Diplomats Recognized by Yad Vashem
In Alphabetical Order
The following is a list of individuals who have been recognized by the state of Israel as Righteous Among the Nations as of March 2021. In addition, there are four diplomats who have been commended by Yad Vashem for their rescue activities.
Several of these diplomats were nominated to Yad Vashem by the Visas for Life: The Righteous and Honorable Diplomats Project. We are proud to participate in this important endeavor. We are continuing to supply information to Yad Vashem to have additional courageous men and women honored for their life-saving activities.
Please scroll down for biographical entries for each of the diplomatic rescuers. We have also included a list of additional diplomats referenced by diplomatic title and location in the records of Yad Vashem’s Righteous department. These diplomats will require further study to determine the names and more detailed accounts of their activities on behalf of Jews.
Per Anger, Sweden, Secretary of the Swedish Legation in Budapest, 1944-45
Jose Maria Barreto, Peru’s consul general in Geneva, Switzerland. 1943
Dr. Manuel Antonio Muñoz Barreto, Ecuadorian Consul in Stockholm, Sweden
Władysław Bartoszewski, Poland, deputy-director of the Jewish Section of the Department of Internal Affairs of the Polish government-in-exile in London, Zegota (the Council for Aid to Jews).
Lars Berg, Sweden, Attaché in Budapest, 1944-45
Dr. Anna (Anni) Binder*, (later Urbanová), Czech diplomat in Europe
Friedrich Born, Switzerland, Chief Delegate of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Budapest, 1944-45
Colonel José Arturo Castellanos, Consul General for El Salvador in Geneva, Switzerland, 1942-45
Eduardo Propper de Callejon, first secretary in the Spanish embassy in Paris.
Aracy de Carvalho-Guimaraes Rosa and wife, Brazil, Aide to the Ambassador in Berlin
Luis Martins de Souza Dantas, Brazilian Ambassador to France, 1940-1943
François de Vial, Diplomat at the French Embassy in Rome, 1943
Dr. Aristides de Sousa Mendes, Portugal, Consul General in Bordeaux and Bayonne, June 1940
del Campo Samuel, Chilean Consul, Bucharest, Ilfov, Walachia, Romania,
Archbishop George Damaskinos,* Metropolitan of Athens, Acting Head of State for Greek Government in Exile
Carl Ivan Danielsson, Sweden, Minister (Ambassador) in Budapest, 1944-45
Elenore DuBois (Swiss), Toulouse, France, (Wife of Maurice DuBois)
Maurice DuBois* (Swiss), Toulouse, France
Georg Duckwitz, Germany, Trade Attaché to the German Embassy in Copenhagen, October 1940
Solomon Ezrati+, Spanish Consul in Salonika, Greece, 1941-43
Dr. Harald Feller, Switzerland, Chargé d’Affaires in Budapest, 1944-45
Frank Foley, Great Britain, Passport Officer in Berlin, 1933-1939
Jean-Edouard Friedrich, Swiss, International Red Cross Berlin, Germany
Dr. Feng Shan Ho, China, Consul General in Vienna, 1938-40
Consul Janse+, Office Néerlandis (Netherlands Office)
Constantin Karadja, Consul General of Romania in Berlin, 1942-1943, and Bucharest, 1943-1944
Jan Karski, Poland, Consul, 1942-45
Alexander Kasser, Sweden, Representative for the Red Cross in Budapest, 1944-45
Elow Kihlgren, Swedish diplomat stationed in Genoa, Italy
Waldemar Langlet, Sweden, Representative of the Swedish Red Cross in Budapest, 1944-45
Nina Langlet, Sweden, wife of Red Cross Representative Waldemar Langlet, Budapest, 1944-45
Herman Laatsman+, Head of Chancery, Dutch Embassy in Paris, France, 1940-41
Carl Lutz, Switzerland, Consul in Visa Section in Budapest, 1942-45
Gertrud Lutz, Switzerland, wife of Consul Carl Lutz, Budapest, 1944-45
Florian Manoliu, Romanian diplomat stationed in Hungary
Giorgio Perlasca, Spain/Italy, Acting Spanish Ambassador in Budapest, 1944-45
Ernst Prodolliet, Switzerland, Consul General in Bregenz, Austria
Frango Puncuch‡, Yugoslavia, Honorary Consul, Warsaw, Poland, 1939-1944
Sebastián Romero Radigales, Spain, Consul General in Athens, 1943-44
Monsignor Angelo Rotta, Italy, Papal Nuncio (Ambassador) in Budapest, 1944-45
A. Routier, Honorary Turkish Consul General in Lyon, France, 1942-43
Angel Sanz-Briz, Spain, Minister (Ambassador) in Budapest, 1944
José Ruiz-Santaella, Spain, Attaché in Berlin
Wife of José Ruiz-Santaella, Spain
Henryk Slawik‡, Polish Chargé d’Affaires in Budapest, Hungary, 1944
Chiune Sugihara, Japan, Consul in Kovno (Kaunas), Lithuania, July-August 1940
Sándor György Ujváry, Vatican and International Red Cross, Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45
Selahattin Ülkümen, Turkey, Consul General on the Greek Island of Rhodes, 1944
Father Gennaro Verolino, Deputy to the Papal Nuncio in Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45
Vladimír Vochoc, Czech Consul in Marseilles, France, 1940
Ernst Vonrufs, Acting Representative of Swiss Interests in Budapest, 1945
Raoul Wallenberg, Sweden, Special Attaché in Budapest, 1944-45
Jan Zwartendijk, Holland, Honorary Consul in Kovno (Kaunas), Lithuania, July-August 1940
Peter Zürcher, Acting Representative of Swiss Interests in Budapest, 1945
Diplomats Commended by Yad Vashem and the State of Israel:
Hiram Bingham, United States of America, Vice Consul in Marseilles, 1940-41
Solomon Ezrati+, Spanish Consul in Salonika, Greece, 1941-43
Consul Janse+, Office Néerlandis (Netherlands Office)
Herman Laatsman+, Head of Chancery, Dutch Embassy in Paris, France, 1940-41
Father Gennaro Verolino, Vatican, Deputy to the Papal Nuncio in Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45
‡Killed
Diplomats Recognized by Yad Vashem with Biographical Entries
Anger, Per
“Per Johan Anger was born in Göteborg, Sweden in 1913. He studied law at the Universities of Stockholm and Uppsala, graduating in 1939. He joined the diplomatic corps and was offered a position at the Swedish Embassy in Berlin, Germany in January 1940. In 1942, he was appointed second secretary at the Swedish Legation in Budapest, Hungary and his sphere of expertise was Swedish-Hungarian trade. After the German occupation of Hungary in March 1944, Anger began to be involved in rescue operations of Jews, risking his life as the assistant of Raoul Wallenberg*. As his close associate, he cooperated with Wallenberg in saving many thousands of Jewish lives in wartime Budapest and helped persecuted Jews avoid deportation and death, by issuing them provisional documents. Anger saved Jews from transports that were already heading to the death camps, from the death marches as well as from labor battalions. He also arranged various jobs for Jews, to prove that they were vital and therefore they should not be deported. Prof. Lars Ernster, one of the Hungarian survivors, testified that Anger saved him, his wife, their two daughters and their husbands, as well the parents of his wife, their children and sons-in-law. Anger provided them with provisional Swedish passports – documents that were usually used for Swedish citizens who lost their papers. Similar emergency passports were handed by Anger to various Hungarian Jews who used to maintain commercial ties with Sweden.
Among the Jews that were provided with such documents were Hugo Wohl, director of a Swedish firm’s factory in Budapest, together with his wife, their daughters and their husbands. After October 15, 1944, when the Arrow Cross party came to power in Hungary, the Swedish Legation transferred the protégés, including Wohl’s family, to one of the Swedish-protected buildings, where they were safe. Some members of Wohl’s family were engaged as workers in the Swedish Legation and they witnessed the extensive rescue efforts of the Swedish diplomats, and especially those of Per Anger and Raoul Wallenberg. In an interview Anger described the dilemma off the diplomats faced with the plight of the Jews: "So what can we do? They were queuing up outside the embassies, pleading for help… What could we do? There was nothing in our books of instructions telling us how we could save people of other nationalities…” Per Anger, Swedish diplomat in German occupied Hungary." After the war, Anger continued his long and illustrious diplomatic career with postings to various countries, serving in the 1970s as Swedish Ambassador to Australia and then to Canada. In 1981, Anger wrote his memoirs: “With Wallenberg in Budapest.” Per Anger, was a young Swedish diplomat in Budapest, who became a friend and partner of Raoul Wallenberg in the rescue of the Jews in Budapest. For his daring activity, he too was recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem. In 1981 he published his memoirs “With Raoul Wallenberg in Budapest”, in which he described the rescue operation that was put in place, his last encounter with Wallenberg, and analyzes the efforts (or lack of them) to find Wallenberg. In the book he described a short return to Budapest in the fall of 1956. At that time he was stationed in Vienna, and following the Soviet suppression of the Hungarian Revolution, was sent on a short mission to Budapest to report about the situation and to help the Swedish legation staff. He described how, on his return to Vienna, he witnessed the many refugees who were pouring across the border and into the refugee camps that had been set up. “In Andau, the bus was parked on a little hill near the border and I headed for the canal, where I found the two students again. The refugees arrived at the same time of night as before, and the same scenes took place. I led the group of refugees to the bus and the waiting Margit Lemmel [of the organization Save the Children in Sweden], who efficiently carried out shuttle service between Andau and the receiving camp. Among the refugees were several Jews whom Wallenberg and we had once rescued with Swedish protective passports. An elderly Hungarian woman fell, weeping, into my arms. She had recognized me from that day at the end of 1944 when, at the railway station in Budapest, I succeeded in rescuing a number of Jews from deportation. She was one of them! It was a strange and touching reminder of the days in Hungary with Raoul Wallenberg.”
On April 28, 1981, Yad Vashem recognized Per Anger as Righteous Among the Nations.
Per Anger, Secretary of the Swedish Legation in Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45
Per Anger was the Secretary of the Swedish Legation in Budapest, Hungary in 1944-1945. Anger, along with Minister Carl Ivan Danielsson, kept the Swedish legation open in Hungary and worked closely with their diplomats and volunteers. Anger designed and distributed an early form of Swedish protective paper. Anger also personally intervened on behalf of Jews who were being deported to the Nazi death camps. On other occasions, Anger rescued Jews from Nazi death marches leaving Budapest. Consul Anger is credited with saving thousands of Jews from the spring of 1944 until the end of the war in May 1945. Per Anger was awarded the Righteous Among the Nations title by the State of Israel in 1980. He became an honorary citizen of Israel in 2001. For more than 50 years, Per Anger worked tirelessly on behalf of the memory of Raoul Wallenberg. Anger died in 2002.
[Anger, Per. With Raoul Wallenberg in Budapest: Memories of the War Years in Hungary. (Washington, DC: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 1996). Skoglund, Elizabeth R. A Quiet Courage: Per Anger, Wallenberg’s Co-Liberator of Hungarian Jews. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1997). Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 899, 1088. 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. 68. Lévai, Jenö. Black Book on the Martyrdom of Hungarian Jewry. (Central European Times Publishing, 1948), p. 227. Levine, Paul A. From Indifference to Activism: Swedish Diplomacy and the Holocaust: 1938-1944. (Uppsala, Sweden: 1998), pp. 255, 236-277. Koblik, Steven. The Stones Cry Out: Sweden’s Response to the Persecution of the Jews, 1933-1945. (New York: Holocaust Library, 1988), pp. 68, 75, 107, 162, 249. 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).]
Barreto, Jose Maria
“During the 1930s Peru suffered from effects of the world-wide economic crisis, and the government enacted legislation strongly restricting immigration to the country. On May 18, 1940, immigration was totally forbidden, and the life of immigrants who had previously entered the country was restricted, harshly limiting their economic activities. Moreover, a xenophobic attitude prevailed, directed mostly toward the Chinese and Japanese, who constituted the largest groups of immigrants. When President Roosevelt convened the Evian Conference in July 1938 to discuss the problem of the refugees—mostly Jews—from Germany, Peru initially refused to participate, accepting the invitation only later. Though the country’s delegate expressed sympathy for the victims of suffering, he joined the other delegates in refraining from proposing any practical solution to the refugees’ plight. On September 17, 1938, the American consul in Lima reported that Peru had instructed its diplomatic delegations to refuse visas to Jews. No exceptions were made to this policy, and in 1942, after the deportations to the death camps began, Peru’s government rejected a request of the local Jewish community to grant entry to 50 Jewish children from France. Thus, between 1933 and 1943, only 536 Jews were able to immigrate to Peru. The attitude and activity of Jose Maria Barreto, Peru’s consul general in Geneva, stands in stark contrast to his country’s immigration policy.
