ghetto.
July 22-September 12, 1942
265,000 Jews from Warsaw are murdered in Treblinka.
August 1, 1942
Gerhardt Riegner, representative of the World Jewish Congress stationed in Geneva, Switzerland, learns from a top German industrialist, Eduard Schulte, that Nazi Germany is planning to murder Jews using poisonous prussic acid gas (Zyklon B).
August 13, 1942
Swiss Alien Police Commissioner Rothmund instructs border police to admit political refugees only. Ironically, he states, “Refugees for racial reasons only, for instance Jews, do not count as political refugees.”
September 1942
Germany’s allies in France, including Hungary, Romania, and Italy, refuse to cooperate with deportations.
3,800 Jewish refugees enter Switzerland.
Swiss newspapers censor stories about the murder of Jews in Europe. They call these “foreign rumor propaganda of the worst type.”
September 26, 1942
Swiss immigration regulation states the principle that Jews should be allowed refuge in Switzerland. It ironically concludes that this does not include the sick, pregnant women, people over 65, close relatives of refugees already in Switzerland, refugees under 16, and parents of these children. It further states that French Jews should be refused immigration because the are not in danger.
September 30, 1942
In a speech at the Sports Palace in Berlin, Hitler acknowledges plans to murder Jews. Hitler says, “if Jewry should plot another world war in order to exterminate the Aryan peoples of Europe, it should not be the Aryan peoples which would be exterminated, but Jewry…”
October 1942
1,904 Jewish refugees are allowed to enter Switzerland.
November 8, 1942
The Allied armies land in Algeria and Morocco, in North Africa. The invasion is called Operation Torch. The landing guarantees the safety of 117,000 Algerian Jews.
December 17, 1942
The United States, Great Britain, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Yugoslavia, and the French government in exile make a joint declaration of condemnation against the murder of European Jews. They declare their intention to prosecute Nazi war criminals after the war. This declaration makes headlines around the world. Thousands of letters are sent to the US State Department and the British Foreign Ministry at Whitehall regarding this declaration. Swiss officials continue to state that reports of atrocities are unverified Allied propaganda. These reports are, in fact, verified by the liberal press in Switzerland.
December 1942
8,467 Jewish refugees are admitted to Switzerland.
1943
Hundreds of thousands of Jews are murdered in the gas chambers of Treblinka, near Warsaw. 250,000 Jews are murdered in Sobibor’s gas chambers. On November 3, 1943, 42,000 Jews are rounded up and shot in the Lublin district of Poland. The code name for this operation is Erntefest, which means harvest festival. In 1943, it is estimated that 500,000 Jews are murdered in Nazi-occupied Europe.
Protestant churches in Switzerland pressure the Swiss government to alleviate the restriction on Jewish refugees entering Switzerland. More than 16,379 refugees are allowed to enter the country. The churches provide material aid to Jewish refugees.
The World Council of Churches, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, becomes the center for rescue and relief efforts on behalf of Jews. Further, it disseminates information about the Holocaust throughout the world.
January 1943
A group of German generals near Stalingrad, Russia, plans to overthrow Hitler. The plot is never implemented.
61,000 Jews are murdered at Auschwitz, Treblinka and Belzec death camps.
The Relief and Rescue Committee of Budapest (Va’ada) begins functioning in Budapest as part of the Jewish Agency.
February 2, 1943
The German Sixth Army surrenders to the Soviet Army at Stalingrad, Russia. This event is considered the major turning point in World War II. Total German casualties in the Sixth Army are 160,000 dead and 107,000 captured.
April 17, 1943
Hitler summons Hungarian Regent Admiral Horthy to Salzburg, Austria, to urge him to allow the Jews of Hungary to be ‘resettled.’ Horthy refuses: “The Jews cannot be exterminated or beaten to death.”
April 19-May 16, 1943
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising; Jews in the Warsaw ghetto resist German deportations to the Treblinka death camp. This uprising lasts nearly a month and is the most successful Jewish revolt in Nazi-occupied Europe. The news of the revolt spreads throughout Europe and inspires other ghettoes to resist.
Summer 1943
Swiss Minister (ambassador) René de Weck saves more than 2,000 Jewish orphans in Moldavia from deportation. He also manages to protect Hungarian Jews in Romania.
August 1943
Between August and December 1943, 10,708 refugees are allowed to enter Switzerland.
