Diplomatic Rescue by Country - Part 3

Part 1 - Argentina through Ireland

Part 2 - Italy through Romania

Part 3 - Slovakia through United States - See Below

Part 4 - Vatican through Yugoslavia

Slovakia

Dr. Spisiak, Slovakian Consul in Budapest, 1944-45

Dr. Spisiak, Slovakian Consul in Budapest, provided Slovakian Jewish refugees with false passports.  He also helped the Jews in the Pest ghetto. [Hetényi, Varga K., “Those Who Were Persecuted Because of the Truth.” Ecclesia, Budapest, 1985.]


Slovakian Ambassador to Madrid, Spain, 1940-41

The Slovak Ambassador in Madrid helped Jewish refugee Hecht.

[Hecht oral history testimony.]

 

Soviet Union

Pozdniakov, Soviet Consul in Kovna (Kaunas), Lithuania, 1940

The Russian consul in Kovno, Lithuania, Pozdniakov, obtained agreement from Soviet officials to allow Jewish refugees holding a “Sauf-Conduits” (safe conduct pass) for stateless persons to emigrate and escape through the USSR.  This agreement was signed and proclaimed in Lithuania on April 22, 1940.  Japanese consul Chiune Sugihara helped convince Pozdniakov to allow this escape to take place.

[Bauer, Yehuda. American Jewry and the Holocaust. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), p. 116.]

 

Spain

Juan Manuel de Arístegui, Spanish Ambassador to Belgium

Worked throughout the occupation of Belgium to get Belgian Jews out of Belgium to Spain by claiming they were Spanish nationals. Arístegui stopped a deportation train bound for a concentration camp.


Domingo de las Barcenas, Spanish Ambassador to Rome, 1942-1943

Domingo de las Barcenas, the Spanish Ambassador to Rome, was warned of the impending deportation of Jews in Rome in December 1942.  Barcenas tried to find safe houses for Jews in Rome that were maintained by Catholic religious orders.  These safe houses were later raided and Jews deported.  Barcenas then went to the Vatican and met with Vatican Secretary of State Montini protesting the deportations.  Together, they went to the German embassy and again protested deportations.  Eichmann protested the Spanish Embassy’s “interference” in Rome to officials in Madrid.  [Alexy, Trudy. The Mezuzah in the Madonna’s Foot, pp. 166-167. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993).]


Lazaro Benveniste, Spanish Consul in Cavalla, 1942-43?

Lazaro Benveniste represented himself as a former Vice Consul of Spain in Cavalla.  At the time of his rescue activity, he was working out of Lausanne.  Benveniste also worked with Saly Maier of the Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.  They also worked with Solomon Ezrati.  [Avni, Haim. “Spanish Nationals in Greece and their Fate during the Holocaust.” Yad Vashem Studies, 8 (1970), p. 65.]


Señor Diaz, Secretary of the Spanish Embassy in Berlin, Germany, 1942-43?

Señor Diaz, Secretary of the Spanish embassy in Berlin, strongly advocated for a policy that would have the Spanish government repatriate all Spanish Jews in German occupied territories in Europe.  [Reitlinger, Gerald. The Final Solution: The Attempt to Exterminate the Jews of Europe, 1939-1945. (New York: The Beechhurst Press, 1953), pp. 377-378.]


Solomon Ezrati, Spanish Consul in Salonika, Greece, 1941-43. 

Solomon Ezrati served as a Vice-Consul at the Spanish consulate in Salonika.  He had held the position for 28 years.  Ezrati worked closely with Spanish Consul General Romero Radigales in helping to save Spanish Jews in Salonika.  Because Solomon Ezrati was Jewish, he was arrested along with other Spanish nationals and deported to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.  Her survived the war.  [Avni, Haim. “Spanish Nationals in Greece and their Fate during the Holocaust.” Yad Vashem Studies, 8 (1970), pp. 38, 52-54, 65. Avni, Haim. Spain, the Jews and Franco. (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1982).]


Nicholas Franco, Spanish Ambassador to Portugal, 1943-1944?

Nicholas Franco (brother to Spanish head of state Francisco Franco) tried to gain thee release of Spanish Jews who had fled to Athens in the summer of 1943.  These Jewish Sephardim were locked up in the Haidari prison in Athens.  The Nazis responded to the request by stating that these Jews had “already been sent east.”

[Friedman, S. S. A History of the Holocaust. (Portland, OR: Vallentine Mitchell, 2004), p. 269.]


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.]


Jose de Lequerica, First Secretary at the Spanish Embassy in Paris, 1939-41


Bernardo Rolland de Miota, Spain, Consul General in Paris, 1941-43

In August 1941, Rolland actively intervened in the cases of 14 Jews who were deported to the Drancy concentration camp.  At the same time, he embarked on a dangerous mission to transfer 2,000 Jews from the Drancy transit camp to safety in Morocco.  Throughout the war, he denounced Nazi persecution of Jews.  By September 1943, Rolland was in part responsible for the escape of thousands of French Jews to Spain.  


Benjamino Molho, Deputy Ambassador to Spain in Yugoslavia, 1942-1943?

Benjamino Molho, the Deputy Ambassador to Yugoslavia who was posted in Belgrade, provided Spanish protective papers for Jews trying to escape Nazi deportation to the concentration camps. [Alexy, Trudy. The Mezuzah in the Madonna’s Foot, pp. 167. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993).  Oral history by author with Molho.]


Miguel Angel de Muguiro, Spain, Minister (Ambassador) in Budapest, 1944

Minister Muguiro was openly critical of the Hungarian government’s anti-Semitic policy.  After the German occupation of Hungary, Muguiro protested the persecution and deportation of Jews.  Muguiro’s outspoken criticism was a continuing source of tension between Spain and Hungary.  As a result, Muguiro was recalled from Hungary.


Julio Palencia y Alvarez, Spain, Minister Plenipotentiary in Sofia, Bulgaria, 1940-43

In December 1940, Palencia organized protection for 150 Jews of Sephardic origin.  In 1943, he stepped up his actions to protect Jews from deportation.  He actively protested Bulgarian and Nazi persecutions of Jews.  Palencia contributed to the saving of the lives of more than 600 Bulgarian Jews.  For his actions, he was declared persona non grata and forced to return to Madrid.  Upon his return, he was reprimanded for his actions in Bulgaria.  [Avni, Haim. Spain, the Jews and Franco. (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1982), pp. 165-167, 180.]


Eduardo Propper de Callejón, First Secretary of the Spanish Consulate in Bordeaux, 1940

Eduardo Propper de Callejón was the First Secretary of the Spanish Consulate in Bordeaux.  He provided visas to Jews from his consulate in Bordeaux.  In early February 1941, Propper de Callejón was stationed at the Spanish embassy in Vichy.  There, he was transferred to a remote military outpost in Spanish Morocco.  Callejón’s family assumed the assignment was in reprisal for his issuing the visas without proper approval.  Propper de Callejón received a letter from the Spanish foreign ministry accusing him of “serving the interests of the French Jewish community.”  He lost his seniority within the Spanish diplomatic service.


Sebastián Romero Radigales, Spain, Consul General in Athens, 1943-44

Consul General Sebastián Romero Radigales, Consul General for Spain in Athens, intervened on behalf of more than 800 Jews of Athens and Salonica in 1943, preventing their deportation to Nazi concentration camps.  In one instance, he managed to evacuate 150 Jews from a deportation train.  Throughout the war, Radigales continued to protest German actions against Jews.  As a result, the German Ambassador in Athens lodged a complaint against Radigales asking the Spanish government to instruct Radigales not to interfere in deportations.  By the end of the war, Radigales was able to provide protection for numerous Jews in Greece and saved them from deportation to Auschwitz. 


José Rojas, Spain, Minister in Bucharest, 1941, and Ankara, 1944

José Rojas y Moreno Conde de Casa was the Spanish Minister in Bucharest in 1941 and in Ankara in 1944.  Rojas arrived in Bucharest in 1941 and from the beginning was a harsh critic of the Nazi policy of persecuting Jews.  He was adamantly opposed to the deportation of Jews and the harsh conditions imposed by the Nazis.  He posted diplomatic protective signs on over 300 houses where Jewish families lived.  In 1944, Rojas was directly responsible for the evacuation of 65 Jews to Spain. 


Don Angel Sanz-Briz,* Spanish Minister (Ambassador) in Budapest, Hungary, 1944

In the summer of 1944, Sanz-Briz appealed to Madrid for permission to provide Spanish protective papers for Jews in Budapest.  Unable to obtain permission, he issued hundreds of Spanish protective passes on his own authority.  He authorized the establishment and protection of dozens of safe houses in Budapest at his own personal cost.  By the end of the war, many thousands of Jews were saved by receiving protection from Sanz-Briz and other members of the Spanish legation.  He served a long and distinguished career for Spain.  His last assignment was Spanish Ambassador to the Vatican.  He died in 1980.  Sanz-Briz was declared Righteous Among the Nations by the State of Israel in 1965.


Dr. Jose Santaella,* Spanish Agricultural Attaché in Berlin, and Carmen Santaella*

Dr. Jose Santaella and his wife Carmen were awarded Righteous Among the Nations medals by Yad Vashem in 1988 for helping to save Jews in Berlin.


Volunteers Who Worked with Spanish Diplomats:

Zoltan Fárkas

Farkas was the Spanish legation’s legal counselor.  He helped Minister Sanz-Briz in the rescue activities of Jews.


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.


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.]


Father Ireneo Typaldos, Translator at the Spanish Embassy in Salonika, 1943

On July 30, 1943, the translator from the Spanish embassy in Salonika, a Greek priest named Father Ireneo Typaldos, arrived from Athens.  Typaldos tried to persuade SS and German officials in Salonika to stop the deportations and instead transfer the Jewish Spanish nationals to Athens.  When his request was denied, he volunteered to join the deportation.  [Avni, pp. 149-150]

 

Sweden

Per Anger,* Swedish Attaché in Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45

Per Anger was the Secretary of the Swedish Legation in Budapest, Hungary in 1944-1945.  Anger, along with Minister Carl Ivan Danielsson, kept the Swedish legation open in Hungary and worked closely with their diplomats and volunteers.  Anger designed and distributed an early form of Swedish protective paper.  Anger also personally intervened on behalf of Jews who were being deported to the Nazi death camps.  On other occasions, Anger rescued Jews from Nazi death marches leaving Budapest.  Consul Anger is credited with saving thousands of Jews from the spring of 1944 until the end of the war in May 1945. Per Anger was awarded the Righteous Among the Nations title by the State of Israel in 1980.  He became an honorary citizen of Israel in 2001.  For more than 50 years, Per Anger worked tirelessly on behalf of the memory of Raoul Wallenberg.  Anger died in 2002.


Lars Berg,* Swedish Consul in Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45

Lars Berg was part of the diplomatic mission to Budapest, Hungary.  Along with his Swedish diplomatic colleagues, he was responsible for saving Jews from Nazi and Arrow Cross deportations and murder.  Berg authored a book on the Swedish legation’s mission entitled, What Happened in Budapest (Stockholm: Forsners Förlag, 1949).  He was honored by Yad Vashem with the title Righteous Among the Nations in 1982 for his actions. 


Count Folke Bernadotte, Swedish Red Cross, Germany, 1945

Count Folke Bernadotte (1895-1948) was Vice President of the Swedish Red Cross in Germany in 1945.  He was nephew 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 negotiated and arranged for the release of 10,0000 women from the Ravensbrück and Bergen Belsen concentration camps.  He arranged for special 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.  In 1948, he was appointed to the position of Mediator for the Security Council of the United Nations in Palestine.  Bernadotte negotiated a temporary truce between Arab and Jewish armies.  He was assassinated by the Jewish underground on September 17, 1948, while serving in this position.  After the war, the Israeli government apologized to his family.  [Bernadotte, Folke, Count. The Fall of the Curtain: Last Days of the Third Reich. (London: Cassell, 1945).  Marton, Kati. A Death in Jerusalem. (New York: Pantheon Books, 1996).]


