Rescue in the Holocaust by Diplomats (Part 4)

Diplomats Who Rescued Jews

A-B                    C-J                    K-R            S-Z

* Recognized by the State of Israel as Righteous among the Nations, Yad Vashem: The World Holocaust Remembrance Center.
** Recognized by the State of Israel with Letter of Commendation.

Count de Salis, International Committee of the Red Cross, Rome, Italy, 1943

Count de Salis, of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), with the help of Father Marie-Bénoit, helped save a child from the Gestapo.

[Waagenaar, Sam. The Pope’s Jews. (La Salle, IL: Open Court Publishers, 1974), pp. 399-400.]


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.


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.

[Carcedo, Diego. Un Español frente al Holocausto: Así Salvó Ángel Sanz Briz a 5.000 Judíos. (Madrid: Ediciones Temas de Hoy, 2000).  Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 795, 1062, 1092.  Avni, Haim. Spain, the Jews and Franco. (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1982). Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), p. 1394. 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), pp. 227, 284, 318-319, 354-355, 367, 383-384, 387-388.]


Dr. Robert Schirmer, International Red Cross, Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45

Dr. Robert Schirmer was a member of the International Committee for the Red Cross.  He was sent to Budapest, Hungary, in July 1944.  He was sent to deliver a message protesting the deportation of Hungarian Jews to Hungarian head of state Horthy.  Schirmer was assigned to be the assistant to Friedrich Born.  After his arrival, he was given permission by Hungarian government officials to visit Jews who were arrested.  He later went to visit Hungarian concentration camps to ascertain that Jews were being properly treated.  Born and Schirmer brought aid and supplies and distributed food and medicine to Jews in protected homes.  Schirmer also sought to protect thousands of children awaiting departure from Budapest.  Born and Schirmer handed out hundreds of Red Cross letters of protection to Jews claiming any connection to Switzerland or the Red Cross delegation.  By late 1944, 15,000 people were in possession of Red Cross protective papers.  Schirmer also was responsible for setting up a delegation office in Vienna in the beginning of December 1944.  In Vienna, Schirmer and Lutz Thudichum were able to help more than 15,000 displaced Hungarian Jews who had been moved to Austria.

[Favez, Jean-Claude.  Edited and translated by John and Beryl Fletcher. The Red Cross and the Holocaust. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 115, 176, 192, 239, 241-242, 249, 255, 260-261.]


Stefan Schwamm, Member of the Executive Committee, DELASEM

Stefan Schwamm was a member of the Executive committee of the Delegazione Assistenze Emigranti Ebrei (Jewish Emigrant Association; DELASEM) and worked with Father Marie-Bénoit in protecting Jews in Rome, Italy.  On several occasions, Schwamm posed as Monsieur Bernard Lioré, a French delegate of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to help Jews be released from imprisonment. 

[Waagenaar, Sam. The Pope’s Jews. (La Salle, IL: Open Court Publishers, 1974). Leboucher, Fernande. Translated by J. F. Bernard. Incredible Mission. (Garden city, NY: Doubleday, 1969).]


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

[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).]


Shapuisa, Representative of the International Red Cross in Bulgaria

[State Publishing House. Saving of the Jews in Bulgaria, 1941-1944.]


F. M. Shepherd, British Consul in Dresden, Germany, 1938-39?

F. M. Shepherd, the British Consul in Dresden, sent reports to the British embassy in Berlin regarding the conditions of Jews in the Buchenwald concentration camp. 

[Gilbert, Martin. “British government policy towards Jewish refugees (November 1938-September 1939). Yad Vashem Studies, 13 (1979), 138.]


(Edward Henry) Gerald Shepherd, Consul-General, Danzig

[Communication from Dr. Alastair Noble, Historian, Information Management Group, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, received 4/15/2008.]


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.

[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.]


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.]


Silimboni, Consul General for Italy in Tunisia, 1942-43?

The Italian Consul General Silimboni in Tunisia intervened on behalf of arrested Jewish community leaders in November 1942.  The French Governor General of Tunisia, Vice Admiral Jean-Pierre Estéva, and his administrative staff protected Jews from the German anti-Jewish race laws.  In addition, the Italian consulate’s administrative staff also resisted imposition of the Nazi race laws. 

[Carpi, Daniel. Between Mussolini and Hitler: The Jews and the Italian Authorities in France and Tunisia. (Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press, 1994), pp. 14-15, 41, 197-198, 202-203, 208-219, 222-225, 231-234, 236, 248, 253n.14, 262-263n.9, 309n.5, 317n.18.  Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), pp. 1521-1523. Browning, Christopher R. Browning. The Final Solution and the German Foreign Office: A Study of Referat D III of Abteilung Deutschland 1940-43. (New York: Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1978), pp. 122-123. Laqueur, Walter (Ed.) and Judith Tydor Baumel (Assoc. Ed.).  The Holocaust Encyclopedia. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), p. 224.]


Carvalho da Silva, Vice Consul for Portugal in Paris, France, 1943

In August 1943, a Portuguese Vice Consul stationed in Paris, Carvalho da Silva, personally intervened on behalf of 40 Portuguese Jews who were at the deportation center of Drancy, France.  He convinced the Gestapo to free them and personally accompanied the group through the border crossing of France into Spain.  He rescued a second group of about 100 Jews, and also accompanied them on their border crossing into Spain.  In addition, the Turkish Consul General in Paris, Bedii Arbel, made reference to a Portuguese diplomat in a report to the Turkish embassy on 13 August, 1943, Document no. 30-6127.  In the letter it states “According to investigations made here, the Italians have excused their Jews from such regulations.  Among the neutral countries, the Consulate of Portugal has advised its Jewish citizens not to obey the orders in this respect.” 

[Shaw, Stanford J. Turkey and the Holocaust: Turkey’s Role in Rescuing Turkish and European Jewry from Nazi Persecution, 1933-1945. (New York: New York University Press, 1993), pp. 85-86.]


Gilbert Simond, Representative of the International Red Cross, Ankara, Turkey, 1943-1945?

Gilbert Simond was the representative of the International Red Cross in Ankara, Turkey.  He worked to help Jewish refugees escape from eastern Europe to Turkey.  The British provisionally agreed to allow Jews already in Turkey to enter Palestine.  Simond worked with the Jewish Agency for Palestine (Yishuv) to arrange forimmigration visas.  He worked with the representative of the War Refugee Board, Ira Hirschmann, the Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, and with US Ambassador to Turkey Laurence Steinhardt.

[Favez, Jean-Claude.  Edited and translated by John and Beryl Fletcher. The Red Cross and the Holocaust. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 110-112, 115, 210-211, 213-214, 243.]


Henryk Slawik,* Polish Chargé d’Affaires in Budapest, Hungary, 1944

Henryk Slawik was the Polish Chargé d’Affaires in Budapest, Hungary, in 1944.  He issued thousands of documents certifying that Polish Jewish refugees in Budapest were Christians.  One hundred of these were children, and were put in a Catholic orphanage.  Slawik was caught and deported to Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria, where he was murdered.  Slawik was honored as Righteous Among the Nations in 1977.

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


R. T. Smallbones, British Consul, Frankfurt, Germany, 1938-39?

British consular official in Frankfurt, Germany, R. T. Smallbones, had made an agreement with the local Nazis and Gestapo that would release prisoners from German concentration camps on the strength of his word that a visa had been granted to the internee.  Smallbones knew it was important to grant visas quickly and minimize red tape.  Smallbones issued many visas to Jewish refugees in Frankfurt. 

[London, L. Whitehall and the Jews, 1933-1948: British immigration policy, Jewish refugees and the Holocaust. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), p. 115.  Gilbert, Martin. “British government policy towards Jewish refugees (November 1938-September 1939). Yad Vashem Studies, 13 (1979), 127-128, 130.]


Carlo Sommaruga, French Legation Counselor in Rome, 1943

Carlo Sommaruga was the Legation Counselor at the French embassy in Rome.  He had been helping Father Benedetto and the Jewish relief agency Delegazione Assistenze Emigranti Ebrei (Jewish Emigrant Association; Delasem) in rescuing Jews.  He did this without permission from Vichy. 

[Waagenaar, Sam. The Pope’s Jews. (La Salle, IL: Open Court Publishers, 1974), p. 400.]


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.]


Spányi, Hungarian Consul in Prague, Czechoslovakia, 1943

Consul Spányi, of the Hungarian consulate in Prague, Czechoslovakia, helped protect the property of Hungarian Jews in Nazi occupied territory.  In October 1943, Spányi petitioned for the repatriation of nine Hungarian Jews deported to Theresienstadt concentration camp. The nine Hungarian Jews were transferred from Theresienstadt to the Bergen-Belsen camp.  In January 1944, Spányi submitted a lengthy memorandum to the German Foreign Office reminding them that over 100 verbal and written communications had been sent to them regarding 1116 Hungarian Jews who were living in the German protectorate as of December 1940. 

[Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 258-259.  Braham, Randolph L. “The treatment of Hungarian Jews in German-occupied Europe.” Yad Vashem Studies, 12 (1977), 131-133.]


Augusto Spechel, Italian Consul General in Nice, 1943

Augusto Spechel was the Italian Consul General in Nice in 1943.  In August and September 1943, he petitioned his superiors in the Italian foreign ministry to allow him to issue visas to Jews of Italian nationality or other Jews who were in the Italian zone of occupation near Nice.  At the urging of Consul General Spechel, the foreign ministry relented and allowed him to issue visas.  As a result, hundreds of Jews who were trapped in southern France between the fall of Mussolini on July 25, 1944, and the surrender of Italy to the Allies on September 8, 1944, were able to safely cross the Italian border. 

[Carpi, Daniel. Between Mussolini and Hitler: The Jews and the Italian Authorities in France and Tunisia. (Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press, 1994), pp. 167-169, 172-173, 188, 295n.22, 305n.65.]


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

Dr. Spisiak, Slovakian Consul in Budapest, provided Slovakian Jewish refugees with false passports. Vince Tomek, a priest, helped distribute these passports.  He also helped the Jews in the Pest ghetto. 

[Hetényi, Varga K., “Those Who Were Persecuted Because of the Truth.” Ecclesia, Budapest, 1985.  Asaf, 1990, p. 105. Lévai, Jenö. Black Book on the Martyrdom of Hungarian Jewry. (Central European Times Publishing, 1948). Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981).]


Paul Chapin Squire, US Consul, Switzerland

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.]


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.

[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.]


Stabila, Italian Consulate in Salonika, Greece, 1943

Stabila helped save Jews at the Italian consulate in Salonika, Greece.  He worked under Consul Generals Zamboni and Castrucci. 