November 1, 1943
Moscow Declaration is signed by Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin, notifying German leaders that they will be held responsible for crimes against humanity for the murder of Jews and others, and will be subject to extradition to the countries where the crimes were committed. The declaration does not mention Jews.
December 3, 1943
Under pressure, Swiss authorities agree to accept all Jewish refugees entering the country.
1944
President Roosevelt establishes the War Refugee Board (WRB). It is created in response to revelations that the United States government has covered up its knowledge of the murder of Jews in Europe and has actively prevented efforts that might have rescued them. From its inception, the new board will seek international help in an attempt to protect Hungarian Jews. The Hungarian Jewish community is one of the last intact Jewish communities in Europe. Overtures are made to neutral countries and the Vatican.
In 1944, more than 600,000 European Jews are murdered.
February 1944
Jean Marie Musy, Former President of the Swiss Council, arranges with SS officials for the rescue and transportation of 1,200 Jews in Theresienstadt concentration camp to safety in Switzerland.
February 14, 1944
Josef Winniger, an officer in the German intelligence, tells Jewish leaders in Budapest of a plan for German occupation of Hungary.
March 15, 1944
Soviet Army begins liberation of Transnistria.
March 19, 1944
The Germans occupy Hungary. Hundreds of desperate Budapest Jews besiege the American legation, where Carl Lutz has his headquarters. Jewish Council of Palestine office seized by pro-Nazi Hungarian officials. Hungarian borders are closed against immigration.
Consul Lutz has 8,000 persons register for immigration to Palestine. Lutz is not immediately aware of deportation plans. After receiving secret information about planned deportations, Lutz decides to appeal for help from other neutral legations, including the Vatican, Sweden, Spain, and Portugal, for an intervention with Hungarian officials. Angelo Rotta becomes spokesman on behalf of the neutral legations.
March 1944
Lutz continues issuing Schutzbriefe (letters of protection). The bearer was protected by the Swiss Embassy while waiting to emigrate to Palestine.
March 20, 1944
Eichmann orders the establishment of Judenrat (Jewish councils) representing Hungarian Jews. This is a preliminary step to ghettoization and deportation to Auschwitz-Birkenau.
March 24, 1944
President Roosevelt sends a stern warning to Hungarian officials against harming the Jews.
April 5, 1944
Jews of Hungary forced to wear the star; Jewish businesses and bank accounts confiscated; Jews placed in ghettoes.
Joel Brand and Rudolph Kasztner, of the Rescue and Relief Committee in Budapest, meet with SS with a plan to ransom Jews from deportation. This plan ultimately fails.
April 7, 1944
Two Jewish prisoners, Alfred Wetzler and Rudolf Vrba, escape Auschwitz and reach Slovakia with detailed information about the mass murder of Jews in the camp. Their report, called the Auschwitz Protocols, (supplemented by information brought by two more escapees) reaches the free world in June. These reports will be disseminated worldwide by George Mandel Montello.
April 28, 1944
Deportations of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp begin. Deportations are mostly from the Hungarian countryside. More than 438,000 Hungarian Jews from the countryside are deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where most of them are murdered on arrival. It takes 148 trains to carry them there. Deportations end on July 9.
Carl Lutz places the staff of the Jewish Council from Palestine under his diplomatic protection and renames it “Department of Emigration of the Swiss Legation.” Later moved to a building called the “Glass House.”
May 1944
Lutz continues to issue tens of thousands of Schutzbriefe (protective letters), indicating applicants for immigration under formal Swiss protection. Lutz receives support by the newly appointed Swiss representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Friedrich Born. He also begins to issue thousands of Swiss Red Cross documents to protect Jewish refugees.
George Mandel Mantello issues thousands of El Salvador visas to Jewish refugees in Budapest through Consul Lutz’s office. He is later arrested by Swiss police for violating Swiss neutrality.
May 2, 1944
First Jews deported from rural Hungary arrive in Auschwitz.
May 15, 1944
Dean of the diplomatic corps in Budapest and Papal Nuncio Angelo Rotta condemns the deportation of Jews.
Carl Lutz places the staff of the Jewish Council from Palestine under his diplomatic protection, and renames it “Department of Emigration of the Swiss Legation.” Lutz starts to issue tens of thousands of Schutzbriefe (protective letters), indicating applicants for immigration under formal Swiss protection.
May 17, 1944
Assembly of Reform Churches in Hungary protest the treatment and deportations of Hungarian Jews.