Göte Carlsson, Swedish Consul in Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45

Göte Carlsson was a Swedish diplomat stationed with the Swedish legation in Budapest in 1944-1945.  Along with Per Anger, Lars Berg and Raoul Wallenberg, he was active in rescuing Jews from the Nazi and Arrow Cross. 


Carl Ivan Danielsson,* Swedish Minister (Ambassador) in Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45

Carl Ivan Danielsson was the Swedish Minister in Budapest in 1944-1945.  As head of the Swedish mission to Budapest, Danielsson was responsible for the rescue and protection of tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews.  He was responsible for the overall mission and ultimately the success of the Swedish legation.  For his actions, he was awarded the Righteous Among the Nations medal by Israel in 1982.


Niels Eric Ekblad, Swedish Consul in Denmark, 1943

Consul Niels Eric Ekblad was sent by the Swedish government to report on the action of the Germans in the impending deportation of Danish Jews in October 1943.  Ekblad accompanied German diplomat Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz to a clandestine meeting with Swedish Prime Minister Per Albin Hansson.  Ekblad relayed advance warning from Duckwitz to the Swedish government.  At the Swedish embassy in Copenhagen, Ekblad issued many passports to Danish citizens.  [Werner, Emmy E. A Conspiracy of Decency: The Rescue of the Danish Jews during World War II. (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2002), pp. 33-36, 39, 41. Ekblad, Niels Eric. Aufzeichnung über gewisse Ereignisse im Zusammenhang mit der deutschen Aktion gegen die dänishen Juden um den 1 Oktober 1943. (Hamburg, January 22, 1958; Jerusalem: Yad Vashem Archives, File #027/13).]


Gösta Engzell, Head of Legal Division of the Swedish Foreign Office, Stockholm, Sweden, World War II

Gösta Engzell headed the Legal Division of the Swedish Foreign Office throughout the war.  He was the individual most responsible for the positive switch in the Swedish government’s official policy and response to the murder of European Jews.  He convinced the Swedish government to help Jews in Nazi controlled territories.  He empowered diplomats in Norway, Denmark and later in Budapest.  He was responsible for empowering Swedish diplomats Carl Ivan Danielsson and Per Anger to issue Swedish protective papers to Budapest Jews.  By the end of the war, Swedish action on behalf of Jews in Europe, almost always initiated or supported by Engzell and his staff, contributed to the rescue and relief of 30,000-40,000 Jews. [Levine, P.A., p. 212, in Cesarani, D., & Levine, P.A., 2002]


Christian Guenther, Swedish Foreign Minister

In the autumn of 1943, Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs Christian Guenther negotiated for the release of Danish and Norwegian prisoners held in German camps.  This eventually led to the release of thousands of prisoners to the Swedish Red Cross under the supervision of Folke Bernadotte in March and April 1945.  [Friedman, Philip. Their Brothers’ Keepers: The Christian Heroes and Heroines Who Helped the Oppressed Escape the Nazi Terror. (New York: Holocaust Library, 1978), pp. 171-172. Levine, Paul A. From Indifference to Activism: Swedish Diplomacy and the Holocaust: 1938-1944. (Uppsala, Sweden: 1998), pp. 115, 145, 163, 167, 181, 185, 217, 220, 222, 224, 226, 234-241, 249. Yahil, L. “Scandinavian Countries to the Rescue of Concentration Camp Prisoners.” Yad Vashem Studies, 6 (1967), pp. 196, 201-202.]


Legation Consul Gyllenram, Swedish Consul in Vichy France, 1942-43?

[Levine, Paul A. From Indifference to Activism: Swedish Diplomacy and the Holocaust: 1938-1944. (Uppsala, Sweden: 1998), p. 125.]


Prime Minister Per Albin Hansson of Sweden

Swedish Prime Minister Per Albin Hansson agreed to accept Jewish refugees from Denmark during the German action of October 1943.  In addition, Hansson met with German diplomat Georg Duckwitz. [Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), p. 1438. Carlgren, W. M. Swedish Foreign Policy during the Second World War. (London, 1977). Yahil, L. “Scandinavian Countries to the Rescue of Concentration Camp Prisoners.” Yad Vashem Studies, 6 (1967), pp. 181-220. Levine, Paul A. From Indifference to Activism: Swedish Diplomacy and the Holocaust: 1938-1944. (Uppsala, Sweden: 1998), pp. 139, 222, 232-235, 242.]


Einar Hennings, Swedish Diplomat in Vichy France, 1942-43?

Einar Hennings, a former kabinettssekreterare [cabinet secretary], met with French Vichy leader Pierre Laval and presented a personal protest to prevent the deportation of Russian citizens to Germany.  He also protested against ongoing Jewish deportations.  Hennings provided reports to the Swedish Foreign Ministry regarding actions against Jews. [Levine, Paul A. From Indifference to Activism: Swedish Diplomacy and the Holocaust: 1938-1944. (Uppsala, Sweden: 1998), pp. 125, 159, 178.]


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.


Elow Kihlgren,* Swedish diplomat stationed in Italy

Awarded Righteous Among the Nations status in 2001.


Dr. Valdemar Langlet* and Nina Langlet,* Swedish Red Cross Delegates 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.  Langlet and his wife issued and distributed Swedish protective passes to Hungarian Jews, which prevented them from being deported or murdered by the Arrow Cross or Nazis.  Valdemar and Nina Langlet were honored as Righteous Among the Nations by the State of Israel in 1965.


Asta Nilsson, Representative of the Swedish Red Cross, Budapest, 1944-45

Asta Nilsson was a relative of King Gustav of Sweden.  In 1944, Nilsson volunteered for an extremely dangerous mission in Budapest, Hungary.  Nilsson worked with the Swedish Red Cross with Valdemar and Nina Langlet.  In Budapest, Nilsson was 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 Arrow Cross headquarters.  She was later released with the intervention of Raoul Wallenberg.  [Lévai, 1948, p. 392.]


Raoul Nordling, Swedish Consul General in Paris, France, 1944-45

Swedish Consul General Raoul Nordling had smuggled to safety scores of French men and women, some of whom were Jewish, who were threatened with arrest by the Nazis.  Nordling was also responsible for negotiating with the German commander of Paris in 1944 to prevent him from carrying out Hitler’s order to destroy Paris.


Leif Öhrvall, Sweden

[Levine, Paul A. From Indifference to Activism: Swedish Diplomacy and the Holocaust: 1938-1944. (Uppsala, Sweden: 1998), pp.141-145, 171-176.]


D. Rentenswärd, Swedish Representative in Romania, 1943?

Mr. Rentenswärd made efforts to help Jews in Transylvania, Romania, during the deportations.

[Dworzecki, Meir, “The International Red Cross and its Policy Vis-à-Vis the Jews in Ghettos and Concentration Camps in Nazi-Occupied Europe,” in Gutman, Y., and E. Zuroff (Eds.). Rescue Attempts during the Holocaust: Proceedings of the Second Yad Vashem International Historical Conference, Jerusalem, 3-11 April, 1974. (Jerusalem, 1977), pp. 71-110.]


Arvid Richert, Swedish Minister in Berlin, October 1943

Arvid Richert was the Swedish Minister in Berlin in October 1943.  In response to the proposed deportation of Danish Jews in October 1943, Richert submitted an official proposal to the German Foreign Ministry that would place Danish Jews as refugees in camps in Sweden.  The Germans never answered the proposal.  The Swedish government announced that it would accept Danish Jewish refugees.  Soon, 9,000 Danish Christians and 7,000 Danish Jews reached Sweden.  Later, 100 Finnish Jews were brought to Sweden.  [Reitlinger, Gerald. The Final Solution: The Attempt to Exterminate the Jews of Europe, 1939-1945. (New York: The Beechhurst Press, 1953), pp. 350-351.]


Imre Tahy, Swedish Chargé d’Affaires in Bern, Switzerland, 1944

Imre Tahy was the Councillor of the Swedish legation in Bern, Switzerland.  He sent a letter of protest regarding the treatment of Jews in Hungary to the Hungarian government.  [Lévai, Jenö. Black Book on the Martyrdom of Hungarian Jewry. (Central European Times Publishing, 1948), pp. 233, 308-311.]


Gustaf von Dardel, Swedish Ambassador to Denmark, 1943?

Gustaf von Dardel was the Swedish Ambassador to Denmark in 1943.  He helped to save Jews during the action of October 1943.  Von Dardel notified the Swedish government in Stockholm about the impending deportations.  In addition, von Dardel arranged for various aspects of the rescue operation.  [Werner, Emmy E. A Conspiracy of Decency: The Rescue of the Danish Jews during World War II (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2002), pp. 33, 41.]


Dénes Von Mezey, Swedish Consul in Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45

Dénes Von Mezey was a consular officer at the Swedish legation in Budapest, Hungary. He participated in the rescue of Jews. [Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981). Anger, Per. Translated by David Mel Paul and Margareta Paul. With Raoul Wallenberg in Budapest: Memories of the War Years in Hungary. (New York: Holocaust Library, 1981), pp. 48, 85, 132, 135, 139. 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. 90.]


Göran von Otter, Swedish Consul in Berlin, 1942?

Swedish Consul Göran von Otter received secret information from German SS Lieutenant Kurt Gerstein regarding the gassing of Jews at the Belzec death camp in eastern Poland.  Gerstein personally witnessed the gassing of Jews. This is perhaps the first time that a first-hand, reliable report of the German death camps was received by a western power.  Von Otter passed the information on in a report to the Swedish Foreign Ministry.  It was not publicized and remained buried in the Swedish records.  [Levine, Paul A. From Indifference to Activism: Swedish Diplomacy and the Holocaust: 1938-1944. (Uppsala, Sweden: 1998), pp. 127-129, 163, 179-180, 215, 218-219, 225-226, 243.]


Erik von Post, Swedish diplomat

[Levine, Paul A. From Indifference to Activism: Swedish Diplomacy and the Holocaust: 1938-1944. (Uppsala, Sweden: 1998), pp. 116, 139, 144, 149-153, 177, 218, 222, 227, 252-253.]


Raoul Wallenberg,* Secretary of the Swedish Legation in Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45

Raoul Wallenberg volunteered as a civilian employee of the American War Refugee Board in 1944.  He was credentialed as a diplomat by Sweden and arrived in Budapest on January 9, 1944.  His mission was to save as many Budapest Jews as possible.  Raoul Wallenberg redesigned the Swedish protective papers.  Wallenberg issued Swedish diplomatic papers to thousands of Hungarian Jews.  He prevented the Nazis from deporting and murdering Jews in the death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau.  With his staff of Jewish volunteers, Wallenberg rescued thousands of Jews who were being forced on death marches.  He also established dozens of safe houses throughout Budapest.  He tirelessly protected the safe houses from Nazi and Arrow Cross raids.  In January 1945, Raoul Wallenberg was arrested by the Russians and disappeared. He was honored as Righteous Among the Nations by the State of Israel in 1963.  In 1981, Wallenberg was bestowed the title of honorary citizen of the United States, at that time, an honor reserved only for Winston Churchill.  In addition, he has been honored all over the world for his life-saving activities.  After 60 years of investigation, his whereabouts or fate in the hands of the Soviet Union has never been proven.