[Duman, Marion and Judy Krausz (Eds.). Compiled, translated and annotated with an introduction by Irith Dublon-Kenbel. German Foreign Office Documents on the Holocaust in Greece (1837-1944).  (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, 2007).  Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), p. 614. Molho, M., & J. Nehama. The Destruction of Greek Jewry, 1941-1945. (Jerusalem, 1965). In Hebrew. Carpi, Daniel (Ed.). Italian Diplomatic Documents on the History of the Holocaust in Greece (1941-1943). (Tel Aviv: Diaspora Research Institute, 1999).  Carpi, Daniel. "Notes on the History of the Jews in Greece during the Holocaust Period: The Attitude of the Italians (1941-1943)." In Festschrift in Honor of Dr. George S. Wise, H. Ben-Shahar et al., Eds., pp. 25-62. (Tel Aviv, 1981).]


Myles Standish, US Vice Consul in Charge of Visas, Marseilles, France, 1940

Myles Standish, like Hiram Bingham, issued visas to Jewish and other refugees seeking to escape France to Portugal.  He was active in the rescue of Lion Feuchtwanger from a French-German internment camp in 1940. 

After his assignment in Marseilles, Standish took a position with the War Refugee Board finding escape routes for refugees in Europe.

[Fry, Varian. Surrender on Demand. (New York: Random House). Marino, Andy. A Quiet American: The Secret War of Varian Fry. (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999), pp. 99-100, 120.  FDR Library War Refugee Board Archives, 1944-1945.  JDC Archives, NYC.  Feuchtwanger, Lion, The Devil in France: My Encounter with Him in the Summer of 1940, Viking, 1940.]


Vladimir de Steiger, Delegate to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Transnistria, 1943-1944

Vladimir de Steiger was the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delegate in charge of protecting Transnistrian Jews in Romania.  He encouraged the Romanian Red Cross to organize transportation to Istanbul to secure safe conduct papers and get ships and other craft to escape the Nazis.  This was outside of the stated mission of the ICRC.  Steiger worked with ICRC representative Karl Kolb and Swiss Minister in Romania René de Weck.

[Favez, Jean-Claude.  Edited and translated by John and Beryl Fletcher. The Red Cross and the Holocaust, pp. 101, 106, 109-110, 213, 215. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999). Lavi, T. “Documents on the struggle of Rumanian Jewry for its rights during the Second World War.” Yad Vashem Studies, 4 (1960), 261-315.]


Laurence A. Steinhardt, US Ambassador to USSR 1939-1941, andTurkey 1942-45

Laurence Steinhardt was the only Jewish senior member of the US State Department prior to and during World War II.  In 1939, President Roosevelt appointed Laurence Steinhardt Ambassador to the Soviet Union.  This was a crucial and sensitive appointment, particularly in light of the recently signed Nazi-Soviet pact.  With the outbreak of war and the Nazi invasion of Poland, Steinhardt took secret steps to help Eastern European Jews escape the Nazis.  Aware, however, that the Soviets were planting agents among refugees seeking admission to the U.S., Steinhardt opposed their indiscriminate admission, urging careful screening.  He was instrumental in negotiating the first lend-lease agreement with the Soviets and transferred the Embassy to Kuybyshev when Stalin moved the Soviet government thence from threatened Moscow.  Early in 1942, Steinhardt 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, NJ:(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). Bauer, Yehuda. American Jewry and the Holocaust. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), pp. 395, 397, 406.  Friling, Tuvia, translated by Ora Cummings. Arrows in the Dark: David Ben-Gurion, the Yishuv Leadership, and Rescue Attempts during the Holocaust (Vols. 1 and 2). (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2005).]


Bertold (Bernard) Storfer

Bertold Storfer was a Jewish businessman from Vienna.  He was a Kommerzialrat (commercial attaché), which was an honorary title given by the former Austrian government to business leaders. He used this title to arrange for letters of transit and papers for Jews.  He arranged for numerous Viennese Jews to emigrate from Vienna.  He arranged for numerous ship transports. He worked in conjunction with Af-Al-Pi – Perl Transporte.  On September 3, 1940, a small group of river boats, with Jews organized by Storfer, departed from Vienna.

[Bauer, Yehuda. American Jewry and the Holocaust. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981).  Levin, Nora. The Holocaust: The Destruction of European Jewry, 1933-1945. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1968), pp. 144-145.  Ofer, Dalia. Escaping the Holocaust: Illegal Immigration to the Land of Israel, 1939-1944. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990). Perl, William R. The Four-Front War: From the Holocaust to the Promised Land. (New York: Crown Publishers, 1978), p. 241.]


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 Petain.  Stucki tried to prevent Jewish children from being taken from institutions represented by Swiss charities.  Petain 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.]


Chiune Sugihara,* Consul for Japan in Kovno (Kaunas), Lithuania, 1939-1940

Chiune Sugihara, Vice Consul for Japan in Kovno, Lithuania, issued transit visas to thousands of Polish Jews stranded in Lithuania.  He issued these visas between July 27 and August 28, 1940.  Sugihara asked for and obtained an extension to remain in Kovno for an extra 20 days from the occupying Soviet government officials.  He even issued visas as his train was leaving Kovno for his next assignment.  He issued the visas against the express orders of his government.  These orders explicitly stated that he was not to issue visas to refugees who did not have proper documentation and funds to travel through Japan.  Most of the Jewish refugees met neither requirement.  The Japanese transit visas allowed the refugees to escape from Lithuania through the Soviet Union to Kobe, Japan.  From there, many were able to escape to the United States, Canada, South America, Australia and Palestine.  About 1,000 refugees survived the war in Shanghai, China.  In 1947, he was forced to resign from the Japanese diplomatic service.  He always believed this was for his actions in Lithuania.  Sugihara was declared Righteous Among the Nations by the State of Israel in 1984.  He died in 1985.  In 2001, the Japanese government apologized to Sugihara’s family for not recognizing his heroic actions sooner.

[Levine, Hillel. In Search of Sugihara: The Elusive Japanese Diplomat Who Risked His Life to Rescue 10,000 Jews from the Holocaust. (New York: Free Press, 1996). Sugihara, Yukiko, translated by Hiroki Sugihara with Anne Akabori, edited by Lani Silver and Eric Saul. Visas for Life. (South San Francisco:Edu-Comm Plus, 1993). Sakamoto, Pamela R. Japanese Diplomats and Jewish Refugees: A World War II Dilemma. (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1998). Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), pp. 1264, 1280, 1423-1424, 1596 ill. Zuroff, Efraim. “Attempts to obtain Shanghai permits in 1941: A case of rescue priority during the Holocaust.” Yad Vashem Studies, 13 (1979), 321-351.]


Kauko Supanen, Vice Consul for Finland in Vienna, Austria, 1938-?

After the German Anschluss (annexation of Austria) in March 1938, several hundred foreign Jews arrived in Finland.  Most were in transit to other countries, but some stayed.  At first, the Finnish government had no consistent policy regarding Jewish refugees.  The Finnish Vice Consul in Vienna, Kauko Supanen, generously granted provisional visas to Jews.  On August 13, 1938, 50 Jews on the ship Ariadne sailed into Helsinki harbor and were allowed to enter Finland.  A week later, 60 Jews on the same ship were refused entry.  Supanen pretended to act out of ignorance of the Home Office visa policy.  He told refugees as late as August 1938 that Finland was open to Jews bearing Austrian passports, with or without visas.  He thus allowed many Austrian Jews to immigrate to Finland.  Supanen received a severe reprimand for his conduct from the Foreign ministry in Helsinki.  In his reprimand, it said: “As a responsible officer, you are forbidden to give advice apt to generate a flood of aliens seeking to enter Finland.  It is your duty to prevent such a flood with all your might.” 

[Rautkallio, Hanno. Finland and the Holocaust: The Rescue of Finland's Jews, pp. 65-70. (New York: Holocaust Library, 1987). Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990). Yale Holocaust Encyclopedia, p. 204.]


Nils Svenningsen, Director General, Danish Foreign Ministry, 1940-1944

[Yahil, 1969]


Viktor Szász, Hungarian Consul in German-Occupied Italy, 1943-44?

Viktor Szász was the Hungarian Consul in German-occupied Italy.  He was an assistant in the rescue activity of Father Marie-Bénoit.  He issued hundreds of identity documents for the Jewish protectees of Father Bénoit. He worked with the Jewish relief agency Delegazione Assistenze Emigranti Ebrei (Jewish Emigrant Association; Delasem). 

[Waagenaar, Sam. The Pope’s Jews. (La Salle, IL: Open Court Publishers, 1974), pp. 395.  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. 101.]


Imre de Tahy, Hungarian Legation Secretary, Berlin, Germany, 1941-1943, First Secretary, Hungarian Legation in Bern, Switzerland, Supervision of the Royal Hungarian Consulate General in Geneva and Zurich, Switzerland, and Chargé d’Affaires, Hungarian Legation in Bern, Switzerland, 1943-1948

Imre de Tahy was the First Secretary and Chargé d’Affaires in the Hungarian Legation in Bern, Switzerland, 1943-1948. In his role as Chargé d’Affaires, he reported to the Hungarian government on the negative press campaign against Hungary in regards to its collaboration with Germany in the treatment of its Jews. His actions and warnings may have had a positive effect on the Hungarian government to halt the deportations. It also allowed for the emigration of Jewish children and others to emigrate to Palestine and other safe havens.

Imre de Tahy attended a Jesuit college in Kalksburg (Vienna, Austria) from 1925 to 1933. He then attended the University of Budapest, 1933-1937, and earned a degree of doctor of law in political sciences. While attending college, he travelled in England, France and Switzerland to improve his knowledge in English and French.

Between 1937 and 1938, Tahy served in the 4th Regiment of Hussars in the Hungarian army. Between 1938 and 1939, Tahy passed the test for entry into the Royal Hungarian Foreign Office to serve as a diplomat. He took special classes for Foreign Office officials specializing in economics, foreign trade, marketing and international law. In 1939, he passed the final exam for entry into the Foreign Service. In the end of 1940, he became Attaché at the Royal Hungarian Legation in Bratislava, Slovakia. In 1941, he became Attaché at the Royal Hungarian Legation in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Between the end of 1941 and October 1943, he was Second Secretary at the Royal Hungarian Legation in Berlin, Germany. While there, he was in charge of the economic and foreign trade department, which included supervision of all the Hungarian consulates in the then-Nazi occupied countries. On September 17, 1942, the Hungarian legation in Berlin informed the German Foreign Office that it expected interned Hungarian Jews in the German occupied areas of France, Belgium and the Netherlands to be freed. In addition, their property was to be considered Hungarian property, and was not to be confiscated by the Germans. In April 1943, the Hungarian Legation Secretary stationed in Berlin, László Tahy, protested the treatment of Hungarian Jews in Nazi occupied territory. This temporarily protected Hungarian Jews from being treated in the same brutal manner as other Jews in Nazi occupied territories.

In October 1943, Tahy was transferred to the Hungarian Legation in Bern, Switzerland. There, he served as First Secretary in charge of the economic and foreign trade department and was responsible for the supervision of the Royal Hungarian Consulate General in Geneva and Zurich.