May 27, 1944
Two additional Jewish prisoners escape from Auschwitz. They are Czeslan Mordowicz and Arnost Rosin. They report on the murder in the death camp to members of the Working Group in Slovakia.
June 6, 1944
D-Day: Operation Overlord is launched. Allied invasion at Normandy, in northwestern France, opens second front. Seven Allied divisions attack in the largest amphibious operation in history. The invasion involves more than 4,000 ships and 1,000 transport planes.
June 7, 1944
The first part of the deportation and murder of Hungarian Jews is complete. 290,000 Jews have been killed in 23 days.
June 24, 1944
Jews in Budapest ordered to wear the yellow Star of David.
June 25, 1944
Pope Pius XII sends telegram to Hungarian Regent Horthy to stop persecution of “a large segment of the Hungarian people because of their race.” The Pope does not specifically mention Jews.
June 25-28, 1944
Negotiations with SS officials result in 21,000 Jews from southern and southeastern Hungary, including the areas of Baja Debrecen and Szeged, being transferred to Strasshoff, Austria, where they survive the war.
June 27, 1944
US government issues warning to Hungarian government and people regarding treatment of Hungarian Jews.
June 29, 1944
US War Department refuses request to bomb Auschwitz. The request is denied on the grounds that it would ostensibly divert resources needed in order to win the war. It is later discovered that US Air Force bombing raids routinely flew over the Auschwitz death camp.
July 4, 1944
The Soviet Army reaches the 1939 Polish-USSR border.
July 7, 1944
Hungarian Regent Miklós Horthy reassumes power and ceding to international pressure, temporarily halts deportation of Jews to Auschwitz-Birkenau Death Camp. Almost all Hungarian Jews from the countryside have already been murdered. There are 300,000 Jews left in Hungary, 170,000 in and around Budapest. They are concentrated into two ghettoes. Lutz and other neutral diplomats place Jews under their diplomatic protection in over 100 safe houses. Nazi and Arrow Cross gangs continue to raid and murder in these areas.
July 9, 1944
Swedish volunteer envoy Raoul Wallenberg arrives in Budapest. He is employed by the War Refugee Board (WRB) of the US Treasury Department. His mission is to save as many Jews as possible. Consul Lutz gives Wallenberg invaluable instructions on how to issue protective letters, which he often calls safe conduct passes, to save Jews in Budapest. Lutz’s activities also serve as a model for the Spanish, Portuguese, and Vatican embassies.
July 12, 1944
Don Angel Sans Briz, Minister (Ambassador) of Spain stationed in Budapest, issues 500 visas to Budapest Jews providing them protection from deportation and death marches. Also rents buildings that become protected by the Spanish legation.
July 18, 1944
Horthy announces deportation of Jews will be halted in Hungary.
July 24, 1944
Carl Lutz establishes the “Glass House” at Vadász Street in Budapest.
August 1944
Based on a tentative understanding with the Hungarian authorities, Consul Lutz attempts to obtain a safe haven in Switzerland for at first 40,000 and later even for 200,000 Hungarian Jews. The Swiss Foreign Minister, Marcel Pilet-Golaz, accepts. The agreement is torpedoed twofold: a) Veesenmayer refuses to give German transit permits and Eichmann hints that he would murder the Jews en route, and b) the British refuse absolutely to have these people transferred from Switzerland to Palestine after the war.
Consul Lutz persuades authorities to let Jews protected by Switzerland be placed in 76 geschützte Häuser (protective houses) in the Szent-Istvan area of Budapest. There are over 30,000 persons carrying Lutz’s Schutzbriefe in these buildings. Later, 32 more Safe houses are added at the request of Raoul Wallenberg. Consul Lutz, with meager funds from the consulate, helps feed the inhabitants of this ghetto.
Lutz works with 500 Jewish Chalutzim (pioneers) who provide him with rapid communication with the entire community of Budapest and the Hungarian underground. This organization alerts Lutz to the transfer of Jews, deportations, death marches and actions by the Nazis and Arrow Cross. One hundred Chalutzim die in the fulfillment of their duty.
August 14, 1944
Operation Anvil. Allied forces land on the south coast of France. They quickly advance 20 miles on the first day.
August 17, 1944
US forces break out of the German defenses in western Normandy.