Claes Adolf Hjalmar Westring, Swedish Consul in Oslo, Norway, 1943

Claes Adolf Hjalmar Westring was able to secure the release of 50 Norwegian Jews in Oslo in February 1943. In November 1942, the Germans began large-scale deportations of Jews in Norway.  This event made the front page of Swedish newspapers.  Swedish minister Gösta Engzell ordered diplomats to protect Jews who might have some connection with Sweden.  The Swedish Foreign Ministry demanded information regarding the deportations against Jews who were either Swedish or had Swedish relatives.  They demanded the release from internment camps of those who had already been rounded up.  Sweden told the German government that they were “prepared to accept all remaining Jews in Norway should they be subject to removal.” [See Holocaust Encyclopedia, Yale University, pp. 615-616. Levine, P.A., p. 212, in Cesarani, D., & Levine, P.A., 2002.  Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), p. 1438. Levine, Paul A. From Indifference to Activism: Swedish Diplomacy and the Holocaust: 1938-1944. (Uppsala, Sweden: 1998), pp. 123, 135, 145-147, 165, 167.]


Swedish Embassy in Bucharest, Romania, 1944

After August 1944, officials at the Swedish embassy in Bucharest issued safe-conduct passes to numerous refugees from Hungary. [Braham, Randolph L. (Ed.) Hungarian-Jewish Studies. (New York: World Federation of Hungarian Jews, 1966), pp. 203-204.]


Swedish Minister to Rome

The Swedish Minister in Rome was not officially accredited to the Vatican, but had credibility with the Holy See.  He encouraged the Pope to make a public statement condemning the raid and deportation of Roman Jews in October 1943.  [Morley, John. Vatican Diplomacy and the Jews during the Holocaust, 1939-1943. (New York: Ktav, 1980), pp. 183-184.]


Julius Hüttner, Consul General for Costa Rica station in Gotterburg

Julius Hüttner may have been Swedish and serving as an honorary consul.  This information needs to be confirmed.  He also may have been Jewish.


Volunteers/Employees Who Worked With Swedish Diplomats in Budapest

Margarete Bauer, Secretary, Swedish Legation, Budapest, 1944-45

Margarete Bauer worked directly for the refugee section of the Swedish embassy in Budapest.  She was responsible for processing thousands of the protective papers.  On occasion, she was responsible for delivering these protective papers directly to refugees.  On one occasion, she was arrested by the Arrow Cross, along with Asta Nilsson.  She was freed by Friedrich Born. [Lévai, 1948, p. 392.]


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.


Elisabeth Kasza-Kasser, Volunteer with the Swedish legation in Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45

Elisabeth Kasza-Kasser was a volunteer for the Swedish legation in Budapest, 1944-45.  On many occasions, she was the personal interpreter for Raoul Wallenberg on his numerous missions to save Jews from Nazi and Arrow Cross deportation.


Mária Kóla, Swedish Red Cross, Budapest, 1944-45

Mária Kóla worked with Dr. Valdemar and Nina Langlet of the Swedish Red Cross.  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.


Simón Margel, Clerk in the Consulate General of Argentina in Budapest and Employee of the Swedish Legation in Budapest

Simón Margel was a Polish Jew and a refugee in Hungary who worked as a Clerk in the Argentine Consulate General in Budapest.  After the Nazi persecutions of Jews began in 1944, Margel requested permission to immigrate to Argentina.  The Consul General at the time refused to give Margel protection or immigration documentation.  Margel then volunteered as an employee of the Swedish legation in Budapest.  From his position in the Swedish legation, he issued more than 250 diplomatic protective papers to “presumed Argentine Jews.”  The Argentine Foreign Ministry later condemned Margel for “overstepping his authority.”

[Feierstein, Daniel and Miguel Galante. “Argentina and the Holocaust: The conceptions and policies of Argentine diplomacy, 1933-1945.” Yad Vashem Studies, 27 (1999), 188-189.]


Géza Szentes, Volunteer with Raoul Wallenberg, Budapest

Géza Szentes and his wife volunteered on rescue missions with Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg.  He was named Righteous Among the Nations in 1973.


Thomas Veres, Volunteer for Raoul Wallenberg, Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45

Thomas Veres was a volunteer for Raoul Wallenberg at the Swedish legation in Budapest, 1944-45.  Veres was also the driver and translator for Wallenberg.  He took many of the photographs showing Wallenberg on his rescue missions in Budapest.


Hugo Wahl
Béla Forgás
Vilmos Forgás

To carry out the rescue operations, Raoul Wallenberg, Per Anger, Lars Berg and Danielsson set up an organization that included 355 employees, 40 physicians, two hospitals, and a kitchen.  Most of these employees and volunteers were Jews or Jews who converted to Christianity to escape deportation.  Hugo Wahl, Béla Forgás and Vilmos Forgás played an important role with the Swedish legation and worked as intermediaries between Hungarian authorities and the Swedes. [Braham, 1981, pp. 1087-1088.]

 

Switzerland

Marcel Pilet-Golaz, Swiss Foreign Minister, 1944

Marcel Pilet-Golaz, the Swiss Foreign Minister, received authority from the Swiss Federal Council “to offer a temporary refuge in Switzerland to 8,000 Hungarian Jews.”  Pilet-Golaz agreed to proceed with the rescue plan under Anglo-American guarantees. Minister Pilet-Golaz was a known pro-Nazi.

[Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), p. 1281 fn 102-103.]


Franz Bischof, Vice Consul in Charge of Swiss Interests in Budapest, 1937-1945

Franz Bischof was actively involved in rescuing Jews along with Carl Lutz in the Swiss Embassy in Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45.  In addition, Bischof personally hid more than 30 Jews from Nazi deportation and murder.

[Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981).]


Leopold Breszlauer, Swiss consular official in Budapest, Hungary, 1944

Swiss consular official Leopold Breszlauer, along with Ladislaus Kluger, issued 300 protective papers to Hungarian Jews.  Breszlauer and Kluger produced a report in November 1944 on the death marches from Budapest to Hegyeshalom. 

[Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), p. 841.]


Mr. Chauvet, Swiss Legation in Rome, 1943

Mr. Chauvet, of the Swiss legation in Rome, issued Swiss protective letters to Jews and certified that they were French citizens.  Eventually, Chauvet expanded his protection to falsely certify that all refugees were French.  Chauvet distributed false documents to hundreds of Jews.  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, 399.]


René de Weck, Swiss Consul General in Bucharest, Romania, and Amsterdam, 1942-45

In spring 1933, de Weck was appointed Plenipotentiary Minister for Switzerland in Romania, Yugoslavia and Greece, stationed in Bucharest, Romania.  In November 1941, as a result of the Nazi persecutions of Jews in Romania, de Weck contacted the Red Cross and urged them to send a special representative to Bucharest to protect Jews who were being murdered.  As a result, the ICRC sent two representatives.  Working with ICRC representative Carl Kolb in the summer of 1943, de Weck managed to gather more than 2,000 Jewish orphans in Moldavia to prevent their deportation and from being forced into ghettoes.  De Weck also managed to protect Hungarian Jews who had sought refuge in Romania and who would otherwise have been murdered.  De Weck worked to prevent the Romanian government from harming Jews of Swiss nationality or of those countries whose interests were being represented by Switzerland in Romania.

[Bauer, Yehuda. American Jewry and the Holocaust. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), pp. 349-350.  Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), pp. 1231, 1297-1298. Favez, Jean-Claude.  Edited and translated by John and Beryl Fletcher. The Red Cross and the Holocaust. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 109, 198-200, 202, 206-207, 210, 212-213. Vago, Bela. “Political and Diplomatic Activities for the Rescue of the Jews of Northern Transylvania.” Yad Vashem Studies, 6 (1967), p. 161. Laqueur, Walter (Ed.) and Judith Tydor Baumel (Assoc. Ed.).  The Holocaust Encyclopedia. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), p. 621.  Lavi, T. Rumanian Jewry in World War II: Fight for Survival. (Jerusalem, 1965). Hebrew.  Lavi, T. (Ed.). Rumania, Vol. 1.  In Pinkas Hakehillot, Encyclopaedia of Jewish Communities. (Jerusalem, 1969). Hebrew.  Butnaru, I. C. The Silent Holocaust: Romania and its Jews.]


Dr. Harald Feller,* Swiss Minister in Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45

Dr. Harald Feller replaced Maximilian Jaeger as head of the Swiss legation in Budapest, Hungary, in 1944.  From the beginning of his appointment, Dr. Feller was tireless in his efforts to support Consul Charles Lutz and the rescue of Jews under Swiss protection.  Feller worked closely with the other neutral legations in constantly pressuring the Horthy and Sztójay puppet governments to end the persecution and deportations of Jews.  He signed a joint protest of the treatment of Jews along with his fellow diplomatic representatives.  Feller protected members of the Swedish legation, who were targeted by the Arrow Cross, by giving them false Swiss passports and providing shelter.  Toward the end of the war, Feller hid dozens of Jews in the basement of his consular residence in Budapest.  In February 1945, the Soviets arrested Feller and sent him to Moscow, along with other Swiss nationals.  He was returned to Switzerland in February 1946.  Feller received his Righteous Among the Nations award in 1999. He passed away in 2002 in Bern, Switzerland.

[Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), p. 881. Tschuy, Theo. Dangerous Diplomacy. (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2000). 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. 78. Lévai, Jenö. Black Book on the Martyrdom of Hungarian Jewry. (Central European Times Publishing, 1948), pp. 357-359, 366-368, 383-384, 387-388, 413-414, 416.]


Max Grässli, Consul General for Switzerland in Bratislava, 1942-1944

Max Grässli was the Swiss Consul General in Bratislava in 1942-1944.  In 1942, Grässli helped Jewish refugees and managed to save numerous lives “invoking Swiss economic interests, in the widest sense of the term” (Favez, 1999, pp. 196-197).  In October 1944, the Swiss Federal Council gave Grässli the job of informing the Slovak government that there would be negative repercussions for their mistreatment of Jews.  Grässli demanded that deportations should be suspended and that Red Cross representatives should be allowed to visit the camps.  He worked closely with ICRC representative Georges Dunand.  They were both engaged in underground activities and hiding Jews in their residences.  Grässli left Bratislava in December 1944.

[Favez, Jean-Claude.  Edited and translated by John and Beryl Fletcher. The Red Cross and the Holocaust. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 196-197.]


Maximillian Jaeger, Swiss Minister in Budapest, 1936-44

In 1936, Jaeger was transferred to Budapest, where Switzerland had set up a legation that same year.  He was head of the Swiss mission, and was Carl Lutz’s direct supervisor.  Jaeger played an active role in opposing the deportation of Jews by the Nazi and Arrow Cross officials.  In particular, he tried to persuade the Nazis from deporting Jews to Auschwitz and to respect the neutrality of the 76 Swiss protected houses.  The activities of Minister Jaeger were instrumental in providing Lutz with the necessary conditions for the rescue of Jews in Budapest.  Lutz stated that the Minister always allowed him a good deal of freedom of action, and had total confidence in him.  Beginning early in the war, Jaeger sent regular reports to the Ministry in Bern regarding the fate of the Jews in Hungary.

[Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 756, 978, 1079. Lévai, Jenö. Black Book on the Martyrdom of Hungarian Jewry. (Central European Times Publishing, 1948), p. 227, 276-277, 355.  Tschuy, Theo. Dangerous Diplomacy. (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2000).  Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981).]


Hans Keller, Consul for Switzerland in Bratislava, Slovakia, and in Czechoslovakia

Hans Keller personally saved more than 25 Jews by smuggling them from Bratislava into Switzerland.  He did this against the official policy and regulations of Switzerland.  Hans Keller was sent to Bratislava in December 1944.  He worked with ICRC representative Georges Dunand and helped to hide Jews there.  Keller died at the age of 91 in Bern, Switzerland.

[Favez, Jean-Claude.  Edited and translated by John and Beryl Fletcher. The Red Cross and the Holocaust. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), p. 196.  AG, G  59/2, letter from Dunand of 18 December 1944.]