Abraham Silberschein, the head of RELICO, a Jewish relief organization in Switzerland funded by the World Jewish Congress, approached Barreto, asking him to issue Peruvian passports for Jews under German occupation. “Mr. Barreto, deeply moved by the suffering of millions of human beings in the occupied countries, wished to participate in helping to alleviate the plight of these innocent people and decided to agree and provide us with a certain number of passports so that we could send them to different persons in the countries under German control,” wrote Silberschein in a letter dated August 27, 1943. “Mr. Barreto was convinced that by this highly humane deed he would save a number of people.” When one of the persons who had received the passports reached Switzerland, his travel document raised suspicion, and the Swiss police informed the Peruvian embassy in Bern that a German Jew by the name of Günther Frank had arrived in Switzerland with a Peruvian passport issued by the consulate of Peru in Geneva. The police enquired whether the passport was genuine. The embassy referred the inquiry to the ministry in Lima, which responded that the passport had been issued contrary to standing instructions. The ministry reiterated that no passports or visas were to be granted to persons who had not been born in Peru or who had Peruvian citizenship, as per instructions that had already been issued in 1938 prohibiting the immigration of foreigners, and of Jews in particular, to Peru. Upon receiving this response the embassy in Bern instructed the consulate in Geneva to submit a list of passports and visas that Consul General Barreto had issued. Barreto complied, and in his letter of August 10, 1943, he provided the list, which was comprised of 16 Peruvian citizens, one Swiss citizen who had been granted a visa with the permission of the Peruvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and 27 passports issued to a total of 58 persons, including 14 children. He explained that this had been done in the attempt to help persecuted Jews in concentration camps, who were otherwise in mortal danger. Barreto added that he hoped that the ambassador would take the special circumstances into consideration and would act with understanding and thoughtfulness. The ambassador of Peru in Bern forwarded the list to Lima, asking for instructions, adding that the 27 passports “had all been issued without permission to Jews in concentration camps” and that the consul’s motivation had been humanitarian. The response was cabled a week later, on August 19, 1943, signed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs: “1) Urgent. Inform the Swiss government that the passports issued by our consul general in Geneva are annulled and that they should be returned to us. Send us the details of each passport so that their bearers will be denied entry to Peru. 2) Barreto’s position is canceled, he is to be dismissed and the consulate in Geneva should be closed.” Barreto said that he had handed the passports over to Fanny Schulthess, the head of the Geneva-based Comité Internationale pour le placement des intellectuels Réfugiés. Schulthess was consequently detained by the Swiss police and interrogated about her involvement in obtaining Peruvian passports to save Jews. The official letter of dismissal followed on August 24, 1943, accusing Barreto of “issuing passports to foreigners whose entry to Peru had been forbidden to protect public interest and that the reasons he had given for his conduct were contrary to existing instructions.” Abraham Silberschein wrote to the Nuncio in Bern, Filippo Bernardini, asking him to intervene with the government of Peru on behalf of Barreto, but to no avail. The attempt to rescue Jews from death ended Barreto’s diplomatic career.”
On March 4, 2014, Yad Vashem recognized Jose Maria Barreto as Righteous Among the Nations.
Dr. Manuel Antonio Muñoz Barreto, Ecuadorian Consul in Stockholm, Sweden
Dr. Manuel Antonio Muñoz Borrero issued hundreds of passports/visas to Jewish refugees in Europe. Borrero issued the visas at the request of a local rabbi, Abraham Israel Jacobson. According to a recent report, Borrero came into conflict with the Ecuadorian foreign minister, who had asked him to cease issuing visas. Despite pressure from Ecuador, Borrero continued to issue visas. In 1942, Borrero worked in cooperation with a Chilean minister in Ankara, Turkey, and the Polish Consul General in Exile in Ankara, Turkey. The German government put pressure on the Ecuadorian government to fire Borrero. Borrero was warned and interrogated several times by the Swedish police and by the Swedish secret service (Säkerhetstjänsten). Borrero was eventually dismissed from his job as Consul General of Ecuador in Stockholm under pressure from the Nazi regime. He did not return to Ecuador. Borrero died in Stockholm after the war.
Bartoszewski Władysław, Provisional Committee for Aid to Jews, Zegota (the Council for Aid to Jews),
“From September 1942, even before the establishment of Zegota (the Council for Aid to Jews), Władysław Bartoszewski was a loyal and devoted member of the Provisional Committee for Aid to Jews. When Zegota was established in December 1942, Bartoszewski (whose undercover name was “Ludwik”) threw himself wholeheartedly into working for the organization, as well as helping many Jewish refugees on a personal basis. In Zegota, Bartoszewski represented "The Polish Revival Front,” a clandestine Catholic organization, and served as deputy-director of the Jewish Section of the Department of Internal Affairs of the Polish government-in-exile in London. Bartoszewski saved the lives of many Jews who fled from the Warsaw ghetto and hid on the Aryan side of the city or elsewhere. Throughout his underground activities, Bartoszewski maintained close ties with Jewish representatives of Zegota, including Leon Feiner, the Bund representative and Adolf Berman, representative of the Jewish National Council. As part of his underground activity, Bartoszewski sent information to England and the United States on the situation of the Jews in Poland under the German occupation. The author, Rachel Auerbach, and Dr. A. Berman subsequently testified that, after the war, Bartoszewski, who was, by then, a reputed journalist and publicist, tried hard to bring the heroism of Polish Jewry to the notice of the Polish public. He published many articles and essays noted for their objectivity and sympathy toward the Jewish people, and helped promote harmony between Poles and Jews.”
On December 14, 1965, Yad Vashem recognized Władysław Bartoszewski as Righteous Among the Nations.
Lars Berg
Carl Ivar Danielsson
Danielsson, Carl Ivan
Berg, Lars
“During World War II, Sweden represented the affairs of Hungary in the Allied countries. The Swedish diplomat Carl Ivan Danielsson was the ambassador at the Swedish Legation in German-occupied Budapest. He knew about all the illegal operations that were handled by legation personnel and he supported them. In June 1944, Danielsson requested permission from the Hungarian government for the Swedish Red Cross to help the Hungarian Red Cross in feeding and housing war-orphaned and abandoned children and the Hungarians agreed. In December, as the Soviets were closing in on Budapest, the Arrow Cross regime moved to western Hungary and asked the legation to move, too, claiming that it would be unable to protect the legation and personnel in the capital. Danielsson decided to remain in besieged Budapest, unwilling to abandon the Jews. The Jewish community of Stockholm gave him a letter of appreciation for his conduct after the war. Lars Berg was a member of the team of Raoul Wallenberg* at the Swedish Legation in Budapest, saving persecuted Jews from deportation. According to Elisabeth Kasser, former secretary of the Swedish Red Cross in Hungary in 1944-1945, Berg was in those days a young and capable attaché, co-worker of Wallenberg and Per Anger*, who contributed significantly to the various rescue missions carried out.”
On July 13, 1982, Yad Vashem recognized Carl Ivan Danielsson and Lars Berg as Righteous Among the Nations.
Lars Berg, Swedish Consul in Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45
Lars Berg was part of the diplomatic mission to Budapest, Hungary. Along with his Swedish diplomatic colleagues, he was responsible for saving Jews from Nazi and Arrow Cross deportations and murder. Berg authored a book on the Swedish legation’s mission entitled, What Happened in Budapest (Stockholm: Forsners Förlag, 1949). He was honored by Yad Vashem with the title Righteous Among the Nations in 1982 for his actions.
[Berg, Lars G. What Happened in Budapest. (Stockholm: Forsners Förlag, 1949). Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), p. 1088. 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. 71. Skoglund, Elizabeth R. A Quiet Courage: Per Anger, Wallenberg’s Co-Liberator of Hungarian Jews. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1997), pp. 19-21, 36-38, 46, 60, 99-100, 116, 139-141, 166. 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).]
Carl Ivan Danielsson, Swedish Minister (Ambassador) in Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45
Carl Ivan Danielsson was the Swedish Minister in Budapest in 1944-1945. As head of the Swedish mission to Budapest, Danielsson was responsible for the rescue and protection of tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews. He was responsible for the overall mission and ultimately the success of the Swedish legation. For his actions, he was awarded the Righteous Among the Nations medal by Israel in 1982.
[Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 785, 881, 1074, 1084. 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. 74. Lévai, Jenö. Black Book on the Martyrdom of Hungarian Jewry. (Central European Times Publishing, 1948), pp. 227-228, 231, 318-319, 357-359, 366-367, 387-388. Levine, Paul A. From Indifference to Activism: Swedish Diplomacy and the Holocaust: 1938-1944. (Uppsala, Sweden: 1998), pp. 254-277. Koblik, Steven. The Stones Cry Out: Sweden’s Response to the Persecution of the Jews, 1933-1945. (New York: Holocaust Library, 1988), pp. 68, 71-72, 235, 238, 241-245, 248, 258, 270, 275. Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), pp. 1439, 1589. Skoglund, Elizabeth R. A Quiet Courage: Per Anger, Wallenberg’s Co-Liberator of Hungarian Jews. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1997), pp. 17, 38, 46, 60-61, 74, 95, 117, 121, 124, 133, 156, 166, 171-172. 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).]
Dr. Anna (Anni) Binder, Czech diplomat in Europe
Dr. Anna (Anni) Binder (later Urbanová), a Czech diplomat, was arrested for helping to hide Jewish property and transfer it overseas. She was deported to the Auschwitz death camp in March 1942. While there, she helped assign slave laborers to work that would save their lives. She provided moral support to Jewish inmates. For helping Jews, she was sent to do hard labor in Birkenau, where she fell gravely ill. She survived the war. Anna Binder was honored on July 18, 1967, as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Memorial Museum in Jerusalem, Israel.
“Anna (Anni) Binder (later Urbanová) was born to German parents in Ceske Budejovice. Knowing foreign languages led to her being accepted for a job with the Czech Foreign Office in Prague in 1936, which allowed her a diplomatic passport. The political changes at the end of 1938 led to Anna’s immediate dismissal. She thus started giving private lessons in foreign languages to refugees who had found a temporary refuge in the Czech Republic. Dr. Urbanová’s democratic worldview and her sensitivity to the persecution of others motivated her to assist any refugees who asked her for help. She helped them to hide their valuables and money and to transfer them to a secure place in Switzerland. This activity led to the arrest of her and her sister for a short period. Despite this, after her release, more than once Dr. Urbanová gave her diplomatic passport and her lineage certificate (Ahnenpass) to members of the underground to utilize. Dr. Urbanová was arrested by the Gestapo in 1941, and she was deported to a concentration camp. Dr. Urbanová’s incarceration in Ravensbrück came to an end with the transfer of 1000 German women—of which she was one—to Auschwitz, in March 1942, in order to supervise Jewish inmates that the Germans planned to bring to this camp. Following the establishment of the rubber plant experimentation center by Obersturmbannfuehrer Dr. Joachim Caesar, Dr. Urbanová was chosen to be his secretary. Conditions here were favorable. Thus, when a transport of Jews arrived in June from France, Dr. Urbanová took two biologists and a chemist, Claudette Bloch-Kennedy, to work in the laboratory. Then, from a transport from France in January 1943, Urbanová brought in four more biologists. Dr. Urbanová not only had a humane attitude towards the inmates but she gave them encouragement. She arranged lectures, group discussions, and also taught languages. Due to her unique personality, inmates from different countries surrounded her and she became a source of inspiration. They were galvanized by her courage to assist Jews. Later, Dr. Urbanová’s status became threatened. The chief inspector did not like her relationships with the Jewish women prisoners. The office manager was changed, and the new one agreed to fire Dr. Urbanová from her job. Furthermore, in early January 1944, Dr. Urbanová was put in a punishment cell because of a cigarette lighter that was found in her possession. After her release, she prepared letters and presents for her Jewish friends, but they were found. Her fear that her friends would be punished motivated her to ask an ss officer to keep quiet about the discovery in return for her consent to move to Birkenau. Dr. Urbanová was sent there and she was attached to a unit that paved roads. She soon became ill, but her friends at the Birkenau hospital saved her. In August 1944, Dr. Urbanová was sent to Ravensbrück, from where she was later transferred to a camp in northern Bohemia. With a few other inmates, she managed to escape from there and get to Prague. After the war, Dr. Urbanová continued with her studies and found her place in the academic world.”
On July 18, 1967, Yad Vashem recognized Dr. Anna Binder-Urbanová as Righteous Among the Nations.
[Gutman, Israel. The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations: Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust, Europe (Part 1) and Other Countries. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2007), p. 39-40.]
Hiram Bingham IV, † US Vice Consul in Marseilles, France, 1940-1941
Hiram Bingham was the American Vice Consul in charge of visas, stationed in Marseilles, France, in 1940-1941. Shortly after the fall of France, Bingham, against the orders and policy of his superiors, issued visas, safe passes, and letters of transit to Jewish refugees. Many visas were falsified in order to protect the refugees from internment. Bingham helped set up the contacts and issued visas for the Emergency Rescue Committee, headed by Varian Fry. Bingham also worked with other rescue operations in Marseilles, including the American Friends’ Service Committee (Quakers), the American Red Cross, the Unitarian Service Committee, the Mennonite Committee, and Jewish relief organizations. Bingham also worked with the Nîmes (Camps) Committee. He was, in part, responsible for saving several thousand Jews. Among them were many anti-Nazi activists, labor leaders, and Communists. He also rescued Jewish artists, intellectuals, writers and scientists, such as Marc Chagall, Max Ernst, André Breton, Heinrich Mann, and Jewish Nobel Prize winners. Bingham visited the concentration camps and facilitated issuing visas to Jews trapped in the Les Milles French concentration camp. In May 1941, Bingham helped the Quakers, the Nîmes Committee and the OSE rescue several hundred Jewish children by issuing US visas. These children left France in June 1941. In 1942, Bingham was transferred to the US embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina. At the end of the war, he reported on the immigration of Nazi war criminals to Buenos Aires. He wrote numerous reports and encouraged his supervisors to report these activities to the State Department. His superiors did nothing and he resigned from the Foreign Service in protest. In 2000, Bingham was presented the American Foreign Service Association Constructive Dissent award by the US Secretary of State. In 2005, Hiram Bingham was given a letter of commendation from Israel’s Holocaust Museum. In 2006, a US commemorative postage stamp was issued in his honor.
[Fry, Varian. Assignment Rescue. (New York: Scholastic, 1997). Fry, Varian. Surrender on Demand. (New York: Random House, 1945), pp. 10-12, 14, 17-18, 32-33, 49, 56-57, 69-70, 83, 87-90, 147, 172, 215. Marino, Andy. A Quiet American: The Secret War of Varian Fry. (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999), pp. 99-100, 196, 107-108, 117, 120, 187, 209, 231, 268, 285, 287. Isenberg, Sheila. A Hero of Our Own: The Story of Varian Fry. (New York: Random House), pp. 75-76, 83, 86, 89, 125, 142, 150, 152-153, 193, 193n. Ryan, Donna F. The Holocaust and the Jews of Marseille: The Enforcement of Anti-Semitic Policies in Vichy France. (Urbana, IL: The University of Illinois Press, 1996), pp. 130, 142, 144. Hockley, Ralph M. Freedom is not Free. (2000). US Holocaust Memorial Museum. Assignment Rescue: The Story of Varian Fry and the Emergency Rescue Committee. [Exhibit catalog.] (Washington, DC: US Holocaust Memorial Museum, 1997), p. 7. Wyman, David S. Paper Walls: America and the Refugee Crisis, 1939-1941. (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), pp. 167-168. Varian Fry Papers, Columbia University. HICEM records, France, YIVO Archives. Bauer, Yehuda. American Jewry and the Holocaust. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), p. 171. American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee Archives, New York City. Bauer, Yehuda. American Jewry and the Holocaust. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), p. 171.]
Born, Friedrich, Chief Delegate of the International Committee of the Red Cross of Switzerland in Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45
“Friedrich Born, a Swiss citizen working for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Budapest, began taking personal initiatives to save Jewish lives in occupied Hungary in 1944. He is especially noted for saving 6,000 Jewish children placed in homes under the protection of the International Red Cross. Under Born’s leadership, two sections dealing with children were established: Section A, placed under the leadership of the Zionist leader, Otto Komoly; Section B, under Reverend Gabor Sztehlo* (see Hungary) of the Good Shepherd Committee. Born also established Section T – Transportation unit, engaged in relief, rescue and resistance operations. Thus, Born helped rescue thousands of Jews from death camps and supplied children’s homes and the people in the ghetto with food, medicine and fuel. Hospitals, public kitchens, homes for the aged and handicapped, as well as many other public institutions were identified by big signs on which was written: “under the protection of the International Committee of the Red Cross.” Born was responsible for that, together with his associates. He also negotiated with the authorities on behalf of the Jews and thanks to his efforts, protective letters issued by the Vatican and foreign Legations were recognized, as were the extraterritorial status of institutions and buildings protected by the International Red Cross. Various witnesses attested to the remarkable efforts made by Born to help protect the innocent and oppressed.
One of the witnesses, Hanzi Brand mentioned that Born indeed risked his life to help Jews.”
On January 4, 1987, Yad Vashem recognized Friedrich Born as Righteous Among the Nations.
Friedrich Born, Chief Delegate of the International Committee of the Red Cross of Switzerland in Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45
Friedrich Born was the Chief Delegate of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) of Switzerland in Budapest, Hungary. He was sent to Budapest in May 1944. During the period from May 1944 to January 1945, Born issued thousands of Red Cross letters of protection to Jews of Budapest. He and his staff, along with numerous Jewish volunteers, are credited with retrieving thousands of Jews from deportation camps and death marches in and around Budapest. Born provided an additional 4,000 Jews with employment papers, preventing their deportation. He put over 60 Jewish institutions under Red Cross protection and housed over 7,000 Jewish children and orphans. He worked closely with the other neutral diplomatic legations, and set up dozens of Red Cross protected houses. Born’s Red Cross operation is credited with rescuing between 11,000 and 15,000 Jews in Budapest. After the war, he was criticized for overstepping his authority in his rescue activities. A postwar report completely vindicated Born’s actions and forced the Red Cross to reassess its wartime policies. Born died in Switzerland in 1963. Friedrich Born worked closely with Hans Weyermann. Friedrich Born was declared Righteous Among the Nations by Israel in 1987.
[Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 854, 899, 984, 1059, 1062-1063, 1092. 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). Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), pp. 258, 690, 703, 810, 925, 1232, 1253. 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. 72. Lévai, Jenö. Black Book on the Martyrdom of Hungarian Jewry. (Central European Times Publishing, 1948), pp. 386-387, 392. Favez, Jean-Claude. Edited and translated by John and Beryl Fletcher. The Red Cross and the Holocaust. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 52, 115, 192, 236-243, 248-250, 281. Penkower, Monty Noam. The Jews Were Expendable: Free World diplomacy and the Holocaust. (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1983), pp. 228-229. Kramer, T. D. From Emancipation to Catastrophe: The Rise and Holocaust of Hungarian Jewry. (New York: University Press of America), pp. 246-249.]
Eduardo Propper de Callejon, first secretary in the Spanish embassy in Paris
“Eduardo Propper de Callejon began his service in the Spanish Foreign Ministry at the end of World War I. He served in Brussels and Vienna, where he met his future wife Helene Roberte Fould-Springer. As a loyal monarchist, he refused to declare his allegiance to the republic, and left the foreign service, to return at the end of the Civil War. It was 1939, and Propper de Callejon was appointed first secretary in the Spanish embassy in Paris. The fall of France triggered the massive escape from the advancing German army. Hundred of thousands of refugees were on the roads trying to get to southern France. Many of them – Jews and non-Jews – were desperately trying to cross the Spanish border in the hope of reaching safe havens overseas. The French government too left Paris, and the diplomatic corps followed, including the Spanish embassy. Propper, his wife, and Felipe, then nine, and five-year-old Elena left Paris and went to Bordeaux. When they reached the Spanish consulate, they discovered that the consul had abandoned his post and locked the offices. The Spanish diplomats were faced with thousands of refugees that had reached Bordeaux and were assembled in front of the consulate, hoping to obtain the piece of paper that would rescue them from the Nazis. Propper de Callejon could have very well remained a sympathetic bystander, but faced with the plight of the refugees, he decided to act.
He opened the consulate and began issuing transit visas to the refugees. For four days between 18- 22 June 1940 he incessantly stamped passports. By doing so, he was defying the instructions not to issue visas without prior approval of the Foreign Ministry. Propper continued to provide visas at the embassy’s new seat in Vichy. It is unknown how many visas Propper de Callejon issued, because the consulate’s registry did not survived. In March 1941, Foreign Minister Ramon Serrano Suner informed the Spanish Ambassador to France José Lucresia that Propper was to be transferred to Spanish Morocco – a much less appreciated position. The ambassador attempted to rescind the order and argued that Propper had received a decoration from the Marshall. The foreign minister was not to be deterred and expressed surprise that France had decorated a Spanish official who had served the Juderia Francesa…. Though Propper de Callejon continued to serve in the Spanish Foreign Ministry, he was never given the official title of ambassador, perhaps due to his actions in the 1940s. Propper retired in 1965, and passed away in 1972.
On 6 August 2007 Yad Vashem recognized Eduardo Propper de Callejon as Righteous Among the Nations. The ceremony in his honor was held at Yad Vashem on 12 March 2008, and the awards were presented to his son and daughter who came to Jerusalem for the occasion.”
Aracy De Carvalho, visa section in the Brazilian Consulate in Hamburg, Germany,
of Brazil in Germany, aide to the Brazilian Ambassador in Berlin
Carvalho de Guimarães Rosa, Aracy
“Aracy Carvalho was responsible for the visa section in the Brazilian Consulate in Hamburg, Germany, where she worked as a secretary in 1938. In that capacity she helped a group of Jews to obtain visas to Brazil, as well as assisting them to overcome financial difficulties before leaving Germany for Brazil. During the Kristallnacht pogrom of November 9-10, 1938, Aracy Carvalho sheltered Margarethe Bertel-Levy and her husband in her home. She then helped her and other Jews with all the arrangements for a safe departure from Germany, which included provisions for taking along on board the ship many belongings, including furniture. Albert Feis, Grethe Jacobsberg, Tuch, and Kazenstein, are some of the other Jewish persons who were assisted by Aracy Carvalho in like manner. Aracy Carvalho married the Brazilian consul and writer João Guimarães Rosa in 1940 and they worked together in the Brazilian Hamburg consulate till the disruption of diplomatic relations between Brazil and Germany in mid-1942. Gunther Heilborn, one of the rescued Jews, named his Brazilian born daughter Aracy in her honor.”
On June 3, 1982, Yad Vashem recognized Aracy Carvalho de Guimarães Rosa, as Righteous Among the Nations.
Aracy de Carvalho-Guimaraes Rosa, Aide to the Brazilian Ambassador in Berlin
For her actions to save Jews in Berlin, Rosa was awarded the Righteous Among the Nations life saving award in 1982.
[Eck, Nathan. “The Rescue of Jews With the Aid of Passports and Citizenship Papers of Latin American States.” Yad Vashem Studies on the European Jewish Catastrophe and Resistance, 1 (1957), pp. 125-152.]
José Arturo Castellanos, Chief Delegate of the International Committee of the Red Cross of Switzerland in Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45
“Jose Arturo Castellanos from El Salvador began his professional life as and army colonel. In 1937 he entered his country’s foreign service, first served in Liverpool and in 1938 was nominated as consul in Hamburg. In face of the desperate situation of the Jews in Germany in the late 1930's, he asked his superiors for permission to issue visas that would enable the Jews to leave Germany. He received written orders not to issue such visas. On 2 January 1939 he sent a letter to his Foreign Minister, describing the terrible situation of the Jews, and trying to persuade him to change his policy, but in vain. He did not receive permission to extend help. In 1941 Castellanos became Salvadoran consul in Geneva. During this time Castellanos decided to deviate from his instructions. His consulate provided citizenship certificates to thousands of Jews in occupied Europe in an effort to protect them from deportation. The citizenship papers were given to Jews who had no connection whatsoever to El Salvador and who didn’t even speak a word of Spanish. Such documents, issued by neutral countries, provided a certain protection and were therefore life-saving. This rescue operation was a joint effort of Castellanos and George Mandel, a Hungarian Jewish businessman, who had assumed a Spanish-sounding version of his last name, “Mantello”. Mandel-Mantello had met José Arturo Castellanos in the years leading up to World War II, and after Castellanos was named El Salvador’s Consul-General in Geneva, he appointed Mantello, to serve as the Consulate’s first secretary.
With the consent of Castellanos, George Mantello issued documents identifying thousands of European Jews as citizens of El Salvador. The papers were sent to Jews in France and other occupied countries, and starting in 1944 to Jews in Hungary. In May 1944 El Salvador’s government changed and the new president aligned himself with other western countries that were active in rescuing the Jews in Hungary. From that point on Castellanos received his country’s support for his rescue activity.”
On 3 May 2010 Yad Vashem recognized Jose Arturo Castellanos as Righteous Among the Nations.
Colonel José Arturo Castellanos, Consul General for El Salvador in Geneva, Switzerland, 1942-45
Colonel José Arturo Castellanos was the Salvadoran Consul General in Geneva, Switzerland in 1942-45. He appointed George Mandel-Mantello, a Romanian Jewish refugee living in Geneva, as the First Secretary at his consulate. He authorized Mantello to issue thousands of “citizen certificates” to Jewish refugees throughout Nazi occupied Europe. These certificates stated that the holder was a recognized citizen of El Salvador who was then protected from deportation. In 1944, Castellanos requested that Switzerland represent El Salvador’s interests in Nazi occupied Hungary. Soon, Mantello was issuing thousands of Salvadoran citizenship papers to Hungarian Jews through the office of Swiss Consul Charles Lutz. Castellanos was designated Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in 2010.
[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. xxii, xxv, 2, 28, 42, 206, 353, 308n.25.]
De Vial Francois, French Diplomat in Rome Italy (1904-1984) Recognized 07/27/2020
File M.31.2/13553/2
Hid Jews in Rome, Lazio Italy
François de Vial, Diplomat at the French Embassy in Rome, 1943
François de Vial was a diplomat at the French embassy in Rome in 1943. De Vial helped Father Benedetto and the Jewish relief agency Delegazione Assistenze Emigranti Ebrei (Jewish Emigrant Association; DELASEM) in their rescue of Jews. He did this without permission from Vichy.
[Waagenaar, Sam. The Pope’s Jews. (La Salle, IL: Open Court Publishers, 1974), p. 400.]
del Campo Samuel, Chilean Consul, Bucharest, Ilfov, Walachia, Romania, recognized 22/23/16 File M.31.2/13272
Provided forged documents
Elenore DuBois (Swiss), Toulouse, France
Wife of Maurice DuBois. (Gutman)
Maurice DuBois (Swiss), Toulouse, France
“Dubois, Maurice In the 1930s, Maurice Dubois, a conscientious objector, was not inducted into the Swiss army. When World War II broke out, he established Secours Suisse aux Enfants in Toulouse, France, to take care of refugee children. By 1940, the Secours Suisse branch in southern France had become part of the Swiss Red Cross. Ruth Tamir, Margot Kern, Peter Salz, and Aliza Domka were German Jewish children whose parents had sent them to Belgium after Kristallnacht to assure their survival. In May 1940, when Germany invaded Belgium, these children, along with another hundred, all originally German Jews, fled to France. After wandering from city to city, under difficult conditions, lacking everything, they were placed in the care of Secours Suisse. The children were taken to Château de la Hille in the département of Ariège. In an old building, which had been renovated to receive them, they were well nourished and well treated and regained the love of life. The oldest of the children were given chores. Maurice Dubois, sometimes accompanied by his wife- Eleonore Dubois- Imbelli, visited the young refugees regularly. He took an interest in them and asked them questions. The children all loved Dubois and viewed him as their savior. They spent two years in relative safety, but in August 1942, when roundups of Jews without French citizenship began in the region, those over the age of 15 were arrested and taken to the detention camp at Vernet. Aliza Domka was one of those arrested.
After the war, she testified that Maurice Dubois took personal responsibility for those arrested and managed to have them set free. He went to Vichy, negotiated with Prime Minister Pierre Laval, and threatened summarily to discontinue Secours Suisse’s placement of undernourished French children in Red Cross summer camps in Switzerland. Dubois was bluffing. He was not empowered to stop this large-scale enterprise, and he knew that the Red Cross would not support him. However, the ruse succeeded and Dubois obtained the release of the young Jews, returning with them to Château de la Hille. Meanwhile, his wife, Ellen had not been inactive. She had gone to see the head of the Red Cross in Bern, Switzerland, and demanded that he arrange to have all the Jewish children in Secours Suisse institutions admitted to Switzerland. The Red Cross rejected her request, and it became clear both to Dubois and to Rose Naef* (see volume France), the director of the La Hille institution, that youngsters aged 15 and over were no longer safe in the chateau. Against his superiors’ wishes and in violation of French law, Dubois had the children smuggled into Switzerland, endangering himself by supporting the people who carried out this hazardous mission. Dozens of Jewish young people owe their lives to him.
On May 2, 1995, Yad Vashem recognized Maurice Dubois as Righteous Among the Nations.
(Gutman, 2003)
Duckwitz, Georg Ferdinand, Trade Attaché to the German Embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark, 1943
“Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz was born on September 29, 1904 in Bremen to an old patrician family in the Hanseatic city. During the Weimar republic Duckwitz belonged to right wing student circles, and even joined the Nazi party in 1932. However once the Nazis came to power, he was soon disillusioned with the regime. In 1935 he resigned from his position in the Nazi party’s foreign service. “In view of my experience over the past two years concerning almost all aspects of the National Socialist experience, I must consider that the reasons which in 1932 prompted me to devote myself entirely to the party no longer apply.”, he wrote to Alfred Rosenberg, “This simple statement summarize the profound disappointment of a believer and one who was full of trust.” Duckwitz went to work for the Hamburg-America Line shipping company and traveled to many places as their representative. In 1939, however, he decided to return to Germany and applied for the position as maritime attaché at the German embassy in Copenhagen. As Duckwitz was intimately acquainted with local conditions and enjoyed good connections with Danish leaders, after 1942, he became a close confidant of the new Nazi Reich Representative for Denmark, Werner Best. A former deputy chief of the Gestapo and a hard-core Nazi ideologue, Best nevertheless chose to stick to the moderate policies of his predecessors, seeking to create a collaboration with the Danes, rather than provoke them to oppose the German occupation.
In summer 1943, following a sharp increase in strikes and sabotage against the occupation, the German policy changed and preparations were made to rid the country of its 7,800 Jews. On September 28, 1943, Best, who feared a deterioration of the situation if the Jews were to be forcefully deported to the east, tipped off his confidant about the plan for the deportation of Denmark’s Jewish community. At great risk to himself, Duckwitz proceeded to inform his Danish Social-Democratic friends, who, in turn, alerted the leadership of the Danish Jewish community. This made it possible for the Danes to carry out their great rescue operation, during which some 7,000 Jews were transported within three weeks in ships and boats across the sea to the safety of neighboring Sweden. By October 2, when the Gestapo set out to implement their plans and arrest the Jews, most of the Jews had gone, and only 500 Jews, mostly elderly and sick, were caught and deported to the camp of Theresienstadt.. Duckwitz’ remained committed to the policy of cooperation with the Danes, and tried to mediate and negotiate a peaceful solution to the general strike the Danes declared in the summer of 1944. To this end he acted together with Werner Best, the Plenipotentiary in Denmark, and even stood by his side after the war, when Best was accused for his involvement in crimes of the Nazi security services. Duckwitz’ remained committed to the policy of cooperation with the Danes, and tried to mediate and negotiate a peaceful solution to the general strike the Danes declared in the summer of 1944. To this end he acted together with Werner Best, the Plenipotentiary in Denmark, and even stood by his side after the war, when Best was accused for his involvement in crimes of the Nazi security services. After the war Duckwitz served in the Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany and was sent as ambassador to Denmark. He rose in the ranks of the Ministry and was nominated as State Secretary by Foreign Minister Willy Brandt, who was later elected German chancellor.
On March 29, 1971, Yad Vashem recognized Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz as Righteous Among the Nations.”
Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz, Trade Attaché to the German Embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark, 1943
Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz was a member of the Nazi Party and was sent as a Trade Attaché to the German Embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark. When Duckwitz learned that the Nazi occupying government was planning to deport Danish Jews, he alerted the Danish government and Jewish community leaders. In addition, he made a clandestine trip to Stockholm to meet with the Prime Minster of Sweden to arrange for safe haven for the Jews. For these actions, he could have been killed. The Danish underground in turn implemented the rescue of more than 7,000 Danish Jews. As a result, 99% of Danish Jews were hidden and smuggled into neutral Sweden, where they survived the war. After the war, Duckwitz became the German Ambassador to Denmark. Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz was designated Righteous Among the Nations in 1971.
[Duckwitz, Georg Ferdinand. Die geplannte Aktion gegen die dänischen Juden und ihre Verhinderung. (Copenhagen: Rigsarkivet, Duckwitz Archives, 1957; and Jerusalem: Yad Vashem Archives File #027/13). Duckwitz, Georg Ferdinand. Die Aktion gegen die dänischen Juden im Herbst 1943—Plan und Durchführing. (Copenhagen: Rigsarkivet, Duckwitz Archives, 1964). Dose, Johannes. Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz in Dänemark: 1943-1945, 2nd ed. (Bonn: Auswärtiges Amt, 1992), Referat 012, p. 16. Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), pp. 364, 409, 1282, 1438. Yahil, Leni. The Rescue of Danish Jewry: Test of a Democracy. (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1969), pp. 127, 129, 148-151, 161-164, 173, 239, 269, 329, 417. Kirchhoff, Hans. “SS-Gruppenführer Werner Best and the action against the Danish Jews – October 1943.” Yad Vashem Studies, 24 (1994), 195-222.]
Solomon Ezrati+, Spanish Consul in Salonika, Greece, 1941-43
see Consul General Romero Radigales*
Solomon Ezrati served as a Vice-Consul at the Spanish consulate in Salonika. He had held the position for 28 years. Ezrati worked closely with Spanish Consul General Romero Radigales in helping to save Spanish Jews in Salonika. Because Solomon Ezrati was Jewish, he was arrested along with other Spanish nationals and deported to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. He survived the war.
[Avni, Haim. “Spanish Nationals in Greece and their Fate during the Holocaust.” Yad Vashem Studies, 8 (1970), pp. 38, 52-54, 65. Avni, Haim. Spain, the Jews and Franco. (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1982).]
Feller, Harald, First Secretary of the Swiss Legation and then as Charge d’Affaires in Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45
“Harald Feller was a Swiss diplomat in his thirties, in Budapest, Hungary. In March 1944, the Nazis took possession of the country and the Germans in Budapest ordered all the Jews to wear the yellow-star badge. Jews were concentrated in ghettos and transit camps and then deported to Auschwitz. From the beginning of December 1944 through 1945, first as First Secretary of the Swiss Legation and then as Charge d’Affaires, he managed to be involved in numerous rescue operations, saving Jews. He risked his life by using illegal methods in order to save Swiss citizens who were married to Hungarian Jews. He managed to rescue several Jews from a transit camp where they were being held and once succeeded in rescuing a group of Jews whom he transferred to Switzerland. After October 15, 1944, Feller hid at his home the Jewish Hungarian writer Gabor Devecseri, together with his wife Klara Huszar and their one-year-old son. Other Jews, as well as several soldiers who deserted the Hungarian army, also found refuge at his house. At the end of December 1944, Feller managed to rescue the Halasz couple, parents of Klara Huszar. They were also brought to his home, to join their family. According to numerous testimonies, Feller gave valuable assistance to the Zionist underground, supplying blank letters of protection, which were later filled in as needed. At the end of December, Feller was arrested by an Arrow Cross gang and tortured. Still, he kept his home as a refuge for persecuted Jews until the liberation.
After the liberation of Hungary he was captured by the Soviets in January 1945 and returned to Switzerland a year later.
On July 15, 1999, Yad Vashem recognized Harald Feller as Righteous Among the Nations.
Dr. Harald Feller, First Secretary of the Swiss Legation and then as Charge d’Affaires, 1944-45
Dr. Harald Feller replaced Maximilian Jaeger as head of the Swiss legation in Budapest, Hungary, in 1944. From the beginning of his appointment, Dr. Feller was tireless in his efforts to support Consul Charles Lutz and the rescue of Jews under Swiss protection. Feller worked closely with the other neutral legations in constantly pressuring the Horthy and Sztójay puppet governments to end the persecution and deportations of Jews. He signed a joint protest of the treatment of Jews along with his fellow diplomatic representatives. Feller protected members of the Swedish legation, who were targeted by the Arrow Cross, by giving them false Swiss passports and providing shelter. Toward the end of the war, Feller hid dozens of Jews in the basement of his consular residence in Budapest. In February 1945, the Soviets arrested Feller and sent him to Moscow, along with other Swiss nationals. He was returned to Switzerland in February 1946. Feller received his Righteous Among the Nations award in 1999. He passed away in 2002 in Bern, Switzerland.
[Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), p. 881. Tschuy, Theo. Dangerous Diplomacy. (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2000). Asaf, Uri. Christian support for Jews during the Holocaust in Hungary. In Braham, Randolph L. (Ed.) Studies on the Holocaust in Hungary, pp. 65-112. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990), p. 78. Lévai, Jenö. Black Book on the Martyrdom of Hungarian Jewry. (Central European Times Publishing, 1948), pp. 357-359, 366-368, 383-384, 387-388, 413-414, 416.]
Foley, Francis, British Vice Consul in Charge of Visas in Berlin, 1933-1939
“Captain Francis (Frank) Foley, born in 1884, and a veteran of World War I, was recruited to the British Secret Intelligence Service after that war and became one of Britain’s most successful spies. He was stationed in Berlin from 1922 to 1939 and he used his position as Passport Control Officer at the British embassy to save thousands of Jews from Nazi death camps. From 1935, an ever growing number of Jews appealed to his office in order to obtain immigration visas to Palestine, to the United Kingdom and to all other parts of the then British Empire. They came either directly or through the Palestine Office of the Jewish Agency or through the Hilfsverein der Deutschen Juden (Aid Society of German Jewry). Immigration rules were strict in those days of economic depression, but it became more and more obvious that there was a growing need of Jews to leave Germany. Defying the Foreign Office, he bent the rules to issue 10,000 visas for British Mandatory Palestine. He did not enjoy diplomatic immunity in Berlin and was running a serious risk. Had he been exposed by the Nazis, he would have suffered a much worse fate than being persona non grata. Miriam Posner, who was 16 when she traveled from East Prussia to beg for a visa to Palestine, even though she did not meet Britain’s stiff conditions for entry, said: “Foley saved my life. We heard that there was this man Foley who was kind to the Jews. My mother begged him. He just paced up and down a little and then asked for my passport and put the visa stamp on it.
He did not ask any questions.” She added, “He was small and quiet. You would never suspect he was a spy.” Ze’ev Padan’s father was interned in Sachsenhausen concentration camp when Foley went to rescue him. Ze’ev too was saved by Foley’s defiance of authority. Foley was described in Adolf Eichmann’s 1961 trial by one of the witnesses, Benno Cohen as follows: “There was one man who stood out above all others. Captain Foley, a man who in my opinion was one of the greatest among the nations of the world. He rescued thousands of Jews from the jaws of death.” By the time of the infamous Kristallnacht pogrom in November 1938, Foley and his wife had taken to sheltering Jews overnight in their apartment. Among the “guests” was Leo Baeck, chairman of the Association of German Rabbis. When the war started and Foley left Germany, he left behind a thick wad of already approved visas with instructions that they should be distributed to those fleeing the Nazi terror. Reverend John Kelley, Foley’s nephew, an Anglican priest said about his uncle: “I believe that God put Frank Foley in Berlin to do His Work. Foley did what he did as a witness to the Christian churches to show what they should have done at that time, but did not do.” Captain Foley died in 1958. A Daily Telegraph journalist, Michael Smith, brought Foley’s story to light in his book Foley, the Spy who saved 10,000 Jews (1999).”
On February 25, 1999, Yad Vashem recognized Francis Foley as Righteous Among the Nations.
Frank Foley, British Vice Consul in Charge of Visas in Berlin, 1933-1939
Frank Foley was a Vice Consul in charge of visas in the British embassy in Berlin from 1929 to 1939. He also worked as an MI6 intelligence agent. Jewish officials estimate that he issued ten thousand visas to Jewish refugees between 1933 and 1939. Ironically, these actions were a time when the British government was anxious to limit immigration, particularly to Palestine. Despite British policy of giving few visas to Jews, it was known that Foley did everything he could to help. Frank Foley was designated by the State of Israel as Righteous Among the Nations in 1999.
[Gutman, 2007, pp. 169-170. Smith, Michael. Foley: The Spy Who Saved 10,000 Jews. (London: Hodder & Stroughten, 1999).]
Friedrich, Jean Edouard, International Red Cross in Berlin
“During World War II, Jean Edouard Friedrich (b. 1912) an officer in the Swiss army, served as a delegate of the International Red Cross in Berlin and helped Herbert and Lotte Strauss flee Germany to Switzerland in 1943. From 1940-1942, Herbert Strauss served as an assistant rabbi for the Berlin Juedische Gemeinde. From January to October 1942, he was forced to work as a street cleaner and his wife at an electronics shop. During the night of October 23-24, 1942, they were forced to flee their furnished rooms in Berlin-Charlottenburg, since Lotte’s parents, Louis and Johanna Schloss, were arrested and deported to the “East.” While forced during the next six-seven months to wander, finding refuge among friends, it became clear to them that their only hope was to try and escape to Switzerland, to Lotte’s uncle and aunt, Ludwig and Ilse Schoeneberg, in Lausanne. Friedrich was recommended to the Strausses by friends in Berlin and acted as an intermediary to secure the funds and false documents needed for their survival. His office became a meeting-point for people involved in the rescue of the Strausses. He organized their trip to the border, warning them about German police control on the trains and the problems they would face in Switzerland after they crossed the border. Friedrich arranged their crossing with a local guide in Singen, a German district town close to the border. Although the Strausses could not avoid capture by Swiss guards, the advice Friedrich gave them – to plead extreme danger to life – helped them receive “refugee status.”
Friedrich went out of his way to help the Strauss family, which was a great risk. The memoirs of both Lotte Strauss, Ueber den Gruenen Huegel (1997) and Herbert Strauss, Ueber dem Abgrund, Eine Juedische Jugend in Deutschland 1918-1943 (1997), include detailed descriptions of the role of Jean Edouard Friedrich in their rescue.
On July 19, 1999, Yad Vashem recognized Jean Edouard Friedrich as Righteous Among the Nations.”
Jean-Edouard Friedrich, International Red Cross in Berlin
Jean-Edouard Friedrich (1912-1999) was a member of the International Committee of the Red Cross delegation in Berlin. The authority of this delegation, which was established in 1940, extended over all the territories of the Third Reich, including the General Government, as well as the occupied territories, notably the Netherlands, Belgium and France. Friedrich helped a number of Jews enter Switzerland. He obtained papers for a young couple and accompanied them as far as the Swiss border, a story recounted by Lotte Strauss (1997). In Stuttgart, where he was posted, Friedrich escorted a young woman who was to be smuggled into Switzerland. They were spotted by the German police, whereupon Jean-Edouard Friedrich drew their attention and was caught, which allowed the refugees to escape and reach safety. Friedrich was awarded Righteous Among the Nations status in 1999.
Feng Shan Ho, Consul General of China in Vienna, 1938-40
Feng-Shan Ho
“After Austria’s annexation to Nazi Germany in March 1938, the 185,000 Jews there were subjected to a severe reign of terror, which resulted in intense pressure to leave the country. In order to do so, the Nazis required that Jews have entry visas or boat tickets to another country. However, the majority of the world’s nations refused to budge from their restrictive immigration policies, a stance reaffirmed at the Evian Conference, in summer 1938. Unlike his fellow-diplomats, Ho issued visas to Shanghai to all requesting them, even to those wishing to travel elsewhere but needing a visa to leave Nazi Germany. Many of those helped by Ho did indeed reach Shanghai, either by boat from Italy or overland via the Soviet Union. Many others made use of their visas to reach alternate destinations, including Palestine, the Philippines, and elsewhere, such as the parents of Secretary-General of the World Jewish Congress and Vice Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council, Dr. Israel Singer, who traveled to Cuba. Eric Goldstaub, who eventually immigrated to Canada, related how, in July 1938, he received Chinese visas for his entire family after spending “days, weeks, and months visiting one foreign consulate or embassy after the other trying to obtain visas for [himself, his] parents and [their] near relatives, numbering some 20 people.” Lilith-Sylvia Doron, now living in Israel, met Ho accidentally as both watched Hitler entering Vienna, on 11 March 1938—a time when physical assaults were being waged by the Nazis against the city’s Jews.
“Ho, who knew my family, accompanied me home,” says Doron. “He claimed that, thanks to his diplomatic status, the [Nazis] would not dare harm us as long as he remained in our home. Ho continued to visit our home on a permanent basis to protect us from the Nazis.” When Doron’s brother, Karl, was arrested and taken to Dachau, he was released thanks to a visa issued by the Chinese consulate. Doron and her brother left Vienna in 1939 for Palestine. The rush for visas assumed panic proportions during and immediately after Kristallnacht, in November 1938, when thousands of Jews were thrown into concentration camps, only gaining release if their relatives produced visas or tickets for travel to other destinations. Gerda Gottfried Kraus, based in Canada, relates that after Kristallnacht, her husband waited in a long line for admittance into the Chinese consulate. Seeing a car approaching the consulate’s gates, he thrust his application form through its window. “Apparently, the consul-general received it, because [my husband] then got a call and received the visas.” Ho refused to abide by the instructions of his superior, the Chinese ambassador in Berlin, Chen Jie. Chen Jie, hoping to cement closer ties between China and Germany, had forbidden Ho to issue visas on such a large scale, estimated to run into the hundreds, perhaps even thousands. Although visas were not required for entrance to Shanghai, such a document was, as noted, a prerequisite for Jews wishing to leave Nazi Germany. It is believed that the “demerit” which was entered in Ho’s personal file, in 1939, at the Chinese Foreign Ministry was linked to his insubordinate behavior towards his immediate superior, the ambassador in Berlin, on the issue of the visas. In May 1940, Feng Shan Ho was reassigned from Vienna to Washington, D.C. and later headed the information section of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in China’s wartime capital of Chongqing (Chungking). After the Communist victory in 1949, Ho followed the Nationalist government to Taiwan, and served in the diplomatic service of the Republic of China (ROC). In 1973, after four decades in the diplomatic service he retired to San Francisco and passed away on September 28, 1993 at the age of 96. It was only after his passing that evidence by survivors who benefited from Ho’s aid began to reach Yad Vashem.
After carefully evaluating the case, the Commission for the Designation of the Righteous decided on August 7, 2000 to award Feng-Shan Ho the title of Righteous Among the Nations for his humanitarian courage in issuing Chinese visas to Jews in Vienna in spite of orders from his superior to the contrary.”
Dr. Feng Shan Ho, Consul General of China in Vienna, 1938-40
Dr. Feng Shan Ho was among the early diplomats to save Jews during the Holocaust. Ho issued numerous visas to Jews seeking to escape Austria after the Anschluss of 1938. These visas enabled thousands of Jewish refugees to reach safe haven in North and South America, Cuba, the Philippines, Palestine and Shanghai. Many Jews were released from Nazi concentration camps on the strength of Chinese visas. Ho issued the life-saving visas on his own authority, despite orders to desist and a reprimand from his superiors. Many of these visas were to rescue and relief organizations all over Europe. In particular, Ho issued visas to Recha Sternbuch, who was operating out of Switzerland. Ho issued hundreds of visas to Sternbuch. Ho also issued visas to the Af-Al-Pi (“Despite Everything”) Perl transport. The Director of the Kulturgemeinde (Jewish Community Center) in Vienna, Dr. Joseph Löwenherz, encouraged Jews to immigrate to Palestine. Ho provided many visas to representatives of the Kulturgemeinde. After the war, he continued a 40-year diplomatic career in the Mideast and Latin America. Ambassador Ho died in San Francisco in September 1997 at age 96.
Dr. Ho was awarded the status of Righteous Among the Nations by the state of Israel in October 2000. Dr. Ho has been honored internationally for his rescue efforts.
[Ho, Feng Shan. Forty Years of My Diplomatic Life [Chinese]. (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1991). Ho Feng-Shan, translated and edited by Monto Ho. My Forty Years as a Diplomat. (Pittsburgh: Dorrance Publishing, 2010), pp. 45-49. Friedenson, Joseph, and David Kranzler, forward by Julius Kuhl. Heroine of Rescue: The Incredible Story of Recha Sternbuch Who Saved Thousands from the Holocaust. (Brooklyn, NY: Mesorah Publications, 1984). Perl, William R. The Four-Front War: From the Holocaust to the Promised Land. (New York: Crown Publishers, 1978), pp. 42-43. Heppner, Ernest G. Shanghai Refuge: A Memoir of the World War II Jewish Ghetto (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1993. Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust (New York: Macmillan, 1990). Paldiel, Mordecai. Diplomat Heroes of the Holocaust. (Jersey City, NJ: KTAV Publishing, 2007), pp. 27-35, 218.]
Consul Janse+, Office Néerlandis (Netherlands Office)
Represented the Dutch Government-in-Exile. Worked with the Dutch Paris Rescue Network, Holland. Commended by the State of Israel, for his activities on behalf of Jews.
[Gutman, 2004; Moore, 2010]
Karadja, Constantin, Romanian consul-general in Berlin
“Constantin Karadja was born in 1889 to a Greek father and a Swedish mother in The Hague, during his father’s tenure as the Ottoman Empire’s ambassador to the Netherlands. As a young man, Constantin studied law in London and married his cousin, Marcelle, who was Romanian. The couple decided to settle in Romania, where Constantin joined the Foreign Office and embarked on his diplomatic career. From 1933 until the end of 1941 he served as Romanian consul-general in Berlin and was outraged by the Nazis’ racist policy against the Jews. He defended the Romanian Jews and expressed his repulsion at the Nazis’ actions in his correspondence with the Foreign Office in Bucharest. Immediately after the Kristallnacht pogrom of November 9-10, 1938, he began to take vigorous steps against the expropriation of the property of Romanian Jews in the Third Reich. He drew up lists of the victimized by the “Aryanization” policy, and of their property, which he sent to his superiors so that Bucharest could protest these actions and demand the return of the plundered assets. In messages to the Foreign Office, he declared that its duty was to protect the Jews in the name of international law and the universal principle of human rights. More specifically, he asserted, Romania had the obligation to issue up-to-date passports to the Romanian Jews in Germany so that they could leave. When Constantin Karadja was instructed to add the word, “Jew”, to the passports of Romanian Jews, he insisted that the directive be rescinded, stating, “From a humanitarian aspect, we will worsen even more the situation of these unfortunates by adding unnecessary obstacles to their flight…” Instead, he suggested using only the letter “X” in a manner that could be identified only by the Romanian authorities.
At the end of 1941, he was recalled to Bucharest and appointed director of the passport unit in the Foreign Office. There he continued to insist that his superiors protect Romania’s Jews, particularly those who found themselves in Nazi-occupied countries and were in danger of being deported to concentration camps. To the Ministry’s director-general and to Foreign Minister Mihai Antonescu he wrote that “they must insist that Germany show the same attitude toward Romanian Jews as it did to citizens from the Axis states of Bulgaria and Hungary”. In November 1941, he wrote to Romanian legations that they “must protect all Romanian citizens abroad, without distinction”. However, his persistence on behalf of the Romanian Jews was of no avail. In 1942, Romania sent a classified circular to its foreign legations declaring that it was no longer responsible for the protection of Romanian Jews, thereby effectively abandoning them to the Nazis. In 1943, Karadja urged the Foreign Minister to give protection to 600 Romanian Jews, who, like other Jewish subjects from neutral and Axis states, Germany was demanding be either returned to their native land or face deportation to “eastern provinces,” meaning annihilation. In February-March 1944, the Romanian Jews living in France made their way home to Rumania. Constantin Karadja displayed great courage by writing letters to his superiors and to the country’s leaders cautioning them not to support the murderous policy against the Jews, because after the war Romania would be held accountable for the crimes committed against them. Karadja died in 1950, after a lifetime defending human rights, in the course of which many Jews were spared certain death.
On May 18, 2005, Yad Vashem recognized Constantin Karadja as Righteous Among the Nations.”
Jan Karski, Polish Diplomat, courier
“Jan Kozielewski (he later took on his non de guerre Karski) was born in Lodz. In 1935, he completed demography studies at Lwow University, and embarked on a career of a civil servant at the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This was cut short four years later by the war, and when Poland was occupied by Germany, Kozielewski joined the Polish underground – the Home Army (Armia Krajowa). His photographic memory made him ideal for the job of courier between the underground in Poland and the Polish government-in-exile that was seated first in France and moved to London, after the fall of France. In October 1942, at the height of the destruction of Polish Jewry, Karski was ordered to clandestinely go to the West and deliver a report on the situation of occupied Poland to the Polish government-in-exile in London. The situation of the Jews in Poland was to be one section of that report. Since the government in exile was concerned with the internal politics of the Poland’s underground parties, Karski held meetings with the different factions, including the Jewish Zionist and the Jewish Socialist Bund movements. Thus, shortly before his departure, Karski met with two Jewish leaders who asked him to inform the world’s statesmen of the desperate plight of Polish Jewry and of the hopelessness of their situation. Their message was: "Our entire people will be destroyed". The Jewish leaders' appeals touched Karski and he decided to see things with his own eyes in order to make his report.
With great risk to his life, he was smuggled into the Warsaw ghetto and into a camp in the Lublin area. The horrors he witnessed marked him deeply and propelled him to become not only the messenger of the Polish underground, but to concentrate on giving voice to the suffering of the dying Jews. In November 1942, Karski reached London, delivered the report to the Polish government-in-exile, and set out to meet Winston Churchill, other politicians, journalists, and public figures. Upon completing his mission, Karski went on to the United States, where he met with President Roosevelt and other dignitaries, and tried in vain to stir up public opinion against the massacre of the Jews. In a report written a week after his July 18 1943 meeting with President Roosevelt, Karski described his meeting with FDR. Most of the time was dedicated to Polish issues, but Karski insisted on reporting about the fate of the Jews, and askd the American President to act in order to stop the murder. In 1944, while in the United States, Karski wrote a book on the Polish Underground (Story of a Secret State), with a long chapter on the Jewish Holocaust in Poland. After the war, Karski stayed in the United States where he was later appointed Professor at Georgetown University, Washington DC. He became committed to perpetuating the memory of the Holocaust victims, identified whole-heartedly with the tragedy and suffering of the Jewish people, and was unable to come to terms with the world’s silence at the slaughter of six million Jews. These notions were well reflected in a speech he delivered in 1981 to a meeting of American military officers who had liberated the concentration camps. He stated that he had failed to fulfill his wartime mission, and said: “And thus I myself became a Jew. And just as my wife’s entire family was wiped out in the ghettos of Poland, in its concentration camps and crematoria – so have all the Jews who were slaughtered become my family. But I am a Christian Jew… I am a practicing Catholic… My faith tells me the second original sin has been committed by humanity. This sin will haunt humanity to the end of time. And I want it to be so”. On 2 June 1982, Yad Vashem recognized Jan Karski as Righteous Among the Nations. Although he had not saved individual Jews, The Commission for the Designation of the Righteous decided that he had risked his life in order to alert the world to the murder. He had incurred enormous risk in penetrating into the Warsaw ghetto and a camp, and then committed himself wholly to the case of rescuing the Jews. Karski’s case is quite exceptional in many ways. While other rescuers had taken the difficult decision to leave the side of the bystanders, not to remain silent and to stand up and act, Karski, after he reached the West, brought this dilemma to the doorstep of the free world's leaders. In 1994, Professor Karski was awarded honorary citizenship of Israel. In a speech he gave on the occasion, he stated: “This is the proudest and the most meaningful day in my life. Through the honorary citizenship of the State of Israel, I have reached the spiritual source of my Christian faith. In a way, I also became a part of the Jewish community… And now I, Jan Karski, by birth Jan Kozielewski – a Pole, an American, a Catholic – have also become an Israeli.”
Jan Karski, Polish Diplomat, courier
Polish diplomat-courier Jan Karski was a witness to the conditions in the Warsaw ghetto and the Izbica camp near the Belzec death camp. Karski prepared written eyewitness accounts of the German atrocities in Nazi occupied Poland. Later, he was smuggled out of Poland and into the United States, where he reported to US Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter. Frankfurter arranged for Karski to report to President Roosevelt. Frankfurter was skeptical of the report: “I did not say that he was lying, I said that I could not believe him. There is a difference.” Karski gave hundreds of talks to organizations all over the United States and Great Britain to bring pressure to intervene to save Jews from the Holocaust. Karski was declared a Righteous Among the Nations in 1975 and made an honorary citizen of the state of Israel.
[Karski, Jan. Story of a Secret State. (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1999). Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), pp. 10, 481, 787, 1749.]
Elow Kihlgren, Swedish consul stationed in Genoa, Italy
Kihlgren, Elow
“Among the few thousand Jews who fled from the German occupation of the Italian zone in France in September 1943, were Mr. and Mrs. Engelman, parents of Bela Clara, 19, Leiser, 23, Mina, 27, and her husband, Max Stempel, with their two daughters, four-year-old Clara and two-year-old Jenny. They fled to Italy and after wandering through several Italian villages, the family arrived to Therme de Valdieri. There, local priests helped out and then arranged to move them to Genoa. In Genoa, the secretary of the Archbishopric, Don Repetto, sheltered them in a monastery. After twenty days, during which the Germans suspected that he was hiding Jews, he suggested that they contact the Swedish Consulate. In the meantime, they stayed in the convent. The Swedish Consul, Elow Kihlgren, came to meet them at the convent and immediately found them alternative places to stay, with his friends. One of them was Gyda Boesgaard, the daughter of the Finnish Consul, who arranged for Mina Stempel and her two daughters to stay with her and her family in their villa outside the city. After a few weeks, in April 1944, as a consequence of betrayal, Elow was arrested and interrogated by the Germans about his connections with hidden Jews. Elow Kihlgren denied all accusations but this experience made him conscious of the danger that awaited the Jews. The persecuted Jews had to move several times under most dangerous conditions and Elow began making the necessary arrangements to smuggle the Engelman family to Switzerland.
However, they could not take the two small girls along the dangerous route, so they were hidden in a Christian boarding school. The adults, the Engelmans, their children, Bela Clara, Leiser and Mina and her husband Max, proceeded to the Swiss border and crossed it safely with the help of paid border smugglers. Ten months later, the two Stempel daughters were also taken across the border and reunited with their parents. Elow Kihlgren arranged all the financing and networking necessary in order to save the Engelman and the Stempel families. He passed away in 1974.
On July 19, 2001, Yad Vashem recognized Elow Kihlgren as Righteous Among the Nations.”
Kasser, Alexander (previously Kasza, Sándor), Secretary General of the Swedish Red Cross in Hungary, 1944-45
“Alexander Kasser lived in Budapest. Formerly employed as an engineer by the Neményi Brothers’ paper factory, he worked, during the Arrow Cross regime, with the Swedish Red Cross. His position was that of an aide to Waldemar Langlet*(see Sweden), who had become the director of the organization in the summer of 1944. Kasser was in charge of administration and organizing supplies for the Swedish Red Cross. He was also responsible for distribution of letters of protection to the organization’s staff. These letters were valuable documents because people who had such letters in their possession were released from military service, both in the summer of 1944 and during the Arrow Cross period. Kasser distributed letters not only to people who were part of the Red Cross staff, but also to Jews who needed protection. One of the Jews saved by Kasser was Tibor Mérő. After the war, Mérő testified that he had known Kasser since they had been co-workers in the Neményi Brothers paper factory. Kasser gave Mérő a job with the Swedish Red Cross, and supplied him with a letter of protection for himself and his family. The four-member Pfeifer family was also rescued thanks to Kasser’s work within the framework of the Swedish Red Cross. Kasser found the Pfeifers a place in one of the protected houses in Budapest, which helped them survive the war. After the war Miklós Wolf, confirmed that Kasser supplied him and 80 of his comrades in the labor-service company with Swedish letters of protection.
The Hungarian authorities dismantled the Swedish Red Cross after December 4, 1944. Kasser was arrested and was taken to the notorious Arrow Cross interrogation cellar. Kasser would surely have found his death there, had it not been for the devotion of a stranger, who was willing to die in Kasser’s place. Thanks to this stranger, Kasser managed to escape from the prison and his life was saved. After the war, Kasser emigrated to the United States with his family.
On October 23, 1996, Yad Vashem recognized Alexander Kasser (previously Sándor Kasza) as Righteous Among the Nations.”
Sandor (Alexander) Kasza-Kasser, Secretary General of the Swedish Red Cross in Hungary, 1944-45
In April 1944, Kasser was appointed by Valdemar Langlet to be the Secretary General of the newly formed Swedish Red Cross in Budapest. As a volunteer, Kasser was given the responsibility to organize for Langlet the administration of the Swedish Red Cross in Hungary. Kasser designed the Swedish Red Cross protective papers. Initially, about 400 of these protective papers were issued to Jews in Budapest. He provided Jewish refugees with jobs in the Red Cross and he rented hospitals which were used to hide Jews. Kasser worked extensively with Raoul Wallenberg on numerous rescue missions to save Jews from Arrow Cross roundups and from death marches. He received the Righteous Among the Nations award form the State of Israel in July 1997. His wife, Elizabeth Kasser, was a Jewish volunteer for the Swedish legation in Budapest. She served primarily as an interpreter for Raoul Wallenberg.
On October 23, 1996, Yad Vashem recognized Alexander Kasser (previously Sándor Kasza) as a righteous person.
Kolkman, Joseph Willem, Dutch Vice consul in Southern France
“Joseph Willem Kolkman was born on December 1, 1896, in The Hague, in the Dutch province of South Holland. He was the tenth child in this Roman Catholic family. His father had an important position in Holland: he was a lawyer, notary, member of the Dutch government, and minister of finance. The Kolkman children were raised by a French nanny who taught them the French language. Joseph joined the Order of Jesuits for a couple of years, studying philosophy and going through the novitiate; he left the order in 1924. For two years he studied law at the University of Leiden, and in 1926 he left for Paris to work as a journalist. He was a correspondent for many Dutch newspapers. In 1934 he married Elizabeth Fonkert, and the couple moved to Soisy-sous-Montmorency, a little town close to Paris. On May 10, 1940, the Nazis conquered Holland. This created a large number of refugees, who sought shelter in France. The Dutch consul general established the Association de Secours aux Réfugiés Néerlandais, to help the Dutch refugees. Joseph Kolkman also helped the Dutch refugees, together with a colleague, in the Collège Néerlandais, which sheltered many refugees. A Dutch radio network called Radio Vrij Nederland was created, which beginning on May 19, 1940, broadcast radio messages and news three times a day. Joseph Willem Kolkman was very active in this radio station, but unfortunately, its programming had to be cancelled on June 10, when the Germans approached Paris.
A region in the south of France was appointed by the French government to absorb the enormous number of Dutch refugees, and Kolkman was asked to assist the new honorary vice consul in registering them. This way he could stay safely in France; had he returned to Holland, he would probably have been arrested by the Germans because of his earlier involvement in Radio Vrij Nederland. In August 1940 Kolkman was appointed honorary vice consul. He had proved to be very energetic and active in helping the refugees, many of whom were interned in primitive relief camps. Kolkman tried to free them and made connections with the Dutch and French resistance movements. In November 1940 the Dutch Consulate in France was closed by the French government in Vichy. Instead the Offices Néerlandais were established. They were supposed to deal with the refugees but were not authorized to hand out or extend passports. Kolkman became director of the office in Perpignan, and he still considered himself a representative of the Dutch government. In January 1942, in the village of Le Soler, about 8 kilometers from Perpignan, Kolkman rented a villa, where he sheltered about 40 refugees, Jews and non-Jews. He visited imprisoned Dutchmen, provided them with extra food, and when they were freed he offered them shelter in Le Soler. He also managed to free some of them from refugees camps, and from Le Soler he tried to smuggle them to England. This was complicated because they needed visas. Kolkman provided false medical documents that enabled many of them to get these visas. Kolkman also tried to find illegal routes to Spain and Portugal. In cooperation with refugees who had been involved in the Dutch resistance, he searched for guides who could help people cross the Pyrenees. Joseph Willem Kolkman was a very likeable and kind man. He was open and tactful and willing to help whoever needed him, but it was a race against time. The Germans became more powerful, the number of refugees grew, and the German anti-Jewish measures increased. In July 1942 the Offices Néerlandais were closed by the Germans, who were well informed and suspected anti-German activities were taking place there. Visas were no longer issued by the French, and Spain could no longer be reached legally. Though Kolkman lost his position, he managed, even after July 1942, to save about 100 more Jews by providing them with hiding places in the French countryside and arranging escape routes for them to Spain, crossing the Pyrenees. On January 12, 1943, Kolkman and his wife tried to escape France using that route. Unfortunately, they were spotted by a German patrol and imprisoned for illegal border crossing. After a while his wife, Elizabeth, was freed. The Germans were very aware of Joseph Willem’s former illegal activities and sent him to the Buchenwald concentration camp. From there he was transferred in January 1944 to the Dora-Nordhausen concentration camp: it was here, under terrible circumstances and terror, that the V-1 and V-2 rockets were constructed. Kolkman was soon taken into the camp hospital, and on February 6, 1944, he was transferred to Lublin. Kolkman did not survive this transport. His ceaseless help for persecuted Jews cost him his life.
On February 17, 2013, Yad Vashem recognized Joseph Willem Kolkman as Righteous Among the Nations.” File M.31.2/10769
Herman Laatsman+, Head of Chancery, Dutch Embassy in Paris, France, 1940-41
Herman Laatsman+ was the Head of the Chancery in the Dutch Embassy in Paris, 1940-41. He was a courier contact between the Dutch government in exile in London and the underground in the Netherlands. He provided Jewish refugees with illegal passports that enabled them to escape Nazi-occupied France. He was also responsible for saving downed American pilots by issuing them false passports. He worked with the Dutch-Paris Rescue Network. In 1941, Nazis ordered the closure of the consulate. Laatsman was betrayed and was deported to several concentration camps. His 11-year old son, arrested with his father, disappeared.
Commended by the state of Israel for aiding Jews.
[De Jong, Het Koninkrijk, VII/S 894-895, IX pp. 543, 549, 552-554; Ford, 1999; Gutman, 2004; Moore, 2010; see also Johan Weidner Rescue Network]
Langlet, Valdemar cultural attaché at the Swedish Embassy, Swedish Red Cross, Budapest Hungary, 1944-1945
Langlet, Nina
“In 1944, Valdemar Langlet was a lecturer of the Swedish language at the Budapest University and an unpaid cultural attaché at the Swedish Embassy. The 72-year-old Langlet, originally from Valla, Sweden, had come to the Hungarian capital 13 years earlier and had a thorough knowledge of Hungary. He was aware of the imminent danger threatening the Jewish population after Germany’s entry in March 1944. Langlet’s rescue activity on behalf of Jews started early – several months before Wallenberg’s arrival in July 1944. It all began with Langlet’s wife Nina, who, one day, during a stroll, noticed a sign of the Red Cross and it gave her an idea to use the Swedish Red Cross to help Jews. Soon connections were made, and Langlet was appointed representative of the SRC. Economic support came from the Hungarian Jews who also deposited money and valuables with them, including real estate properties and they were all marked with Red Cross emblems. The Langlets were constantly in contact with Jewish organizations and they managed to issue the first letters of protection in May 1944. These letters saved people from being deported to death camps. At first, these life-saving documents were given to people who worked for the Swedish Red Cross, but later were distributed to people outside the organization, too. On October 15, 1944, the Arrow Cross party came to power and a reign of terror against the Jews ensued. The humanitarian activity of the SRC increased.
Both Valdemar and Nina manifested courage and exceptional devotion to the task of rescuing Jews, despite all the dangers involved. Instead of 400 letters of protection allowed by the Hungarian authorities – they handed out many times that number. They also gave refuge to Jews at their home. Nina Langlet devoted herself especially to the rescue of children. Owing to the Langlets’ initiatives, the Jewish orphanage in Budapest was saved. Nevertheless, the activities of the couple did not remain secret and the authorities stopped the SRC work on December 14, 1944. Both Langlets were arrested, beaten and interrogated, but they were released through the intervention of Ambassador Danielsson*. They left the country on May 26, 1945. After the war, the Langlets wrote about their wartime experiences in Hungary. Valdemar penned the book: Works and Days in Budapest, and Nina wrote: Chaos in Budapest.
On February 16, 1965, Yad Vashem recognized Valdemar and Nina Langlet as Righteous Among the Nations.”
Dr. Valdemar Langlet and Nina Langlet, Swedish Red Cross Delegate in Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45
On June 11, 1944, Carl Danielsson, Swedish Minister in Budapest, requested the Hungarian government allow the Swedish Red Cross to join the Hungarian Red Cross in feeding and housing thousands of orphaned Jewish children. Dr. Langlet launched a humanitarian campaign immediately, working with the Hungarian Red Cross. They also set up a children’s home in Budapest. Langlet and his wife, Nina, issued and distributed Swedish protective passes to Hungarian Jews, which prevented them from being deported or murdered by the Arrow Cross or Nazis. They worked with many Jewish volunteers.
Valdemar and Nina Langlet were declared Righteous Among the Nations by the State of Israel in 1965.
[Langlet, Valdemar. Verk och dagar i Budapest (Work and Days in Budapest). (Stockholm: Wahlstrom & Widstrand, 1946). Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 705, 1050, 1052, 1085, 1088. Asaf, Uri. Christian support for Jews during the Holocaust in Hungary. In Braham, Randolph L. (Ed.) Studies on the Holocaust in Hungary, pp. 65-112. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990), pp. 88-89. Lévai, Jenö. Black Book on the Martyrdom of Hungarian Jewry. (Central European Times Publishing, 1948), pp. 275-276, 283, 383. Koblik, Steven. The Stones Cry Out: Sweden’s Response to the Persecution of the Jews, 1933-1945. (New York: Holocaust Library, 1988), pp. 68-71, 107, 161-162, 239-241, 258-260. Skoglund, Elizabeth R. A Quiet Courage: Per Anger, Wallenberg’s Co-Liberator of Hungarian Jews. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1997), p. 59.]
Lutz, Charles Lutz, Gertrud
“Carl (Charles) Lutz (b. 1895), a Swiss diplomat, arrived in Budapest in January 1942 to represent the interests of countries that had severed relations with Miklos Horthy’s government, among them, the United States and the United Kingdom. After the Germans invasion of Hungary on March 19, 1944, Lutz began his actions rescuing thousands of Jews. Appalled by the Nazi persecution of Jews, he pressured the Hungarian government to stop the deportations that had begun in mid-May. Risking his life, he brought thousands of Hungarian Jews under Swiss protection, thus saving them from deportations to Nazi death camps. In his capacity as vice-consul, Lutz issued protective letters (Schutzbriefe) to thousands of Jews, thus delaying their deportation to concentration camps until they were liberated by the Allied forces. His wife Gertrud participated actively and zealously in his rescue operations. She was active in providing food for thousand of Jews, as well as in assisting them to get medical treatment. Lutz instructed the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg* (see Sweden) on the best use of the protective letters and gave him information about government officials with whom it was best to negotiate. He rented 76 buildings for all the people under his protection. In the Glass House and its annex about 3,000 Jews found refuge. During the death marches of November 10-22, 1944, Lutz and Gertrud followed the Jews and they were able to pull many out of the march, by producing documents declaring them under Swiss protection.
These Jews were allowed to return to Budapest. With the tightening of the Soviet siege of Budapest in December 1944, when all diplomatic and consular missions, except the Swedish, had left the Hungarian capital, Lutz remained there at risk of his life, waiving diplomatic regulations, in order to save Jews. Lutz and his wife stayed with a group of Jews they rescued for more than four weeks in a bunker under the residence of the British embassy. After the liberation in February 1945, the inquiry into Lutz’s wartime actions jeopardized his career and prevented him from advancing. He was criticized on the home front for endangering Swiss neutrality. On March 24, 1964, Yad Vashem recognized Carl Lutz as Righteous Among the Nations.
On February 13, 1978, Yad Vashem recognized Gertrud Lutz as Righteous Among the Nations.”
Charles “Carl” Lutz, Consul for Switzerland in Budapest, Hungary, 1942-45, and Gertrud Lutz, Wife of Consul Carl Lutz, Budapest, Hungary
Carl Lutz (1895-1975) was the first neutral diplomat in Budapest to rescue Jews. He is credited with inventing the Schutzbrief (protective letter) for Jewish refugees in Budapest. After March 19, 1944, the Germans occupied Hungary and the new government of Döme Sztojay closed the Hungarian borders to Jewish emigration. In tough negotiations with the Nazis and the Hungarian government, Lutz obtained permission to issue protective letters to 8,000 Hungarian Jews for emigration to Palestine. Using a ruse and interpreting the 8,000 “units” not as persons but as families, he and his staff issued tens of thousands of additional “protective letters." He established 76 Swiss safe houses throughout Budapest and, with the help of his wife Gertrud, liberated Jews from deportation centers and death marches. In 1942-43, in cooperation with the Jewish Agency for Palestine, Lutz had helped 10,000 Jewish children and young people to emigrate to Palestine. Lutz worked with hundreds of Jewish volunteers who helped him process the protective letters and distribute them throughout Budapest. Lutz was told that as long as he stayed in Budapest, his protectees would survive. He is credited by Jewish relief agencies with saving 62,000 Jews from the Nazi Holocaust.
Carl Lutz was made Righteous Among the Nations by Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Authority in 1965. In addition, he has been declared an honorary citizen of the State of Israel. Carl Lutz died in 1975 at the age of 80.
[Tschuy, Theo. Carl Lutz und die Juden von Budapest. (Zurich: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 1995). Tschuy, Theo. Dangerous Diplomacy. (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2000). Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 840, 849, 899, 978, 979, 1079-1082. Asaf, Uri. Christian support for Jews during the Holocaust in Hungary. In Braham, Randolph L. (Ed.) Studies on the Holocaust in Hungary, pp. 65-112. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990), pp. 89-90. Lévai, Jenö. Black Book on the Martyrdom of Hungarian Jewry. (Central European Times Publishing, 1948), pp. 227, 276-277, 282-284, 355, 366-369, 371. Penkower, Monty Noam. The Jews Were Expendable: Free World diplomacy and the Holocaust. (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1983), pp. 189, 194, 197-198, 200, 206, 212. Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 258, 690, 703, 755, 924-925, 1232, 1251, 1444. Lévai, Jenö, translated by Frank Vajda. Raoul Wallenberg: His Remarkable Life, Heroic Battles and the Secret of his Mysterious Disappearance. (Melbourne, 1988, originally published in Hungarian in 1948), p. 163.]
Florian Manoliu
of Romania in Hungary
Manoliu, Florian
“Florian Manoliu, a diplomat who had already served for 18 years in the Romanian Foreign Service, was opposed Nazism and the pro-Nazi line adopted by his country’s government under the leadership of Ion Antonescu. In 1941, when he was an economic counselor in the Romanian Embassy in Vichy France, he was stopped by the Germans on the border between the two parts of the country with classified material that he was taking to the Turkish Legation in Vichy. For this breach of explicit German orders, he was reprimanded by the Romanian Foreign Ministry and recalled to Romania. There, as a member of the Foreign Ministry’s economic department, he worked to limit the business relations between Romania and Germany. From July 1943 until September 1944, Florian Manoliu was the economic counselor in the Rumanian Embassy in Bern, Switzerland. He took advantage of his position to liaise between Iuliu Maniu, the leader of the National Peasant Party, who headed the opposition to Ion Antonescu, and the former Romanian Foreign Minister, Grigore Gafencu, now a political exile in Switzerland and an activist against the Fascist government in his homeland. This activity was enabled thanks to Florian’s friendship with the Romanian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Mihai Antonescu, who at that stage no longer believed in a German victory. With a view to the postwar world, he sought an alibi for himself and accordingly allowed the regime’s opponents freedom of action.
In 1943, George Mandel-Mantello, a Jew, who was the First Secretary in the El Salvador consulate in Geneva and was active in rescuing Jews, began issuing El Salvador documents to protect Jews under German occupation who were in danger of deportation. Following a request by the United States to Switzerland, which represented American interests in Hungary, the Swiss Legation in Budapest recognized the documents issued by Mandel-Mantello. His aim was to transfer about a thousand such documents to Budapest Jews via his friend, Florian Manoliu. The latter sought permission to pass through Hungary on his way to home leave, because as a diplomat he would not be subject to border inspections and would be able to deliver the documents. Mandel-Mantello also asked Florian to find out what he could about the situation of the Jews of Transylvania, and in particular about the fate of his parents, who lived in the city of Besztece, annexed to Hungary (today Bistriţa, Romania). In May 1944, Florian received a permit to pass through Hungary. However, the Germans, suspicious of him, arrested him in Vienna and sent him to Berlin for further questioning. At the time of his arrest, he managed to transfer the diplomatic bag with the El Salvador papers to the Romanian Ambassador to Vienna, who was at the train station to meet him. A week later, following the intercession of the Romanian authorities, Florian Manoliu was released, reclaimed the bag, and set out for Besztece, in explicit violation of the conditions of the travel permit he had received from the Germans. He reached Besztece on June 10 but did not find one Jew there, as the entire Jewish population had been deported to Auschwitz. He then proceeded to Budapest, where he gave most of Mandel-Mantello’s papers to the Swiss Consul-General, Carl Lutz, who was working to rescue Hungarian Jews. Florian also made contact with Moshe (Miklós) Krausz, who represented the Jewish Agency in Budapest and operated from the Swiss Consulate under Lutz’s protection. Through Florian Manoliu, Krausz sent the Vrba-Wetzler Auschwitz Protocol to Chaim Pozner, Head of the Immigration (Aliyah) Department of the Jewish Agency operating in Geneva, informing him about the mass murders being perpetrated at Auschwitz. On June 21, 1944, Florian returned to Switzerland and passed on the reports he had been given by Krausz to Chaim Pozner, a senior Jewish Agency official in Geneva, and to Mandel-Mantello, whom he also informed about the fate of his parents and of Transylvanian Jewry as a whole. Florian helped Mandel-Mantello confirm the information by appearing before the Swiss-Hungarian Committee in Switzerland with the aim of making the reports about the murder of the Jews known worldwide. Florian Manoliu put himself at risk a number of times to rescue Jews and disseminate information about the Nazis’ murder program. After the war, Florian was ordered to join the ruling Communist Party in Romania. When he refused, his career effectively came to a halt, and in July 1947 he was arrested and his property confiscated. Florian Manoliu left his homeland and with his diplomatic passport reached Prague and from there to Switzerland, where he asked for political asylum. Half a year later, he moved with his family to Italy and from there to Argentina, where he became a university lecturer, reaching the rank of professor. Florian Manoliu died in 1974.”
On July 12, 2001, Yad Vashem recognized Florian Manoliu as Righteous Among the Nations.
Florian Manoliu, Romanian Diplomat in Bern, Switzerland
Romanian diplomat Florian Manoliu worked with the other diplomats in saving Jews from deportation from Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45. He worked to distribute various protective papers, including those of George Mandel Mantello. Manoliu distributed the Auschwitz Protocols to a number of Jewish representatives in Switzerland.
He was awarded Righteous Among the Nations status in 2001.
[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. 82-94, 176-177, 283n.i, 183-184. Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 712, 1120.]
Marchesini, Pacifico, Italian diplomat in The Hague Zuid Holland, Illegal transfer
De Sousa Mendes, Aristides. Portuguese Consul General in Bordeaux, France, 1938 - June 1941
“The Portuguese diplomat, Aristides de Sousa Mendes, was his country’s consul general in Bordeaux, France. The German occupation prompted tens of thousands of refugees, including thousands of Jews, to flee southward from the northern departéments in the hope of exiting France via the only remaining avenue of escape, the southern border into Spain and Portugal, and then sailing for America. The Portuguese dictator, António de Oliveira Salazar, permitted holders of visas for overseas to transit through Portugal, but closed the borders to refugees without visas, thus shutting the last avenue of hope. Some 30,000 refugees, including 10,000 Jews were desperately trying to obtain the piece of paper that would extricate them from France. Sousa Mendes, a devout and good-hearted Catholic, decided to help the refugees despite his government’s orders. He promised Rabbi Haim Kruger to issue transit visas to everyone in need, adding that those who could not pay the fees would receive them at no charge. He then set up an improvised office in the consulate and, with the help of two of his sons and several Jews who were waiting nearby, began to issue transit permits. A rumor about Sousa Mendes’s actions reached Lisbon, which summarily ordered him to return to his homeland at once. The Portuguese Government dismissed Sousa Mendes from his position in the Foreign Ministry and left him destitute and unable to support his large family. He explained his actions: “If thousands of Jews are suffering because of one Christian [Hitler], surely one Christian may suffer for so many Jews.”
Sousa Mendes died penniless in 1954; not until 1988, thanks to external pressure and his children’s efforts, did his government grant him total rehabilitation.
On October 18, 1966, Yad Vashem recognized Aristides de Sousa Mendes as Righteous Among the Nations.”
Dr. Aristides de Sousa Mendes, Portuguese Consul General in Bordeaux, France, 1938 - June 1941
Aristides De Sousa Mendes was from a prominent Portuguese family. His father had been of nobility and served in the Portuguese supreme court. For a short period, his brother, Cesar, had been the Foreign Minister of Portugal. Mendes was a career diplomat. He was the Consul General for Portugal in Bordeaux, France. Between June 17 and 19, 1940, he issued thousands of life-saving Portuguese visas for Jews and other refugees. Mendes saved the entire royal Habsburg family, including the crown prince and Empress Zita. In addition, he saved the entire Belgian cabinet in exile. Mendes personally conducted hundreds of Jewish refugees across a border checkpoint on the Spanish frontier. All of his life saving activities were done against the orders and policies of Portugal. He was fired by his government and lost all of his property. He died in poverty in Lisbon in 1954. In November of 1995, Portugal posthumously restored his career and awarded him a special medal for saving lives. De Sousa Mendes was declared Righteous Among the Nations by the State of Israel in 1967.
[Fralon, José-Alain, translated by Peter Graham. A Good Man in Evil Times: Aristides de Sousa Mendes – The Unknown Hero Who Saved Countless Lives in World War II. (New York: Viking, 2000). Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Spared Lives: The Actions of Three Portuguese Diplomats in World War II. (Portugal: Diplomatic Institute, 2000). Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), pp. 1280, 1381-1382. Milgram, Avraham. “Portugal, the Consuls, and the Jewish Refugees, 1938-1941.” Yad Vashem Studies, 27 (1999), pp. 123-155.]
Dr. Manuel Antonio Munoz Borrero, Ecuadoran consul in Stockholm Sweden
“Dr. Manuel Antonio Munoz Borrero was born in Cuenca, Ecuador in 1891 and was appointed Consul to Stockholm in 1931. In 1941, with the assistance of the Chilean Consulate, Dr. Munoz Borrero sent some 80 passports to Istanbul for distribution to Poles, most of whom were Jewish. As a result, Dr. Munoz Borrero was fired in January 1942 and the Ecuadorian government informed the Swedish government of his termination, although they did not send a replacement. The Swedes did not confiscate the consulate archives, as requested by Ecuador, so the seals and documents remained in Munoz Borrero's possession. Later, Jewish leaders in Sweden, including Rabbi Avraham Israel Jacobson, approached Dr. Munoz Borrero requesting that he issue passports to Jews in occupied Europe so that they could benefit from the relative protection afforded to Latin-American citizens from deportation to the death camps. Dr. Munoz Borrero agreed, and started to issue passports using lists he received from the Jewish activists, despite the fact that he had been forbidden to use any consulate-related papers or equipment. As a result, Dr. Munoz Borrero was questioned by the Swedish police, and was under the surveillance of the Swedish secret service. The issue of these passports was contrary to the orders of the Ecuadorian government, thus making it unlikely that he would ever be rehabilitated by his government. In the final analysis, the Ecuadorian passports sent from Sweden to Poland via Istanbul did not save their new owners.
One group of Jews with Latin-American citizenship, including those with Ecuadorian passports, was deported to Bergen Belsen, and was murdered in October 1943. A second group of Polish Jews with foreign passports, among them 10 with documents from Ecuador, was sent to the Vittel camp in France, but this proved to be only temporary - at the end of April 1944 they were deported to Auschwitz. The Ecuadorian passports issued by Dr. Munoz Borrero were also sent to the Netherlands. These passports exempted their owners from wearing the yellow star, postponed deportation to camps in the East, and provided other protection from anti-Jewish legislation. Of this group of Jews, 96 were deported to Bergen Belsen. Some died as a result of the horrific conditions there, but several survivors applied to Yad Vashem to recognize Dr. Munoz Borrero as Righteous Among the Nations, among them Betty Meyer, née Eichenhauser. One day, Betty and her mother, who had emigrated from Germany to Holland, received two Ecuadorian passports in their names. All they had to do was affix their photographs and sign. Thanks to those passports, Betty and her mother were spared deportation to the East. They were sent to Bergen Belsen, and from there, to Switzerland by train in January 1945, as part of a prisoner exchange, thus surviving the Holocaust.
On February 28, 2011, the Commission for the Designation of the Righteous Among the Nations at Yad Vashem decided to award Dr. Manuel Antonio Munoz Borrero the title of Righteous Among the Nations.”
File 11804
Dr. Manuel Antonio Muñoz Borrero, Ecuadorian Consul in Stockholm, Sweden
“Dr. Manuel Antonio Muñoz Borrero issued hundreds of passports/visas to Jewish refugees in Europe. Borrero issued the visas at the request of a local rabbi, Abraham Israel Jacobson. According to a recent report, Borrero came into conflict with the Ecuadorian foreign minister, who had asked him to cease issuing visas. Despite pressure from Ecuador, Borrero continued to issue visas. In 1942, Borrero worked in cooperation with a Chilean minister in Ankara, Turkey, and the Polish Consul General in Exile in Ankara, Turkey. The German government put pressure on the Ecuadorian government to fire Borrero. Borrero was warned and interrogated several times by the Swedish police and by the Swedish secret service (Säkerhetstjänsten). Borrero was eventually dismissed from his job as Consul General of Ecuador in Stockholm under pressure from the Nazi regime. He did not return to Ecuador. Borrero died in Stockholm after the war.”
Giorgio Perlasca, “Acting Chargé d’Affaires” of the Spanish Legation, Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45
Perlasca, Giorgio
“Giorgio Perlasca (1910-1992) a native of Como, living in Padua, Italy, with his family, moved to Hungary in 1942, where he worked as the representative of an Italian beef exporter. Although he was a pro-fascist, and had fought in the mid 1930s in the Spanish Civil War on the side of General Franco, he was not willing to recognize the Salò Republic, which took power in part of Italy in September 1943, with the help of the Germans. He refused to cooperate with the German actions. After the German invasion of Hungary, Perlasca was sent to a detention camp. He escaped in mid-October 1944 and returned to Budapest. After a while, he found refuge in the Spanish embassy, thanks to his acquaintance with its authorized representative, Angel Sanz Briz* (see Spain). Around the time Perlasca returned to Budapest, the Arrow Cross Party rose to power in Hungary. Murders on the streets, in the houses of the ghetto, and on the banks of the river Danube, as well as death marches were daily scenes. Hundreds of thousands of Jews were still alive in the embattled city of Budapest, or in the military labor-service companies. International organizations and embassies tried to come to the aid of these remaining Jews by giving them documents declaring that they were under their protection. They also designated “protected houses” where the Jews could live. However, the efficacy of this arrangement depended on the courage of individual diplomats, and was measured in their willingness to stand up to the Arrow Cross gangs, who regularly entered protected houses to attack Jews.
The Spanish embassy gave some 3,000 letters of protection to Jews who had some connection to Spain, or to Jews in general, and set up a number of protected houses. However, in December 1944, Sanz Briz left Hungary. In the Spanish embassy itself there remained only the official seals, embassy letterheads, several lower-ranking diplomats and a secretary. There were also several dozen Jews in the building who had found refuge there. In the absence of an ambassador, the responsibility for the Spanish embassy affairs fell on the Swedish ambassador, Carl Danielsson* (see Sweden), who stayed in his post until the end of the war. Then came Perlasca’s finest hour. With the cooperation of the embassy’s advisor Dr. Farkas, and an activist in the underground named László Szamosi, Perlasca simply pretended to be the representative of Spain. He changed his name to Jorge, and signed letters issued by the diplomatic corps calling for the end of anti-Jewish persecutions. He presided over negotiations with the authorities and promised, in Spain’s name, to recognize the authority of the Arrow Cross. Perlasca even went to the torture chambers and jails of the Arrow Cross to get Jews released, and personally, or with the help of his aides, distributed letters of protection to those who were being deported on the death marches. Thanks to these documents many Jews were allowed to return from the marches, or from the border. Perlasca and those who worked with him provided shelter and food for the Jews who were in the Spanish protected houses. More than once he coolly used his false identity to throw Arrow Cross gangs out of the houses, when they entered and threatened to murder or deport the Jewish residents. He acted with great courage until the liberation. After the war, Perlasca returned to Italy. Dozens of those he had saved accompanied him to the train station and saw him off with an emotional farewell. Perlasca received an award at Yad Vashem in the presence of representatives of Italy, Spain, Hungary and Israel. Perlasca died in Padua on August 15, 1992. According to his wish, on his tomb was inscribed in Hebrew “ Righteous Among the Nations.” Enrico Deaglio wrote a book about his life: The banality of goodness: the story of Giorgio Perlasca.”
On June 9, 1988, Yad Vashem recognized Giorgio Perlasca as Righteous Among the Nations.
Giorgio “Jorge” Perlasca, “Acting Chargé d’Affaires” of the Spanish Legation, Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45
Giorgio Perlasca, an Italian, is credited with saving thousands of Jewish refugees in Budapest. He was granted Spanish citizenship for fighting with Franco in the Spanish Civil War. Perlasca volunteered to work with the Spanish legation’s efforts to rescue Jews in Budapest. In the fall of 1944, under Perlasca’s supervision, the number of Jews under the protection of Spanish safe houses in Budapest grew from 300 to about 3,000. In December 1944, the Spanish Ambassador left Budapest and Perlasca began acting on his own authority. Perlasca soon appointed himself “Spanish Ambassador” and, along with other volunteers, continued to issue thousands of protective passes stamped with the legation’s seal. His bluff worked, and Nazi officials accepted his authority. Perlasca also protected the Spanish safe houses in Budapest from Nazi and Arrow Cross raids. Perlasca is credited with saving thousands of Jews.
Perlasca was declared Righteous Among the Nations in 1992.
[Deaglio, Enrico, translated by Gregory Conti. The Banality of Goodness: The Story of Giorgio Perlasca. (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1998). Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 881, 1093. Asaf, Uri. Christian support for Jews during the Holocaust in Hungary. In Braham, Randolph L. (Ed.) Studies on the Holocaust in Hungary, pp. 65-112. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990), p. 94. Lévai, Jenö. Black Book on the Martyrdom of Hungarian Jewry. (Central European Times Publishing, 1948), pp. 357-359, 364-367, 387-388.]
Prodolliet, Ernest, vice-consul at the Swiss consulate, at first in Bregenz, Austria then in Amsterdam, the Netherlands
“Between 1938-1942, Ernest Prodolliet (b. 1905) was the vice-consul at the Swiss consulate, at first in Bregenz, Austria then in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. In 1938, many Austrian Jews were stranded on the border between Austria and Switzerland, with entry permits for various countries. Prodolliet, then in Bregenz, issued Swiss transit visas for these refugees, which enabled their holders to travel through Switzerland. Eliezer Levin, originally from Germany, recalled that he had a fictitious visa to Shanghai and was one of a group of 40 Jews who received 48-hour transit visas signed by Prodolliet. According to testimonies, Prodolliet issued transit visas to some 300 Jews trying to reach safety. Prodolliet’s actions became known and disciplinary measures were taken against him for his involvement in helping Jews flee Austria (after its annexation to Germany in March 1938). In Amsterdam, too, then under German occupation, he continued to be instrumental and helped Jews leave the country. His major role at this crucial time was attested to in a report Gertrude Van Tijn sent from Amsterdam to the American Joint Distribution Committee (JDC). Van Tijn was in charge of the Department of the Emigration and Displaced Persons’ Aid Bureau at the Joodsche Raad (Jewish Council in Amsterdam) and affiliated with the Dutch Joint. Prodolliet supplied Van Tijn with money for rescue activities, and it was refunded to him by Saly Mayer who represented the Joint in Switzerland.
He took risks hiding Jews in his home. His motivation was purely humanitarian.
On November 18, 1982, Yad Vashem recognized Ernest Prodolliet as Righteous Among the Nations.”
Ernst Prodolliet, Swiss Consul General in Bregenz, Austria, 1938-42
Ernst Prodolliet was the Swiss Consul in Bregenz, Austria, 1938-1939. He personally issued visas and documents to Jews and accompanied them to the Swiss border to help them escape Austria after the Nazi Anschluss. He worked closely with police captain Paul Grüninger, who allowed the Jews to cross into Switzerland at the border area of St. Gallen. Prodolliet received Israel’s Righteous Among the Nations award in 1982 for his life saving activities.
[Swiss Federal Archives, