Diplomatic Rescue by Country - Part 2
Part 1 - Argentina through Ireland
Part 2 - Italy through Romania - See Below
Part 3 - Slovakia through United States
Part 4 - Vatican through Yugoslavia
Italy
Giuseppe Bastianini, Italy, Governor of Dalmatia, 1941-43, and Undersecretary, Italian Foreign Ministry, 1943-45
In the spring of 1941, Giuseppe Bastianini was appointed Italian Governor of Dalmatia. He was directly involved in protecting Jewish refugees in the Italian zone of occupation from deportation and murder. As Undersecretary of the Italian Foreign Ministry (appointed February 1943), Bastiannini submitted an important memorandum for the signature of Mussolini to protect Jews in the Italian zones of occupation. He convinced Mussolini that the Italian Army and diplomatic corps must not collaborate in the killing of Jews. On two separate occasions, he told Mussolini that if he signed an order for deportation of Jews, the responsibility for their deaths would be his. Mussolini agreed not to cooperate with German deportation orders on both of these occasions. Further, Bastiannini encouraged diplomats under his supervision to protect Jews.
[Bastianini, Giuseppe. Uomini, cose, fatti: Memorie di un ambasciator. (Milan, 1959). Carpi, Daniel. Between Mussolini and Hitler: The Jews and the Italian Authorities in France and Tunisia. (Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press, 1994), p. 109, 113, 117, 129-135, 150-151, 175, 269n.12, 284-285n.23, 289nn.65, 67, 292n.92. Carpi, Daniel. "The Rescue of Jews in the Italian Zone of Occupied Croatia." In Rescue Attempts During the Holocaust. Proceedings of the Second Yad Vashem International Historical Conference, edited by Y. Gutman & E. Zuroff. (Jerusalem, 1977), pp. 470-477, 494. Verax [Roberto Ducci]. “Italiani ed ebrei in Jugoslavia,” Politica Estera, I. (Rome, 1944), pp. 21-29. Caracciolo, 1986, pp. 96-98. Carpi, 1990, p. 730. Herzer, 1989, pp. 214, 238-239, 241. Michaelis, 1978, pp. 44, 301, 308, 331. Poliakov & Sabille, 1955, pp. 34, 70-72 [document 8]. Steinberg, 1990, pp. 3, 92-93, 116, 124-128, 134-135. Zuccotti, 1987, pp. 121-123, 128-130. Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), p. 730. Rochlitz, Joseph. “Excerpts from the Salonika Diary of Lucillo Merci (February-August 1943).” Yad Vashem Studies, 18 (1987), pp. 293-323.]
Count Blasco Lanza d'Ajeta, Head of the Occupied Territories Department, Chief of Cabinet of Italian Foreign Ministry
Count Blasco Lanza d'Ajeta, Head of the Occupied Territories Department and Chief of Cabinet of the Italian Foreign Ministry, composed a memorandum that underscored the obvious consequences of agreeing to the German demands of deporting thousands of Jews in the Italian occupied zone of Croatia. In this memorandum, he recommended to the Italian Foreign Ministry that they reject the German demand. D'Ajeta drafted a memorandum to Mussolini to influence him against authorizing the Italian cooperation in the deportation and murder of Jews in Croatia. On two separate occasions, Mussolini was dissuaded from participating in the genocide of Jews.
[Carpi, Daniel. "The Rescue of Jews in the Italian Zone of Occupied Croatia." In Rescue Attempts During the Holocaust. Proceedings of the Second Yad Vashem International Historical Conference, edited by Y. Gutman & E. Zuroff. (Jerusalem, 1977), pp. 473, 476, 486-487, 491. Reitlinger, Gerald. The Final Solution: The Attempt to Exterminate the Jews of Europe, 1939-1945. (New York: The Beechhurst Press, 1953), pp. 322-323, 368. Verax [Roberto Ducci]. “Italiani ed ebrei in Jugoslavia,” Politica Estera, I. (Rome, 1944), pp. 21-29. Carpi, 1990, p. 730. Carpi, Daniel. Between Mussolini and Hitler: The Jews and the Italian Authorities in France and Tunisia. (Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press, 1994), pp. 36, 41, 64, 86-87, 89, 106, 217, 225, 233, 260nn.48, 51, 241n.37, 284nn.11, 21, 314n.62. Herzer, 1989, pp. 209-210. Michaelis, 1978, pp. 314, 320. Poliakov & Sabille, 1955, pp. 57-59, 143, 174-175. Steinberg, 1990, pp. 1, 56-57, 70, 73, 168. Michaelis, Meir. The Holocaust in Italy: Area of Inquiry IV: The Italian Occupied Territories. In Berenbaum, Michael, and Abraham J. Peck (Eds.). The Holocaust and History: The Known, the Unknown, the Disputed, and the Reexamined, pp. 455-461. (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1998), p. 457. Tittmann, Harold H., Jr., Harold H. Tittman III (Ed.). Inside the Vatican of Pius XII: The Memoir of an American Diplomat During World War II. (New York: Image Books Doubleday, 2004), pp. 70, 145.]
Dino Alfieri, Italian Ambassador in Berlin, 1940-1942
Dino Alfieri was the Italian Ambassador in Berlin in 1940-1942. In 1940, Alfieri sent a proposal to the Italian foreign ministry to protect the rights of Italian Jewish citizens residing in France. The ministry approved Alfieri’s request to protect citizenship and property rights of French Jews. On September 2, 1942, Ambassador Alfieri was successful in his formal request that the German Foreign Office delay the application of anti-Semitic racial laws in North Africa. Further, he persuaded the German high command in Tunisia not to take measures against Jews of Italian nationality without the consent of the Italian Consul General there. Over 5,000 Italian Jews in Tunisia were thus left unharmed.
[Alfieri, Dino. Deux dictateurs face à face: Rome-Berlin, 1939-1943. (Paris, 1948). Carpi, Daniel. Between Mussolini and Hitler: The Jews and the Italian Authorities in France and Tunisia. (Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press, 1994), pp. 25-26, 106-107, 117, 225, 256-257, 284n.13. Carpi, Daniel. "The Rescue of Jews in the Italian Zone of Occupied Croatia." In Rescue Attempts During the Holocaust. Proceedings of the Second Yad Vashem International Historical Conference, edited by Y. Gutman & E. Zuroff. (Jerusalem, 1972), pp. 473-476, 486-487, 491. Michaelis, 1978, p. 316. Michaelis, Meir. Mussolini and the Jews: German-Italian Relations and the Jewish Question in Italy, 1922-1945. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978), pp. 108, 116, 131, 161, 177-178, 185, 229, 279, 289-290, 296, 301-302, 316, 333, 337, 417.]
Gino Buti, Italian Ambassador in Paris, France, 1942
Gino Buti was the Italian Ambassador in Paris, France, in 1942. Ambassador Buti reported to Rome the arrest and deportation of Jews by German and French forces from the occupied zone to the Drancy deportation camp. Many of these Jews were of Italian nationality. Ambassador Buti protested these actions, and later secured the release of some of these Jews. A diplomatic incident was created over the fate of Jews of Italian nationality residing in France. Buti’s actions and reports caused the Italian Foreign Ministry to rule in favor of protecting Jews of Italian nationality and foreign Jews in the occupied zones.
[Carpi, 1990, p. 730. Carpi, Daniel. Between Mussolini and Hitler: The Jews and the Italian Authorities in France and Tunisia. (Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press, 1994), pp. 35-36, 43-46, 73, 76, 148, 219, 225-226, 260n.49, 262n.7. Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), p. 730.]
Alberto Calisse, Italian Consul General in Nice, France, 1942-
Alberto Calisse was an Italian consul in Nice, France. When he learned that foreign Jews in the region of the Alpes Maritimes were to be transferred and deported, Calisse insisted that all foreign Jews, not only Italians, should be exempted from deportation orders or other anti-Semitic Vichy measures. He also argued that Vichy and German regulations regarding Jews should be disregarded in Italian-held territories. For example, he refused to implement the law ordering the stamping of the word "Jew" on identity cards and ration books. He further declared that Italy would apply the same legislation to Jews in the Italian zone as was applied in Italy itself. His inquiries to the Foreign Ministry led to the implementation of these protective policies toward Jews in the Italian zones of occupation. Calisse worked with and was assisted by Roman Jewish banker Angelo Donati.
[Carpi, 1990, p. 730. Carpi, Daniel. Between Mussolini and Hitler: The Jews and the Italian Authorities in France and Tunisia. (Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press, 1994), pp. 88-92, 97-98, 130, 145, 277n.20, 280n.47, 282n.66, 294n.14, 295n.22. Herzer, 1989, pp. 219-220. Poliakov & Sabille, 1955, pp. 23-25, 51-55. Poznanski, 2001, pp. 386-387. Steinberg, 1990, p. 108. Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), p. 730.]
Giuseppe Castrucci, Italian Consul General in Salonica, Greece, 1943
Giuseppe Castrucci replaced Consul General Zamboni at the consulate in Salonica, Greece. Castrucci played a key role in saving 350 Salonica Jews by placing them on an Italian military train that took them out of Salonica into the Italian neutral zone. To save Jews, he gave the broadest possible interpretation to the term “Italian subject.” He issued 550 certificates of Italian nationality to Greek Jews who were clearly not of Italian origin. Castrucci liberally issued these to Jews who were subject to deportation or were already in deportation camps. Castrucci’s certificates enabled many Jews to be released from the transit camps and given over to Italian authority. They were then taken to Athens for their protection. “Consul Castrucci issued certificates of Italian nationality to Jewish women who were married to Greek husbands, and to their children who were described as minors, though they were often over 21 and sometimes over 30…and often certificates of Italian nationality were issued to Jews whose only claim to them was that the Gestapo was looking for them…The Nazis realized what the Consul was doing, but did not contest his signature and affixed their stamp to his certified list” (Poliakov & Sabille, pp. 156-157). The German authorities in Salonika tried to stop Castrucci from issuing these naturalization papers.
[Reitlinger, Gerald. The Final Solution: The Attempt to Exterminate the Jews of Europe, 1939-1945. (New York: The Beechhurst Press, 1953), p. 375. Levin, Nora. The Holocaust: The Destruction of European Jewry, 1933-1945. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1968), p. 522. Carpi, 1990, p. 730. Poliakov & Sabille, 1955, pp. 156-157. Film: Righteous Enemy, 1982. Molho, M., & J. Nehama. The Destruction of Greek Jewry, 1941-1945. (Jerusalem, 1965). In Hebrew. Rochlitz, Joseph. “Excerpts from the Salonika Diary of Lucillo Merci (February-August 1943).” Yad Vashem Studies, 18 (1987), pp. 293, 312, 315, 319-322. Duman, Marion and Judy Krausz (Eds.). Compiled, translated and annotated with an introduction by Irith Dublon-Kenbel. German Foreign Office Documents on the Holocaust in Greece (1837-1944). (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, 2007).]
Doefini, Italian Consulate in Salonika, Greece, 1943
Doefini helped save Jews at the Italian consulate in Salonika, Greece. He worked under Consul Generals Zamboni and Castruccio.
[Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), p. 614. Carpi, Daniel (Ed.). Italian Diplomatic Documents on the History of the Holocaust in Greece (1941-1943). (Tel Aviv: Diaspora Research Institute, 1999). Carpi, Daniel. "Notes on the History of the Jews in Greece during the Holocaust Period: The Attitude of the Italians (1941-1943)." In Festschrift in Honor of Dr. George S. Wise, H. Ben-Shahar et al., Eds., pp. 25-62. (Tel Aviv, 1981). Duman, Marion and Judy Krausz (Eds.). Compiled, translated and annotated with an introduction by Irith Dublon-Kenbel. German Foreign Office Documents on the Holocaust in Greece (1837-1944). (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, 2007).]
Ambassador Roberto Ducci (Verax), Italy, Head of the Croatian Department of the Italian Foreign Ministry
Ambassador Roberto Ducci, Head of the Croatian Department of the Italian Foreign Ministry, vehemently opposed the deportations of Croatian and Italian Jews during the Italian occupation of Croatia. He staunchly worked to prevent the deportations as head of the Croatian Department of the Italian Foreign Ministry. He used the pen name “Verax” for this article. Ducci published an article in the Italian foreign policy journal Politica Estera about the Italian rescue efforts against the German directives to deport Yugoslavian Jews.
[Carpi, Daniel. "The Rescue of Jews in the Italian Zone of Occupied Croatia." In Rescue Attempts During the Holocaust. Proceedings of the Second Yad Vashem International Historical Conference, edited by Y. Gutman & E. Zuroff. (Jerusalem, 1977), pp. 446, 466, 474-476, 483-484. Verax [Roberto Ducci]. “Italiani ed ebrei in Jugoslavia,” Politica Estera, I. (Rome, 1944), pp. 21-29. Caracciolo, 1986, pp. 57-66. Steinberg, 1990, pp. 93, 168.]
Pellegrino Ghigi, Italian Minister Plenipotentiary in Athens, Greece, 1943
Pellegrino Ghigi protected Jews in the Italian zone and rescued as many as possible from the German occupied areas such as Salonica. While Ghigi was Minister Plenipotentiary in Athens, no actions were taken against Jews in the Italian occupied zone by Italian authorities. In protecting Jews, he worked closely with General Carlo Geloso, Commander of the 11th Italian Army. He gave Guelfo Zamboni, the Italian Consul General in Salonica, and his successor Giuseppe Castrucci, his full support in issuing certificates of Italian citizenship.
[Duman, Marion and Judy Krausz (Eds.). Compiled, translated and annotated with an introduction by Irith Dublon-Kenbel. German Foreign Office Documents on the Holocaust in Greece (1837-1944). (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, 2007). Michaelis, 1978, pp. 312-313. Poliakov & Sabille, 1955, p. 159. Steinberg, 1990, p. 97. Molho, M., & J. Nehama. The Destruction of Greek Jewry, 1941-1945. (Jerusalem, 1965). In Hebrew. Rochlitz, Joseph. “Excerpts from the Salonika Diary of Lucillo Merci (February-August 1943).” Yad Vashem Studies, 18 (1987), pp. 293-323. Film: Righteous Enemy, 1982.]
Giacomo Guariglia, Italian Ambassador to Paris and the Vatican, 1942-1944?, Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, 1944-45?
Giacomo Guariglia was the Italian Ambassador to Paris in 1942. His protection of Jews was so open and blatant that the German Foreign Minister Ribbentrop complained personally to Mussolini. In November 1942, Guariglia, then the Italian Ambassador to the Vatican, was asked by the Vatican Secretary of State to intervene with the Italian Foreign Minister to prevent the extradition of Jews. Later, Guariglia was promoted to Minister of Foreign Affairs.
[Leboucher, Fernande. Translated by J. F. Bernard. Incredible Mission. (Garden city, NY: Doubleday, 1969), pp. 105-106. Carpi, Daniel. "The Rescue of Jews in the Italian Zone of Occupied Croatia." In Rescue Attempts During the Holocaust. Proceedings of the Second Yad Vashem International Historical Conference, edited by Y. Gutman & E. Zuroff. (Jerusalem, 1977), pp. 490-491, 499.]
Gastone Guidotti, Secretary at the Italian Legation in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, 1936-1940
Gastone Guidotti was posted as Secretary at the Italian legation in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, between 1936 and 1940. While acting as First Secretary, he issued Italian passports to Jewish refugees. He did this after the Italian foreign ministry had turned down the passport applicants. These acts of disobedience were never discovered by the Italian authorities.
[Oral history interview, Barbarina Guidotti, 2000.]
Giovanni Luciolli, Italian Vice Consul, Paris, 1941-1942
Italian Vice Consul Giovanni Luciolli was stationed in Paris in 1941-1942. He intervened with German authorities to free Italian Jews who had been arrested there. He provided these Jews with papers that were needed to secure their release. He got into direct confrontations with German authorities over the issue of protection of Italian Jewish property in Paris. Luciolli and Orlandini helped to persuade the Italian Foreign Ministry to repatriate Italian Jews in France, despite objections from the Italian Interior Ministry.
[Carpi, 1994, pp. 32, 34-35, 54-61, 64, 259n.40, 263n.20.]
Lieutenant Francesco Malfatti di Montetretto, Consul in Chambéry, France, 1943
On September 3, 1943, Lieutenant Francesco Malfatti di Montetretto was appointed Italian Consul in Chambéry, France. He aided Jews while the Italian Army and diplomatic service was withdrawing from southern France after Italians signed the armistice on September 8, 1944.
[Carpi, Daniel. Between Mussolini and Hitler: The Jews and the Italian Authorities in France and Tunisia. (Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press, 1994), pp. 147-149, 173, 183, 295n.27.]
Vittoriano Manfredi, Italian Vice Consul in Grenoble, France, 1943
Vittoriano Manfredi was the Italian Vice Consul in Grenoble, France, in 1943. He prevented the roundup and deportation of more than 100 Jews. Manfredi did this by informing the local Italian general, who blocked the tracks of the deportation train and negotiated the release of Jews bound for Auschwitz.
[Film: Righteous Enemy, 1982.]
Captain Lucillo Merci, Italian Army, Stationed at Italian Consulate in Salonika, Greece, 1942-43?
Captain Lucillo Merci was the military liaison stationed at the Italian consulate in Salonika, Greece. On numerous occasions, he rescued Jews by moving them across the border from the German to the Italian zone of occupation. Merci would also go into German detention camps armed with Italian citizenship papers provided by consular officials. He would then have Jews released to his custody. He worked closely with other members of the consulate to rescue Jews. Merci’s diary of his experiences in Salonika were published by Yad Vashem in Israel.
[Duman, Marion and Judy Krausz (Eds.). Compiled, translated and annotated with an introduction by Irith Dublon-Kenbel. German Foreign Office Documents on the Holocaust in Greece (1837-1944). (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, 2007). Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), p. 614. Carpi, 1990, p. 614. Poliakov & Sabille, 1955, pp. 156-157. Steinberg, 1990, p. 99. Molho, M., & J. Nehama. The Destruction of Greek Jewry, 1941-1945. (Jerusalem, 1965). In Hebrew. Rochlitz, Joseph. “Excerpts from the Salonika Diary of Lucillo Merci (February-August 1943).” Yad Vashem Studies, 18 (1987), pp. 293-323.]
Mark Mosseri, Italian Consulate in Salonika, Greece, 1943
Mosseri helped save Jews at the Italian consulate in Salonika, Greece. He worked under Consul Generals Zamboni and Castrucci.
[Duman, Marion and Judy Krausz (Eds.). Compiled, translated and annotated with an introduction by Irith Dublon-Kenbel. German Foreign Office Documents on the Holocaust in Greece (1837-1944). (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, 2007). Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), p. 614. Carpi, Daniel (Ed.). Italian Diplomatic Documents on the History of the Holocaust in Greece (1941-1943). (Tel Aviv: Diaspora Research Institute, 1999). Carpi, Daniel. "Notes on the History of the Jews in Greece during the Holocaust Period: The Attitude of the Italians (1941-1943)." In Festschrift in Honor of Dr. George S. Wise, H. Ben-Shahar et al., Eds., pp. 25-62. (Tel Aviv, 1981).]
Emilio Neri, Italian Consul General in Salonika, Greece, 1942-43?
The Italian Consul General in Salonika, Emilio Neri, saved many Jews by transferring them from the German to the Italian zone of occupation in Greece. He put these Jews in contact with Greek railway workers who hid them in transport cars carrying freight to Athens. In the Italian zone, Jews were given falsified identity documents. Neri would put Jewish refugees on military convoys and would often dress them in Italian military uniforms. Neri worked closely with an Italian officer, Captain Lucillo Merci, who would also move Jews across the border between the two zones.
[Duman, Marion and Judy Krausz (Eds.). Compiled, translated and annotated with an introduction by Irith Dublon-Kenbel. German Foreign Office Documents on the Holocaust in Greece (1837-1944). (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, 2007). Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), p. 614. Carpi, 1990, p. 614. Molho, M., & J. Nehama. The Destruction of Greek Jewry, 1941-1945. (Jerusalem, 1965). In Hebrew.]
Gustavo Orlandini, Italian Consul General in Paris, 1940-1942
General Gustavo Orlandini was the Italian Consul General stationed in Paris in 1940-1942. As early as October 1940, Orlandini sought to protect the property rights of French Jews of Italian ancestry in the occupied zone. Without authorization, Orlandini intervened with German authorities to free Italian Jews who had been arrested in Paris. He also obtained the release of Italian Jews who had been arrested and were detained at the Drancy transit camp pending deportation to Auschwitz. Orlandini also issued travel documents that allowed Italian Jews who would have faced almost certain death to leave France. Eventually, many of them repatriated to Italy. Orlandini asked the Italian foreign ministry to rule in favor of helping Italian Jews throughout France. They replied favorably to Orlandini’s recommendations. He also sent numerous reports to the Italian foreign ministry regarding the actions against Jews, especially as it would affect former Italian Jews. Orlandini also protected Jews from having to wear the Star of David.
[Carpi, 1990, p. 730. Carpi, 1994, pp. 21-26, 32-37, 44, 54-62, 64, 256n.7, 261n.56. Poznanski, 2001, pp. 385-386.]
Cesare Pasquinelli, Italian Vice Consul, Paris, 1942
Italian Vice Consul Cesare Pasquinelli was stationed in Paris in 1942. He intervened with German authorities to free Italian Jews who had been arrested there. He got into direct confrontations with German authorities over the issue of protection of Italian Jewish property in Paris. Pasquinelli worked with Consul General Orlandini and Vice Consul Luciolli.
[Carpi, Daniel. Between Mussolini and Hitler: The Jews and the Italian Authorities in France and Tunisia. (Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press, 1994), p. 44, 55-58, 263n.20.]
Giorgio “Jorge” Perlasca,* “Acting Chargé d’Affaires” of the Spanish Legation, Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45
Giorgio Perlasca, an Italian, is credited with saving thousands of Jewish refugees in Budapest. He was granted Spanish citizenship for fighting with Franco in the Spanish Civil War. Perlasca volunteered to work with the Spanish legation’s efforts to rescue Jews in Budapest. In the fall of 1944, under Perlasca’s supervision, the number of Jews under the protection of Spanish safe houses in Budapest grew from 300 to about 3,000. In December 1944, the Spanish Ambassador left Budapest and Perlasca began acting on his own authority. Perlasca soon appointed himself “Spanish Ambassador” and, along with other volunteers, continued to issue thousands of protective passes stamped with the legation’s seal. His bluff worked, and Nazi officials accepted his authority. Perlasca also protected the Spanish safe houses in Budapest from Nazi and Arrow Cross raids. Perlasca is credited with saving thousands of Jews. Perlasca was declared Righteous Among the Nations in 1992.
[Deaglio, Enrico, translated by Gregory Conti. The Banality of Goodness: The Story of Giorgio Perlasca. (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1998). Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 881, 1093. Asaf, Uri. Christian support for Jews during the Holocaust in Hungary. In Braham, Randolph L. (Ed.) Studies on the Holocaust in Hungary, pp. 65-112. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990), p. 94. Lévai, Jenö. Black Book on the Martyrdom of Hungarian Jewry. (Central European Times Publishing, 1948), pp. 357-359, 364-367, 387-388.]
Count Luca Pietromarchi, Italian Foreign Ministry’s Superintendent of the Occupied Territories
Count Luca Pietromarchi was a career diplomat whose family belonged to the Papal nobility. He served as an Italian diplomat responsible for the Cabinet of Armistice and Peace. Pietromarchi also served as the Italian foreign ministry's Superintendent of Occupied Territories. In that post, he was extremely effective in protecting Jews from Nazi deportations. Pietromarchi, along with Count d’Ajeta and Deputy Foreign Minister Bastianini, prepared reports to Italian dictator Mussolini discouraging him from handing over Jews in the Italian occupied territory to Nazi officials or their collaborators.
[Pietromarchi, Luca. “Frammenti delle memorie dell’ambasciatore Luca Pietromarchi. La difesa degli ebrei nel ’43,” Nuova Antologia, fasc 2161 (January-March 1987), pp. 241-247. Verax [Roberto Ducci]. “Italiani ed ebrei in Jugoslavia,” Politica Estera, I. (Rome, 1944), pp. 21-29. Carpi, Daniel. “The Italian Diplomat Luca Pietromarchi and His Activities on Behalf of the Jews in Croatia and Greece,” Yalkut Moreshet, 33 (1982), pp. 145-152 (Hebrew). Carpi, Daniel. "The Rescue of Jews in the Italian Zone of Occupied Croatia." In Rescue Attempts During the Holocaust. Proceedings of the Second Yad Vashem International Historical Conference, edited by Y. Gutman & E. Zuroff. (Jerusalem, 1977), p. 476. Carpi, 1990, p. 730. Carpi, Daniel. Between Mussolini and Hitler: The Jews and the Italian Authorities in France and Tunisia. (Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press, 1994), pp. 52-53, 108, 120, 129, 132, 135, 169, 265nn.35, 42. Herzer, 1989, pp. 209-216. Steinberg, 1990, pp. 56-60, 74-75, 85, 92-93, 168. Zuccotti, 1987, pp. 118. 128. Michaelis, Meir. Mussolini and the Jews: German-Italian Relations and the Jewish Question in Italy, 1922-1945. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978), p. 324. Carpi, Daniel. “The diplomatic negotiations over the transfer of Jewish children from Croatia to Turkey and Palestine in 1943.” Yad Vashem Studies, 12 (1977), 114-117.]
Eugenio Prato, Deputy Assistant to the Minister Plenipotentiary, Athens, Greece, 1941-1943
Consul Eugenio Prato was the Deputy Assistant to Pellegrino Ghigi, Italian Minister Plenipotentiary in Athens. Prato assisted in the transfer of Jews from the German occupied zone to the Italian zone. He assisted Consul General Guelfo Zamboni in the rescue of Jews in Athens.
[Duman, Marion and Judy Krausz (Eds.). Compiled, translated and annotated with an introduction by Irith Dublon-Kenbel. German Foreign Office Documents on the Holocaust in Greece (1837-1944). (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, 2007). Film: Righteous Enemy, 1982.]
Ricardo Rosenberg, Italian Vice Consul in Salonika, 1943
Ricardo Rosenberg helped save Jews at the Italian consulate in Salonika, Greece. He worked under Consul Generals Zamboni and Castrucci.
[Duman, Marion and Judy Krausz (Eds.). Compiled, translated and annotated with an introduction by Irith Dublon-Kenbel. German Foreign Office Documents on the Holocaust in Greece (1837-1944). (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, 2007). Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), p. 614. Rochlitz, Joseph. “Excerpts from the Salonika Diary of Lucillo Merci (February-August 1943).” Yad Vashem Studies, 18 (1987), pp. 302. Molho, M., & J. Nehama. The Destruction of Greek Jewry, 1941-1945. (Jerusalem, 1965). In Hebrew. Carpi, Daniel (Ed.). Italian Diplomatic Documents on the History of the Holocaust in Greece (1941-1943). (Tel Aviv: Diaspora Research Institute, 1999). Carpi, Daniel. "Notes on the History of the Jews in Greece during the Holocaust Period: The Attitude of the Italians (1941-1943)." In Festschrift in Honor of Dr. George S. Wise, H. Ben-Shahar et al., Eds., pp. 25-62. (Tel Aviv, 1981).]
Augusto Rosso, Secretary General of the Foreign Ministry of Italy, 1943
After the fall of the Italian fascist party in July 1943, Marshal Pietro Badoglio established a new party that negotiated the cease fire with the Allies. The newly appointed Secretary General of the Foreign Ministry, Augusto Rosso, sent a cable and policy statement to the military officers in charge of the refugees in Croatia which reinforced the Ministry’s previous position to protect Jews in the occupied territories. The effort to save Jews from the deportation no longer had to be kept a secret.
[Carpi, Daniel. "The Rescue of Jews in the Italian Zone of Occupied Croatia." In Rescue Attempts During the Holocaust. Proceedings of the Second Yad Vashem International Historical Conference, edited by Y. Gutman & E. Zuroff. (Jerusalem, 1977), pp. 500-502. Carpi, Daniel. Between Mussolini and Hitler: The Jews and the Italian Authorities in France and Tunisia. (Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press, 1994), pp. 169, 173, 186.]
Silimboni, Consul General for Italy in Tunisia, 1942-43?
The Italian Consul General Silimboni in Tunisia intervened on behalf of arrested Jewish community leaders in November 1942. The French Governor General of Tunisia, Vice Admiral Jean-Pierre Estéva, and his administrative staff protected Jews from the German anti-Jewish race laws. In addition, the Italian consulate’s administrative staff also resisted imposition of the Nazi race laws.
[Carpi, Daniel. Between Mussolini and Hitler: The Jews and the Italian Authorities in France and Tunisia. (Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press, 1994), pp. 14-15, 41, 197-198, 202-203, 208-219, 222-225, 231-234, 236, 248, 253n.14, 262-263n.9, 309n.5, 317n.18. Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), pp. 1521-1523. Browning, Christopher R. Browning. The Final Solution and the German Foreign Office: A Study of Referat D III of Abteilung Deutschland 1940-43. (New York: Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1978), pp. 122-123. Laqueur, Walter (Ed.) and Judith Tydor Baumel (Assoc. Ed.). The Holocaust Encyclopedia. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), p. 224.]
Augusto Spechel, Italian Consul General in Nice, 1943
Augusto Spechel was the Italian Consul General in Nice in 1943. In August and September 1943, he petitioned his superiors in the Italian foreign ministry to allow him to issue visas to Jews of Italian nationality or other Jews who were in the Italian zone of occupation near Nice. At the urging of Consul General Spechel, the foreign ministry relented and allowed him to issue visas. As a result, hundreds of Jews who were trapped in southern France between the fall of Mussolini on July 25, 1944, and the surrender of Italy to the Allies on September 8, 1944, were able to safely cross the Italian border.
[Carpi, Daniel. Between Mussolini and Hitler: The Jews and the Italian Authorities in France and Tunisia. (Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press, 1994), pp. 167-169, 172-173, 188, 295n.22, 305n.65.]
Stabila, Italian Consulate in Salonika, Greece, 1943
Stabila helped save Jews at the Italian consulate in Salonika, Greece. He worked under Consul Generals Zamboni and Castrucci.
[Duman, Marion and Judy Krausz (Eds.). Compiled, translated and annotated with an introduction by Irith Dublon-Kenbel. German Foreign Office Documents on the Holocaust in Greece (1837-1944). (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, 2007). Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), p. 614. Molho, M., & J. Nehama. The Destruction of Greek Jewry, 1941-1945. (Jerusalem, 1965). In Hebrew. Carpi, Daniel (Ed.). Italian Diplomatic Documents on the History of the Holocaust in Greece (1941-1943). (Tel Aviv: Diaspora Research Institute, 1999). Carpi, Daniel. "Notes on the History of the Jews in Greece during the Holocaust Period: The Attitude of the Italians (1941-1943)." In Festschrift in Honor of Dr. George S. Wise, H. Ben-Shahar et al., Eds., pp. 25-62. (Tel Aviv, 1981).]
Valerie Torres, Italian Consulate in Salonika, Greece, 1943
Torres helped save Jews at the Italian consulate in Salonika, Greece. She worked under Consul Generals Zamboni and Castrucci.
[Duman, Marion and Judy Krausz (Eds.). Compiled, translated and annotated with an introduction by Irith Dublon-Kenbel. German Foreign Office Documents on the Holocaust in Greece (1837-1944). (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, 2007). Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), p. 614. Carpi, Daniel (Ed.). Italian Diplomatic Documents on the History of the Holocaust in Greece (1941-1943). (Tel Aviv: Diaspora Research Institute, 1999). Carpi, Daniel. "Notes on the History of the Jews in Greece during the Holocaust Period: The Attitude of the Italians (1941-1943)." In Festschrift in Honor of Dr. George S. Wise, H. Ben-Shahar et al., Eds., pp. 25-62. (Tel Aviv, 1981).]
Antonio Venturini, Italian Consul General in Athens, 1941-1943
Venturini was the Consul General in Athens under Minister Plenipotentiary Pellegrino Ghigi. In that capacity, he helped in the rescue of Greek Jews.
[Duman, Marion and Judy Krausz (Eds.). Compiled, translated and annotated with an introduction by Irith Dublon-Kenbel. German Foreign Office Documents on the Holocaust in Greece (1837-1944). (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, 2007). Molho, M., & J. Nehama. The Destruction of Greek Jewry, 1941-1945. (Jerusalem, 1965). In Hebrew. Film: Righteous Enemy, 1982.]
Count Luigi Vidau, Head of the Political Department of the Foreign Ministry, 1943
Luigi Vidau, Head of the Political Department of the Foreign Ministry, ordered his staff to collect information on German atrocities committed against deported Jews. On the basis of this information, he ordered a detailed memorandum prepared to be presented to Mussolini, stating that “deportation” by the Nazis meant murder of the Jews in the death camps of Poland. Vidau refused to accede to German demands for deportation of Jews from the occupied zones. In August 1943, he authorized Italian diplomats in France to issue visas to Jews for entry into Italy at their own discretion and without confirmation of the Italian Department of the Interior. In September 1943, at the end of the Italian occupation, when the Italian armed forces were preparing to withdraw from their zone of occupation, thousands of Jews were allowed to escape to Italy under the protection of the Italian army.
[Carpi, Daniel. "The Rescue of Jews in the Italian Zone of Occupied Croatia." In Rescue Attempts During the Holocaust. Proceedings of the Second Yad Vashem International Historical Conference, edited by Y. Gutman & E. Zuroff, pp. 465-526. (Jerusalem, 1977). Carpi, 1990, p. 730. Carpi, Daniel. Between Mussolini and Hitler: The Jews and the Italian Authorities in France and Tunisia. (Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press, 1994), pp. 105, 112, 116, 167-171. 173-174, 176, 283n.10, 284n.11, 292n.87, 314n.62. Poliakov & Sabille, 1955, pp. 35, 132-133. Steinberg, 1990, pp. 123, 126, 168. Herzer, Ivo. The Italian Refuge: Rescue of Jews during the Holocaust. (Washington: Catholic University Press, 1989), p. 241.]
Leonardo Vitetti, Director-General of the Italian Foreign Ministry
Minister Leonardo Vitetti, Director-General of the Italian Foreign Ministry, may have been largely responsible for developing the plans to protect Jews, both in Italy and in the Italian zones of occupation in Europe. In addition, Vitetti may have kept the American Minister in Bern, Switzerland, informed on reports of the German occupation in Italy. This strategic information would have helped the Americans in their war plans. The American Minister in Bern reported to Washington on the German occupation of Italy. Vitetti replied favorably to the request of the Italian Ambassador in Berlin, Dino Alfieri, regarding the policy of allowing Italian Jews living abroad not to be subject to German race laws and to have their property and assets protected.
[Carpi, Daniel. "The Rescue of Jews in the Italian Zone of Occupied Croatia." In Rescue Attempts During the Holocaust. Proceedings of the Second Yad Vashem International Historical Conference, edited by Y. Gutman & E. Zuroff, pp. 465-526. (Jerusalem, 1977). Carpi, Daniel. Between Mussolini and Hitler: The Jews and the Italian Authorities in France and Tunisia. (Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press, 1994), pp. 25-26, 41, 160, 214-215, 231, 257n.21, 314n.62. Michaelis, Meir. Mussolini and the Jews: German-Italian Relations and the Jewish Question in Italy, 1922-1945. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978), pp. 235, 264, 323-325.]
Guelfo Zamboni, Italian Consul General in Salonica, Greece, 1942-1943
Guelfo Zamboni was a career Italian diplomat. In 1939-1941, he was station in the Italian embassy in Berlin. There, he was a first-hand witness to the persecution of Jews. He was appointed Consul in Salonica in April 1942. He served in this post until June 1943. On his own authority and without permission from the Italian Foreign Ministry, Zamboni provided hundreds of Greek Jews Italian birth certificates and certificates of citizenship, which protected Greek Jews from deportation to Auschwitz. He was challenged by the German authorities, but was able to convince them he had authority from the Italian government. Soon, his actions were supported by Italian Minister Plenipotentiary Pellegrino Ghigi in Athens. On July 9, 1943, a train load of 350 Jews with certificates of citizenship from Zamboni was safely transferred from the Nazi occupied zone to Athens.
[Carpi, 1990, pp. 614, 730. Poliakov & Sabille, 1955, pp. 156-157. Steinberg, 1990, pp. 99-100. Film: Righteous Enemy, 1982. Duman, Marion and Judy Krausz (Eds.). Compiled, translated and annotated with an introduction by Irith Dublon-Kenbel. German Foreign Office Documents on the Holocaust in Greece (1837-1944). (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, 2007). Avni, Haim. “Spanish Nationals in Greece and their Fate during the Holocaust.” Yad Vashem Studies, 8 (1970), pp. 31-68. Molho, M., & J. Nehama. The Destruction of Greek Jewry, 1941-1945. (Jerusalem, 1965). In Hebrew. Rochlitz, Joseph. “Excerpts from the Salonika Diary of Lucillo Merci (February-August 1943).” Yad Vashem Studies, 18 (1987), pp. 293, 299, 301-314.]
Vittorio Zoppi, Italian Diplomat in Southern France
Italian diplomat Vittorio Zoppi was active in rescuing Jews in the Italian occupied zone of southern France.
[Carpi, 1990, p. 730, Carpi, Daniel. Between Mussolini and Hitler: The Jews and the Italian Authorities in France and Tunisia. (Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press, 1994), pp. 77-78, 92, 218-220, 273n.31.]
Count Quinto Mazzolini
[Carpi, Daniel. Between Mussolini and Hitler: The Jews and the Italian Authorities in France and Tunisia. (Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press, 1994), pp. 27-28.]
Angelo Donati, Italy, worked with diplomats in Southern France
Angelo Donati was an Italian banker in Nice, France. He was appointed as an advisor to Italian occupation official Guido Lospinoso, who was the Inspector of Racial Policy. Donati advised Lospinoso on Jewish affairs. On numerous occasions, they resisted cooperating with planned German deportations. He also worked with Italian Consul Alberto Calisse in Nice. After the Italian withdrawal from southern France in September 1943, Donati continued his work to help save his fellow Jews in Italy. Specifically, he worked with Father Marie-Benoit and the Jewish emigration association DELASEM. Donati worked with Italian Consul General of Nice Alberto Calisse and Count Quinto Mazzolini.
[Leboucher, Fernande. Translated by J. F. Bernard. Incredible Mission. (Garden city, NY: Doubleday, 1969). Poliakov, Leon, and Jacques Sabille. Jews under the Italian occupation. (Paris: Éditions du Centre, 1955). Michaelis, Meir. Mussolini and the Jews: German-Italian Relations and the Jewish Question in Italy, 1922-1945. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978), pp. 309-310, 342-344. Carpi, Daniel. Between Mussolini and Hitler: The Jews and the Italian Authorities in France and Tunisia. (Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press, 1994), pp. 71, 94-99, 139-142, 145-146, 153, 158, 174-180, 188-190, 240nn.46, 47, 281nn.50, 52, 295n.22, 301n.20, 302n.34.]
Italian Consulate in Vienna, 1940
The Italian consuls in Vienna attempted to protect the civil rights of Austrian Jews of Italian ancestry. Further, they tried to exempt Italian Jews from having to have their passports and IDs marked with the red letter “J.” The consulate complained to the Italian ambassador in Berlin, Dino Alfieri. Alfieri ruled in favor of protecting Italian Jews in the greater Reich of Germany-Austria.
[Carpi, Daniel. Between Mussolini and Hitler: The Jews and the Italian Authorities in France and Tunisia. (Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press, 1994), pp. 24-25.]
Italian Consul in Belgium, 1942?
The Italian Consul in Belgium demanded that Greek Jews be exempted from deportations and anti-Jewish laws. The Consul reasoned that these laws had not been enacted against Greek Jews by the Italian authorities. This may have been the first attempt by the Italians to protect Greek Jews under their jurisdiction.
[Browning, Christopher R. The Final Solution and the German Foreign Office: A Study of Referat D III of Abteilung Deutschland 1940-43. (New York: Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1978), p. 102.]
Japan
Chiune Sugihara,* Consul for Japan in Kovno (Kaunas), Lithuania, 1940
Chiune Sugihara, Vice Consul for Japan in Kovno, Lithuania, issued transit visas to thousands of Polish Jews stranded in Lithuania. He issued these visas between July 27 and August 28, 1940. Sugihara asked for and obtained an extension to remain in Kovno for an extra 20 days from the occupying Soviet government officials. He even issued visas as his train was leaving Kovno for his next assignment. He issued the visas against the express orders of his government. These orders explicitly stated that he was not to issue visas to refugees who did not have proper documentation and funds to travel through Japan. Most of the Jewish refugees met neither requirement. The Japanese transit visas allowed the refugees to escape from Lithuania through the Soviet Union to Kobe, Japan. From there, many were able to escape to the United States, Canada, South America, Australia and Palestine. About 1,000 refugees survived the war in Shanghai, China. In 1947, he was forced to resign from the Japanese diplomatic service. He always believed this was for his actions in Lithuania. Sugihara was declared Righteous Among the Nations by the State of Israel in 1984. He died in 1985. In 2001, the Japanese government apologized to Sugihara’s family for not recognizing his heroic actions sooner.
Lithuania
Lithuanian Honorary Consul in Aix-en-Provence, France, 1940?
The Lithuanian honorary consul in Marseilles, France, provided Lithuanian passports to Varian Fry and Albert Hirschmann of the Emergency Rescue Committee. These documents were necessary in order to get refugees safe passage through Spain to Lisbon. The honorary consul of Lithuania at Aix was eventually arrested by the French police.
[Fry, Varian. Surrender on Demand. (New York: Random House, 1945), pp. 40-41, 131.]
Mexico
Lázáro Cárdenas, President of Mexico
President Lázáro Cárdenas of Mexico adopted a liberal policy of letting Jewish refugees enter Mexico during the war years. Cardenas appointed Gilberto Bosques to be the acting Ambassador of Mexico to France. Bosques convinced Cardenas to allow former Spanish republican soldiers who fought against Franco to enter Mexico, 1941.
[Barros Horcasitas, Beatriz. “Gilberto Bosques Saldívar, adalid del asilo diplomático.” Sólo Historia, 12 (2001), pp. 74-87. Carrillo Vivas, Gonzalo, “A los 84 años del desembarco de los marines en el Puerto de Veracruz,” Bulevar, 4 (1993), Mexico. Carrillo Vivas, Gonzalo, “Poeta: Gilberto Bosques Saldívar,” Bulevar, 8 (1994), Mexico. Garay, Graciela de, coord., Gilberto Bosques, historia oral de la diplomacia mexicana. Mexico, Archivo Histórico Diplomático, 1988. Romero Flores, Jesús, Don Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla. Mexico, SEP, 1960. Salado, Minerva, Cuba, revolución en la memoria. Mexico, IPN, 1989. Serrano Migallón, Fernanco, El asilo politico en Mexico. Mexico, Porrúa, 1988. Feingold, Henry. The Politics of Rescue: The Roosevelt Administration and the Holocaust, 1938-1944. (New Brunswick, NJ:(New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1970), p. 92.]
Luis I. Rodriguez, Mexican Ambassador to France, 1939-1940
Luis I. Rodriguez was appointed the Mexican ambassador to France by President Lazaro Cardenas. Together with Consul General Gilberto Bosques, he presented numerous letters of protest regarding the horrendous conditions inside the French internment camps. These camps housed thousands of former Spanish Republican soldiers and Jewish refugees who were considered by the French government to be enemy aliens. Later, Rodriguez and Bosques presented formal complaints to the Vichy government regarding the deportation and murder of Jews. Rodriguez left France at the end of 1940, leaving Bosques in charge.
[Rodriguez, Luis I. Misión de Luis I. Rodriguez en Francia: La protección de los refugiados españoles, Julio a diciembre de 1940. (Mexico: El Colegio de México, Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores, Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología, 2000). Salzman, Daniela Gleizer. México Frente a la Inmigración de Refugiados Judíos: 1934-1940. (Mexico: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historía, 2000). Kloyber, Christian (Ed.). Exilio y Cultura: El Exilio Cultural Austriaco en México. (Mexico: Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores, 2002).]
Gilberto Bosques, Mexican Consul General in Paris and Marseilles, 1939-43
Gilberto Bosques was a member of the revolutionary movement in Mexico in 1910. He served in numerous occupations, including that of journalist, educator and politician. He was appointed Ambassador at Large to France by Mexican President Cardenas. Bosques served as the Mexican Consul General in Paris and Marseilles in 1939-1943. During this time, Bosques issued hundreds of visas to refugees, including anti-Franco fighters from the Spanish Civil War. He also issued visas to thousands of Jews. Among those he helped save were artists, politicians and other refugees from Germany, Austria, France and Spain. Bosques supplied visas to Varian Fry and his Emergency Rescue Committee as well as numerous other rescue agencies. Bosques maintained two estates outside of Marseilles (formerly castles) in which he housed and fed thousands of refugees. In 1943, Bosques and other members of the Mexican legation were arrested by French Vichy officials and Nazis. Bosques and his staff were later released and returned to Mexico. When Consul General Bosques returned to Mexico City, he was greeted by cheering throngs and a parade was held in his honor. After the war, Bosques served many years as a career diplomat in the Mexican foreign service.
[Bosques, Gilberto. The National Revolutionary Party of Mexico and the Six-Year Plan. (Mexico: Bureau of Foreign Information of the National Revolutionary Party, 1937). Fry, Varian. Surrender on Demand. (New York: Random House, 1945), p. 127. See Visas for Life nomination for Yad Vashem. See also news clippings. Eck, Nathan. “The Rescue of Jews With the Aid of Passports and Citizenship Papers of Latin American States.” Yad Vashem Studies on the European Jewish Catastrophe and Resistance, 1 (1957), pp. 125-152. Marrus, Michael, R., and Robert O. Paxton. Vichy France and the Jews. (New York: Basic Books, 1981). Fittko, Lisa, translated by David Koblick. Escape through the Pyrénées. (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1991). Ryan, Donna F. The Holocaust and the Jews of Marseille: The Enforcement of Anti-Semitic Policies in Vichy France. (Urbana, IL: The University of Illinois Press, 1996). Cline, H. F. The United States and Mexico. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1953). Schuler, Friedrich E. Mexico Between Hitler and Roosevelt: Mexican Foreign Relations in the Age of Lázaro Cárdens, 1934-1940. (Albequerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 1998). Bosques Saldívar, Gilberto. Gilberto Bosques Saldívar: H. Congreso del Estado de Puebla. LII Legislatura. (San Andrés Cholula, Puebla: Imagen Pública y Corporativa). Barros Horcasitas, Beatriz. “Gilberto Bosques Saldívar, adalid del asilo diplomático.” Sólo Historia, 12 (2001), pp. 74-87. Carrillo Vivas, Gonzalo, “A los 84 años del desembarco de los marines en el Puerto de Veracruz,” Bulevar, 4 (1993), Mexico. Carrillo Vivas, Gonzalo, “Poeta: Gilberto Bosques Saldívar,” Bulevar, 8 (1994), Mexico. Garay, Graciela de, coord., Gilberto Bosques, historia oral de la diplomacia mexicana. Mexico, Archivo Histórico Diplomático, 1988. Romero Flores, Jesús, Don Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla. Mexico, SEP, 1960. Salado, Minerva, Cuba, revolución en la memoria. Mexico, IPN, 1989. Serrano Migallón, Fernanco, El asilo politico en Mexico. Mexico, Porrúa, 1988. Rodriguez, Luis I. Misión de Luis I. Rodriguez en Francia: La protección de los refugiados españoles, Julio a diciembre de 1940. (Mexico: El Colegio de México, Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores, Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología, 2000). Salzman, Daniela Gleizer. México Frente a la Inmigración de Refugiados Judíos: 1934-1940. (Mexico: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historía, 2000). Kloyber, Christian (Ed.). Exilio y Cultura: El Exilio Cultural Austriaco en México. (Mexico: Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores, 2002). Von Hanffstengel, Renata, Tercero, Cecilia (Eds.). México, El Exilio Bien Temperado. (Mexico City: Instituto de Investigaciones Interculturales Germano-Mexicanas,1995). Von Hanffstengel, Renata, Vasconcelos, Cecilia T., Nungesser, Michael, & Boullosa, Carmen. Encuentros Gráficos 1938-1948. (Mexico City: Instituto de Investigaciones Interculturales Germano-Mexicanas, 1999). Alexander, Brigitte. Die Ruckkehr: Erzählunen und Stücke aus dem Exile. (Berlin: Wolfgang Weist, 2005). Kloyber, Christian. Österreicher in Exil, Mexico 1938-1947: Eine Dokumentation. (Wien: Verlag Deutsche, 2002).]
Isidro Fabela, Mexican Ambassador to the League of Nations
Isidro Fabela was the Mexican Ambassador to the League of Nations. In 1938, he wrote Mexico’s official protest of Germany’s annexation of Austria. This was the only written protest worldwide. After the war, he has been honored in Austria for his protest of the annexation. Before the war, Fabela served as the Foreign Minister of Mexico.
[Eck, Nathan. “The Rescue of Jews With the Aid of Passports and Citizenship Papers of Latin American States.” Yad Vashem Studies on the European Jewish Catastrophe and Resistance, 1 (1957), pp. 125-152.]
José Manuel del Castillo Alvarez, Mexican Ambassador to Portugal, 1940
José Manuel del Castillo Alvarez was the Mexican Ambassador to Portugal in 1940. Ambassador Castillo issued hundreds of visas for refugees to escape Europe. He did not formally ask for permission to issue these visas. He was later questioned by the Mexican foreign ministry about these actions. He claimed that the Mexican immigration policy was so vague that he did not fully understand it. Castillo was recalled to Mexico temporarily to explain his actions. He explained in correspondence that he thought it was the policy of Mexico to provide refuge for individuals in need. A ship named the Quanza, leaving for Lisbon with Jewish refugees bound for Mexico, was not permitted to land in Mexico. The Jews were eventually given asylum in the US by the intervention of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and sympathetic immigration officials.
[Salzman, Daniela Gleizer. México Frente a la Inmigración de Refugiados Judíos: 1934-1940. (Mexico: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historía, 2000).]
Netherlands
L. P. J. de Decker, Dutch Ambassador to the Baltic States, 1940
Ambassador L. P. J. de Decker resided in Riga, Latvia. De Decker authorized honorary Dutch consul in Kovno, Lithuania Jan Zwartendijk to issue end visas to stranded Polish refugees in Lithuania. The end visa was for the Dutch islands of Surinam and Curacao in the Caribbean. This was a ruse to allow Jews to escape from Soviet occupied Lithuania, because an entry visa was not necessary to land in the Dutch possessions. Thousands of Jews thus escaped the Nazi Holocaust.
J. ten Hagen, Consul for Netherlands in Marseilles, 1940
Information about this Dutch diplomat was received from Irwin Schiffres. Information was supplied by the Dutch Foreign Ministry. [See e-mail dated 9/30/2001.]
Maurice Jacquet, Dutch Honorary Consul in Vichy France
A. M. de Jong, Dutch Honorary Consul
Dutch Honorary Consul A. M. de Jong helped Jewish refugees escape Nazi-occupied Europe.
Herman Laatsman, Head of Chancery, Dutch Embassy in Paris, France, 1940-41
Herman Laatsman was the Head of the Chancery in the Dutch Embassy in Paris, 1940-41. He was a courier contact between the Dutch government in exile in London and the underground in the Netherlands. He provided Jewish refugees with illegal passports that enabled them to escape Nazi-occupied France. He was also responsible for saving downed American pilots by issuing them false passports. In 1941, Nazis ordered the closure of the consulate. Laatsman was betrayed and was deported to several concentration camps. His 11-year old son, arrested with his father, disappeared.
D. F. W. van Lennep, Dutch Representative of the Consul in Marseilles, 1940
D. F. W. van Lennep was a member of the Dutch lower nobility who was in Cannes when the war broke out. Lennep went to Paris and offered his services to the Dutch mission in Paris. (Earlier he had worked for the Dutch mission in Berlin.) He became the representative in Vichy France for Mr. van Harinxma, and the representative of the Dutch government Commissioner for Fugitives, van Lidth de Geude. [This information was supplied by the Dutch Foreign Ministry.]
Sally Noach, Dutch diplomat
C. J. van der Waarden, Dutch Consul General in Marseilles, 1940
Information about this Dutch diplomat was received from Irwin Schiffres. Information was supplied by the Dutch Foreign Ministry. [See e-mail dated 9/30/2001.]
Jan Zwartendijk,* Acting Dutch Consul in Kovno, Lithuania, 1940
Zwartendijk was the honorary Dutch Consul in Kovno (Kaunas), Lithuania. He was the representative of the Phillips electronics company in Lithuania. He is credited with devising and pioneering the use of the “Curacao visa” in early July 1940. Zwartendijk issued end visas to the destinations of Curacao and Surinam, Dutch island possessions in the Caribbean. He is credited with saving thousands of lives. Jewish survivors nicknamed him “the Angel of Curacao.” Zwartendijk died in 1975. In 1997, he was awarded the Righteous Among the Nations honor by Yad Vashem.
Norway
Niels Christian Ditleff, Norwegian Representative to Sweden, Stationed in Stockholm, 1944-45
Niels Christian Ditleff was a diplomatic representative of the Norwegian government in exile in Stockholm, Sweden. In late 1944, Ditleff persuaded the Swedish Foreign Office to attempt a rescue of Norwegian Jews and non-Jews held in Nazi-occupied territory.
Odd Nansen, Nansenhjaelp, Norway, 1942?
Odd Nansen, of the committee of Nansenhjaelp, organized a rescue of 1,700 Norwegian Jews. This operation was a joint action between Sweden and Norway. The Nansenhjaelp committee also helped rescue a number of refugees fleeing the Nazis from Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland. Many of these refugees were Jews. In January 1942, Nansen was arrested by the Nazi occupying government of Norway and was held in a concentration camp. He was later deported to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where he survived until liberation. [Friedman, Philip. Their Brothers’ Keepers: The Christian Heroes and Heroines Who Helped the Oppressed Escape the Nazi Terror. (New York: Holocaust Library, 1978), p. 169.]
Panama
Mssr. Figuière, Honorary Consul for Panama in Marseilles, 1940-41
The Panamanian Honorary Consul in Marseilles was a French shipping agent by the name of Figuière. He provided Panamanian visa stamps to refugees as a means of escaping Vichy France. Hans and Lisa Fittko, refugees, obtained Panamanian visas from the honorary consul. They stated in Lisa’s autobiography that he “sells” these visas for the price of a salami. It was clear that no one was going to Panama on these visas.
[Fry, Varian. Surrender on Demand. (New York: Random House, 1945), pp. 82-83. Fittko, Lisa, translated by David Koblick. Escape through the Pyrénées. (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1991), pp. 165-166.]
Poland
Tadeusz Brzezinski, Polish Consul General in Prague, 1931-1936
Consul General Tadeusz Brzezinski issued visas to hundreds of Jewish refugees to leave Germany and emigrate overseas. Later, Brzezinski became the Polish Consul General in Montreal, Canada. While in Canada, he helped the Jewish community to help Jewish refugees enter the country. Brzezinski worked with Victor Podoski, the Polish Ambassador to Canada.
[Abella, Irving & Harold Troper. None is Too Many: Canada and the Jews of Europe 1933-1948 (3rd Ed.). (Toronto: Key Porter Books, 2000), pp. 82-83, 99.]
Feliks Chiczewski, Polish consul in Lipsk, Germany, 1938-39?
Feliks Chiczewski was the Polish consul in Lipsk, Germany. He prevented Polish Jews from being expelled from Germany by allowing them to seek refuge in the Polish consulate building and garden. At least half of the Jews in the town were given refuge during the time of the deportations.
[Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), p. 1727.]
Jan Karski,* Polish Diplomat
Polish diplomat-courier Jan Karski was a witness to the conditions in the Warsaw ghetto and the Izbica camp near the Belzec death camp. Karski prepared written eyewitness accounts of the German atrocities in Nazi occupied Poland. Later, he was smuggled out of Poland and into the United States, where he reported to US Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter. Frankfurter arranged for Karski to report to President Roosevelt. Frankfurter was skeptical of the report: “I did not say that he was lying, I said that I could not believe him. There is a difference.” Karski gave hundreds of talks to organizations all over the United States and Great Britain to bring pressure to intervene to save Jews from the Holocaust. Karski was declared a Righteous Among the Nations in 1975 and made an honorary citizen of the state of Israel.
Dr. Julius Kuhl, Polish Consul in Bern, Switzerland, 1938-45
Consul Dr. Julius Kuhl was born to a prominent Jewish family in Sanok, Poland. Kuhl issued thousands of protective visas and passports to Jews from Bern, Switzerland, 1938-45. These precious papers enabled Jews to remain in Switzerland or emigrate to the United States, Canada, South America, Africa, Palestine and other countries.
Alexander Lados, Polish Ambassador to Switzerland, 1938-45
Ambassador Lados approved the issuing of thousands of protective Polish passports and visas to Jews stranded in Switzerland, 1938-45. He specifically approved the work of Dr. Julius Kuhl to issue passports through the embassy in Bern. In addition, Lados persuaded the London-based Polish government-in-exile to provide money and relief to Polish Jews interned in Swiss camps.
Victor Podoski, Polish Ambassador to Canada
Victor Podoski was the Polish Ambassador to Canada. He requested the admission to Canada “for the duration of the war” of 2,000 Polish refugees, many of them government officials. This request included more than 100 Jewish children. Eventually, Polish refugees were let into Canada.
[Abella, Irving & Harold Troper. None is Too Many: Canada and the Jews of Europe 1933-1948 (3rd Ed.). (Toronto: Key Porter Books, 2000), pp. 77, 80, 82-90, 93, 95-96, 99, 104, 109, 111, 116-117.]
Count Tadeusz Romer, Polish Ambassador to Japan, 1937-1941
The Polish Ambassador to Japan representing the government in exile, Count Tadeusz Romer, served as the ambassador from 1937-1941. Though Poland was conquered by Germany and Russia, Japan recognized the Polish government-in-exile in London until October 1941. Up till that time, Romer helped Jews stranded in Japan to find safe havens. Romer issued more than 300 visas to Polish Jews. He wrote to his fellow diplomats in Canada, Great Britain and Australia: “It is…not fitting to enquire whether this or that Polish refugee is Jew or Christian but only whether or not he is a faithful and devoted servant of his country and thereby of the common cause of the Allies.”
[USHMM, Flight and Rescue, 2001.]
Henryk Slawik,* Polish Chargé d’Affaires in Budapest, Hungary, 1944
Henryk Slawik was the Polish Chargé d’Affaires in Budapest, Hungary, in 1944. He issued thousands of documents certifying that Polish Jewish refugees in Budapest were Christians. One hundred of these were children, and were put in a Catholic orphanage. Slawik was caught and deported to Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria, where he was murdered. Slawik was honored as Righteous Among the Nations in 1977.
J. Weytko, Polish Embassy Official?, London, 1944
J. Weytko, of the Polish embassy in London, approached Henderson and Randall of the British Foreign Office on behalf of Jews in Nazi occupied Europe in general and Polish nationals in Hungary.
[Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), p. 1289 fn 223.]
Zimmerman, Polish diplomat stationed in Budapest, 1944-45
Zimmerman was a Jewish Polish diplomat who worked clandestinely in Budapest. He worked under Henryk Slawik.
Polish Ambassador to Turkey, 1943?
The Polish Ambassador to Turkey gave 542 visas to Jews stranded in Teheran, according to Yishuv rescuer Chaim Barlas. [Laqueur, Walter (Ed.) and Judith Tydor Baumel (Assoc. Ed.). The Holocaust Encyclopedia. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), p. 642.]
Polish Representative to the Holy See, 1942
The Polish representative to the Holy See, along with the Belgian and Yugoslavian representatives, whose countries were also occupied by Germany, submitted a joint demarche on September 12, 1943. This demarche asked the Pope to condemn Nazi atrocities in their occupied areas.
[Tittmann, Harold H., Jr., Harold H. Tittmann III (Ed.). Inside the Vatican of Pius XII: The Memoir of an American Diplomat During World War II. (New York: Image Books Doubleday, 2004), pp. 117-120.]
Portugal
Alberto da Veiga Simoes, Portuguese Ambassador to Berlin, 1938-40
The Portuguese Ambassador to Berlin Veiga Simoes granted visas to Jews in Berlin and to other consulates in Germany without prior authorization from the Portuguese Foreign Ministry or the Portuguese police. For his unauthorized activities, he was reprimanded by Portuguese dictator Salazar. Veiga Simoes then appealed to Salazar to liberalize the Foreign Ministry’s visa policy. In particular, Veiga Simoes was interested in protecting German Jews who were from the upper classes. He approved the issuing of visas to a number of Jews by the Portuguese consulate in Hamburg. Veiga Simoes was also highly critical of the German and Nazi regimes. For his openly anti-German stance, he was relieved of his position as ambassador and was recalled to Lisbon. On his return, he was investigated by the Portuguese Foreign Ministry. Veiga Simoes was removed from the diplomatic service after his return to Portugal. He was reinstated in February 1946.
[Milgram, Avraham. “Portugal, the Consuls, and the Jewish Refugees, 1938-1941.” Yad Vashem Studies, 27 (1999), pp. 135-141. Veiga Simoes to Alazar, Berlin, March 29, 1937, AMNE 3o. P. A-11, M-34. Telegram of Salazar to Veiga Simoes, December 21, 1938, AMNE 2o. P. A-43, M-38. Veiga Simoes to Salazar, Berlin, January 14, 1939, AMNE 2o. P. A-43, M-38-A. (Cited in Milgram, 1999.)]
Caeiro da Mata, Portuguese Ambassador to Vichy, 1942?
Caeiro da Mata, the Portuguese Ambassador to Vichy, worked with the Portuguese Consul General António Alves, who headed the consulate in Paris, to save Jews from deportation at the hands of the Nazis. Mata, in a report to the Portuguese Foreign Ministry, stated “No Portuguese Jew has been found in detention in a concentration camp. No Jew has been deported to the East, and no Jew has been required to wear the [yellow] patch like the rest of the Jews.” Portuguese dictator Antonio Salazar and the Portuguese Foreign Ministry eventually approved the Consul’s protection of Jews who held Portuguese nationality.
[Milgram, Avraham. “The Bounds of Neutrality: Portugal and the Repatriation of its Jewish Nationals.” Yad Vashem Studies, 31 (2003), pp. 201-244. Report from António Alves to Foreign Ministry, AHD, 2o P. A. 50, M. 40. Report from Consul General in Paris, António Alves to Foreign Ministry, “The Question of the Portuguese Levantine Jews in France,” January 1943, AHD, 2o P. A. 50, M. 40, pp. 5, 14.]
António Alves, Portuguese Consul General in Paris, 1942
António Alves was the Portuguese Consul General in Paris after the German occupation of France. A report generated by Alves demonstrated his intentions and actions to help save the Jews from persecution and deportation. He coordinated his activities to save Jews with the Portuguese ambassador in Vichy, Caeiro da Mata. Alves successfully was able to have Portuguese and other Jews released from detention. These Jewish refugees had been rounded up in November 1942 and taken to the internment camp in Drancy. He also managed to have Portuguese Jews released from concentration camps in the occupied French zones. Portuguese dictator Antonio Salazar and the Portuguese Foreign Ministry eventually approved the Consul’s protection of Jews who held Portuguese nationality.
[Milgram, Avraham. “The Bounds of Neutrality: Portugal and the Repatriation of its Jewish Nationals.” Yad Vashem Studies, 31 (2003), pp. 201-244. Report from António Alves to Foreign Ministry, AHD, 2o P. A. 50, M. 40. Report from Consul General in Paris, António Alves to Foreign Ministry, “The Question of the Portuguese Levantine Jews in France,” January 1943, AHD, 2o P. A. 50, M. 40, pp. 5, 14.]
José Luis Archer, Portuguese Consul General in Paris, 1940-41
In the first two years of the Nazi occupation of Paris, Portuguese Consul General José Luis Archer frequently protested the Foreign Ministry’s lack of concern for the welfare of Portuguese Jews in Paris. For Archer’s actions to help Jews, the Portuguese dictator Antonio Salazar sought to have him replaced.
[Milgram, Avraham. “The Bounds of Neutrality: Portugal and the Repatriation of its Jewish Nationals.” Yad Vashem Studies, 31 (2003), pp. 201-244. Melo, António. “O processo dos portugueses levantinos.” Publico, (November 10, 1998), p. 28.]
Alfredo Casanova, Portuguese Consul in Genoa, Italy, 1940-41?
Portuguese Consul Alfredo Casanova, stationed in Genoa, criticized Portuguese dictator Oliveira Salazar for his policy against protecting Jews in Nazi controlled areas. In a letter to Salazar, Casanova argued that issuing irregular visas to Jews should be seen as praiseworthy and an act of humanity, and should not be condemned. Casanova defended the action of Honorary Consul Magno in Milan who had issued visas to help Jews escape the Nazis. Casanova himself had issued irregular visas to a group of nuns during the Spanish Civil War. In reprisal, in November 1941, Salazar relieved Casanova of his post in Genoa, Italy, and replaced him with a Consul Second Class.
[Milgram, Avraham. “Portugal, the Consuls, and the Jewish Refugees, 1938-1941.” Yad Vashem Studies, 27 (1999), pp. 152-154. Alfredo Casanova to Oliveira Salazar, Genoa, June 19, 1941, G.A. Magno file, YVA, M31/3459. (Cited in Milgram, 1999).]
Dr. Aristides de Sousa Mendes*, Portuguese Consul General in Bordeaux, France, June 1940
Aristides De Sousa Mendes was the Consul General for Portugal in Bordeaux, France. Between June 17 and 19, 1940, he issued more than 30,000 life-saving Portuguese visas. Ten thousand were for Jews and 20,000 were for other refugees. Mendes saved the entire royal Habsburg family, including the crown prince and Empress Zita. In addition, he saved the entire Belgian cabinet in exile. Mendes personally conducted hundreds of Jewish refugees across a border checkpoint on the Spanish frontier. All of his life saving activities were done against the orders and policies of Portugal. He was fired by his government and lost all of his property. He died in poverty in Lisbon in 1954. In November of 1995, Portugal posthumously restored his career and awarded him a special medal for saving lives. De Sousa Mendes was declared Righteous Among the Nations by the State of Israel in 1967.
Carlos de Liz-Texeira Branquinho, Portuguese Chargé d’Affaires in Budapest, 1944-45
Carlos de Liz-Texeira Branquinho was the Portuguese Chargé d’Affaires in Budapest in 1944 and obtained permission from the Portuguese government to issue safe conducts to all persons who had relatives in Portugal, Brazil, or the Portuguese colonies. Each safe conduct was personally signed by Branquinho. After the Arrow Cross and Nazis retook the city on October 15, 1944, there was a great demand for these documents. Branquinho was authorized to issue 500 safe conducts, but in actual fact issued more than 800. Soon, the Portuguese mission established several safe houses to shelter the 800 protected Jews. Despite constant raids by the Arrow Cross, the Portuguese houses remained relatively safe throughout the war. He also established an office of the Portuguese Red Cross at the Portuguese legation to care for Jewish refugees.
Pinto Ferreira, Portuguese Consul General in Vichy/Marseilles, France, 1943?
Pinto Ferreira, the Portuguese Consul General in Vichy stationed in Marseilles, protected Jews who were registered with the consulate. Ferreira argued strongly for the protection of these Jews. Portuguese dictator Salazar later approved the repatriation of the Portuguese Jews.
[Cable from Pinto Ferreira in Vichy to Salazar, March 18, 1943, AHD, 2o P. A. 50, M. 40. Cable from Salazar, March 27, 1943, AHD, 2o. P. A. 50, M. 40. Cited in Milgram, Avraham. “The Bounds of Neutrality: Portugal and the Repatriation of its Jewish Nationals.” Yad Vashem Studies, 31 (2003), pp. 201-244.]
Dr. Carlos Almeida Afonseca de Sampayo Garrido*, Ambassador Plenipotentiary for Portugal in Budapest, 1944
Dr. Garrido helped large numbers of Hungarian Jews who came to the Portuguese diplomatic mission in 1944 seeking Portuguese protection. Along with Branquinho, his successor, he rented houses and apartments to shelter and protect refugees from deportation and murder. He was instrumental in establishing the policy for the protection of Portuguese Jews in Hungary. In May 1944, he was reposted to Switzerland and on several occasions intervened on behalf of Jews from his post in Switzerland. Dr. Sampayo Garrido was honored by Yad Vahsem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, as a Righteous Person.
Carvalho da Silva, Vice Consul for Portugal in Paris, France, 1943
In August 1943, a Portuguese Vice Consul stationed in Paris, Carvalho da Silva, personally intervened on behalf of 40 Portuguese Jews who were at the deportation center of Drancy, France. He convinced the Gestapo to free them and personally accompanied the group through the border crossing of France into Spain. He rescued a second group of about 100 Jews, and also accompanied them on their border crossing into Spain. In addition, the Turkish Consul General in Paris, Bedii Arbel, made reference to a Portuguese diplomat in a report to the Turkish embassy on 13 August, 1943, Document no. 30-6127. In the letter it states “According to investigations made here, the Italians have excused their Jews from such regulations. Among the neutral countries, the Consulate of Portugal has advised its Jewish citizens not to obey the orders in this respect.” [Shaw, Stanford J. Turkey and the Holocaust: Turkey’s Role in Rescuing Turkish and European Jewry from Nazi Persecution, 1933-1945. (New York: New York University Press, 1993), pp. 85-86.]
Rui Vieira Lisboa, Portuguese Consul in Toulouse, France, 1943
In November 1943, Rui Vieira Lisboa, the Portuguese consul in Toulouse, France, asked Portuguese dictator Antonio Salazar for permission to evacuate Jews from southern France. He was granted permission and 47 Jewish refugees made their way to the Spanish border.
[Letter from Rui Vieira Lisboa to Salazar, October 11, 1943, AHD, 2o. P. A. 50, M. 40. Rui Vieira Lisboa to Pinto Ferreira (Vichy), July 27, 1944, AHD, 2o. P. A. 50, M. 40. Cited in Milgram, Avraham. “The Bounds of Neutrality: Portugal and the Repatriation of its Jewish Nationals.” Yad Vashem Studies, 31 (2003), pp. 201-244.]
Giuseppe Agenore Magno, Honorary Consul for Portugal in Milan, Italy, 1941
Giuseppe Agenore Magno was appointed Honorary Consul for Portugal to Milan, Italy, in 1934. He issued unauthorized visas to Jewish refugees in Milan. He was reprimanded and removed from office by the Portuguese Foreign Ministry for issuing these visas. Magno, in spite of being relieved of his position, stayed at his posted and operated the consulate until he died on February 5, 1947.
[Milgram, Avraham. “Portugal, the Consuls, and the Jewish Refugees, 1938-1941.” Yad Vashem Studies, 27 (1999), pp. 151-153.]
Henry de la Cruz, Portuguese Diplomat in Spain
Gyula Gulden, Portuguese (?) Honorary (?) Consul General, Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45 (?)
[Acting/Honorary] Consul General Gyula Gulden was the managing director of the Herend Porcelain Factory in Budapest. He handled, processed and distributed safe-conduct papers signed by the Portuguese Chargé d’Affaires in Budapest. [Lévai, 1948, pp. 407-408.]
Count Ferenc Pongrácz, Acting Diplomat for Portugal in Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45
Count Ferrenc Pongrácz was a Hungarian civilian. In 1944, Count Pongrácz volunteered to represent the Portuguese legation in Budapest, Hungary, as the acting Chargé d’Affaires. Pongrácz energetically acted to protect the Jews in the Portuguese protected houses. He signed many Portuguese protective passes so that the Arrow Cross would not be able to dispute the legality of the Portuguese documents. Pongrácz often acted in the absence of Portuguese Chargé d’Affaires Carlos Branquinho and Consul General Gulden. Pongrácz also signed a number of petitions to protect Jews in Budapest. [Lévai, 1948, p. 408.]
Portuguese Consul in Antwerp, Belgium, 1941
In February 1941, the Portuguese International Police informed the Portuguese Foreign Ministry that the consulate in Antwerp was granting unauthorized visas and passports to foreigners, disregarding policy of the Portuguese Foreign Ministry.
[Milgram, Avraham. “Portugal, the Consuls, and the Jewish Refugees, 1938-1941.” Yad Vashem Studies, 27 (1999), pp. 154. Letter from the PVDE to the General Director of Economic and Consular Affairs of the MNE, Lisbon, February 21, 1941, AMNE, 2o. P. A-44, M-152. (Cited in Milgram, 1999).]
Portuguese Consul in Bucharest, Romania, 1941
In February 1941, the Portuguese International Police informed the Portuguese Foreign Ministry that the consulate in Bucharest was granting unauthorized visas and passports to foreigners, disregarding policy of the Portuguese Foreign Ministry.
[Milgram, Avraham. “Portugal, the Consuls, and the Jewish Refugees, 1938-1941.” Yad Vashem Studies, 27 (1999), pp. 154. Letter from the PVDE to the General Director of Economic and Consular Affairs of the MNE, Lisbon, February 21, 1941, AMNE, 2o. P. A-44, M-152. (Cited in Milgram, 1999).]
Portuguese Consul in Budapest, Hungary, 1941
In February 1941, the Portuguese International Police informed the Portuguese Foreign Ministry that the consulate in Budapest was granting unauthorized visas and passports to foreigners, disregarding policy of the Portuguese Foreign Ministry.
[Milgram, Avraham. “Portugal, the Consuls, and the Jewish Refugees, 1938-1941.” Yad Vashem Studies, 27 (1999), pp. 154. Letter from the PVDE to the General Director of Economic and Consular Affairs of the MNE, Lisbon, February 21, 1941, AMNE, 2o. P. A-44, M-152. (Cited in Milgram, 1999).]
Portuguese Consul General in Hamburg, Germany
The Portuguese Consul General in Hamburg granted visas to Jews on his own initiative and with the approval of the Portuguese ambassador in Berlin, Veiga Simoes. In addition, the Consul General in Hamburg established direct contact with the civil governors of the Portuguese possession of the Azores and Madeira to enable Jews to land. The Consul General in Hamburg bypassed the Portuguese Foreign Ministry, the police and the Salazar administration.
[Milgram, Avraham. “Portugal, the Consuls, and the Jewish Refugees, 1938-1941.” Yad Vashem Studies, 27 (1999), pp. 123-155. Confidential letter of Paulo Cumano to the Secretary-General of the MNE, Lisbon, April 11, 1939, AMNE 2o. P. A-43, M-38-A. The consul addressed the Civil Governor of Ponta Delgada asking for authorization for 28 Jewish families to land. (Cited in Milgram, 1999).]
Honorary Portuguese Consul in Nice, France, 1940-1941
The honorary Portuguese consul in Nice, 1940-1941, helped Jewish refugee Hecht.
[Oral history testimony by Hecht.]
Employees/Volunteers who Worked for the Portuguese Legation
Dr. Ferenc Bartha, Special Section, Portuguese Legation in Budapest, 1944-45
Applications and petitions for Portuguese protective passes were handled by Dr. Ferenc Bartha of the Special Section of the Portuguese legation in Budapest, located on Duna Street. Bartha was a well-known Hungarian lawyer. Bartha worked under the Portuguese Chargé. Bartha also did his utmost to protect Jews in Budapest. On one occasion, he intervened to liberate Jews from the Kistarcsa internment camp. On a number of occasions, he protected Jews during Arrow Cross raids. [Braham, 1981, p. 1094. Lévai, 1948, p. 408.]
Dr. Sàndor Brody, Manager of Portuguese Protective Houses, Budapest, 1944-45
Dr. Sàndor Brody managed the Portuguese protected houses in Budapest, Hungary. Between 500-800 Jews were protected under his supervision. [Lévai, 1948, p. 408.]
Red Cross
Richard Allen, American Red Cross, Marseilles, 1940
Richard Allen, of the American Red Cross, stationed in Marseilles, France, helped many Jews escape to Spain and Portugal. Allen helped Fry and the Emergency Rescue Committee, and other relief agencies, in their efforts to help Jews escape. Allen also coordinated with Czech diplomat Vladimir Vochoc to obtain precious Czechoslovakian visas used to escape.
Jean de Bavier, Swiss International Red Cross, Budapest
[Favez, Jean-Claude. Edited and translated by John and Beryl Fletcher. The Red Cross and the Holocaust. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 234-236.]
Count Folke Bernadotte, Swedish Red Cross, Germany, 1945
Count Folke Bernadotte was head of the Swedish Red Cross in Germany in 1945. He was cousin to King Gustav V of Sweden. In the Spring of 1945, Bernadotte negotiated with SS commander Heinrich Himmler for the release of thousands of people held in Nazi concentration camps. These included over 400 Danish Jews imprisoned in Theresienstadt. Later, he arranged for the release of thousands of women from the Ravensbrück and Bergen Belsen concentration camps. He arranged for busses, converted to ambulances, known as the “white busses,” to take them from the camps. They were eventually transported safely to Sweden. Bernadotte wrote about his wartime activities in a book entitled, The Curtain Falls. After the war, he was appointed to the position of High Commissioner for the UN in Palestine. He was killed while serving in this position.
[Bernadotte, Folke, Count. The Fall of the Curtain: Last Days of the Third Reich. (London: Cassell, 1945).]
Hans Bon, International Committee of the Red Cross Representative in Northern Italy, 1944
Hans Bon was the International Committee of the Red Cross Representative in Northern Italy. Bon negotiated secretly with SS General Karl Wolff to suspend the deportations of Jews in Italy.
[Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, Vol. 4, (New York: Macmillan, 1990), p. 1233. Favez, Jean-Claude. Edited and translated by John and Beryl Fletcher. The Red Cross and the Holocaust. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 225-228]
Friedrich Born,* Chief Delegate of the International Committee of the Red Cross of Switzerland in Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45
Friedrich Born came to Budapest, Hungary, in May 1944. During the period from May 1944 to January 1945, Born issued thousands of Red Cross letters of protection to Jews of Budapest. He is credited with retrieving thousands of Jews from deportation camps and death marches in and around Budapest. He provided an additional 4,000 Jews with employment papers, preventing their deportation. He put over 60 Jewish institutions under Red Cross protection and housed over 7,000 Jewish children and orphans. He worked closely with the other neutral diplomatic legations, and set up dozens of Red Cross protected houses. He is credited with rescuing between 11,000 and 15,000 Jews in Budapest. Friedrich Born was declared Righteous Among the Nations by Israel in 1987.
[Ben-Tov, Arieh. Facing the Holocaust in Budapest: The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Jews in Hungary, 1943-1945. (Boston: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1988). Favez, Jean-Claude. Edited and translated by John and Beryl Fletcher. The Red Cross and the Holocaust. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 236-243, 248-250.]
Edouard Chapuisat, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Representative in Southeastern Europe, 1943-?
Edouard Chapuisat was the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Representative in Southeastern Europe in 1943. In the spring of 1943, Chaupuisat led a mission in southeastern Europe to meet with heads of state, church leaders, Red Cross representatives in Croatia, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary. The purpose of this mission was to aid Balkan Jews in emigrating to Palestine. The Red Cross representatives in these countries noted that the Jews were persecuted by national and local leaders in those countries.
[Favez, Jean-Claude. Edited and translated by John and Beryl Fletcher. The Red Cross and the Holocaust. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 202-205, 215-218.]
Jean Costinescu, President of Romanian Red Cross
Jean Costinescu was the President of the Romanian Red Cross. Costinescu worked with International Red Cross representatives Charles Kolb and Vladimir de Steiger in Romania. Costinescu and the Romanian Red Cross worked on various rescue proposals to transport Jews from Romania to Ankara and Palestine.
[Favez, Jean-Claude. Edited and translated by John and Beryl Fletcher. The Red Cross and the Holocaust. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 210-211.]
Dr. Alec Cramer, International Committee for the Red Cross Delegate to Southern France
In April 1940, Dr. Alec Cramer, the ICRC representative in Southern France, asked ICRC headquarters in Geneva for permission for French authorities to inspect civilian camps in the Haute Savoir region of Southern France. Nazi officials refused on the grounds that it did not recognize the mandate of the ICRC to do so.
[Favez, Jean-Claude. Edited and translated by John and Beryl Fletcher. The Red Cross and the Holocaust. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 146-150, 153.]
Countess Dobrazensky, Hungarian Red Cross
Countess Dobrazensky was a delegate for the Hungarian Red Cross. She tried to intervene on behalf of Hungarian Jews deported to Galicia.
[Favez, Jean-Claude. Edited and translated by John and Beryl Fletcher. The Red Cross and the Holocaust. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 233-234.]
Georges Dunand, International Red Cross, stationed in Slovakia
Georges Dunand was the International Red Cross representative stationed in Slovakia in 1944-1945. He was sent to Slovakia in October 1944 to help the remaining Jewish survivors. Many of the Jewish survivors were in hiding in Bratislava. There, he was helped by two Swiss consular officials, Max Grässli, the Consul General, and Hans Keller, Vice Consul. Consul General Grässli and his wife hid Jews in their home. When the Grässli’s left, Dunand moved into their apartment and continued to hide Jews there. Dunand also worked with Zionist youth leader Jurag Revesz. In addition, Dunand distributed money to Jewish refugee organizations. Dunand was one of the few Red Cross representatives to publish his memoirs. It was called Ne perdez pas leur trace! [Don’t lose track of them], (Geneva, 1950).
[Dunand, Georges. Ne perdez pas leur trace. Favez, Jean-Claude. Edited and translated by John and Beryl Fletcher. The Red Cross and the Holocaust. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 184, 187-197, 250. Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), pp. 241, 370, 1232. Rothkirchen, Livia. “Vatican Policy and the ‘Jewish Problem’ in ‘Independent’ Slovakia (1939-1945).” Yad Vashem Studies, 6 (1967), pp. 51. Reitlinger, Gerald. The Final Solution: The Attempt to Exterminate the Jews of Europe, 1939-1945. (New York: The Beechhurst Press, 1953), pp. 394-395, 405, 445. Levin, Nora. The Holocaust: The Destruction of European Jewry, 1933-1945. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1968), pp. 499, 545-546, 705. AG, G 59/2, letter from Dunand of 18 December 1944.]
Suzanne Ferrière, Delegate for the International Committee for the Red Cross
Suzanne Ferrière was a delegate for the International Committee for the Red Cross throughout Europe during the war. She was also vice chair of the International Emigrant’s Aid Agency, which was part of the ICRC.
Ferrière traveled throughout Europe making inspections and writing detailed reports for the Red Cross regarding the conditions of Jews in Nazi-occupied territories.
Ferrière took an active interest in changing the rules and conventions regarding the policy of the Red Cross in aiding Jews. Ferrière challenged the assumption that Jews could not be helped because they were political refugees and not civilian internees. She was in favor of liberalizing the rules. As such, she presented demarches in various locations throughout Europe in order to protect Jewish detainees under Nazi control.
[Favez, Jean-Claude. Edited and translated by John and Beryl Fletcher. The Red Cross and the Holocaust. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 35, 60-61, 114.]
Jean-Edouard Friedrich,* International Red Cross in Berlin
Jean-Edouard Friedrich (1912-1999) was a member of the International Committee of the Red Cross delegation in Berlin. The authority of this delegation, which was established in 1940, extended over all the territories of the Third Reich, including the General Government, as well as the occupied territories, notably the Netherlands, Belgium and France. He helped a number of Jews enter Switzerland. He obtained papers for a young couple and accompanied them as far as the Swiss border, a story recounted by Lotte Strauss (1997). In Stuttgart, where he was posted, he escorted a young woman who was to be smuggled into Switzerland. They were spotted by the German police, whereupon Jean-Edouard Friedrich drew their attention and was caught, which allowed the refugees to escape and reach safety. Friedrich was awarded Righteous Among the Nations status in 1999.
Dr. Gyorgy Gergely, Red Cross Director, Budapest, Hungary, 1939-1945
Dr. Gyorgy Gergely was active in saving Jews from Nazi and Arrow Cross persecutions in Budapest, 1944-45. He was one of the main assistants to Friedrich Born and Hans Weyermann. Gergely helped maintain the Red Cross protected houses, supplied food and medical aid to Jewish refugees, distributed protective papers, and maintained a vigilance in guarding the Red Cross buildings.
[Kramer, T. D. From Emancipation to Catastrophe: The Rise and Holocaust of Hungarian Jewry. (New York: University Press of America), pp. 244-286.]
El Conde de la Granja, President of the Spanish Red Cross in Madrid, 1943?
El Conde de la Granja was President of the Spanish Red Cross in Madrid. The Spanish Red Cross was under government control. It gave permission for Jewish relief agencies to send parcels to Jewish refugees. Normally, these parcels could not be sent to Jewish refugees because they were not considered officially as prisoners of war. In addition, Granja allowed these relief packages to be sent without shipping charges.
[Kranzler, David. Thy Brother’s Blood: The Orthodox Jewish Response During the Holocaust. (Brooklyn, NY: Mesorah, 1987), pp. 249-251.]
Sandor (Alexander) Kasza-Kasser,* Secretary General of the Swedish Red Cross in Hungary, 1944-45
In April 1944, Kasser was appointed by Valdemar Langlet to be the Secretary General of the newly formed Swedish Red Cross in Budapest. As a volunteer, Kasser was given the responsibility to organize for Langlet the administration of the Swedish Red Cross in Hungary. Kasser designed the Swedish Red Cross protective papers. Initially, about 400 of these protective papers were issued to Jews in Budapest. He provided Jewish refugees with jobs in the Red Cross and he rented hospitals which were used to hide Jews. Kasser worked extensively with Raoul Wallenberg on numerous rescue missions to save Jews from Arrow Cross roundups and from death marches. He received the Righteous Among the Nations award form the State of Israel in July 1997. His wife, Elizabeth Kasser, was a Jewish volunteer for the Swedish legation in Budapest. She served primarily as an interpreter for Raoul Wallenberg.
Karl “Charles” Kolb, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), stationed in Romania, 1943-1945
Karl Kolb was the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) representative stationed in Romania in 1943-1945. He was sent to Bucharest in November 1943 by the Red Cross. He made numerous inspections of Jewish conditions in Transnistria and brought relief and assistance to Jewish survivors of actions there. In the spring of 1944, he attempted to organize and evacuation and rescue of the surviving Jews to Palestine. This evacuation escape route was planned to be through the Black Sea to Turkey. Kolb was helped in the planning by the Romanian Red Cross, Jewish relief organizations, the Swiss minister in Romania René de Weck, and the American War Refugee board. The efforts of Kolb and others to rescue Jews were thwarted and were unsuccessful.
[See Favez, Jean-Claude. Edited and translated by John and Beryl Fletcher. The Red Cross and the Holocaust. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 110-115, 203-206, 213-215.]
Dr. Valdemar Langlet* and Nina Langlet,* Swedish Red Cross Delegate in Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45
On June 11, 1944, Carl Danielsson, Swedish Minister in Budapest, requested the Hungarian government allow the Swedish Red Cross to join the Hungarian Red Cross in feeding and housing thousands of orphaned Jewish children. Dr. Langlet launched a humanitarian campaign immediately, working with the Hungarian Red Cross. They also set up a children’s home in Budapest. Langlet and his wife, Nina, issued and distributed Swedish protective passes to Hungarian Jews, which prevented them from being deported or murdered by the Arrow Cross or Nazis. They worked with many Jewish volunteers. Valdemar and Nina Langlet were declared Righteous Among the Nations by the State of Israel in 1965.
Sarolta Lukács, Deputy Chairman of the Hungarian Red Cross, Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45
Sarolta Lukács, the Deputy Chairman of the Hungarian Red Cross in Budapest, 1944-45, worked closely with Dr. Valdemar and Nina Langlet of the Swedish Red Cross. [See Langlet, Valdemar. Verk och dagar i Budapest (Work and Days in Budapest). (Stockholm: Wahlstrom & Widstrand, 1946).]
Roland Marti, International Red Cross, stationed in Berlin, Germany.
Roland Marti was the International Red Cross representative stationed in Berlin, Germany. He was active throughout the war in trying to help Jewish refugees and internees in concentration camps. In September 1942, Marti petitioned the German government to treat Jews as “civilian internees,” who could then be helped by the Red Cross under the rules of the Geneva Convention.
[Favez, Jean-Claude. Edited and translated by John and Beryl Fletcher. The Red Cross and the Holocaust. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 7, 26-27, 34-38, 40-43, 52, 58, 60, 65-70, 73, 96-97, 102, 145, 148, 151-152, 159, 161-164, 251-260. Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), pp. 1230-1231.]
Dr. Morsen, International Committee of the Red Cross Delegate to the Swiss Legation in Paris, 1941
Dr. Morsen was the International Committee of the Red Cross delegate to the Swiss Legation in Paris in 1941.
Dr. Morsen and Dr. Roland Marti, who was the Berlin delegate of the ICRC, went on an extensive inspection trip to determine the conditions in French concentration camps Beaune-la-Rolande and Pithiviers. They were appalled by the conditions in the camps. They were able to provide aid to Jewish prisoners in these camps and worked to facilitate emigration for refugees out of France.
Asta Nilsson, Representative of the Swedish Red Cross, Budapest, 1944-45
Asta Nilsson was a relative of King Gustav of Sweden. Nilsson volunteered to go to Budapest, Hungary, in 1944 and was particularly active in saving and protecting Jewish children. When the Arrow Cross raided some of the children’s protected institutions, they arrested Nilsson and took her to the Jewish ghetto. She was later released with the intervention of Raoul Wallenberg.
Robert Schirmer, International Red Cross, Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45
Robert Schirmer was a member of the International Committee for the Red Cross. He was sent to Budapest, Hungary, in July 1944. He was sent to deliver a message protesting the deportation of Hungarian Jews to Hungarian head of state Horthy. Schirmer was assigned to be the assistant to Friedrich Born. After his arrival, he was given permission by Hungarian government officials to visit Jews who were arrested. He later went to visit Hungarian concentration camps to ascertain that Jews were being properly treated. Born and Schirmer brought aid and supplies and distributed food and medicine to Jews in protected homes. Schirmer also sought to protect thousands of children awaiting departure from Budapest. Born and Schirmer handed out hundreds of Red Cross letters of protection to Jews claiming any connection to Switzerland or the Red Cross delegation. By late 1944, 15,000 people were in possession of Red Cross protective papers.
[Favez, Jean-Claude. Edited and translated by John and Beryl Fletcher. The Red Cross and the Holocaust. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 115, 176, 192, 239, 241-242, 249, 255, 260-261.]
Gilbert Simond, Representative of the International Red Cross, Ankara, Turkey, 1943-1945?
Gilbert Simond was the representative of the International Red Cross in Ankara, Turkey. He worked to help Jewish refugees escape from eastern Europe to Turkey. The British provisionally agreed to allow Jews already in Turkey to enter Palestine. Simond worked with the Jewish Agency for Palestine (Yishuv) to arrange for immigration visas. He worked with the representative of the War Refugee Board, Ira Hirschmann, the Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, and with US Ambassador to Turkey Laurence Steinhardt.
[Favez, Jean-Claude. Edited and translated by John and Beryl Fletcher. The Red Cross and the Holocaust. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 110-112, 115, 210-211, 213-214, 243.]
Vladimir de Steiger, Delegate to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Transnistria, 1943-1944
Vladimir de Steiger was the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delegate in charge of protecting Transnisterian Jews in Romania. He encouraged the Romanian Red Cross to organize transportation to Istanbul to secure safe conduct papers and get ships and other craft to escape the Nazis. This was outside of the stated mission of the ICRC. Steiger worked with ICRC representative Karl Kolb and Swiss Minister in Romania René de Weck. This mission ultimately failed.
[Favez, Jean-Claude. Edited and translated by John and Beryl Fletcher. The Red Cross and the Holocaust, pp. 101, 106, 109-110, 213, 215. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999).]
Dr. Lutz Thudichum, International Committee of the Red Cross, Vienna, Austria, 1944-45
Dr. Lutz Thudichum was the representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Vienna, 1944-45. Thudichum was sent to Vienna at the end of 1944 with funds to buy food, clothing and supplies for the beleaguered Jews in Vienna. The fact that many Jews survived in Vienna has been credited to the work by Dr. Thudichum.
[Bauer, Yehuda. American Jewry and the Holocaust. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), p. 449.]
Hans Weyermann, Swiss Chargé of the International Red Cross in Budapest, 1944-45
In December 1944, Hans Weyermann, Swiss Chargé of the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC), arrived in Budapest and was active in the rescue work along with other neutral diplomats. He was successful in keeping Jewish children from being placed in the Pest ghetto. He was the assistant to Friedrich Born. Weyermann worked closely with Jewish community leaders and set up a number of special Red Cross sections. Born and Weyermann worked to protect and organize 150 clinics, hospitals, homes and other institutions in the winter of 1944-45. The ICRC helped distribute thousands of Red Cross protective papers to Jews in Budapest. Weyermann stayed in Hungary after Born’s departure from Budapest and continued to provide aid to Jewish refugees.
[Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 854, 981, 1063, 1149. Lévai, Jenö. Black Book on the Martyrdom of Hungarian Jewry. (Central European Times Publishing, 1948), pp. 381, 386-387, 391. Ben-Tov, Arieh. Facing the Holocaust in Budapest: The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Jews in Hungary, 1943-1945. (Boston: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1988), pp. 335, 339-344, 377-378. Asaf, Uri. Christian support for Jews during the Holocaust in Hungary. In Braham, Randolph L. (Ed.) Studies on the Holocaust in Hungary, pp. 65-112. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990), p. 107. Kramer, T. D. From Emancipation to Catastrophe: The Rise and Holocaust of Hungarian Jewry. (New York: University Press of America), pp. 249-250. Lévai, Jenö, translated by Frank Vajda. Raoul Wallenberg: His Remarkable Life, Heroic Battles and the Secret of his Mysterious Disappearance. (Melbourne, 1988, originally published in Hungarian in 1948). Favez, Jean-Claude. Edited and translated by John and Beryl Fletcher. The Red Cross and the Holocaust. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 242, 249, 250.]
Volunteer Workers for the International Red Cross in Budapest
Dr. Istvan Biro, Lawyer, Deputy for Transylvania, International Red Cross Volunteer, Budapest, 1944-45.
Dr. Istvan Biro was a volunteer worker for the International Red Cross in Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45. Biro worked with Sándor Ujváry, who worked with apostolic nuncio Angelo Rotta. They filled out hundreds of blank Vatican safe-conducts and distributed them to Jews at the Hungarian checkpoint in Hegyeshalom. As part of the Ujváry group, Biro faked certificates of baptism and other documents for Jews to rescue them from the Arrow Cross. They also distributed truckloads of medical supplies and food to Jews on deportations. According to contemporary records, 4,700 Jews were returned to Budapest from deportation. The Ujváry group was in constant danger from the Arrow Cross.
[See Lévai, Jenö. Black Book on the Martyrdom of Hungarian Jewry. (Central European Times Publishing, 1948), pp. 371-374.]
Mrs. István Csányi
Mrs. István Csányi worked under the guidance of Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg. Working with Gedeon Dienes, she saved hundreds of Jews from death marches and the Obuda brickyards by supplying them with Swedish protective papers.
Gedeon Dienes
Gedeon Dienes worked under the guidance of Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg and Swedish Red Cross representatives Dr. Valdemar and Nina Langlet. Dienes saved hundreds of Jews from death marches and the Obuda brickyards by supplying them with Swedish protective papers. He became involved in rescue efforts by taking Jews to hiding places and delivering Red Cross protective papers. On one occasion, Dienes distributed over 100 protective papers to Jews in a slave labor battalion.
Dr. Géza Kiss,* Hungarian Volunteer, International Red Cross, Budapest, 1944-45
Dr. Kiss was a volunteer worker for the International Red Cross in Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45. Kiss worked with Sándor Ujváry, who worked with apostolic nuncio Angelo Rotta. They filled out hundreds of blank Vatican safe-conducts and distributed them to Jews at the Hungarian checkpoint in Hegyeshalom. As part of the Ujváry group, Kiss faked certificates of baptism and other documents for Jews to rescue them from the Arrow Cross. They also distributed truckloads of medical supplies and food to Jews on deportations. According to contemporary records, 4,700 Jews were returned to Budapest from deportation. The Ujváry group was in constant danger from the Arrow Cross. Dr. Kiss was designated Righteous Among the Nations by the State of Israel in 1989. [See Lévai, Jenö. Black Book on the Martyrdom of Hungarian Jewry. (Central European Times Publishing, 1948), pp. 371-374.]
Mária Kóla, Swedish Red Cross, Budapest, 1944-45
Mária Kóla worked with Dr. Valdemar and Nina Langlet of the Swedish Red Cross. Together, they did everything in their power to protect Jews who were being robbed and deported by the Arrow Cross. This was particularly important after the summer of 1944.
Professor Papp, Volunteer, International Red Cross, Section B, Budapest, 1944-45
Professor Papp volunteered for Section B of the International Red Cross, which established a special department for the feeding, housing and protection of Jewish children in Budapest. Section B provided emergency safe houses for Jews, and worked closely with Valdemar Langlet of the Swedish Red Cross.
Dr. János Pétery, Volunteer, International Red Cross, Section B, Budapest, 1944-45
Dr. János Pétery volunteered for Section B of the International Red Cross, which established a special department for the feeding, housing and protection of Jewish children in Budapest. Section B provided emergency safe houses for Jews, and worked closely with Valdemar Langlet of the Swedish Red Cross.
Laszlo Szamosi, Volunteer for the International Red Cross and the Spanish Legation, Budapest
Laszlo Szamosi worked for the Spanish legation in Budapest and the International Red Cross in Section A. He worked to help save Jewish children during the Arrow Cross raids of late 1944.
[Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 1243-1244, fn 157.]
Reverend Gábor Sztehló, Volunteer, International Red Cross, Section B, and Member of the Good Shepard Committee, Budapest, 1944-45
Reverend Sztehló volunteered for and supervised Section B of the International Red Cross, which established a special department for the feeding, housing and protection of Jewish children in Budapest. Section B provided emergency safe houses for Jews, and worked closely with Valdemar Langlet of the Swedish Red Cross. Sztehló also smuggled Jewish children out of the Pest ghetto.
Sándor Újváry,* International Red Cross, Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45
Sándor Ujváry was a major rescuer and organizer for the International Red Cross in Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45. He was one of the most successful rescuers of Jews in Budapest, especially rescuing Jews from the death marches to Hegyeshalom. Ujváry worked with apostolic nuncio Angelo Rotta and took hundreds of blank Vatican safe-conducts, along with truck convoys of medical supplies and food, to Jews on deportations. Further, Ujváry faked certificates of baptism and other documents for Jews to rescue them from the Arrow Cross. Ujváry was declared Righteous Among the Nations in 1985. [Braham, R. L., “The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary.” New York: Columbia University Press, 1981. [Lévai, J. “Hungarian Jewry and the Papacy.” London: Sands and Company, 1968. Lévai, J. “Grey Book on the Rescuing of Hungarian Jews.” Budapest: Officina, 1946. Lévai, Jenö. Black Book on the Martyrdom of Hungarian Jewry. (Central European Times Publishing, 1948), pp. 371-374.]
Dr. György Wilhelm, Volunteer with the International Red Cross, Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45
Dr. György Wilhelm worked with the International Red Cross as a transportation coordinator in helping to rescue Jews. Wilhelm was also responsible for providing refugees with protective documents and housing. [Lévai, 1948, pp. 389-390.]
Eva Bihari Wimmer, Volunteer for the Swedish legation in Budapest, 1944-45
Eva Bihari Wimmer was a young woman who volunteered to work for Dr. Valdemar Langlet to help distribute food to the Jewish protected houses in the Pest ghetto and to take doctors into the ghetto to take care of the sick in these houses. Langlet later introduced her to Raoul Wallenberg. Wallenberg needed a non-Jewish interpreter, and Wimmer volunteered. On a number of occasions, she accompanied Wallenberg to the various Hungarian ministries to negotiate the placement of Jews in protected houses. She told Hungarian police officials that she was helping Wallenberg by supplying him orders to retrieve Jews from the death marches, ostensibly so that they could be exchanged for high-ranking German prisoners of war. Because of the danger, Wimmer was forced to sleep at different safe houses every night.
Dr. Tibor Verebély
Dr. Boldizsar Horvath
Dr. Ferenczy
Under the auspices of the International Red Cross, these Christian physicians volunteered to help Jews who were being held pending deportation at the Obuda brick works near Budapest. These doctors obtained permission to enter the brick works and provide medical relief and supplies to Jews who had heretofore not received any medical attention.
Romania
Raoul Bossy, Romanian Ambassador to Germany in Berlin, 1942-?
Raoul Bossy was the Romanian Ambassador to Germany stationed in Berlin. He protested the proposed deportation of Romanian Jews to the German Foreign Ministry. He presented his protest to Germany Deputy Foreign Minister Martin Luther. [Browning, Christopher R. Browning. The Final Solution and the German Foreign Office: A Study of Referat D III of Abteilung Deutschland 1940-43. (New York: Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1978), pp. 103-104.]
Mr. Cameracescu, Romanian Minister in Rome, 1943
Romanian diplomat Cameracescu issued protective papers to Jews in Rome, Italy, in 1943. He worked with the Jewish relief agency Delegazione Assistenze Emigranti Ebrei (Jewish Emigrant Association; Delasem) and Father Marie-Benoit. [Waagenaar, Sam. The Pope’s Jews. (La Salle, IL: Open Court Publishers, 1974), pp. 394-395.]
Florian Manoliu,* Romanian diplomat stationed in Hungary
Awarded Righteous Among the Nations status in 2001.
Please note: the information on these Romanian diplomats was supplied by the Romanian government and has yet to be verified.
Radu Flondor, Romanian Consul in Vienna, Austria
Flondor issued passports to Jews of Romanian origin in Vienna, which helped them avoid deportation to the murder camps.
Constantin Karadja, Consul General of Romania in Berlin, 1942-1944
Constantin Karadja, Consul General of Romania in Berlin, issued hundreds of Romanian visas to German Jews in Berlin during the period from 1942 to 1944.
Constanin Mares, Consul for Romania in Vienna, Austria
Like Radu Flondor, Mares issued visas and passports to Austrian Jews that saved them from Nazi persecution and deportation.
Dumitru Metta, Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Romanian Legation in France, 1940-42
Between 1940 and 1942, Metta issued more than 1,500 Romanian passports for Jews living in Vichy France.
Valeanu, First Secretary of the Romanian Embassy in Berlin, 1942?
First Secretary Valeanu protested the proposed deportations of the Jews from Romania. Valeanu presented to the German Foreign Ministry a paper stating that Romanians would not permit discrimination against Romanian Jews. [Browning, Christopher R. Browning. The Final Solution and the German Foreign Office: A Study of Referat D III of Abteilung Deutschland 1940-43. (New York: Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1978), pp. 103-104.]
* Indicates recognition by the State of Israel as Righteous Among the Nations