Ladislaus Kluger, Swiss Consulate, Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45

Ladislaus Kluger was a member of the Swiss consulate in Budapest, Hungary.  He participated in the rescue of Jews on the Hegyeshalom death marches. 

[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. 86.]


Sigfried Lanz, Switzerland

We have no information on Swiss Consul Lanz.  Information was requested from the Swiss Task Force.


Major Lüthi, Swiss military attaché in Helsinki, Finland, 1943

Major Lüthi was the Swiss military attaché in Helsinki, Finland.  He sent a report to officials in Bern on the murder of 16,000 Jews in Eastern Europe.  This report was based on the confession of a perpetrator who was involved in the murder.  The individual described both mass shootings and the murder of Jews by “asphyxiation with carbon monoxide gas.”  The report also mentioned a high-ranking German officer who confirmed the reports of mass execution.  This report was suppressed by Swiss officials and not acted upon. 

[Laqueur, Walter (Ed.) and Judith Tydor Baumel (Assoc. Ed.).  The Holocaust Encyclopedia. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), pp. 620-621.]


Charles “Carl” Lutz,* Consul for Switzerland in Budapest, Hungary, 1942-45, and Gertrud Lutz,* Wife of Consul Carl Lutz, Budapest, Hungary

Carl Lutz (1895-1975) was the first neutral diplomat in Budapest to rescue Jews. He is credited with inventing the Schutzbrief (protective letter) for Jewish refugees in Budapest.  After March 19, 1944, the Germans occupied Hungary and the new government of Döme Sztojay closed the Hungarian borders to Jewish emigration. In tough negotiations with the Nazis and the Hungarian government, Lutz obtained permission to issue protective letters to 8,000 Hungarian Jews for emigration to Palestine.  Using a ruse and interpreting the 8,000 “units” not as persons but as families, he and his staff issued tens of thousands of additional “protective letters."  He established 76 Swiss safe houses throughout Budapest and, with the help of his wife Gertrud, liberated Jews from deportation centers and death marches.  In 1942-43, in cooperation with the Jewish Agency for Palestine, Lutz had helped 10,000 Jewish children and young people to emigrate to Palestine.  Lutz worked with hundreds of Jewish volunteers who helped him process the protective letters and distribute them throughout Budapest.  Lutz was told that as long as he stayed in Budapest, his protectees would survive.  He is credited by Jewish relief agencies with saving 62,000 Jews from the Nazi Holocaust.  Carl Lutz was made Righteous Among the Nations by Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Authority in 1965.  In addition, he has been declared an honorary citizen of the State of Israel.  Carl Lutz died in 1975 at the age of 80.

[Tschuy, Theo. Carl Lutz und die Juden von Budapest. (Zurich: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 1995). Tschuy, Theo. Dangerous Diplomacy. (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2000).  Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 840, 849, 899, 978, 979, 1079-1082. 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), pp. 89-90. Lévai, Jenö. Black Book on the Martyrdom of Hungarian Jewry. (Central European Times Publishing, 1948), pp. 227, 276-277, 282-284, 355, 366-369, 371. Penkower, Monty Noam. The Jews Were Expendable: Free World diplomacy and the Holocaust.  (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1983), pp. 189, 194, 197-198, 200, 206, 212. Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 258, 690, 703, 755, 924-925, 1232, 1251, 1444. 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), p. 163.]


Pio Perucchi, Swiss Consular Officer in Milan, 1938-39

Pio Perucchi was a Swiss consular official stationed in Milan in 1938-1939.  Perucchi and his colleague Candido Porta were responsible for issuing more than 1,600 illegal and unauthorized visas to Jews who had fled Austria after the Anschluss.  The two consuls issued visas against the specific regulations and policies of the Swiss Federal Department of Justice and Police.  For his activities, Perucchi was not allowed to continue working at the consulate after March 1939.

[Swiss Federal Archives, Bern, Switzerland.  This information was provided by the Swiss Task Force in 2000.]


Candido Porta, Swiss Consular Officer in Milan, 1938-39

Candido Porta was a Swiss consular official stationed in Milan in 1938-1939.  Porta and his colleague Pio Perucchi were responsible for issuing more than 1,600 illegal and unauthorized visas to Jews who had fled Austria after the Anschluss.  The two consuls issued visas against the specific regulations and policies of the Swiss Federal Department of Justice and Police.  For his activities, Porta was demoted and transferred to a different section.

[Swiss Federal Archives, Bern, Switzerland.  This information was provided by the Swiss Task Force in 2000.]


Ernst Prodolliet,* Swiss Consul General in Bregenz, Austria, 1938-39

Ernst Prodolliet was the Swiss Consul in Bregenz, Austria, 1938-1939.  He personally issued visas and documents to Jews and accompanied them to the Swiss border to help them escape Austria after the Nazi Anschluss.  He worked closely with police captain Paul Grüninger, who allowed the Jews to cross into Switzerland at the border area of St. Gallen.  Prodolliet received Israel’s Righteous Among the Nations award in 1982 for his life saving activities.

[Swiss Federal Archives, Bern, Switzerland.  This information was provided by the Swiss Task Force in 2000.]


Walter Stucki, Swiss Minister to Vichy France and Acting Director of the Swiss Red Cross in France, 1942-?

Walter Stucki, the Swiss Minister to Vichy France and Acting Director of the Swiss Red Cross, protested the treatment and deportation of French Jews in southern France.  He made his protest to the leader of Vichy France, Marshal Phillipe Pétain.  Stucki tried to prevent Jewish children from being taken from institutions represented by Swiss charities.  Pétain refused to change French policy against Jews. 

[Bauer, Yehuda. American Jewry and the Holocaust. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), p. 262.  Levin, Nora. The Holocaust: The Destruction of European Jewry, 1933-1945. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1968), pp. 447-448.]


Franz Rudolph von Weiss, Swiss Consul in Cologne, Germany, 1940-41

Swiss Consul in Cologne, Franz Rudolph von Weiss, forwarded a report about the euthanasia program in Germany to the Confederal Political Department (EDP, Foreign Ministry) in 1940.  In 1941, von Weiss sent information to the EDP regarding the deportation of Cologne Jews.  In 1942, von Weiss sent photographs of the execution of Poles and of the bodies of murdered Jews to Roger Masson of the Swiss Military Information Service.  This information was not disseminated outside of government channels.  After forwarding the information, von Weiss was criticized by his superiors at the embassy in Berlin as a “defeatist.” 

[Laqueur, Walter (Ed.) and Judith Tydor Baumel (Assoc. Ed.).  The Holocaust Encyclopedia. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), pp. 620-621.]


Ernst Vonrufs,* Acting Representative of Swiss Interests in Budapest, 1945

Ernst Vonrufs was responsible for the rescue of tens of thousands of Jews in Budapest during the final days of the war.  Specifically, he was involved in the rescuing of Jews concentrated at the Obuda brickyard.  Along with Peter Zürcher, he had been appointed by Consul Carl Lutz to be his assistant. Zürcher and Vonrufs were active between late 1944 and mid-January 1945 in the protection of numerous safe houses and the Glass House on Vadasz street.  Zürcher and Vonrufs, along with Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, prevented a planned, last-minute mass murder of the Jews of the Pest ghetto.  Vonrufs was awarded the title of Righteous Among the Nations in 2000.

[Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), p. 1083. Tschuy, Theo. Dangerous Diplomacy. (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2000). 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. 97. Lévai, Jenö. Black Book on the Martyrdom of Hungarian Jewry. (Central European Times Publishing, 1948).]


Peter Zürcher,* Acting Representative of Swiss Interests in Budapest, 1945

In December 1945, Consul Lutz appointed a Swiss lawyer, Dr. Peter Zürcher, to be his temporary representative in Pest.  The nomination of this energetic man was a stroke of extraordinary luck.  A few days before the Soviets occupied Pest, Zürcher heard of a plan be the SS to murder the 70,000 inhabitants of the ghetto in a last minute act of genocide.  Zürcher, along with Swiss representative Ernst Vonrufs and Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, threatened the SS commander with bringing him to trial for war crimes if he carried out this horrific plan.  Their threat worked, and the SS general ordered his troops not to enter the ghetto and even to protect Jews from the fascist Arrow Cross.  Because of this heroic action, most of the Jews of the Pest ghetto survived.  In addition, Zürcher intervened on behalf of the Jews living in Swiss safe houses in the international ghetto to prevent their murder by the Arrow Cross.  He received the Righteous Among the Nations award in 1998.

[Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981). 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. 108. Lévai, Jenö. Black Book on the Martyrdom of Hungarian Jewry. (Central European Times Publishing, 1948). Tschuy, Theo. Dangerous Diplomacy. (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2000).]


Swiss consul in Liége, Belgium

Presently being researched.


Swiss minister in Berlin, Germany

Presently being researched.


Swiss consul in Cologne, Germany

Presently being researched.


Swiss legation in Rome, Italy

Father Marie-Benoit, under the auspices of DELASEM, obtained protective documents for Jews from the Swiss legation in Rome.  These documents protected Jews, at least in part, from deportation.

[Chadwick, Owen. “Weizsäcker, the Vatican, and the Jews of Rome.” In Michael Marrus (Ed.), The Nazi Holocaust: Historical Articles on the Destruction of European Jews. (Westport, CT: Meckler, 1989), pp. 1281-1282.]


Swiss diplomat in Trieste, Italy

[See book on Paul Grüninger by Stefan Keller.]


Swiss Legation in Slovakia

The Swiss legation in Slovakia protested the deportations of Jews in September 1944.

[Bauer, Yehuda. American Jewry and the Holocaust. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), p. 448.]


International Red Cross – Swiss Representatives (Partial List)

Jean de Bavier, Swiss International Red Cross, Budapest

Jean de Bavier was a Swiss member of the International Red Cross in Hungary.  He supported the activities of the Jewish Welfare Bureau (Pártfogó Iroda).  He was replaced by Friedrich Born.

[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. 91-141, 167-170.]


Friedrich Born,* Chief Delegate of the International Committee of the Red Cross of Switzerland in Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45

Friedrich Born was the Chief Delegate of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) of Switzerland in Budapest, Hungary.  He was sent to Budapest 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 and his staff, along with numerous Jewish volunteers, are credited with retrieving thousands of Jews from deportation camps and death marches in and around Budapest.  Born 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.  Born’s Red Cross operation is credited with rescuing between 11,000 and 15,000 Jews in Budapest.  After the war, he was criticized for overstepping his authority in his rescue activities.  A postwar report completely vindicated Born’s actions and forced the Red Cross to reassess its wartime policies.  Born died in Switzerland in 1963.  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), pp. 139-170.]


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.  Friedrich 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, Friedrich 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.


Hans Weyermann, Swiss Chargé of the International Red Cross in Budapest, 1944-45

In December 1944, Hans Weyermann, Swiss Chargé of the International Red Cross, 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.

[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. 339-344.  Braham, R. L., “The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary.” New York: Columbia University Press, 1981. Lévai, Jenö. Black Book on the Martyrdom of Hungarian Jewry. (Central European Times Publishing, 1948), p. 381.]

 

Thailand

Siamese (Thai) Consul, Marseilles, France, 1940

Varian Fry of the Emergency Rescue Committee (ERC) and other rescue and relief agencies used Siamese (Thai) visas as exit visas to leave Marseilles and Vichy France.  Although there was no possible way of reaching Siam during the war, Portuguese and Spanish officials honored these visas.  Once the refugees had the Portuguese and Spanish transit visas, they were able to go to Lisbon with ease.  Eventually, the consulate of Siam was raided and the consul was arrested by the French authorities.  After the raid, the Emergency Rescue Committee was no longer able to use these visas.

[Fry, Varian. Surrender on Demand. (New York: Random House, 1945), pp. 15-17, 132.]

 

Turkey

Numan Menemencioglu, Turkey, Minister of Foreign Affairs, 1942-1944

Currently being researched.

Behiç Erkin, Turkey, Ambassador to Vichy, 1940-1943

Currently being researched.

Saffet Arikan, Turkey, Ambassador to Berlin, 1942-1944

Currently being researched.

Selbarty Istinyell, Turkish Chargé d’Affaires in Romania, 1942-43?

Selbarty Istinyell, the Turkish Chargé d’Affaires in Romania, worked to halt or delay the deportation of Romanian Jewry.  He worked with Chief Rabbi Alexander Safran, the Papal Nuncio Andrea Cassulo, Swiss ambassador to Romania René de Weck, and Red Cross representative to Romania Karl Kolb.

[Butnaru, I. C. The Silent Holocaust: Romania and its Jews. Safran, Alexander. Resisting the Storm: Romania 1940-1947. (1987). Lavi, T. Rumanian Jewry in World War II: Fight for Survival. (Jerusalem, 1965). Hebrew. Lavi, T. (Ed.). Rumania, Vol. 1.  In Pinkas Hakehillot, Encyclopaedia of Jewish Communities. (Jerusalem, 1969). Hebrew.  Dworzecki, Meir, “The International Red Cross and its Policy Vis-à-Vis the Jews in Ghettos and Concentration Camps in Nazi-Occupied Europe,” in Gutman, Y., and E. Zuroff (Eds.). Rescue Attempts during the Holocaust: Proceedings of the Second Yad Vashem International Historical Conference, Jerusalem, 3-11 April, 1974. (Jerusalem, 1977), pp. 100.]

Inayetullah Cemal Özkaya, Turkey, Consul General in Athens, 1940-1945

Burhan Isin, Turkey, Consul General in Varna, 1942-1946

Necdet Kent, Consul for Turkey in Marseilles, France, 1942-45

Necdet Kent was the Vice Consul for the Turkish Republic stationed in Marseilles, France, in 1942.  He was later promoted to the rank of Consul and remained in Marseilles until 1945.  When Nazi Germany occupied France in 1940, many Jewish Turks and others fled to unoccupied Vichy France.  During the period of 1942-45, Kent issued numerous Turkish certificates of citizenship to Jewish refugees, preventing them from being deported to Nazi murder camps.  On one occasion, Kent boarded a deportation train with Jews loaded on a cattle car.  He successfully intervened to have them released to his custody. 

Irfan Sabit Akça, Turkey, Consul General in Prague, 1939-1943

Pertev Sevki Kantimir, Turkey, Consul General in Budapest, 1939-1942

Abdülhalat Birden, Turkey, Consul General in Budapest, 1942-1944

Fuat Aktan, Turkey, Consul General in Constanza, 1937-1942

Ragip Rauf Arman, Turkey, Consul General in Constanza, 1942-1945

Kudret Erbey, Turkey, Consul General in Hamburg, 1938-1942

Galip Evren, Turkey, Consul General in Hamburg, 1942-1944

Cevdet Dülger, Turkey, Consul General in Paris, 1939-1942

Fikret Sefik Özdoganci, Turkey, Consul General in Paris, 1942-1945

Namik Kemal Yolga, Turkey, Consul General in Paris, 1942-1945

Bedii Arbel, Turkey, Consul General in Paris, 1940-1943

Mehmet Fuat Carm, Turkey, Consul General in Paris, 1943-1945

Firuzan Selçuk, Turkey, Consul General in Belgrade, 1939-1942

Selahattin Ülkümen,* Turkish Consul General in Rhodes, 1943-45

Selahattin Ülkümen was the Turkish Consul General in Rhodes, 1943-1945.  In July 1944, the Germans began rounding up the Jews of Rhodes.  The Turkish Consul General, Selahattin Ülkümen, interceded on behalf of those Jews who were Turkish nationals.  By his efforts, 42 Jewish families were set free from the deportation to Auschwitz-Birkenau.  In reprisal, the Nazi authorities bombed Ülkümen’s house, fatally injuring his pregnant wife and two employees of the consulate.  Consul General Ülkümen received the Righteous Among the Nations award in 1989.  He was awarded a special medal from Turkey in 2001.  Ülkümen died in 2003.

[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. 253-254.]

A. Routier, Honorary Turkish Consul General in Lyon, France, 1942-43

A. Routier was the Honorary Turkish Consul General in Lyon, France.  He issued certificates of citizenship and passports to Turkish Jews in southern France.  These Turkish citizens had lost their right to citizenship due to their not registering with the Consul General for an extended period.  They were assumed to be French citizens by the Turkish government.  [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. 62-63, 335.  Report to the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the activities of the Honorary Turkish Consul-General in Lyon, Archives of the Turkish Embassy (Paris) Dossier 6127, no. 638 26 November 1942.]

Turkish minister in Bucharest, Romania

In fall 1941, the Turkish minister in Bucharest, Romania, suggested to the US Ambassador that 300,000 Romanian Jews could be transported to Palestine through Turkey.  This proposal was forwarded by the US ambassador but was turned down by the US State Department.  The US representatives refused to even broach the question with British authorities.  Objections made by the US State Department endured throughout the war.  [Levin, Nora. The Holocaust: The Destruction of European Jewry, 1933-1945. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1968), p. 580.]

 

United States of America

Adolph A. Berle, Jr., Assistant US Secretary of State, Washington, DC, 1940-1945

On February 16 and 23, 1940, the Assistant Secretary of State Berle tried to persuade Secretary of State Cordell Hull to help Jews based on reports of deportations of Jews to concentration camps.  He also tried to persuade the State Department to condemn Nazi persecution of Jews.  Later, Berle helped liberalize State Department policy toward issuing visas.  In late 1943, Berle approved a license for a transfer of funds to save Jewish rabbis in Czechoslovakia.  Berle stated that the “no ransom” policy was no longer pertinent.

[Breitman, Richard and Alan M. Kraut, American Refugee Policy and European Jews. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987), pp. 120-123, 160, 186, 195, 200-201, 240, 242.  Friedman, Saul S. No Haven for the Oppressed. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1973), pp. 128, 134. Wyman, David S. The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust, 1941-1945. (New York: Pantheon, 1984), pp. 74, 80, 111, 145, 190-191.  NA/SDDF, 840.48 Refugees / 5136, January 29, 1944, Berle memorandum to Rabbi Riegelmann.  Feingold, Henry. The Politics of Rescue: The Roosevelt Administration and the Holocaust, 1938-1944. (New Brunswick, NJ: (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1970), pp. 101, 142, 217, 227.  US State Department Diplomatic Records, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Archives II, College Park, MD.]


Burton Berry, US Consul, Istanbul, Turkey, 1943

US Consul in Istanbul, Burton Berry, sent numerous reports regarding the treatment of Jews in Greece.  Berry made continuous desperate appeals to his superiors in the US State Department to save Greek Jews from deportation and death.  He also suggested that the State Department assist Jews in escaping to Palestine, the Middle East and the mountains of Greece.  Berry sent Washington a report on the arrest and deportation of the Jews in Salonika.

[Matsas, Michael. The Illusion of Safety: The Story of the Greek Jews During World War II. (New York: Pella Publishing Co.1997), p. 21-23, 67, 95, 98, 411.  Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, Hyde Park, New York.  US State Department Diplomatic Records, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Archives II, College Park, MD.]


Anthony J. Drexel Biddle, Jr., US Ambassador to the European Governments in Exile and US Ambassador to Poland

On August 26, 1942, Ambassador Biddle forwarded an eight-page memorandum prepared by Ernest Frischer, who was a member of the Czechoslovakian State Council in Exile.  This report detailed the wholesale organized murder of Jews by the German government.  Biddle thought this document was so important that he forwarded it directly to President Roosevelt.  Biddle was a personal friend of Roosevelt.  This report had a significant impact on US diplomats in Washington.  As Ambassador to Poland in 1938, Biddle sent a report to US Secretary of State Cordell Hull warning him regarding Nazi Germany and the dangers of a future Holocaust.  He advocated that something be done to protect Jews.

[Morse, Arthur D. While Six Million Died: A Chronicle of American Apathy. (New York: Random House, 1967), pp. 10, 33, 232-233.  Feingold, Henry. The Politics of Rescue: The Roosevelt Administration and the Holocaust, 1938-1944. (New Brunswick, NJ:(New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1970), p. 171.  Friedman (1973), pp. 41, 259.  US State Department Diplomatic Records, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Archives II, College Park, MD.]


Hiram Bingham, † US Vice Consul in Marseilles, France, 1940-1941

Hiram Bingham was the American Vice Consul in charge of visas, stationed in Marseilles, France, in 1940-1941.  Shortly after the fall of France, Bingham, against the orders and policy of his superiors, issued visas, safe passes, and letters of transit to Jewish refugees.  Many visas were falsified in order to protect the refugees from internment.  Bingham helped set up the contacts and issued visas for the Emergency Rescue Committee, headed by Varian Fry.  Bingham also worked with other rescue operations in Marseilles, including the American Friends’ Service Committee (Quakers), the American Red Cross, the Unitarian Service Committee, the Mennonite Committee, and Jewish relief organizations.  Bingham also worked with the Nîmes (Camps) Committee.  He was, in part, responsible for saving several thousand Jews.  Among them were many anti-Nazi activists, labor leaders, and Communists.  He also rescued Jewish artists, intellectuals, writers and scientists, such as Marc Chagall, Max Ernst, André Breton, Heinrich Mann, and Jewish Nobel Prize winners.  Bingham visited the concentration camps and facilitated issuing visas to Jews trapped in the Les Milles French concentration camp.  In May 1941, Bingham helped the Quakers, the Nîmes Committee and the OSE rescue several hundred Jewish children by issuing US visas.  These children left France in June 1941.  In 1942, Bingham was transferred to the US embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina.  At the end of the war, he reported on the immigration of Nazi war criminals to Buenos Aires.  He wrote numerous reports and encouraged his supervisors to report these activities to the State Department.  His superiors did nothing and he resigned from the Foreign Service in protest.  In 2000, Bingham was presented the American Foreign Service Association Constructive Dissent award by the US Secretary of State.  In 2005, Hiram Bingham was given a letter of commendation from Israel’s Holocaust Museum.  In 2006, a US commemorative postage stamp was issued in his honor.

[Fry, Varian. Assignment Rescue. (New York: Scholastic, 1997).  Fry, Varian. Surrender on Demand. (New York: Random House, 1945), pp. 10-12, 14, 17-18, 32-33, 49, 56-57, 69-70, 83, 87-90, 147, 172, 215. Marino, Andy. A Quiet American: The Secret War of Varian Fry. (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999), pp. 99-100, 196, 107-108, 117, 120, 187, 209, 231, 268, 285, 287. Isenberg, Sheila. A Hero of Our Own: The Story of Varian Fry. (New York: Random House), pp. 75-76, 83, 86, 89, 125, 142, 150, 152-153, 193, 193n. 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), pp. 130, 142, 144. Hockley, Ralph M. Freedom is not Free. (2000). US Holocaust Memorial Museum. Assignment Rescue: The Story of Varian Fry and the Emergency Rescue Committee. [Exhibit catalog.] (Washington, DC: US Holocaust Memorial Museum, 1997), p. 7.  Wyman, David S. Paper Walls: America and the Refugee Crisis, 1939-1941. (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), pp. 167-168.  Varian Fry Papers, Columbia University.  HICEM records, France, YIVO Archives.  Bauer, Yehuda. American Jewry and the Holocaust. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), p. 171.  American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee Archives, New York City.  Bauer, Yehuda. American Jewry and the Holocaust. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), p. 171.  US State Department Diplomatic Records, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Archives II, College Park, MD.]