August 21, 1944
The diplomatic legations in Budapest of Switzerland, Sweden, Portugal, Spain, the Vatican and the Red Cross protest the resumption of deportations of Jews to Auschwitz. The diplomats from these legations were active in saving Jews from deportation to Auschwitz and the death marches. They all issued protective papers, documents, and other forms of identification. They housed, fed and provided medical care for more than 100,000 Jews in Budapest. Swiss diplomats include Dr. Harald Feller, Maximillian Jaeger, Charles Lutz (and Gertrud Lutz), Peter Zürcher, Ernst Vonrufs, Franz Bischof, Ladislaus Kluger. Swiss Red Cross: Jean de Bavier, Friedrich Born, Dr. Robert Schirmer, Hans Weyermann, Dr. Gyorgy Gergely.
August 23, 1944
Horthy informs Eichmann that he will not cooperate with the deportation of Hungarian Jews.
August 24-25, 1944
Paris is liberated by Allied forces. The French forces, led by de Gaulle, lead the victory procession.
August 25, 1944
Himmler orders the halt of deportations of Jews from Budapest.
September 12, 1944
Soviet Army begins offensive on Budapest, Hungary.
October 1944
Lutz persuades pro-Nazi Arrow Cross to validate his letters of protection.
October 6, 1944
Soviet Army enters Hungary and Czechoslovakia.
October 6-7, 1944
Jewish Sonderkommando [those working in the gas chambers and crematoria] managed to smuggle in gunpowder and blow up one of the gas chambers at Birkenau.
October 14, 1944
German armored division enters and occupies Budapest. Hungarian Prime Minister Lakatos is removed. Ferenc Szálazi, head of the Hungarian fascist Arrow Cross party, is appointed Prime Minister.
War Refugee Board hears rumors of Jews being concentrated outside of Budapest for deportation. The WRB warns the Arrow Cross, “None who participate in these acts of savagery shall go unpunished…All who share the guilt shall share the punishment.”
October 15, 1944
Hungarian Arrow Cross under Ferenc Szalasi take power and oust Horthy with the help of the German army. The Arrow Cross, supported by German, Croatian and Bosnian SS troops, murder tens of thousands of Jews in Budapest.
Four thousand Jews seek protection within the American legation, shielded by Consul Lutz.
Because of Lutz’s activities, the Szent-Istvan area escapes attack during this period.
Hungarian officials compel Lutz, Wallenberg and Born to transfer several thousand of their protected Jews to a fenced in ghetto in Pest. 70,000 people fill this ghetto, who suffer from starvation and cold.
Lutz continues to protect his Safe houses from the Arrow Cross bands. Lutz and wife, Gertrud, obtain releases of Jews from the concentration camp at Obuda. Lutz continues to rescue Jews from German and Arrow Cross death marches.
German minister Veesenmayer requests permission from Berlin to murder Consul Lutz. (Berlin never answers.) Consul Lutz evades Arrow Cross, who seem to be out to kill him.
October 20, 1944
SS troops under Eichmann round up 27,000 Jews in Hungary who were marched to the Austrian border, bound for deportation. Raoul Wallenberg and other neutral diplomats in Budapest follow behind these death marches and manage to rescue thousands of people. Occasionally, an entire death march column is rescued and returned to Budapest. The SS and Arrow Cross are greatly chagrined. Szálasi lodges a protest with the neutral legations for “sabotaging the Hungarian-German war effort.”
October 23, 1944
Adolf Eichmann leaves Budapest along with his SS troops.
October 27, 1944
Hungarian Regent Horthy resigns.
October 31, 1944
Himmler orders the murder of Jews at Auschwitz-Birkenau to cease. The SS begin dismantling the camp.
November 1944
Consul Lutz and his diplomatic staff and Jewish aids rescues hundreds of Budapest Jews from infamous German death marches.
Acting under the protective umbrella of the Swiss legation, the Chalutzim youth continue to distribute thousands of forged protective letters to Jews in the death marches, saving them.
Occasionally, an entire death march column is rescued and returned to Budapest. The SS and Arrow Cross are greatly chagrined. Szálasi lodges a protest with the Swiss for “sabotaging the Hungarian-German war effort.” Minister Veesenmayer asks Berlin to kill the Consul.
Raids are conducted in the Swiss-protected buildings, looking for persons in possession of forged protective letters. Some are forced to go to Óbuda brickyards and on the death marches. Consul Lutz and his wife, Gertrud, frequently intervene and save people.
November 4, 1944
Jewish, Nazi, and other allied leaders meet in Switzerland in a proposed rescue effort of Hungarian Jews.
November 8, 1944
Beginning of a new round of death marches of approximately 40,000 Jews from Budapest to Austria.
Raids are conducted in the Swiss-and Swedish protected buildings, looking for Jews in possession of forged protective letters. Some are forced to go to Óbuda brickyards and on the death marches. Swedish consul Raoul Wallenberg, Swiss consul Lutz and his wife, Gertrud, frequently intervene and save Jews.
Himmler orders the end of the death marches in mid-November. Eichmann is summoned to Berlin and is confronted by Himmler, who orders him to stop all murder actions. Himmler orders all killing in the extermination camps to cease.
German Consul Gerhard Feine, Director of the Jewish Department of the German Plenipotentiary of Budapest, secretly informs Swiss Consul Lutz of Veesenmayer’s and Eichmann’s plans to deport and murder the Jews of Budapest.
November 10, 1944
Refusing to recognize the Hungarian fascist Arrow Cross regime, the Swiss government recalls head of legation Maximilian Jaeger from Budapest. As Lutz’s supervisor, Jaeger has been active until then in protesting the deportation of Jews to Auschwitz.
November 13, 1944
In Budapest, a ghetto is set up for Jews without protection of neutral nations.
November 23-27, 1944
Swiss diplomats Leopold Breszlauer and Ladislaus Kluger issue 300 protective papers to Hungarian Jews at the Austro-Hungarian border.
November 26-29, 1944
Pest ghetto, with 63,000 Jews, is established. The ghetto contains 293 houses and apartments, with up to 14 persons per room.
December 1944
All foreign representatives are ordered to leave Budapest. Consul Carl Lutz stays on with the intention of protecting thousands of Jews in the international ghetto. This area is under the protection of various neutral governments. He stays on as “a matter of conscience.” Arrow Cross bands attack and destroy the Swedish Legation. Swedish Minister Carl Ingvar Danielsson barely escapes death.
Dr. Harald Feller assumes post as Swiss Interim Chargé d’Affaires to Budapest, replacing Maximilian Jaeger. Feller works closely in support of Consul Lutz’s rescue activities. He personally hides 32 Jews in his own home.
Under pressure from the Allies and the Red Cross, SS General Kurt Becher allows the Allies and relief agencies to supply medical and food supplies to inmates in concentration camps.
December 25, 1944
Soviet army encircles Budapest. Consul Lutz and refugees are besieged in the residence of the British Legation in Buda. Lutz is cut off from his office at the American legation in Pest. Lutz appoints Swiss lawyer Peter Zürcher to be his temporary representative. Zürcher persuades SS commanders, on threat of war crimes prosecution, to protect the Jews of the Pest ghetto. As a result, most of the 70,000 Jews of the Pest ghetto survive.
Carl Lutz, Peter Zürcher, and Ernst Vonrufs contribute substantially to preserving the lives of the Jews of Budapest, of whom 124,000 survived. This is probably the largest rescue of Jews in the entire Holocaust.
January 5, 1945
Five thousand Jews are taken from Swedish protective houses and moved to the central Pest ghetto.
January 7, 1945
Arrow Cross attacks Swedish protected houses on Jokai Street, Pest ghetto.
January 16, 1945
Soviets liberate and occupy Budapest.
January 17, 1945
Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp is closed and evacuated; 66,000 prisoners are taken away on a series of death marches.
Wallenberg was last seen in the company of Soviet soldiers; he said: “I do not know whether I am a guest of the Soviets or their prisoner;” he has not been seen as a free man since.
January 18, 1945
Soviet Army liberates and occupies Pest.
January 27, 1945
Soviet troops enter and liberate Auschwitz concentration camp. Seven thousand remaining prisoners are free.
January through March 1945
Lutz and his wife, along with Jewish refugees, hide in the air shelter of the abandoned British Legation on the right bank of the Danube. Pest is occupied by Soviet troops on January 17 and 18.
February 13, 1945
The German troops in Budapest surrender to Marshall Malinovsky of the Soviet Army.
February 1945
Soviets arrest Swiss Minister Dr. Harald Feller and send him to Moscow, where he is imprisoned for more than a year in the Lubianca prison.
March 17, 1945
New Hungarian provisional government rescinds anti-Jewish laws.
April 25, 1945
US and Soviet troops link up at Torgau, Germany, on the Elbe River.
The United Nations meeting in San Francisco, California, drafts charter of the United Nations.
April 30, 1945
Hitler commits suicide in his bunker in Berlin.
May 2, 1945
Berlin falls to the Soviet Army. The German troops defending Berlin surrender.
May 8, 1945
Victory in Europe Day (V-E Day): German General Alfred Jodl surrenders at Eisenhower’s headquarters, the end of the Third Reich.
The German army in northeast Germany surrenders to Field Marshal Montgomery.
55 million people are dead. Nearly half are civilians.
More than six million Jews and five million others have been murdered. Two thirds of the Jewish population of Europe is murdered. 90% of the Jewish Polish population has been murdered. However, in more than half of the countries in Europe, 50% or more of the population of Jews survives. These include the countries of Denmark, Bulgaria, Italy, France, Germany, and Austria.
July 17-August 2, 1945
A conference is convened in Potsdam, Germany, between Stalin, Churchill (Attlee), and President Truman.
August 14, 1945
Japanese Emperor Hirohito accepts Allied surrender terms. He tells his people to accept the terms and not to resist the occupation.
August 15, 1945
V-J Day: Victory over Japan proclaimed.
October 24, 1945
The United Nations comes into formal existence after its charter is ratified in New York City.
November 22, 1945 – August 31, 1946
Nazi war leaders are put on trial in Nuremberg, Germany, for crimes against humanity. They are tried by the International Military Tribunal (IMT). The IMT rules that obedience to superiors’ orders is insufficient defense for crimes against humanity.
1945-1950
It is estimated that 250,000-350,000 Jews are liberated from the concentration camps. 1.6 million come out of hiding. The first wave of Jewish survivors of the Holocaust emigrate to Palestine (142,000), the United States (72,000), Canada (16,000), Belgium (8,000), and other places (10,000), including Central and South America and Australia. A very few stay in Europe.
1945-1954
Lutz is stationed in Berne and Zurich, Section for Foreign Interests of the Federal Political Department.
1946
Carl and Gertrude Lutz divorce.
1951
Special Mission for the Lutheran World Federation in Israel in connection with German former missions.
April 12, 1951
The Israeli parliament establishes an annual commemorative memorial day to honor victims of the Holocaust.
1949
Lutz marries Magda Csànyi, and adopts her daughter Agnes Hirschi in Budapest, Hungary.
1952-1961
Lutz is named Consul General in Bregenz, Austria.
1953
Establishment of a Holocaust Museum in Israel. It is called Yad Vashem [Hebrew for place and name], the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority.
The state of Israel passes a law to honor those who rescued Jews during the Holocaust; a commission was established to recognize Righteous Among the Nations, non-Jews who saved Jews during the war.
1957
Street named after Carl Lutz in Haifa, Israel.
November 6, 1957
A memorial to “Christian Heroes who helped their Jewish Brethren escape the Nazi terror” is dedicated in New York City by the Anti-Defamation League and B’nai B’rith.
October 1958
Swiss Minister in Budapest Maximilian Jaeger dies in Switzerland at the age of 74.
April 1960
Former SS officer responsible for the deportation of Jews to death camps, Adolf Eichmann, is captured by Israeli agents in Buenos Aires, Argentine.
May 1960
Adolf Eichmann trial opens in Jerusalem, Israel.
1961-1975
Consul Lutz retires in Berne, Switzerland.
December 15, 1961
Adolf Eichmann is convicted by an Israeli court and sentenced to death.
1962
Israel’s Holocaust museum inaugurates the Avenue and Forest of the Righteous. Carob trees are planted in honor of individuals who saved Jews during the Shoah.
August 1963
Carl Lutz is made an honorary citizen of Walzenhausen, Switzerland.
1963
Israel honors first of the Righteous Among the Nations. Every person honored for saving Jews receives a tree planted in his or her name and is awarded a certificate and medal.
1964
Yad Vashem honors Carl Lutz as a Righteous Among the Nations.
April 1974
Israel’s Holocaust museum holds a major conference entitled Rescue Attempts During the Holocaust. The conference papers are published in 1977.
February 13, 1975
Carl Lutz dies in Berne at age 80.
June 1987
Swiss Red Cross rescuer who worked with Carl Lutz in Budapest Friedrich Born receives the Righteous Among the Nations award.
1990
The Soviet Union collapses.
East and West Germany are reunited.