On March 19, 1944, the German army and SS occupied all of Hungary. At that time, Tahy resigned his post. Upon the request of Allen Dulles and Mr. Royall Taylor, delegates of the United States government, he stayed on as Chargé d’Affaires at the Legation. Dulles was the head of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in Switzerland. During this period, Tahy was engaged in armistice negotiations between the US representatives and the Hungarian underground.

In June-July 1944, Tahy and another Hungarian diplomatic official in Switzerland, Bela Sarrossy, played an important part in pressuring Regent Horthy to stop the genocide of Jews in Hungary. These diplomats were known to be anti-Nazi in their sentiments. They conveyed information to the Hungarian Foreign Ministry about a developing press campaign in Switzerland protesting Hungarian government actions against Jews. They aptly described the adverse impact the press campaign would ultimately have on the Swiss public opinion regarding Hungary.

On June 16, Tahy sent copies of telegraphic cables, which described the persecution of Jews to the Hungarian Foreign Ministry. In addition, he sent a copy of these reports directly to Horthy. In this cable, Tahy stated, “These reports have caused a great sensation and great scandal within the [Protestant] relief organizations in Switzerland. According to press reports, the Hungarian authorities are responsible for the atrocities committed. It is feared that anti-Hungarian feelings will develop in neutral countries…The best impression would be made if an official denial of the reports that the Jews were being deported were issued and if guarantees were given that they are only being removed and not murdered.”

On June 19, Tahy had just returned from Budapest. He informed George Mandel Mantello, a Jewish businessman and an honorary consul for El Salvador stationed in Geneva, of the crisis in Hungary. Mantello was instrumental in preparing international news reports, which he distributed throughout Europe, on the murder of Jews in Hungary. Tahy kept Mantello informed during this period of the Holocaust in Hungary.

Tahy also declared that he was willing to convey his reports to Roswell McClelland, the War Refugee Board (WRB) representative in Switzerland. The WRB was highly effective in ameliorating the condition of Jews in Budapest. It threatened to prosecute Hungarian and Nazi officials after the war with war crimes.

On June 29, Dr. Carl Stucki, Director of the Swiss Department of Foreign Affairs, met with Tahy to convey Swiss reaction to the Hungarian deportation of Jews. In documenting the meeting, Stucki wrote:

“When I used the occasion to explain to him this policy has resulted in a great uproar in Switzerland, he was very moved… The Protestant Church circles had just begun to get involved by sending a request [for action on this matter] to the Federal Council. So far, the press has been relatively mild and only cited reports emanating from a news agency in [Ankara] Turkey. But I am very much afraid that the press will continue with its usual reserve. In that case, it will be difficult for us, if not impossible, to restrain it. What effects this will have on Swiss-Hungarian relations is clear, and needs no further commentary. … Tahy showed complete understanding and [felt that] these [reports of anti-Jewish] events are responsible for very negative [anti-Hungarian] propaganda, for which Hungary will one day have to account. … In Budapest, he [Tahy] did not remain silent and made quite clear [to the Hungarian authorities] the extent to which [news of the deportations] inspired negative reactions in a neutral country like Switzerland. In the meantime, he hoped that the IRC would succeed in doing something useful in this regard. … The two reports about the persecution of Hungarian Jewry and the condition in the [death] camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau were first brought to our attention by Pastor [Alphonse] Koechlin, and a few days later by Refugee Pastor Paul Vogt.”

On July 4, Tahy sent a communiqué to Horthy emphasizing the urgency of taking action and avoiding the distinct possibility that Hungary’s reputation would be adversely affected.

On July 7, 1944, Hungarian Regent Horthy halted the deportation of Jews from Hungary to the death camps. He had previously declared at a Crown Council meeting on June 26, that he would “order a halt in the transfer of Jews to Germany.” The head of the International Red Cross (IRC), Max Huber, communicated with the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He requested permission to send an IRC representative to inspect camps and to distribute aid to refugees. On July 18, Tahy announced the decision of the Hungarian government to allow Jewish children and refugees with visas to emigrate.

After the Hungarian Arrow Cross occupation in October 1944, Tahy resigned from the Hungarian Foreign Ministry and stayed in Switzerland as a political refugee. After the war, Tahy declined a post with the Hungarian Foreign Ministry and did not return to Hungary. Tahy did not want to cooperate with the Communist regime there.

In 1948, Tahy moved to Paris, France, and worked with the Free Europe Organization. There, he organized the Hungarian Refugee Committee in France with Reverend R. P. Eméric Gacsér. Tahy became Vice President of the organization.

In 1951, Tahy and his family emigrated to Canada. Imre Tahy died in Montreal, Canada, in 1990.

In August 1992, the Hungarian government honored Tahy with a medal.

[Ben-Tov, Arieh. Facing the Holocaust in Budapest: The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Jews in Hungary, 1943-1945. (Dodrecht: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1988), pp. 188-190, 194, 196, 197, 225, 226. / Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 243-244, 261-262, 766. / Braham, Randolph L. “The treatment of Hungarian Jews in German-occupied Europe.” Yad Vashem Studies, 12 (1977), 128, 131, 134, 136. / Dulles, Allen. From Hitler’s Doorstep: The Wartime Intelligence Reports of Allen Dulles, 1942-1945, ed. Neal H. Petersen (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1996). / Erbelding, Rebecca. Rescue Board: The Untold Story of America’s Efforts to Save the Jews of Europe. (New York: Doubleday, 2018), pp 162-176. / Favez, Jean-Claude. Edited and translated by John and Beryl Fletcher. The Red Cross and the Holocaust. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 240-241, 245. / Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), p. 690. / Hostoria Miert nem bombaztak am amerikaiaka Navi halaltaborokat? A Tahy-jelentes, 1981 (Hungarian newspapers: Why did the American not bomb Auschwitz?)] / 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), pp. 148-150, 155, 163-164, 195. / Lévai, Jenö. Black Book on the Martyrdom of Hungarian Jewry. (Central European Times Publishing, 1948), pp. 233, 308-311. / Tschuy, Theo. Carl Lutz und die Juden von Budapest. (Zurich, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 1995). / Tschuy, Theo. Dangerous Diplomacy: The Story of Carl Lutz, Rescuer of 62,000 Hungarian Jews. (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2000). / War Refugee Board. Final Summary Report of the Executive Director, War Refugee Board. (Washington, September 15, 1945).]


Kozoh Tamura, Japanese Diplomat

Kozoh Tamura, a Japanese diplomat stationed in Washington, suggested to Bernhard Kahn, of the Jewish Joint, in November 1942 that Japan might provide a safe haven for Jews.  Tamura also contacted Rabbi Stephen Wise, of the World Jewish Congress, with the same offer.  Tamura was rejected.

[Bauer, Yehuda. American Jewry and the Holocaust. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), p. 124.]


Hamdullah Suphi Tanriöver, Turkish Ambassador to Romania

The Turkish Ambassador to Romania during World War II, Hamdullah Suphi Tanriöver, helped stop in part the deportation of Romanian Jews to the Nazi death camps.  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. 

[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), p. 302. Tilavi. Yeudei Romania be Maavak als Atmala. (Jerusalem, 1962), quoted in Avner Levi, p. 166.  Levin, Nora. The Holocaust: The Destruction of European Jewry, 1933-1945. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1968), p. 580.]


Myron Taylor, US Representative to the Vatican, 1942?

The US representative to the Vatican, Myron 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 a personal audience with the Pope and other Vatican officials, at which he gave the Pope a memorandum detailing American assistance to French 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.]


Dr. Lutz Thudichum, International Committee of the Red Cross, Vienna, Austria, 1944-45

Dr. Lutz Thudichum was the representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Vienna, 1944-45.  Thudichum was sent to Vienna at the end of 1944 with funds to buy food, clothing and supplies for the beleaguered Jews in Vienna.  Saly Mayer, of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee sent Thudichum 400,000 Swiss francs ($91,000).  Thudichum was able to purchase food and supplies in Bratislava and in Switzerland.  The fact that many Jews survived in Vienna has been credited to the work by Dr. Thudichum.

[Bauer, Yehuda. American Jewry and the Holocaust. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), p. 449.  Favez, Jean-Claude.  Edited and translated by John and Beryl Fletcher. The Red Cross and the Holocaust. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), p. 255.]


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.]


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).]


Valerie Torres, Italian Consulate in Salonika, Greece, 1943

Torres helped save Jews at the Italian consulate in Salonika, Greece.  She worked under Consul Generals Zamboni and Castrucci. 

[Duman, Marion and Judy Krausz (Eds.). Compiled, translated and annotated with an introduction by Irith Dublon-Kenbel. German Foreign Office Documents on the Holocaust in Greece (1837-1944).  (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, 2007).  Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), p. 614. Carpi, Daniel (Ed.). Italian Diplomatic Documents on the History of the Holocaust in Greece (1941-1943). (Tel Aviv: Diaspora Research Institute, 1999).  Carpi, Daniel. "Notes on the History of the Jews in Greece during the Holocaust Period: The Attitude of the Italians (1941-1943)." In Festschrift in Honor of Dr. George S. Wise, H. Ben-Shahar et al., Eds., pp. 25-62. (Tel Aviv, 1981).]


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

H. 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 French Prime Minister 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 authorized 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.  Bauer, Yehuda. American Jewry and the Holocaust. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), pp. 175-176, 259-262, 264.  Breitman, Richard and Alan M. Kraut, American Refugee Policy and European Jews. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987), pp. 162-163, 166.]


Sándor György Ujváry,* Vatican and International Red Cross, Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45

Sándor György Ujváry was a Budapest journalist of Jewish ancestry.  Ujváry was a major rescuer and organizer for the International Red Cross in Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45. He was one of the most successful rescuers of Jews in Budapest, especially rescuing Jews from the death marches to Hegyeshalom.  Ujváry worked with apostolic nuncio Angelo Rotta and took hundreds of blank Vatican safe-conducts, along with truck convoys of medical supplies and food, to Jews on deportations.  Further, Ujváry faked certificates of baptism and other documents for Jews to rescue them from the Arrow Cross. Ujváry was declared Righteous Among the Nations in 1985.

[Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 841, 998, 1075-1076. Lévai, J. “Hungarian Jewry and the Papacy.” London: Sands and Company, 1968. Lévai, J. “Grey Book on the Rescuing of Hungarian Jews.” Budapest: Officina, 1946. Lévai, Jenö. Black Book on the Martyrdom of Hungarian Jewry. (Central European Times Publishing, 1948), pp. 371-374. 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). Rosenfeld, Harvey. Raoul Wallenberg, Angel of Rescue: Heroism and Torment in the Gulag. (Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books), chapter 5.]


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.]


Georges Vanier, Canadian Ambassador to France, 1940?-?