Homer Brett, US Consul in Rotterdam, Holland

[Morse (1967), p. 198.]


Wilbur Carr, US Minister to Czechoslovakia, 1939

Wilbur Carr was the US Minister to Czechoslovakia at the time of the Nazi annexation.  In a report to the Secretary of State, March 19, 1939, he wrote:

“The Jewish population is terrified; as are Social democrats and also those closely associated with the former regime.  Consequently if action can be taken it should be done speedily.  While the British Legation seems to be hopeful of obtaining exit permits for most of its refugee cases I am personally doubtful whether Germany would be receptive to requests for the departure of political refugees and Jews but it would seem to be the humane duty of our Government to support some kind of international action to this end even though doubts may be entertained as to the outcome.”

[Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) report.  Rothkirchen, Livia. The Jews of Bohemia and Moravia: Facing the Holocaust. (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2005).  Morse (1967), pp. 118-119, 136, 163, 165, 196-197.  US State Department Diplomatic Records, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Archives II, College Park, MD.]


Rives Childs, US Consul General in Tangier, Algeria, 1944

Rives Childs, the head of the US legation in Tangier, Algeria, made connections with the Spanish authorities in Madrid and in Morocco and helped saved more than 1,200 Jews.  He persuaded Spanish authorities to issue the Jewish refugees visas and access to Spanish safe houses until they could emigrate from Algeria.  Childs worked closely with Renée Reichmann and her rescue committee and Luis Orgaz, the Spanish High Commissioner for Tangier.  Orgaz helped obtain Spanish transit visas for Jewish refugees.

[Alexy, Trudy. The Mezuzah in the Madonna’s Foot, pp. 200-201. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993). Bianco, Anthony. The Reichmanns: Family, Faith, Fortune, and the Empire of Olympia & York. (New York: Times Books, 1997). Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 1061-1062, 1092. Kranzler, David. The Man Who Stopped the Trains to Auschwitz George Mantello, El Salvador, and Switzerland’s Finest Hour. (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2000), p. 196. Kranzler, David. Thy Brother’s Blood: The Orthodox Jewish Response During the Holocaust. (Brooklyn, NY: Mesorah, 1987), pp. 250-254. Childs, Rives. Foreign Service Farewell, pp. 116-117.  Rozett, Robert. “Child Rescue in Budapest,” Holocaust and Genocide Studies, 2 (1987), pp. 49-59.  US State Department Diplomatic Records, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Archives II, College Park, MD.]


William E. Dodd, US Ambassador in Berlin, Germany

William E. Dodd was the US ambassador in Berlin, Germany.  Dodd was a strong and consistent anti-Nazi in the US embassy.  Like his colleague Consul George S. Messersmith, he warned Washington about the continuing appeasement of the Nazis by the French and British governments.  In addition, Dodd was openly critical of Nazi anti-Semitism.  He strenuously objected to the embassy’s attempts to establish close relations with Nazi party leaders.  Dodd was praised by American Jewish leaders for his efforts to denounce the German government and for advocating a strong US anti-Nazi policy.  Dodd’s appointment was abruptly terminated and he was recalled as a result of German government pressure against him.  After his return to the US, Dodd lectured against Nazi aggression. 

[Feingold (1970), pp. 16, 19.  Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS).  Morse (1967), pp. 120, 153, 182.  Shafir, Shlomo. “American Diplomats in Berlin (1933-1939) and their Attitude to the Nazi Persecution of the Jews.” Yad Vashem Studies, 9 (1973), pp. 81-93, 103.  US State Department Diplomatic Records, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Archives II, College Park, MD.]


Howard Elting, Consul, US Embassy in Bern, Switzerland, 1943-44

US Consul Howard Elting was stationed at the US embassy in Bern, Switzerland.  Elting was approached by Gerhardt Riegner, representing the World Jewish Congress, with information about the deportation and murder of the Jews of Poland.  Elting then sent an urgent cable to the US State Department advising them of this devastating information.

This information was based on a report of two Jews who had escaped from the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp.  Elting was one of the first diplomats in Europe who recognized the importance of this information.  He believed that the reports of the murder of Jews were true, and endorsed Riegner’s telegram to the State Department.  Elting and his associates at the US Embassy in Bern also sent the information to Jewish community leaders in the United States and Europe. 

The US Secretary of State and other State Department officials suppressed this information.

[Friedman, Saul S. No Haven for the Oppressed. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1973), pp. 130-131, 136, 140, 142.  Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), p. 1275.  Koblik, Steven. The Stones Cry Out: Sweden’s Response to the Persecution of the Jews, 1933-1945. (New York: Holocaust Library, 1988), pp. 144, 196-197. Morse, Arthur D. While Six Million Died: A Chronicle of American Apathy. (New York: Random House, 1967), pp. 7-9, 11. Penkower (1983), p. 64.  Wyman, David S. The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust, 1941-1945. (New York: Pantheon, 1984), pp. 43-44.  US State Department Diplomatic Records, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Archives II, College Park, MD.]


Herbert Feis, US State Department

[Feingold (1970), p. 182.  Morse (1967), pp. 74-75, 104.  Penkower (1983), pp. 128-129.  Wyman (1984), pp. 180-185.  US State Department Diplomatic Records, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Archives II, College Park, MD.]

Dr. Raymond Herman Geist, American Consul General and First Secretary, US Embassy in Berlin, 1929-39

Between 1929 and 1939, Dr. Raymond Herman Geist was the American Consul General in Berlin.  Geist sent a number of reports to the State Department about the increasing persecution of Jews between 1933 and 1939.  In December 1938, Geist warned Assistant Secretary of State Messersmith that the Jews of Germany were being condemned to death, and urged measures to rescue them.  In May 1939, Geist sent another warning to Washington stating that if resettlement opportunities did not open up soon, the Jews of Germany would be doomed.  In a letter to his former supervisor in Washington, Geist wrote:  “The Jews in Germany are being condemned to death and their sentence will be slowly carried out; but probably too fast for the world to save them…After we have saved these refugees, and the Catholics and Protestants have not become new victims of the wrath here, we could break off relations and prepare to join in a war against them [the Germans].  We shall have to do so sooner or later; as France and England will be steadily pushed to the wall and eventually to save ourselves we shall have to save them.  The European situation was lost to the democracies at Munich and the final situation is slowly being prepared.  The age lying before us will witness great struggles and the outcome when it comes will determine the fate of civilization for a century or more.”  During the period of 1938-39, he helped many Jews and anti-Nazis to emigrate from Germany.  He personally intervened on behalf of these refugees with the Nazi high officials.  He did this well beyond his official duties as Consul General.  Further, he helped Jews and others who were under imminent threat of deportation to the concentration camps leave Germany.  Geist opposed the transfer of German quotas to US consulates outside of Nazi Germany.  He did this because he felt German Jews were in much more danger than Jews in other parts of Europe at the time.  Geist also issued letters to German refugees indicating that they appeared to be eligible for visas, and that their quota number would come up soon.  Often, these letters were sufficient to have people released from Nazi concentration camps.  The letters were also used to help refugees gain entry to neighboring countries.  Geist was encouraged not to follow this practice.

[Laqueur, Walter (Ed.) and Judith Tydor Baumel (Assoc. Ed.).  The Holocaust Encyclopedia. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), p. 10. Levin, Nora. The Holocaust: The Destruction of European Jewry, 1933-1945. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1968), p. 724. Shafir, Shlomo. “American Diplomats in Berlin (1933-1939) and their Attitude to the Nazi Persecution of the Jews.” Yad Vashem Studies, 9 (1973), pp. 98, 102-103.  Rublee, George. “The Reminiscences of George Rublee.” Columbia University Oral History Collection.  US State Department Diplomatic Records, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Archives II, College Park, MD.]


Prentiss Gilbert, Chargé d’Affaires, US Embassy, Berlin, Germany, 193?

Prentiss Gilbert was the Chargé d’Affaires at the US embassy in Berlin, Germany, 193?.  After the recall of the US Ambassador Wilson in 1938, Prentiss Gilbert headed the embassy.  Gilbert strongly criticized the Nazi party and the persecution of Jews in Germany.  He and Raymond H. Geist worked closely with US embassy official George Rublee and his assistant, Robert Pell, in their dealings with Nazi authorities.

[Shafir, Shlomo. “American Diplomats in Berlin (1933-1939) and their Attitude to the Nazi Persecution of the Jews.” Yad Vashem Studies, 9 (1973), pp. 98-99.  US State Department Diplomatic Records, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Archives II, College Park, MD.]


Herbert S. Goold, US Consul General in Casablanca, Morocco, 1941

Herbert S. Goold was the US Consul General in Casablanca, Morocco, stationed there in early 1941.  Goold was concerned about refugees being held in local French concentration camps.  He periodically visited the camps and pressed officials to improve conditions in the camp.  He issued visas to individuals in the camps who were then released.  As a result of Goold’s work, there was a large group of refugees who needed processing.  Consular officials in the Casablanca office spent many of their free, off-duty hours processing visa applications.

[Wyman, David S. Paper Walls: America and the Refugee Crisis, 1939-1941. (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), pp. 166-167.  US State Department Diplomatic Records, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Archives II, College Park, MD.]


Franklin Mott Gunther, U.S. Ambassador in Bucharest, Romania, 1941

Franklin Mott Gunther was the US Ambassador stationed in Bucharest, Romania, in 1941.  Gunther sent detailed dispatches and reports to the State Department outlining the atrocities committed by the fascist Iron Guard party in January 1941.  Gunther also reported on the deportation of Romanian Jews to the eastern territories by the Germans.  In addition, he contacted President Roosevelt in a private letter where he provided advice for the possible resettlement of Jews in Africa.  He further stated the Romanian officials were willing to negotiate with countries regarding receiving Romanian Jews.  Gunther’s reports and letter were criticized by U.S. State Department officials.  The U.S. State Department did not act in any way on Gunther’s recommendations.  Gunther was discouraged by the lack of interest of the State Department in helping Jews.

[Feingold, Henry. The Politics of Rescue: The Roosevelt Administration and the Holocaust, 1938-1944. (New Brunswick, NJ:(New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1970), pp. 48, 179, 182.  Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS), II, p. 870, November 2, 1941, Franklin Gunther to Cordell Hull.  Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS), II, pp. 875-876, November 12, 1941, Memorandum by Cavendish Canon.  Friedman (1973), pp. 139, 145, 148-151, 207-208.  US State Department Diplomatic Records, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Archives II, College Park, MD.]


Leland Harrison, U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland, 1940-42?

US Ambassador to Switzerland Leland Harrison was sympathetic to Jewish rescue and relief operations working out of Switzerland.  From the US embassy in Bern, Switzerland, Harrison worked closely with World Jewish Congress agent Gerhardt Riegner.  Harrison forwarded numerous reports to the State Department regarding the murder of the Jews of Europe.  He endorsed many of these reports as being credible and recommended action be taken to provide rescue and relief to Jews.  Harrison also allowed Riegner and his staff to forward messages around the world using the embassy’s cable system.  Members of his staff Paul Chapin Squire and Howard Elting, Jr., were also sympathetic to Jewish relief causes.

[Bauer, Yehuda. American Jewry and the Holocaust. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), pp. 401, 404.  Feingold, Henry. The Politics of Rescue: The Roosevelt Administration and the Holocaust, 1938-1944. (New Brunswick, NJ: (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1970), pp. 180-181, 239-240.  Friedman (1973), pp. 131-134, 150.  Morse, Arthur D. While Six Million Died: A Chronicle of American Apathy. (New York: Random House, 1967), pp. 9, 13, 17-21, 45-46, 73, 75-77, 80-85, 87-88, 91.  Penkower (1983), pp. 75, 72-73, 127-129, 132, 251.  Wyman, David S. The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust, 1941-1945. (New York: Pantheon, 1984), pp. 50, 179, 181, 184, 186.  US State Department Diplomatic Records, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Archives II, College Park, MD.]