July 1991
Monument to Carl Lutz is dedicated in the former ghetto of Budapest.
1992
Samuel and Pearl Oliner publish The Altruistic Personality. This book outlines the psychological and social characteristics of Holocaust rescuers.
1993
The Vatican recognizes the State of Israel. It exchanges ambassadors with Israel.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center opens its Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, California. A major component of this museum is on the Holocaust.
Steven Spielberg’s film Schindler’s List is released. This popular motion picture tells the story of a German rescuer during the Holocaust. This film increases public awareness of rescue during the Holocaust.
April 1993
George Mandel Mantello dies in Rome at the age of 90.
1995
A street in Bern, Switzerland, is named after Swiss Consul Carl Lutz.
International Committee for the Red Cross in Geneva apologizes for its passivity and inaction in helping Jews during World War II.
In conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II, the President of Switzerland, Kaspar Villiger, officially apologizes to the Jewish people for its disastrous refugee policy.
1998
Visas for Life project produces traveling exhibit on Charles Lutz; premieres in Los Angeles, California. The exhibit tours throughout Switzerland, Australia, Canada, etc.
Exhibit honoring Charles Lutz and other diplomats opens in Bern, Switzerland. In attendance is the President of Switzerland.
Agnes Hirschi, daughter of Carl Lutz, begins work on autobiography.
May 1999
Visas for Life: The Righteous Diplomats exhibit opens in Budapest, Hungary, at the National Library. Attended by the President of Hungary and the diplomatic corps. Carl Lutz is honored in the exhibit.
1999
Swiss postal service issues a commemorative postage stamp in honor of Carl Lutz.
Agnes Hirschi, daughter of Carl Lutz, who lives in Bern, Switzerland, becomes European Exhibit coordinator of Visas for Life.
April 2000
Carl Lutz is honored at a Visas for Life: The Righteous and Honorable Diplomats exhibition at the United Nations headquarters in New York. Nana Annan, niece of Raoul Wallenberg and wife of Kofi Annan, is a speaker.
November 2000
Documentary film on diplomatic rescue, Diplomats for the Damned, premieres at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Theater. Film is distributed along with student guide to schools and airs on the History Channel. The film honors Carl Lutz.
2000
Book on Carl Lutz, Dangerous Diplomacy: The Story of Carl Lutz, Rescuer of 62,000 Hungarian Jews, by Dr. Theo Tschuy, is published. Book receives literary prize.
Swiss government issues postage stamp honoring Carl Lutz.
October 2001
Carl Lutz is honored at a Visas for Life: The Righteous and Honorable Diplomats exhibition at the Jewish Holocaust museum in Paris. Agnes Hirschi attends opening ceremony.
February 2002
Consul Carl Lutz becomes honorary citizen of the State of Israel.
November 2002
Becsület és batorsag: Carl Lutz és a budapesti zsidok (Honour and Courage: Carl Lutz and the Budapest Jews), by Dr. Theo Tschuy, is published in Hungary.
October 2002
Carl Lutz is honored at the US State Department. Agnes Hirschi presents Carl Lutz medal to US Secretary of State Colin Powell and Members of Congress.
December 2003
Carl Lutz is honored at a Visas for Life exhibition in Miami, Florida, at the Holocaust Center.
February 2004
Carl Lutz is honored at the annual meeting of the American Jewish Committee in Jerusalem, Israel. Carl Lutz medals are presented to VIPs.
July 26, 2004
Visas for Life: The Righteous and Honorable Diplomats exhibition opens at the Hungarian Foreign Ministry building in Budapest. This is for a gathering of Hungarian diplomats in honor of the 60th anniversary of diplomatic rescue in Budapest. Agnes Hirschi, Visas for Life European Exhibit Coordinator, organizes this program.
Marck 30,2008
Carl Lutz is honored in a Visas for Life exhibit at the Ellis Island Museum of Immigration, New York City. His daughter, Agnes Hirschi, is a featured speaker.
March 2014
Carl Lutz is awarded a medal for his actions in saving Jews in Budapest by George Washington University.
October 2017
The book Under Swiss Protection: Jewish Eyewitness Accounts from Wartime Budapest is published. It is written by Carl Lutz’s daughter, Agnes Hirschi, with Charlotte Schallié.
2019
Svajci Védelem Alatt (the book Under Swiss Protection in Hungarian) by Agnes Hirschi and Charlotte Schallié is published.
Updated September 26, 2021