Georges Vanier was the Canadian Ambassador to France, 1940? - ?.  Vanier was deeply concerned by the plight of thousands of Jewish refugees in France.  Vanier wrote to officials in Canada that they had a “wonderful opportunity, to be generous and yet profit by accepting some of these people.”  The Canadian cabinet rejected Vanier’s proposal to help Jewish refugees.  Thousands of Jews requested permission to join relatives already in Canada.  Vanier appealed to immigration officials in the capital in Ottawa to ease immigration restrictions.  He was disappointed when his requests were turned down.  Vanier, however, did issue some visas and saved the lives of Jewish refugees who were able to enter Canada.  At the end of the war, Vanier toured the Buchenwald concentration camp and prepared a scathing report on Canada’s failure to help Jewish refugees escape the Nazis.

[Abella, Irving & Harold Troper. None is Too Many: Canada and the Jews of Europe 1933-1948 (3rd Ed.). (Toronto: Key Porter Books, 2000), pp. 76-77. 103, 195-196, 211, 219.]


Frank Vajda


Valeanu, First Secretary of the Romanian Embassy in Berlin, 1942?

First Secretary Valeanu protested the proposed deportations of the Jews from Romania.  Valeanu presented to the German Foreign Ministry a paper stating that Romanians would not permit discrimination against Romanian Jews. 

[Browning, Christopher R. The Final Solution and the German Foreign Office: A Study of Referat D III of Abteilung Deutschland 1940-43. (New York: Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1978), pp. 103-104.]


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.


Alberto da Veiga Simoes, Portuguese Ambassador to Berlin, 1938-40

Portuguese Ambassador to Berlin, Alberto da Veiga Simoes, was a career Portuguese diplomat.  He was staunchly anti-Nazi and anti-Hitler.  Veiga Simoes granted visas to wealthy and privileged Jews in Berlin and to other consulates in Germany without prior authorization from the Portuguese Foreign Ministry or the Portuguese police.  For his unauthorized activities, he was reprimanded by Portuguese dictator Salazar.  Veiga Simoes then appealed to Salazar to liberalize the Foreign Ministry’s visa policy.  In particular, Veiga Simoes was interested in protecting German Jews who were from the upper classes.  He approved the issuing of visas to a number of Jews by the Portuguese consulate in Hamburg.  Veiga Simoes was also highly critical of the German and Nazi regimes.  In July 1940, for his openly anti-German stance, he was relieved of his position as ambassador and was recalled to Lisbon.  On his return, he was investigated by the Portuguese Foreign Ministry.  Veiga Simoes was removed from the diplomatic service after his return to Portugal.  He was reinstated in February 1946.

[Milgram, Avraham. “Portugal, the Consuls, and the Jewish Refugees, 1938-1941.” Yad Vashem Studies, 27 (1999), pp. 135-141.  Veiga Simoes to Alazar, Berlin, March 29, 1937, AMNE 3o. P. A-11, M-34.  Telegram of Salazar to Veiga Simoes, December 21, 1938, AMNE 2o. P. A-43, M-38.  Veiga Simoes to Salazar, Berlin, January 14, 1939, AMNE 2o. P. A-43, M-38-A.  Veiga Simoes to Salazar, Berlin, April 8, 1939, AMNE, 2o. P. A-43, M-38-A.  Unsigned information to Salazar, dated May 8, 1941, A.N.T.T. Oliveira Salazar Archive AOS/CO/IN-8 B.  (Cited in Milgram, 1999.)]


Antonio Venturini, Italian Consul General in Athens, 1941-1943

Venturini was the Consul General in Athens under Minister Plenipotentiary Pellegrino Ghigi.  In that capacity, he helped in the rescue of Greek Jews. 

[Duman, Marion and Judy Krausz (Eds.). Compiled, translated and annotated with an introduction by Irith Dublon-Kenbel. German Foreign Office Documents on the Holocaust in Greece (1837-1944).  (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, 2007).  Molho, M., & J. Nehama. The Destruction of Greek Jewry, 1941-1945. (Jerusalem, 1965). In Hebrew.  Film: Righteous Enemy, 1982.]


Father Gennaro Verolino, * Deputy to the Papal Nuncio in Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45

Father Gennaro Verolino (b. 1906) was the deputy to Monsignor Angelo Rotta at the office of the Papal Nuncio in Budapest, Hungary.  Father Verolino went on numerous rescue missions in the field in support of Monsignor Rotta.  Verolino was instrumental in the establishment of the Vatican protected houses in Budapest.  Verolino supervised the many Vatican volunteers active in the rescue operations.  Verolino received the Per Anger Humanitarian Award in 2004.  Verolino was also awarded the title of Righteous Among the Nations in 2007 for his outstanding efforts to save the Jews of Budapest.

[Élet és rodalom, Budapest (Hungarian weekly), March 22, 1985.  Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 717-718, 744, 795, 832-833, 862, 881, 914, 955, 967, 1015, 1034, 1051, 1067-1077, 1196, 1216-1225. Vatican (Holy See). Actes et documents du Saint-Siège relatifs à la Seconde Guerre Mondiale. 12 vols. (1966-1981). Lévai, Jenö. Black Book on the Martyrdom of Hungarian Jewry. (Central European Times Publishing, 1948), pp. 196-201, 226-227, 232-233, 304, 318-319, 354, 357-359, 364, 371-373, 383-384, 387-388, 397.  See documentary Passport to Life, 2002. Conway, John S. “Records and documents of the Holy See relating to the Second World War.” Yad Vashem Studies, 15 (1983), 327-345. Kramer, T. D. From Emancipation to Catastrophe: The Rise and Holocaust of Hungarian Jewry. (New York: University Press of America), pp. 247-286. Rosenfeld, Harvey. Raoul Wallenberg, Angel of Rescue: Heroism and Torment in the Gulag. (Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books), chapter 5. 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), pp. 87-88, 161, 167. Lévai, Jenö. Fehér könyv, Külföldi akciók zsidók megmentésére [White Book, Foreign Actions for the Rescuing of Jews.]. (Budapest: Officina, 1946). Meszlényi, Antal (Ed.). A magyar katolikus egyház és as emberi jogok védelme [The Hungarian Roman Catholic Church and the Protection of Human Rights]. (Budapest: Stephaneum, 1947).  (Includes an essay by Monsignor Angelo Rotta.) Péterffy Gedeon, a katolikus papnevelde elöljárójának nyilatkozata a magyar katolikus egyház szerepér öl a zsidótörvények és zsidóüldözések idején [The Statement of Gedeon Péterffy, the Leader of the Catholic Seminary During the Period of the Jewish Laws and Jewish Persecutions]. (Budapest, Haladás [Progress], December 29, 1945.  (Emphasizes the rescue activities of Angelo Rotta and Gennaro Verolino.) Rotta, Angelo. “A budapesti nunciatura diplomáciai akciója a zsidók érdekében [The diplomatic campaign of the Budapest Nunciature on behalf of the Jews].” In Antal Meszlényi (Ed.), A magyar katolikus egyház és as emberi jogok védelme [The Hungarian Roman Catholic Church and the Protection of Human Rights]. (Budapest: Stephaneum, 1947), pp. 21-30.  (The rescue of Jews in Budapest by Angelo Rotta and Gennaro Verolino.) György, Ferenc. A budai Szent Erbébet-kórház legendája [The Legend of Saint Elizabeth Hospital of Buda]. (Budapest: Világ [World], 1947. (Periodical article on the rescue activities of Angelo Rotta and Gennaro Verolino.) Ujvári, Sándor. “Szabálytalan önéletrajz [An Irregular Autobiography].” Menora, February 17, 1979. (The author’s rescue activities under the auspices of Rotta and Verolino.) Fein, Helen. Accounting for Genocide. (New York: Free Press, 1979), pp. 107-110. Lévai, Jenö. Zsidósors Magyarországon [Jewish Fate in Hungary]. (Budapest: Magyar Téka, 1948), p. 441. Lévai, Jenö. Fehér könyv, Külföldi akciók zsidók megmentésére [White Book, Foreign Actions for the Rescuing of Jews.]. (Budapest: Officina, 1946), pp. 144-145. Lévai, Jenö. Hungarian Jewry and the Papacy. (London: Sands and Co., 1968), pp. 39, 44. Refers to M. Rotta and to Uditore Verolino by name.  15,000 safe passes issued (only 2,500 were permitted). 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).]


Count Luigi Vidau, Head of the Political Department of the Foreign Ministry, 1943

Luigi Vidau, Head of the Political Department of the Foreign Ministry, ordered his staff to collect information on German atrocities committed against deported Jews.  On the basis of this information, he ordered a detailed memorandum prepared to be presented to Mussolini, stating that “deportation” by the Nazis meant murder of the Jews in the death camps of Poland.  Vidau refused to accede to German demands for deportation of Jews from the occupied zones.  In August 1943, he authorized Italian diplomats in France to issue visas to Jews for entry into Italy at their own discretion and without confirmation of the Italian Department of the Interior. In September 1943, at the end of the Italian occupation, when the Italian armed forces were preparing to withdraw from their zone of occupation, thousands of Jews were allowed to escape to Italy under the protection of the Italian army. 

[Carpi, Daniel. "The Rescue of Jews in the Italian Zone of Occupied Croatia." In Rescue Attempts During the Holocaust. Proceedings of the Second Yad Vashem International Historical Conference, edited by Y. Gutman & E. Zuroff, pp. 465-526. (Jerusalem, 1977).  Carpi, 1990, p. 730. Carpi, Daniel. Between Mussolini and Hitler: The Jews and the Italian Authorities in France and Tunisia. (Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press, 1994), pp. 105, 112, 116, 167-171. 173-174, 176, 283n.10, 284n.11, 292n.87, 314n.62. Poliakov & Sabille, 1955, pp. 35, 132-133. Steinberg, 1990, pp. 123, 126, 168. Herzer, Ivo. The Italian Refuge: Rescue of Jews during the Holocaust. (Washington: Catholic University Press, 1989), p. 241.]


Leonardo Vitetti, Director-General of the Italian Foreign Ministry

Minister Leonardo Vitetti, Director-General of the Italian Foreign Ministry, may have been largely responsible for developing the plans to protect Jews, both in Italy and in the Italian zones of occupation in Europe.  In addition, Vitetti may have kept the American Minister in Bern, Switzerland, informed on reports of the German occupation in Italy.  This strategic information would have helped the Americans in their war plans.  The American Minister in Bern reported to Washington on the German occupation of Italy.  Vitetti replied favorably to the request of the Italian Ambassador in Berlin, Dino Alfieri, regarding the policy of allowing Italian Jews living abroad not to be subject to German race laws and to have their property and assets protected. 

[Carpi, Daniel. "The Rescue of Jews in the Italian Zone of Occupied Croatia." In Rescue Attempts During the Holocaust. Proceedings of the Second Yad Vashem International Historical Conference, edited by Y. Gutman & E. Zuroff, pp. 465-526. (Jerusalem, 1977).  Carpi, Daniel. Between Mussolini and Hitler: The Jews and the Italian Authorities in France and Tunisia. (Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press, 1994), pp. 25-26, 41, 160, 214-215, 231, 257n.21, 314n.62. Michaelis, Meir. Mussolini and the Jews: German-Italian Relations and the Jewish Question in Italy, 1922-1945. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978), pp. 235, 264, 323-325.]


Vladimír Vochoc, Czech Consul in Marseilles, France, 1940

Czech Consul Vladimir Vochoc, stationed in Marseilles, distributed many Czech passports on his own authority to Jews and anti-Nazis who wanted to escape from Marseilles to Spain and Portugal.  Vochoc worked closely with Varian Fry of the Emergency Rescue Committee (ERC), Dr. Frank Bohn of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and Dr. Donald Lowrie of the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) in supplying Czech visas.  Vochoc was a member of the Nimes Committee, which was a prominent rescue organization comprised of a number of individuals and rescue agencies operating in Southern France.  For his life-saving activities, Vochoc was arrested by Nazi and French authorities pending possible deportation.  Two months later, he managed to escape to Lisbon.

[Lowry, 1963, p. 48.  Fry, Varian. Surrender on Demand. (New York: Random House, 1945), pp. 18-19, 32, 40-41, 49, 57, 80-82, 208. Marino, Andy. A Quiet American: The Secret War of Varian Fry. (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999), pp. 107-108, 119, 137, 141, 192-193. Isenberg, Sheila. A Hero of Our Own: The Story of Varian Fry. (New York: Random House), pp. 38, 87, 111, 188. Klein, Anne. “Conscience, conflict and politics: The rescue of political refugees from southern France to the United States, 1940-1942.” Leo Baeck Institute Year Book, 43 (1998), 298-299.  Archiv der socialen Demokratie, NL Vladimir Vochoc (transl. By Vera Pikow). 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. 143-144, 148. Ebel, Miriam Davenport. An Unsentimental Education: A Memoir by Miriam Davenport Ebel. (1999).  Moore, 2010, pp. 23, 24-26.  Vochoc, Vladimír, Compte Rendu (London, 1941), 18.  Coll Archiv Joseph Fisera USHMM RG-43.028 A 0069.  Stein, Louis, Beyond Death and Exile: The Spanish Republicans in France, 1939-1955. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1979), pp. 32, 42-43.]


Gustaf von Dardel, Swedish Ambassador to Denmark, 1943

Gustaf von Dardel was the Swedish Ambassador to Denmark in 1943. 

In May 1943, von Dardel and the Swedish legation submitted a list of 40 Danish Jews who had families in Sweden, and arranged for their visas.  They were able to successfully escape to Sweden. 

Most importantly, von Dardel helped to save Jews during the thwarted deportation attempt that took place in Denmark in the beginning of October 1943.  As early as September 6, 1943, von Dardel reported to the Swedish foreign ministry about the proposed deportation.  He notified the Swedish government in Stockholm about the impending deportations and recommended that they come to the aid of the Jews of Denmark.  Specifically, on September 29, Von Dardel notified the Swedish foreign office by telegram that 6,000 Jews were scheduled to be arrested and deported to Germany by ship transport.  The Swedish government, by then, had decided that it would receive all the Jewish refugees that could make it to the shores of Sweden.  The Swedish government gave asylum to the Danish Jews until Denmark was liberated in the spring of 1945. 

In addition, von Dardel warned Jewish community leaders about the planned deportations.  This advance warning helped the Jews successfully plan their escape to Sweden.

As a result of this and other actions, more than 7,900 Jews were saved in Denmark.  This was nearly 98% of the Jews living in Denmark at the time. 

Von Dardel also helped noted Danish particle physicist Professor Niels Bohr to escape arrest by the Nazis.  He warned Bohr that the Nazis intended to arrest and deport him.

[Von Dardel, G. Lyckliga och Stormiga Aar. (Stockholm: Wahlstroem & Widstrand, 1953).  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. Levine, Paul A. From Indifference to Activism: Swedish Diplomacy and the Holocaust: 1938-1944. (Uppsala, Sweden: 1998), pp. 231-240, 244. Koblik, Steven. The Stones Cry Out: Sweden’s Response to the Persecution of the Jews, 1933-1945. (New York: Holocaust Library, 1988), pp. 217-218, 222. Yahil, Leni. The Rescue of Danish Jewry: Test of a Democracy. (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1969), pp. 327-329, 341. Swedish Foreign Ministry Archives (JM/1215-1219).  Persson, 2009.]


Albrect von Kessel, Consul German Embassy, Vatican (Holy See)

[Katz, 1969.  Zimmerman, 2000, pp. 230-232, 233, 235.]


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. Skoglund, Elizabeth R. A Quiet Courage: Per Anger, Wallenberg’s Co-Liberator of Hungarian Jews. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1997), p. 59.]


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. Koblik, Steven. The Stones Cry Out: Sweden’s Response to the Persecution of the Jews, 1933-1945. (New York: Holocaust Library, 1988), pp. 58-59, 145-146, 151, 154, 198-199, 216.]


Erik von Post, head of the Political Department, Swedish Foreign Ministry

[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. Koblik, Steven. The Stones Cry Out: Sweden’s Response to the Persecution of the Jews, 1933-1945. (New York: Holocaust Library, 1988), pp. 58, 128-132, 145, 199, 202, 206-207, 270-274, 278-280.  Swedish Foreign Office, The Swedish Relief Expedition to Germany 1945: Prelude and Negotiations [Stockholm, 1956], White Book, 1956; Swedish Foreign Office Archives [UDA], Stockhom; Persson, 2009, pp. 36, 43, 55, 57, 65, 75-76, 88, 96-97, 108, 195, 231, 233-236, 238, 252.]


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 von Weizsäcker, Ambassador to the Holy See, German Embassy, Rome, Italy

Ernst von Weizsäcker was against Hitler’s operational plan to occupy the Vatican with German troops and to arrest the Pope.  Weizsäcker feared that the Pope would be harmed and maybe even killed. 

[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.  Katz, 1969.  Zimmerman, 2005, pp. 224-242.]


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).]


C. J. van der Waarden, Dutch Consul General in Marseilles, 1940

Information about this Dutch diplomat was received from Irwin Schiffres.  Information was supplied by the Dutch Foreign Ministry.  [See e-mail dated 9/30/2001.]


Raoul Wallenberg,* First 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, shortly before the Soviets liberated Budapest, Wallenberg prevented the Germans from blowing up the Jewish ghetto in Pest and killing its inhabitants.  Shortly thereafter, Raoul Wallenberg was arrested by the Soviets 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.  In 2013, the United States Congress authorized the issuing of a Congressional Gold Medal for Raoul Wallenberg.  After nearly 70 years of investigation, his whereabouts or fate in the hands of the Soviet Union has never been proven.

[Wallenberg, Raoul, translated by Kjersti Board. Letters and Dispatches, 1924-1944. (New York: Arcade Publishing, 1995).  Yahil, L. “Raoul Wallenberg: His Mission and His Activities in Hungary.” Yad Vashem Studies, 15 (1983), pp. 7-53.  Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 788, 840, 845, 849, 850, 853, 1085-1091, 1130, 1132. Asaf, Uri. Christian support for Jews during the Holocaust in Hungary. In Braham, Randolph L. (Ed.) Studies on the Holocaust in Hungary, pp. 65-112. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990), p. 107. Lévai, Jenö. Black Book on the Martyrdom of Hungarian Jewry. (Central European Times Publishing, 1948), pp. 231, 355, 364-365, 369, 371, 378-379, 381-383, 391, 405-407, 410-411, 413-414. Levine, Paul A. From Indifference to Activism: Swedish Diplomacy and the Holocaust: 1938-1944. (Uppsala, Sweden: 1998), pp. 247, 265-266, 277. Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), pp. 1588-1591. Skoglund, Elizabeth R. A Quiet Courage: Per Anger, Wallenberg’s Co-Liberator of Hungarian Jews. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1997). 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).]


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.”

[Wyman, David S. Paper Walls: America and the Refugee Crisis, 1939-1941. (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), p. 167.]


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. Koblik, Steven. The Stones Cry Out: Sweden’s Response to the Persecution of the Jews, 1933-1945. (New York: Holocaust Library, 1988), pp. 203-209, 292.  Yahil, L. “Scandinavian Countries to the Rescue of Concentration Camp Prisoners.” Yad Vashem Studies, 6 (1967), pp. 181-220.]


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

In December 1944, Hans Weyermann, Swiss Chargé of the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC), arrived in Budapest and was active in the rescue work along with other neutral diplomats.  He was successful in keeping Jewish children from being placed in the Pest ghetto.  He was the assistant to Friedrich Born.  Weyermann worked closely with Jewish community leaders and set up a number of special Red Cross sections.  Born and Weyermann worked to protect and organize 150 clinics, hospitals, homes and other institutions in the winter of 1944-45.  The ICRC helped distribute thousands of Red Cross protective papers to Jews in Budapest.  Weyermann stayed in Hungary after Born’s departure from Budapest and continued to provide aid to Jewish refugees.

[Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 854, 981, 1063, 1149. Lévai, Jenö. Black Book on the Martyrdom of Hungarian Jewry. (Central European Times Publishing, 1948), pp. 381, 386-387, 391. Ben-Tov, Arieh. Facing the Holocaust in Budapest: The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Jews in Hungary, 1943-1945. (Boston: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1988), pp. 335, 339-344, 377-378. Asaf, Uri. Christian support for Jews during the Holocaust in Hungary. In Braham, Randolph L. (Ed.) Studies on the Holocaust in Hungary, pp. 65-112. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990), p. 107. Kramer, T. D. From Emancipation to Catastrophe: The Rise and Holocaust of Hungarian Jewry. (New York: University Press of America), pp. 249-250. Lévai, Jenö, translated by Frank Vajda. Raoul Wallenberg: His Remarkable Life, Heroic Battles and the Secret of his Mysterious Disappearance. (Melbourne, 1988, originally published in Hungarian in 1948). Favez, Jean-Claude.  Edited and translated by John and Beryl Fletcher. The Red Cross and the Holocaust. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 242, 249, 250.]


J. Weytko, Polish Embassy Official?, London, 1944

J. Weytko, of the Polish embassy in London, approached Henderson and Randall of the British Foreign Office on behalf of Jews in Nazi occupied Europe in general and Polish nationals in Hungary.

[Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), p. 1289 fn 223.]


Major Arthur Whittal, Passport Control Officer, Istanbul, Turkey

Major Arthur Whittal, the Passport Control Officer in Istanbul, issued passports for Palestine.

[Communication from Dr. Alastair Noble, Historian, Information Management Group, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, received 4/15/2008.]


Elizabeth Wiskemann, Assistant Press Attaché, Bern, Switzerland, 1941-1944

Elizabeth Wiskemann was the British Assistant Press Attaché in Bern, Switzerland, 1941-1944.  She warned about the deportation of the Hungarian Jews in 1944.

[Communication from Dr. Alastair Noble, Historian, Information Management Group, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, received 4/15/2008.]
Dr. Gerhardt Wolf, German Consul in Florence, Italy

Dr. Gerhardt Wolf helped rescue Jews from his post in Florence, Italy.  He was honored in a program, along with Oskar Schindler, after the war.  This is documented in the book Oskar Schindler: The Untold Account of his Life, Wartime Activities, and the True Story Behind the List by David M. Crowe.

[Crowe, David M.  Oskar Schindler: The Untold Account of his Life, Wartime Activities, and the True Story Behind the List.  2004, p. 572.]


Dr. Heinrich Wolff, German Consul General in Jerusalem, 1932-1935

The German Consul General in Jerusalem, Dr. Heinrich Wolff, worked to make the immigration of Jews from Germany to Palestine easier.  He believed in Zionism and in the possibility of reconciliation of a Jewish state in Palestine and the National Socialist movement.  Dr. Wolff helped negotiate and create the Ha’avarah agreement, which allowed Jews to immigrate to Palestine from Germany with their money and other assets intact.  He did not fully understand Nazi intentions to murder the Jews of Europe.  He refused to join the Nazi party and was dismissed from the diplomatic service in September 1935.  More than 50,000 Jews were able to emigrate from Germany as a result of negotiations by Dr. Wolff.

[Nicosia, Frances R. The Third Reich & the Palestine Question. (New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 2000), pp. 36-44, 51-52. Marcus, Ernst. “The German Foreign Office and the Palestine Question in the Period 1933-1939.” Yad Vashem Studies, 2 (1958), pp. 181-184, 194.]


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.]


Timotheus Wurst, German Consul in Palestine, 1933-39?

German Consul Timotheus Wurst helped a number of Jewish refugees enter Palestine by providing them visas and certificates.  Wurst was also helpful to refugees in his capacity as Director of the German Temple Society Bank.  He helped refugees transfer money from Germany to Palestine.

[Marcus, Ernst. “The German Foreign Office and the Palestine Question in the Period 1933-1939.” Yad Vashem Studies, 2 (1958), pp. 184-185, 194.]


Reverend Yde, Danish Consul General in Hamburg, Germany

[Persson, 2009, p. 191]


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

In February 1942, Turkish Consul General in Paris Namik Kemal Yolga submitted a list of 631 Jews of Turkish nationality who were to be protected from deportation.  He tirelessly petitioned the Turkish Foreign Ministry to save additional Jews, Turkish and non-Turkish, from being deported.

[Browning, Christopher R. Browning. The Final Solution and the German Foreign Office: A Study of Referat D III of Abteilung Deutschland 1940-43. (New York: Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1978), pp. 155-156.  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. 60-63, 66, 72, 79, 88, 96, 110-111, 129-130, 134, 160-161, 173, 175, 178, 183, 198, 277, 331, 337-340. Favez, Jean-Claude.  Edited and translated by John and Beryl Fletcher. The Red Cross and the Holocaust. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 242, 249-250.]


Li Yu-Ying, Chinese Consul, Marseilles, France, 1940

Li Yu-Ying was the acting Chinese Consul in Marseilles in 1940.  He was also the President of the National Academy there.  Many refugees in Marseilles received a visa stamp from Li Yu-Ying.  In Chinese characters that virtually no one could read, the stamp read, “Under no circumstances is this person to be allowed entrance to China.”  Anxious refugees used the visa stamp as an exit visa.  Frank Bohn, of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), Varian Fry of the Emergency Rescue Committee (ERC), and other rescue and relief agencies utilized many of these Chinese visas to help refugees leave France for Spain, Portugal and other parts of Europe.

[Fry, Varian. Surrender on Demand. (New York: Random House, 1945), pp. 15-17. Marino, Andy. A Quiet American: The Secret War of Varian Fry. (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999), pp. 108, 119.]


Guelfo Zamboni, Italian Consul General in Salonica, Greece, 1942-1943

Guelfo Zamboni was a career Italian diplomat.  In 1939-1941, he was station in the Italian embassy in Berlin.  There, he was a first-hand witness to the persecution of Jews.  He was appointed Consul in Salonica in April 1942.  He served in this post until June 1943.  On his own authority and without permission from the Italian Foreign Ministry, Zamboni provided hundreds of Greek Jews Italian birth certificates and certificates of citizenship, which protected Greek Jews from deportation to Auschwitz.  He was challenged by the German authorities, but was able to convince them he had authority from the Italian government.  Soon, his actions were supported by Italian Minister Plenipotentiary Pellegrino Ghigi in Athens.  On July 9, 1943, a train load of 350 Jews with certificates of citizenship from Zamboni was safely transferred from the Nazi occupied zone to Athens.

[Carpi, 1990, pp. 614, 730. Poliakov & Sabille, 1955, pp. 156-157. Steinberg, 1990, pp. 99-100. Film: Righteous Enemy, 1982.  Duman, Marion and Judy Krausz (Eds.). Compiled, translated and annotated with an introduction by Irith Dublon-Kenbel. German Foreign Office Documents on the Holocaust in Greece (1837-1944).  (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, 2007). Avni, Haim. “Spanish Nationals in Greece and their Fate during the Holocaust.” Yad Vashem Studies, 8 (1970), pp. 31-68. Molho, M., & J. Nehama. The Destruction of Greek Jewry, 1941-1945. (Jerusalem, 1965). In Hebrew. Rochlitz, Joseph. “Excerpts from the Salonika Diary of Lucillo Merci (February-August 1943).” Yad Vashem Studies, 18 (1987), pp. 293, 299, 301-314.]


Zimmerman, Polish diplomat stationed in Budapest, 1944-45

Zimmerman was a Jewish Polish diplomat who worked clandestinely in Budapest.  He worked under Henryk Slawik.

Lévai, Jenö. Black Book on the Martyrdom of Hungarian Jewry. (Central European Times Publishing, 1948). Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981).


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.]


Vittorio Zoppi, Italian Diplomat in Southern France

Italian diplomat Vittorio Zoppi was active in rescuing Jews in the Italian occupied zone of southern France. 

[Carpi, 1990, p. 730, Carpi, Daniel. Between Mussolini and Hitler: The Jews and the Italian Authorities in France and Tunisia. (Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press, 1994), pp. 77-78, 92, 218-220, 273n.31.]


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).]


Jan Zwartendijk,* Acting Dutch Consul in Kovno, Lithuania, 1940

Zwartendijk was the honorary Dutch Consul in Kovno (Kaunas), Lithuania.  He was the representative of the Phillips electronics company in Lithuania.  He is credited with devising and pioneering the use of the “Curacao visa” in early July 1940.  Zwartendijk issued end visas to the destinations of Curacao and Surinam, Dutch island possessions in the Caribbean.  He is credited with saving thousands of lives.  Jewish survivors nicknamed him “the Angel of Curacao.”  Zwartendijk died in 1975.  In 1997, he was awarded the Righteous Among the Nations honor by Yad Vashem.

[Levine, Hillel. In Search of Sugihara: The Elusive Japanese Diplomat Who Risked His Life to Rescue 10,000 Jews from the Holocaust. (New York: Free Press, 1996), pp. 3, 146, 200-201, 231-235, 260. Sakamoto, Pamela R. Japanese Diplomats and Jewish Refugees: A World War II Dilemma. (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1998). Zuroff, Efraim. “Attempts to obtain Shanghai permits in 1941: A case of rescue priority during the Holocaust.” Yad Vashem Studies, 13 (1979), 321-351.]


Argentine Embassy in Madrid

The Argentine Embassy in Madrid protested Spain’s closing of its borders to refugees in the spring of 1943.

[Bauer, Yehuda. American Jewry and the Holocaust. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), p. 209.]


Argentine Consul in Paris, 1943

The Argentine consulate in Paris, under Ricardo Olivera’s direction, protected Greek Jews.  They were exempted from wearing the stars.  In 1942, the Argentine consulate in Paris successfully negotiated the release of Greek Jews interned in the Compiegné concentration camp.  The Argentine Foreign Ministry considered this protective action to be “excessive.”

[Feierstein, Daniel and Miguel Galante. “Argentina and the Holocaust: The conceptions and policies of Argentine diplomacy, 1933-1945.” Yad Vashem Studies, 27 (1999), 190, 201.]


Belgian Representative to the Holy See, 1942

The Belgian representative to the Holy See, along with the Polish and Yugoslavian representatives, whose countries were also occupied by Germany, submitted a joint demarche on September 12, 1943.  This demarche asked the Pope to condemn Nazi atrocities in their occupied areas.

[Tittmann, Harold H., Jr., Harold H. Tittmann III (Ed.). Inside the Vatican of Pius XII: The Memoir of an American Diplomat During World War II. (New York: Image Books Doubleday, 2004), pp. 117-120.]


Belgian Congo Consulate, Vichy France, 1940-41?

Varian Fry, of the Emergency Rescue Committee, and other rescue and relief agencies active in Marseilles, obtained Belgian Congo visas for Jewish and other refugees.  These visas helped refugees obtain Spanish and Portuguese transit visas so they could escape Vichy France for Lisbon.

[Fry, Varian. Surrender on Demand. (New York: Random House, 1945), pp. 16-17.]


Bolivian Consul (in Geneva?)

Dr. Silberschein was able to obtain visas and other documents from the Bolivian consul (in Geneva?). 

[Eck, Nathan. (1957). “The Rescue of Jews with the Aid of Passports and Citizenship Papers of Latin American States.” Yad Vashem Studies on the European Jewish Catastrophe and Resistance. 1, 125-152.]


Brazilian Ambassador to Romania, 1941-42

The Brazilian Ambassador to Romania reported on the massacre of 280,000 Jews.  The Brazilian Ambassador was in contact with the Swiss Ambassador to Romania, René de Weck. 

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


British Ambassador to Washington, 1938

The British Ambassador to Washington offered Undersecretary of State Sumner Wells to relinquish half of the British immigration quota for 1939 to aid German Jewish refugees.  This proposal would have helped more than 30,000 German Jews escape the Nazis.  Wells refused the offer, stating that the quota was not his to offer.  Wells also stated that Roosevelt had mentioned at a press conference that he would not increase the annual quota for German nationals, which was 25,000 individuals. 

[Levin, Nora. The Holocaust: The Destruction of European Jewry, 1933-1945. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1968), p. 126.]


Canadian Ambassador to Japan

The Canadian Ambassador to Japan requested that the Canadian foreign ministry accept Jewish refugees into Canada. 

[Abella, Irving & Harold Troper. None is Too Many: Canada and the Jews of Europe 1933-1948 (3rd Ed.). (Toronto: Key Porter Books, 2000), pp. 80-82.]


Chilean Legation in Romania, 1943

The Jewish Council in Romania contacted the Chilean legation in Bucharest and persuaded them to provide refugees with protective documents.  Polish interests in Romania were represented by Chile.  This was done after much prodding and by the intervention of the Chief Rabbi.  In March 1943, Chile broke relations with Romania.

[Bauer, Yehuda. American Jewry and the Holocaust. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), p. 349.]


Chinese Diplomat in Hamburg, Germany, 1939

There is a copy of a Chinese visa issued to a Jewish family, which states “Multiple entry to Shanghai for one year, Republic of China, July 10, 1939, issued in Hamburg, Germany.”  This visa was issued to the grandfather of Claudia Cornwall. 

[Cornwall, Claudia. Letter from Vienna: A daughter uncovers her family’s Jewish Past. (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1995), pp. 58-61.]


Costa Rican Consul in Lisbon

Dr. Abraham Silberschein participated in the rescue of Jewish refugees by obtaining various documents and papers from Latin American countries.  These included visas and “promesas,” which were documents that certified the refugee would be emigrating to the Latin American country.  The visas and “promesas” were given by the various consulates for a small fee or gratis.  These documents were sent to various rescue organizations throughout Europe.

[Eck, Nathan. “The Rescue of Jews With the Aid of Passports and Citizenship Papers of Latin American States.” Yad Vashem Studies on the European Jewish Catastrophe and Resistance, 1 (1957), p. 133.]


Cuban Representative to the Holy See, 1942

The Cuban representative to the Holy See sent a message to Pope Pius XII asking him to publicly condemn Nazi atrocities being perpetrated in German-occupied areas of Europe.

[Tittmann, Harold H., Jr., Harold H. Tittmann III (Ed.). Inside the Vatican of Pius XII: The Memoir of an American Diplomat During World War II. (New York: Image Books Doubleday, 2004), pp. 117-118.]


Cuban Consul in Vichy France, 1940-41?

The Cuban consulate in Vichy provided exit visas to Jewish refugees and to Varian Fry and the Emergency Rescue Committee and other rescue and relief operations active in Marseilles.

[Fry, Varian. Surrender on Demand. (New York: Random House, 1945), pp. 127-128.]


Dutch Consul in Toulouse, France


Dutch Embassy in Switzerland

The Dutch Embassy in Switzerland was active in helping to transfer funds from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee to the Jewish community in Holland.  The money was forwarded to a Joddshe Coordinatie Commissie, which was headed by a Dutch Jew named J. Gans.  The money was used to support Jews in hiding in Holland.

[Bauer, Yehuda. American Jewry and the Holocaust. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), pp. 276-277.]

German Consul in Zagreb, Yugoslavia, 1940?

The German Consul General in Zagreb helped Jews in 1940 by issuing them protective papers.  He also advised them that they did not have to wear the yellow star.  In the autumn of 1940, a Jewish refugee from Mannheim, Germany, Jacob Kahn, went on an odyssey to escape Nazi deportation to a concentration camp.  In an autobiography, he stated that he went to the German consulate where he received instructions that he did not have to wear the Jewish star and that he was under the protection of the German consulate there.  Kahn reported that the German Consul General was later dismissed for these actions. 

[Korman, Gerd (Ed.). Hunter and Hunted: Human History of the Holocaust. (New York: Viking Press, 1973), pp. 163-167.]


Germany Embassy in Bucharest, Romania, 1944

In the spring of 1944, Jewish survivors and refugees in northern Transylvania began to organize rescue efforts in Bucharest.  The purpose was to help Jews flee from Hungarian territories to escape the Nazi persecutions.  In summer 1944, this group became active in Bucharest and called itself The Committee for Refugee Affairs.  The Committee established contact with officials at the German embassy in Bucharest, reaching an agreement to permit Jewish refugees from Hungary to emigrate to Palestine through the port of Constanta. 

[Braham, Randolph L. (Ed.) Hungarian-Jewish Studies. (New York: World Federation of Hungarian Jews, 1966), pp. 203-204. Vago, Bela. “Political and Diplomatic Activities for the Rescue of the Jews of Northern Transylvania.” Yad Vashem Studies, 6 (1967), p. 156.]


Greek Embassy in Ankara, Turkey

The Greek Embassy in Ankara, Turkey, sent communications to Greek citizens in Athens to help Jews escape from the transit camps in Athens. 


Greek Consulate General in Vienna, Austria

Moshe Galili, the Af-Al-Pi operative in Vienna, negotiated for Greek visas from the Greek Consulate General in Vienna.

[Perl, William R. The Four-Front War: From the Holocaust to the Promised Land. (New York: Crown Publishers, 1978), pp. 58-59.]


Hungarian Consul General in Paris

In 1942, the Hungarian consulate in Paris informed the German government that it expected “most favored” status be applied to Hungarian citizens.  Further, it demanded that Hungarian passports be honored and any Hungarian citizens interned should be released as well as Hungarian national property.  The Hungarian consulate estimated that in early 1943, approximately 1,600 Hungarian Jews were in occupied France.  The Hungarian consul also intervened on behalf of Jewish Hungarian nationals in the Vichy zones of occupation and in the French concentration camps.  Until the German occupation of Hungary, the consulate in Paris continued to pressure Berlin to release Hungarian Jews in Vichy France.

[Braham, Randolph L. “The treatment of Hungarian Jews in German-occupied Europe.” Yad Vashem Studies, 12 (1977), 137-139.]


Honorary Hungarian Consul in Marseilles, France, July 1940

The honorary Hungarian consul in Marseilles helped Jewish refugee Hecht.

[Hecht oral statement.]


Hungarian Consul in Brussels, Belgium

The Hungarian consulate in Brussels, Belgium, tried to intervene on behalf of 23 Hungarians interned in Belgium.  After the German occupation of Hungary in the spring of 1944, these Hungarian Jews in Belgium were unprotected.

[Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), p. 263. Braham, Randolph L. “The treatment of Hungarian Jews in German-occupied Europe.” Yad Vashem Studies, 12 (1977), 136.]


Hungarian Consul in Prague, Czechoslovakia

[Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), p. 259.]


Italian Consulate in Vienna, 1940

The Italian consuls in Vienna attempted to protect the civil rights of Austrian Jews of Italian ancestry.  Further, they tried to exempt Italian Jews from having to have their passports and IDs marked with the red letter “J.”  The consulate complained to the Italian ambassador in Berlin, Dino Alfieri.  Alfieri ruled in favor of protecting Italian Jews in the greater Reich of Germany-Austria.

[Carpi, Daniel. Between Mussolini and Hitler: The Jews and the Italian Authorities in France and Tunisia. (Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press, 1994), pp. 24-25.]


Italian Consul in Belgium, 1942?

The Italian Consul in Belgium demanded that Greek Jews be exempted from deportations and anti-Jewish laws.  The Consul reasoned that these laws had not been enacted against Greek Jews by the Italian authorities.  This may have been the first attempt by the Italians to protect Greek Jews under their jurisdiction. 

[Browning, Christopher R. The Final Solution and the German Foreign Office: A Study of Referat D III of Abteilung Deutschland 1940-43. (New York: Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1978), p. 102.]


Liberian Consul in Vienna, Austria

The Liberian Consul obtained and distributed one thousand forged Liberian visas.  Julius Steinfeld was a Jewish rescuer who obtained these visas in 1938.  When Adolf Eichmann found out about these visas, Eichmann demanded that the Jewish immigrants purchase travel tickets for Liberia.  The refugees had no intention of going to Liberia.  Dr. William Perl, of Af-Al-Pi, in his book, The Four-Front War, states:  “Our offices in Vienna and in Prague, therefore, undertook to provide these destination visas, or end visas as we called them.  In Vienna, Heinrich Haller, Paul Haller’s brother, Fritz Herrenfeld, and Paul Elbogen started negotiating with the consuls of various Latin American nations as well as with the consul of Liberia (pp. 142-143).”

[Kranzler, David. Thy Brother’s Blood: The Orthodox Jewish Response During the Holocaust. (Brooklyn, NY: Mesorah, 1987), pp. 260-261.  Perl, William R. The Four-Front War: From the Holocaust to the Promised Land. (New York: Crown Publishers, 1978), pp. 142-143.]


Lithuanian Honorary Consul in Aix-en-Provence, France, 1940?

The Lithuanian honorary consul in Marseilles, France, provided Lithuanian passports to Varian Fry and Albert Hirschmann of the Emergency Rescue Committee.  These documents were necessary in order to get refugees safe passage through Spain to Lisbon.  The honorary consul of Lithuania at Aix was eventually arrested by the French police.

[Fry, Varian. Surrender on Demand. (New York: Random House, 1945), pp. 40-41, 131. Marino, Andy. A Quiet American: The Secret War of Varian Fry. (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999), pp. 141, 242. Ebel, Miriam Davenport. An Unsentimental Education: A Memoir by Miriam Davenport Ebel. (1999).]


Peruvian Representative to the Holy See, 1942

The Peruvian representative to the Holy See sent a message to Pope Pius XII asking him to publicly condemn Nazi atrocities being perpetrated in German-occupied areas of Europe.

[Tittmann, Harold H., Jr., Harold H. Tittmann III (Ed.). Inside the Vatican of Pius XII: The Memoir of an American Diplomat During World War II. (New York: Image Books Doubleday, 2004), pp. 117-118.]


Polish Ambassador to Turkey, 1943?

The Polish Ambassador to Turkey gave 542 visas to Jews stranded in Teheran, according to Yishuv rescuer Chaim Barlas. 

[Laqueur, Walter (Ed.) and Judith Tydor Baumel (Assoc. Ed.).  The Holocaust Encyclopedia. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), p. 642.]


Polish Representative to the Holy See, 1942

The Polish representative to the Holy See, along with the Belgian and Yugoslavian representatives, whose countries were also occupied by Germany, submitted a joint demarche on September 12, 1943.  This demarche asked the Pope to condemn Nazi atrocities in their occupied areas.

[Tittmann, Harold H., Jr., Harold H. Tittmann III (Ed.). Inside the Vatican of Pius XII: The Memoir of an American Diplomat During World War II. (New York: Image Books Doubleday, 2004), pp. 117-120.]


Polish Consul in Marseilles, France, 1940?

The Polish consul in Marseilles, France, provided Polish passports to Varian Fry and Albert Hirschmann of the Emergency Rescue Committee.  These documents were necessary in order to get refugees safe passage through Spain to Lisbon.

[Fry, Varian. Surrender on Demand. (New York: Random House, 1945), pp. 40-41. Marino, Andy. A Quiet American: The Secret War of Varian Fry. (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999), p. 141. Ebel, Miriam Davenport. An Unsentimental Education: A Memoir by Miriam Davenport Ebel. (1999).]


Portuguese Consul in Antwerp, Belgium, 1941

In February 1941, the Portuguese International Police informed the Portuguese Foreign Ministry that the consulate in Antwerp was granting unauthorized visas and passports to foreigners, disregarding policy of the Portuguese Foreign Ministry.

[Milgram, Avraham. “Portugal, the Consuls, and the Jewish Refugees, 1938-1941.” Yad Vashem Studies, 27 (1999), pp. 154.  Letter from the PVDE to the General Director of Economic and Consular Affairs of the MNE, Lisbon, February 21, 1941, AMNE, 2o. P. A-44, M-152. (Cited in Milgram, 1999).]


Portuguese Consul in Bucharest, Romania, 1941

In February 1941, the Portuguese International Police informed the Portuguese Foreign Ministry that the consulate in Bucharest was granting unauthorized visas and passports to foreigners, disregarding policy of the Portuguese Foreign Ministry.

[Milgram, Avraham. “Portugal, the Consuls, and the Jewish Refugees, 1938-1941.” Yad Vashem Studies, 27 (1999), pp. 154.  Letter from the PVDE to the General Director of Economic and Consular Affairs of the MNE, Lisbon, February 21, 1941, AMNE, 2o. P. A-44, M-152. (Cited in Milgram, 1999).]


Portuguese Consul in Budapest, Hungary, 1941

In February 1941, the Portuguese International Police informed the Portuguese Foreign Ministry that the consulate in Budapest was granting unauthorized visas and passports to foreigners, disregarding policy of the Portuguese Foreign Ministry.

[Milgram, Avraham. “Portugal, the Consuls, and the Jewish Refugees, 1938-1941.” Yad Vashem Studies, 27 (1999), pp. 154.  Letter from the PVDE to the General Director of Economic and Consular Affairs of the MNE, Lisbon, February 21, 1941, AMNE, 2o. P. A-44, M-152. (Cited in Milgram, 1999).]


Portuguese Consul General in Hamburg, Germany

The Portuguese Consul General in Hamburg granted visas to Jews on his own initiative and with the approval of the Portuguese ambassador in Berlin, Veiga Simoes.  In addition, the Consul General in Hamburg established direct contact with the civil governors of the Portuguese possession of the Azores and Madeira to enable Jews to land.  The Consul General in Hamburg bypassed the Portuguese Foreign Ministry, the police and the Salazar administration.

[Milgram, Avraham. “Portugal, the Consuls, and the Jewish Refugees, 1938-1941.” Yad Vashem Studies, 27 (1999), pp. 123-155.  Confidential letter of Paulo Cumano to the Secretary-General of the MNE, Lisbon, April 11, 1939, AMNE 2o. P. A-43, M-38-A. The consul addressed the Civil Governor of Ponta Delgada asking for authorization for 28 Jewish families to land. (Cited in Milgram, 1999).]


Honorary Portuguese Consul in Nice, France, 1940-1941

The honorary Portuguese consul in Nice, 1940-1941, helped Jewish refugee Hecht.

[Oral history testimony by Hecht.]


Red Cross Legation in Amsterdam, The Netherlands

The office of the International Red Cross in Amsterdam helped send cables to Jewish organizations in Switzerland and Palestine for help.

[Bauer, Yehuda. American Jewry and the Holocaust. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), p. 276.]


Red Cross Legation in Rome

Father Marie-Benoit, under the auspices of DELASEM, obtained protective documents for Jews from the Red Cross 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.]


Romanian Consul in Kolozsvar, Transylvania

The Romanian Consul in Kolozsvar, Transylvania, which was very close to the Romanian border, helped Jewish refugees cross into Romania.  The consul had friends among the Romanian border guards.  The consul also sent information regarding Hungarian refugees that were being protected as political refugees.

[Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 206-207, 909.]


Romanian Consul in Nagyvárad and Kolozvár

Reported on persecution of Jews in Nagyvárad.  Reports were transmitted to the ICRC.

[Braham, 1981, pp. 1042, 1054n16; Marina, Mihai, “Nu Puteam Ramine Impasibili!” [We could not remain impassive!], Magazin Istoric [Historic Maganize], Bucharest, No. 6, June 1976, pp. 37-38, 39-41, cited in Braham, 1981]


Romanian Consul in Prague, 1942?

The Romanian Consul in Prague demanded that the Romania Jews be protected from deportation from the German protectorate.  The Consul pretended he had no knowledge that the Romanian government had previously agreed to a deportation of Romanian Jews. 

[Browning, Christopher R. The Final Solution and the German Foreign Office: A Study of Referat D III of Abteilung Deutschland 1940-43. (New York: Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1978), p. 102.]


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. Marino, Andy. A Quiet American: The Secret War of Varian Fry. (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999), p. 119.]


Slovakian Ambassador to Madrid, Spain, 1940-41

The Slovak Ambassador in Madrid helped Jewish refugee Hecht.

[Hecht oral history testimony.]


Spanish Embassy in Berlin

Jewish refugees in Berlin appealed to the Spanish embassy to permit them to escape to Spain.  The embassy passed these requests along to Spanish foreign minister Francisco Gómez Jordana.  On March 15, 1943, Jordana told German foreign ministry officials that Spanish nationals in Germany would be allowed to be repatriated.  On March 22, a note was sent to the German foreign minister regarding this.

[Bauer, Yehuda. American Jewry and the Holocaust. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), p. 211.]


Spanish Embassy in Paris, France

Jewish refugees in Paris appealed to the Spanish embassy to permit them to escape to Spain.  The embassy passed these requests along to Spanish foreign minister Francisco Gómez Jordana.  On March 15, 1943, Jordana told German foreign ministry officials that Spanish nationals in France would be allowed to be repatriated.  On March 22, a note was sent to the German foreign minister regarding this.

[Bauer, Yehuda. American Jewry and the Holocaust. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), p. 211.]


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. Vago, Bela. “Political and Diplomatic Activities for the Rescue of the Jews of Northern Transylvania.” Yad Vashem Studies, 6 (1967), pp. 156, 161.  Reports of Dr. P. Benedek, Rec E.M., II/21, p. 4.]


Swedish Legation, Berlin, Germany

Tried to help Norwegian civilian political prisoners in Germany in concentration camps.  The help was rejected by the German government.

[Persson, 2009, pp. 37-38.]


Swedish Minister to Rome, Italy

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.]


Swiss consul in Liége, Belgium


Swiss minister in Berlin, Germany


Swiss consul in Cologne, Germany


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.]


First Secretary of the United States Legation in Madrid, Spain

The First Secretary to the US legation in Madrid, on November 9, 1942, intervened with Spanish authorities to prevent the deportation of Jewish refugees from Spain.  This was done to prevent a precedent of deporting Allied soldiers to Axis countries.

[Bauer, Yehuda. American Jewry and the Holocaust. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), p. 209.]


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.

[Wyman, David S. Paper Walls: America and the Refugee Crisis, 1939-1941. (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), p. 167.] 


Uruguayan Consul in Berlin, 1938-39?

The Uruguayan Consul in Berlin issued visas to Jews.  [We are not sure if he charged an exorbitant amount; this has to be researched further.]

[Prinz, Arthur. “The Role of the Gestapo in Obstructing and Promoting Jewish Emigration.” Yad Vashem Studies, 218.]


Uruguayan Consul General in Hamburg, 1938-39?

The Uruguayan Consul General in Hamburg issued visas to Jews at a cost.  Arthur Prinz, a member of the Hilfsverein, in an article that he wrote in 1945, recalled: 

“One last word about the part played by some consuls.  Some of them as, for instance, the Uruguayan consul in Berlin and the Consul General in Hamburg (father and son Rivas, if I am not mistaken) showed a very friendly approach to Jewish emigration stemming from private commercial reasons.  They granted a great number of visas which undoubtedly helped to bring hundreds of people out of Germany and into a good immigration country.  But they enriched themselves in the process to a fantastic degree.  They made their own regulations for good conduct certificates which emigrants needed, etc. and then traveled all over Germany in order to examine the genuineness of these documents, a task for which they exacted generous allowances.  One day they were instructed by cable from Uruguay not to issue any further visas, not even if they had already promised them.  Since our emigrants were sitting on packed suitcases, the Hilfsverein intervened in the case, but Senor Rivas, the Consul General, told me literally: ‘What can I do if they tell me in Uruguay: You have already made enough money.  Stop!”

Note:  This information needs to be corroborated.  Sometimes consuls issued visas for money, but it was very reasonable and thus saved lives. If these diplomats extorted money at an unreasonable rate, they will not be listed in the book.

[Prinz, Arthur. “The Role of the Gestapo in Obstructing and Promoting Jewish Emigration.” Yad Vashem Studies, 217-218.]


Uruguayan Representative to the Holy See, 1942

The Uruguayan representative to the Holy See sent a message to Pope Pius XII asking him to publicly condemn Nazi atrocities being perpetrated in German-occupied areas of Europe.

[Tittmann, Harold H., Jr., Harold H. Tittmann III (Ed.). Inside the Vatican of Pius XII: The Memoir of an American Diplomat During World War II. (New York: Image Books Doubleday, 2004), pp. 117-118.]


Yugoslav Consul in Vienna, Austria

Dr. Willi Perl, of Af-Al-Pi (“Despite Everything”) rescue action, describes receiving Yugoslavian transit visas from the Yugoslav consulate general in Vienna.  He writes in his book, The Four-Front War:

“We now had two main tasks: to make everything ready for the final selection of these first 360 and for their departure, and to obtain the Greek visas.  But first, to reach Greece, we would have to travel through Yugoslavia.  The Yugoslavs, however, would not dream of letting 360 Jews into their country without being fully assured that these destitute people would be just passing through.  We obtained the definite promise from the Yugoslav Consulate General in Vienna that transit visas would be given for trainloads of up to 1,000 passengers if they possessed Greek visas, and with the stipulation that the cars be sealed to make certain that none of the passengers could stay in Yugoslavia.  Whenever, in the future, trains passed through Yugoslavia or Rumania, the cars were sealed.”  (See illustration in Four-Front War.)

[Perl, William R. The Four-Front War: From the Holocaust to the Promised Land. (New York: Crown Publishers, 1978), pp. 58-59.]


Yugoslavian Representative to the Holy See, 1942

The Yugoslavian representative to the Holy See, along with the Belgian and Polish representatives, whose countries were also occupied by Germany, submitted a joint demarche on September 12, 1943.  This demarche asked the Pope to condemn Nazi atrocities in their occupied areas.

[Tittmann, Harold H., Jr., Harold H. Tittmann III (Ed.). Inside the Vatican of Pius XII: The Memoir of an American Diplomat During World War II. (New York: Image Books Doubleday, 2004), pp. 117-120.]


Diplomat in Serpatna, 1940-1941

This diplomat helped Jewish refugee Hecht.

[Oral history testimony of Hecht.]



 

A-B                    C-J                    K-R            S-Z 

* Recognized by the State of Israel as Righteous among the Nations, Yad Vashem: The World Holocaust Remembrance Center.
** Recognized by the State of Israel with Letter of Commendation.