J. Klahr Huddle, US Foreign Service Inspector

[Morse, 1967, pp. 195-196.]


Herschel V. Johnson, US Minister in Stockholm, Sweden, 1943?

Herschel V. Johnson was the American Minister in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1943.  During the refugee crisis and Nazi deportation actions in Denmark and central Europe, Johnson was predisposed toward, and advocated help for, Jewish refugees.  Johnson reported that Swedish government officials and members of the Foreign Ministry had taken actions on behalf of Dutch and Norwegian Jews.  He tried to get the US government to help during this refugee crisis.  Johnson was thwarted by the US State Department in his attempts to rescue Jews.  In October 1943, he reported on the Danish-Swedish rescue of Jews.

[Breitman, Richard. “American rescue activities in Sweden.” Holocaust and Genocide Studies.  Feingold, Henry. The Politics of Rescue: The Roosevelt Administration and the Holocaust, 1938-1944. (New Brunswick, NJ:(New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1970), p. 258.  US State Department Diplomatic Records, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Archives II, College Park, MD.]


Alexander Kirk, Chargé d’Affaires at US Embassy in Berlin, 1938-39, US Embassy in Warsaw, 1940-?

Alexander Kirk was the Chargé d’Affaires at US Embassy in Berlin in 1938-39 and later at the US Embassy in Warsaw.  Kirk worked with US Consul General Dr. Raymond Hermann Geist in helping Jews obtain visas at the US Embassy in Berlin.  While stationed at the US embassy in Warsaw, Kirk reported on the deportations of Jews to concentration camps.  Despite his efforts to help Jews, Kirk was an opponent of Zionism in Palestine.

[Friedman, Saul S. No Haven for the Oppressed. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1973), p. 134. Shafir, Shlomo. “American Diplomats in Berlin (1933-1939) and their Attitude to the Nazi Persecution of the Jews.” Yad Vashem Studies, 9 (1973), pp. 71-104.  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. 27-29, 33-34, 128.  US State Department Diplomatic Records, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Archives II, College Park, MD.]


Lincoln MacVeagh, US Ambassador to Greece, Athens (later relocated to Cairo, Egypt)

The US Ambassador to Greece, Lincoln MacVeagh, sent numerous humanitarian reports regarding the condition of Greek Jews and their persecution.

[Matsas, Michael. The Illusion of Safety: The Story of the Greek Jews During World War II. (New York: Pella Publishing Co.1997), p. 21, 67, 95, 98, 411.  Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, Hyde Park, New York.  US State Department Diplomatic Records, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Archives II, College Park, MD.]


William MacDonald, American Red Cross in Poland

William MacDonald was the American Red Cross representative in Poland.  MacDonald was able to help Jewish refugees from his position at the Red Cross in Poland.

[Bauer, Yehuda. American Jewry and the Holocaust. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), p. 85.]


James Grover McDonald, League of Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

McDonald became the Chairman of the Foreign Policy Association in New York in 1919.  He served the Association until 1933.  At that time, McDonald was appointed as head of the newly-created League of Nations Office of High Commissioner for Refugees in Germany.  His appointment as an American Commissioner to the League was ironic, since America did not belong to the world organization.  His efforts on behalf of Jewish refugees found little support in either the US State Department or the British or French Foreign Offices.  Throughout the war, McDonald supported the rescue of refugees through immigration to the United States.  These policies were continually opposed by the State Department.  After the war, he was appointed the first American Ambassador to Israel, a position he held until 1951. 

[London, L. Whitehall and the Jews, 1933-1948: British immigration policy, Jewish refugees and the Holocaust, pp. 83-84. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000). Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), pp. 204, 455, 954-956, 1187, 1237. Feingold, Henry. The Politics of Rescue: The Roosevelt Administration and the Holocaust, 1938-1944. (New Brunswick, NJ: (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1970), pp. 14, 18, 25-26, 31, 52, 76, 80, 92, 127, 139, 142, 144-147, 152, 156, 160, 162-164, 213, 286.  Wyman, David S. The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust, 1941-1945. (New York: Pantheon, 1984), pp. 45-46, 315. Morse, Arthur D. While Six Million Died: A Chronicle of American Apathy. (New York: Random House, 1967), pp. 148, 160, 167-168, 171, 187-190, 205, 209, 211, 295-296, 303. Penkower, Monty Noam. The Jews Were Expendable: Free World diplomacy and the Holocaust.  (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1983), pp. 69, 113, 248, 250.  His papers were donated to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.  US State Department Diplomatic Records, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Archives II, College Park, MD.]


Paul V. McNutt, U.S. Commissioner of the Philippine Islands

In August 1938, President Franklin Roosevelt asked Commissioner of the Philippine Islands Paul V. McNutt whether the Philippines could admit 200 Jewish refugee families.  McNutt stated, “We think it would be possible for them to absorb…2,000 families and possibly 5,000 more families thereafter.”  Further, McNutt thought that Jews could be sent to the Philippine island of Mindanao.  Eventually, more than one thousands refugees were able to enter the Philippines.  Most of them survived the war.

[Feingold, Henry. The Politics of Rescue: The Roosevelt Administration and the Holocaust, 1938-1944. (New Brunswick, NJ:(New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1970), p. 98.  US State Department Diplomatic Records, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Archives II, College Park, MD.]


George Strausser Messersmith, US Consul General in Berlin, 1930-1934, Vienna, 1934, and Assistant Secretary of State

George S. Messersmith was the US Consul General (First Secretary) at the US embassy in Berlin, Germany, from 1930-1934.  He was a very early critic of Hitler and the Nazis.  In the spring of 1934, he was posted as US Minister to Vienna.  After his appointment in Vienna, Messersmith was appointed Assistant Secretary of State, where he was active in opposing the State Department’s appeasement of Hitler.  Messersmith was consistently skeptical of Hitler’s declarations of peace.  He advised Washington against cooperation with Hitler and Germany.  He constantly protested the German treatment of Jewish and Austrian citizens.  He often interceded on behalf of German Jews.  Messersmith was among the most outspoken Anti-Nazis in the US consul corps.

[Breitman, Richard and Alan M. Kraut, American Refugee Policy and European Jews. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987), pp. 18, 39-45, 48-51, 57, 59-60, 65-68, 73-74, 121, 137, 201, 263 n. 32.  Shafir, Shlomo. “American Diplomats in Berlin (1933-1939) and their Attitude to the Nazi Persecution of the Jews.” Yad Vashem Studies, 9 (1973), pp. 72-73, 76-80, 85, 96, 102-103. Shafir, Shlomo. “George S. Messersmith: An Anti-Nazi Diplomat’s View of the German Jewish Crisis.” Jewish Social Studies.  US State Department Diplomatic Records, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Archives II, College Park, MD.]


Herbert C. Pell, US Minister to Portugal, 1940?, US Representative to the United Nations War Crimes Commission

The US Minister to Portugal, Herbert C. Pell, complained about the State Department’s policy of not granting visas to Jewish refugees leaving central Europe.  He felt that many of these refugees were some of the greatest minds in the world, and the US should take advantage and let them enter the country.  Pell told Varian Fry, of the Emergency Rescue Committee in Marseilles, that “there is a fire sale of brains going on here and we are not taking full advantage of it.  Our immigration laws are too rigid and some of our consuls interpret them too strictly.”  Herbert Pell was appointed by Franklin Roosevelt to head a commission to create the international military tribunal to prosecute Nazi war criminals after the war.

[Marino, Andy. A Quiet American: The Secret War of Varian Fry. (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999), p. 115.  US State Department Diplomatic Records, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Archives II, College Park, MD.]


Daniel Reagan, Commercial Attaché, American Legion, Bern, Switzerland

[Morse, 1983, pp. 75-76.  US State Department Diplomatic Records, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Archives II, College Park, MD.]


H. Shoemaker, Former US Ambassador to Bulgaria

H. Shoemaker, the former US Ambassador to Bulgaria, makes a broadcast appeal to the Bulgarian people to resist the impending deportation of Jews.  The appeal was radioed to Bulgarian from the Bulgarian-American Committee in New York City.  More than 50,000 Jews in Bulgaria, nearly 100% of the population, survived because of actions to save them.

[Feingold, Henry. The Politics of Rescue: The Roosevelt Administration and the Holocaust, 1938-1944. (New Brunswick, NJ:(New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1970), p. 185.  Kubowitzki, A. Leon. Unity in Dispersion: A History of the World Jewish Congress. (New York: World Jewish Congress, 1948), p. 182.  US State Department Diplomatic Records, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Archives II, College Park, MD.]


Walter Sholes, US Consul General in Lyon, France, 1940

Walter Sholes was the US Consul General in Lyon, France, after the fall of France in 1940.  Consul General Sholes requested that the US State Department transfer a large number of German and Polish quota numbers to be issued to German, Austrian and French Jews who were trapped in southern France.  The American embassy in Berlin asked Sholes to re-examine these cases and to turn down the refugees’ requests for visas.

[Hodgdon to Sholes, 15 October 1940, NA RG 84, American Consulate Basle, 123-L, as cited in Feingold, Henry L. “Who Shall Bear the Guilt for the Holocaust: The Human Dilemma.” American Jewish History, 7, 1-22.  US State Department Diplomatic Records, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Archives II, College Park, MD.]


Francis L. Spalding, US Consul in Stuttgart, Germany, 1940

Francis L. Spalding, the US consul in Stuttgart, Germany, cooperated with the US consulate in Luxemburg in helping Jewish refugees receive papers and other documentation to escape the Nazis.  (See entry for George P. Waller.)  The US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, has a number of visas issued by Spalding.

[US State Department Diplomatic Records, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Archives II, College Park, MD.  Wyman, David S. Paper Walls: America and the Refugee Crisis, 1939-1941. (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), p. 167.  USHMM archives.] 


Paul Chapin Squire, Consul

Gerhardt Riegner, representative of the World Jewish Congress in Switzerland, sent information confirming the murder of Jews through Consul Paul Chapin Squire.  Squire was very sympathetic to the cause of Jewish refugee organizations operating out of Switzerland.  He allowed Riegner to use the embassy’s cable system to contact outside agencies.  Squire extensively investigated the reports of the murder of Jews and verified many of the stories.

[Morse, Arthur D. While Six Million Died: A Chronicle of American Apathy. (New York: Random House, 1967), pp. 5, 7, 15-21.  Wyman, David S. The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust, 1941-1945. (New York: Pantheon, 1984), pp. 50.  Feingold, Henry. The Politics of Rescue: The Roosevelt Administration and the Holocaust, 1938-1944. (New Brunswick, NJ: (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1970), p. 171.  US State Department Diplomatic Records, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Archives II, College Park, MD.]


Leslie Albion Squires, US Vice Consul in Istanbul, Turkey, 1943

Vice Consul Leslie Albion Squires sent reports to the State Department regarding the plight of Greek Jews.  Along with other members of the embassy, he sent numerous reports to the State Department.  Squires tried to get the US State Department to intervene on behalf of Greek Jews.

[Matsas, Michael. The Illusion of Safety: The Story of the Greek Jews During World War II. (New York: Pella Publishing Co., 1997), pp. 21-25.  Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, Hyde Park, New York.  Breitman, Richard and Alan M. Kraut, American Refugee Policy and European Jews. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987), p. 215.]


Laurence A. Steinhardt, US Ambassador to USSR 1939-1942, and  Turkey 1942-1945

Laurence Steinhardt was one of the very few Jewish senior members of the US State Department.  In 1939, Ambassador Steinhardt was sent to the Soviet Union.  This was a crucial and sensitive appointment.  While there, he took steps to help Eastern European Jews escape the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union.  Early in 1942, he was made Ambassador to Turkey, and for the next three years played a vital part in helping to win the Turkish republic to the Allied cause.  Steinhardt was further instrumental in completing lend-lease agreements with Turkey. 

While in Turkey, Steinhardt was responsible for helping Jews throughout Eastern Europe.  He worked with Jewish rescue and relief agencies and other diplomats, including Papal representative in Ankara Cardinal Roncalli, later Pope John XXIII, in helping to save Jews.  Steinhardt also worked with the newly-established War Refugee Board, founded in January 1944.  He worked closely with board representative Ira Hirschmann.  As a result of this successful collaboration, nearly 50,000 Jews were saved.

In 1950, he was killed in a place crash while on a mission for the State Department. 

[Feingold, Henry. The Politics of Rescue: The Roosevelt Administration and the Holocaust, 1938-1944. (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1970), pp. 145, 281-291.  Friedman, Saul S. No Haven for the Oppressed. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1973), pp. 120, 147. Wyman, David S. The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust, 1941-1945. (New York: Pantheon, 1984), pp. 216-217, 219, 239-240, 244. Hirschmann, Ira A. Life Line to a Promised Land. (New York: Vanguard Press, 1946), pp. 18, 22, 42-43, 49, 58, 61, 63-64, 71, 84-85, 105, 109, 131, 137, 153, 166-167, 168. Hirschmann, Ira. Caution to the Winds. (New York: David McKay Co.), pp. 179-185. Hirschmann, Ira A.  The Embers Still Burn. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1949).  Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 945, 947, 1095, 1108, 1286 fn165, 1288 fn209.  Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), pp. 239, 665.  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. 124-126, 128, 291-295, 300-301. Morse, Arthur D. While Six Million Died: A Chronicle of American Apathy. (New York: Random House, 1967), pp. 331-332, 368-369. Penkower, Monty Noam. The Jews Were Expendable: Free World diplomacy and the Holocaust.  (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1983), pp. 63-67, 174-175, 177-178, 250.  See Yishuv in Turkey, Ira Hirschmann and Cardinal Roncalli. Levin, Nora. The Holocaust: The Destruction of European Jewry, 1933-1945. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1968), pp. 629-630, 634. Hebblethwaite, Peter. Pope John XXIII: Shepherd of the modern world. (New York, 1985), pp. 141-143. Lapide, Pinchas E. Three Popes and the Jews. (New York: Hawthorn Books, 1967). Morley, John. Vatican Diplomacy and the Jews during the Holocaust, 1939-1943. (New York: Ktav, 1980), pp. 43, 45, 61, 91-92, 94, 122-123, 161, 206. Ofer, D. “The Rescue Activities of the Jewish Agency Delegation in Istanbul in 1943.” In Rescue Attempts during the Holocaust. Proceedings of the Second Yad Vashem International Historical Conference, edited by Y. Gutman and E. Zuroff, pp. 435-450. (Jerusalem, 1977).  Laurence A. Steinhardt Papers, Library of Congress Archive.  Bauer, Yehuda. American Jewry and the Holocaust. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), pp. 395, 397, 406.  Breitman, Richard and Alan M. Kraut, American Refugee Policy and European Jews. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987), pp. 123-124, 131-132, 215-216.]


Myron Taylor, US Representative to the Vatican, 1942?

Myron Taylor was appointed by Franklin Roosevelt to represent the State Department in the US mission to the Vatican.  He was sent there specifically to try to get the Pope to intervene on behalf of Jews being murdered.  Taylor sent a strongly worded note to Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Maglione in September 1942 declaring that Jews were being sent to the east and being murdered.  Taylor also had personal audiences with Pope Pius XII and other Vatican officials.  He gave the Pope numerous memoranda dealing with the murder of Jews in Europe.  By the end of the war, Pope Pius sent a number of communications to countries in Europe asking them to halt the deportation and murder of Jews.

[Morley, John. Vatican Diplomacy and the Jews during the Holocaust, 1939-1943. (New York: Ktav, 1980), pp. 3, 61, 65, 88, 93, 138, 157, 175.  Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), p. 1137.  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. 4-12, 14, 20-21, 23, 33, 58, 76, 80, 112, 125.  Feingold, Henry. The Politics of Rescue: The Roosevelt Administration and the Holocaust, 1938-1944. (New Brunswick, NJ:(New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1970), pp. 28-29, 31, 37, 39, 42, 44, 60, 64, 69, 71-72, 74-75, 78-79, 82-85, 87-88, 105-106, 113, 115, 122, 145, 213, 253, 305.  Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, Hyde Park, New York.  Breitman, Richard and Alan M. Kraut, American Refugee Policy and European Jews. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987), pp. 60, 62-63, 103, 105-106, 136, 140, 153-154, 194-195, 231.]


Richard Tindall, US Brigadier General Military Attaché, Istanbul, Turkey, 1943-44

Brigadier General Richard Tindall was the US Attaché at the American embassy in Istanbul, Turkey.  Tindall sent in reports to the State Department regarding the treatment of Jews in Athens.

[Matsas, Michael. The Illusion of Safety: The Story of the Greek Jews During World War II. (New York: Pella Publishing Co.1997), p. 22-23, 67, 95, 98, 411.  Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, Hyde Park, New York.  US State Department Diplomatic Records, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Archives II, College Park, MD.]


Harold H. Tittmann, US Chargé d’Affaires to the Holy See, 1943-?

Harold H. Tittmann was the US Chargé d’Affaires to the Holy See.  He was the assistant to Myron Taylor, who was President Roosevelt’s representative to the Vatican.  Tittmann worked closely with representative Taylor in trying to get the Vatican to condemn the Nazi massacre of Jews in eastern Europe.

[Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 1064-1065, 1070. Leboucher, Fernande. Translated by J. F. Bernard. Incredible Mission. (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1969).  Morley, John. Vatican Diplomacy and the Jews during the Holocaust, 1939-1943. (New York: Ktav, 1980), pp. 65, 88, 118-119, 135, 173-178. Morse, Arthur D. While Six Million Died: A Chronicle of American Apathy. (New York: Random House, 1967), pp. 14-15. Levin, Nora. The Holocaust: The Destruction of European Jewry, 1933-1945. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1968), pp. 686-687.  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).  US State Department Diplomatic Records, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Archives II, College Park, MD.]
 

Pinkney Tuck, US Chargé d’Affaires, US Embassy, Vichy, 1942

Pinkney Tuck was the US Chargé d’Affaires in Vichy, France, in 1942.  In the summer of 1942, Tuck complained and vigorously protested against the deportation of Jewish children from Vichy France.  This complaint was lodged personally with Pierre Laval.

Laval, with sarcasm, asked Tuck if the United States would not take these Jewish refugee orphans off his hands.  Tuck then asked the US State Department to seriously consider Laval’s offer to hand over these Jewish orphans.  There were between 5,000 and 8,000 Jewish orphans in Vichy.  At this point, Tuck knew that if these children could not leave they would certainly be deported.  He also knew that deportation meant that these children would probably be murdered. 

On September 28, Secretary of State Cordell Hull offered to authorize 1,000 visas to have these children immigrate to the United States. 

On October 23, Laval reneged on his offer and proposed to give over only 500 children.  Laval imposed so many difficult preconditions that they virtually ended the rescue efforts.  As a result, only 350 children were able to be saved and brought to the US.  This was done in spite of Vichy’s lack of cooperation.

Tuck was commended by a number of organizations for trying to help Jewish orphans survive.

[Marrus, Michael, R., and Robert O. Paxton. Vichy France and the Jews. (New York: Basic Books, 1981).  Poznanski, Renée. Jews in France during World War II. (Hanover: Brandeis University Press, 2001).  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), pp. 117, 152-153.  Wyman, David S. The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust, 1941-1945. (New York: Pantheon, 1984), pp. 36-37.  US State Department Diplomatic Records, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Archives II, College Park, MD.]


Stephen B. Vaughan, US Vice Consul in Breslau, Germany, 1938-39

US Vice Consul Stephen B. Vaughan was responsible for issuing visas to Jews from Breslau, Germany, in the region of Silesia.  Vaughan issued visas to more than 700 Jewish families escaping Germany in 1938-39.  The visas were for the Philippine islands.  Although they were not farmers, the Jews were issued visas ostensibly as agricultural experts.  They survived the war in the Philippines.  After the war, many emigrated to the East Coast of the United States.

[US State Department Diplomatic Records, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Archives II, College Park, MD.]


George P. Waller, US Chargé in Luxembourg

The US diplomatic mission in Luxembourg put considerable resources into verifying the status of refugee visa applications that were being processed at the US consulate in Stuttgart, Germany.  This enabled unused visa quotas to be utilized.  Chargé Waller stated, “it is a comfort to realize that through such cooperation it has been possible for a great many helpless and persecuted people to receive shelter and a waiting place in Luxemburg.” The US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, has a number of visas issued by Spalding.

[Wyman, David S. Paper Walls: America and the Refugee Crisis, 1939-1941. (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), p. 167.  US State Department Diplomatic Records, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Archives II, College Park, MD.  USHMM archives.]


Sam Woods, US Economic Attaché in Bern, Switzerland

Sam Woods was the US Economic Attaché in Bern, Switzerland.  Woods was also an intelligence officer with ties to Secretary of State Cordell Hull.  Jewish refugees supplied Wood information about the treatment of Jews in Nazi-occupied central Europe.  Woods suggested that Jewish refugees coordinate their rescue activities with the Sternbuch family and their rescue activities headquartered in Bern, Switzerland.

[Kranzler, David. Thy Brother’s Blood: The Orthodox Jewish Response During the Holocaust. (Brooklyn: Mesorah, 1987), p. 189.  US State Department Diplomatic Records, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Archives II, College Park, MD.]


Alfred Zollinger, US Representative of the International Red Cross in the United States, 1944?

Alfred Zollinger was the representative of the International Red Cross in the United States.  He delivered a communication from the Red Cross in Geneva that “the Hungarian government had announced its readiness to enable the emigration of certain categories of Jews and has announced its readiness to assist in this matter.”  Through Zollinger, the Red Cross requested the US issue entry visas to the United States.  As a result, the US Undersecretary of State, Edward Stettinius, Jr., sent a memorandum to various consulates in Europe requesting that the local consuls appeal to local governments where they were posted asking them to consent to receive children from Hungary and France.  As a result, several governments issued temporary visas to potential immigrants, including Switzerland, Sweden, Spain and the Vatican.

[Dworzecki, Meir, “The International Red Cross and its Policy Vis-à-Vis the Jews in Ghettos and Concentration Camps in Nazi-Occupied Europe,” in Gutman, Y., and E. Zuroff (Eds.). Rescue Attempts during the Holocaust: Proceedings of the Second Yad Vashem International Historical Conference, Jerusalem, 3-11 April, 1974. (Jerusalem, 1977), pp. 102-103.  Feingold, 1970, p. 267.  US State Department Diplomatic Records, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Archives II, College Park, MD.]


United States Consul, Vienna, Austria

The United States Consul in Vienna, Austria, is presently being documented in an article for his role in helping Jews escape.


United States Consulate in Oslo, Norway

After the Nazis invaded and occupied Norway in April 1940, the US consulate in Oslo gave diplomatic protection to numerous German Jewish refugees who had fled to Norway.  They were helped until they were eventually able to escape to Sweden.

[US State Department Diplomatic Records, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Archives II, College Park, MD.  Wyman, David S. Paper Walls: America and the Refugee Crisis, 1939-1941. (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), p. 167.] 

 

* Indicates recognition by the State of Israel as Righteous Among the Nations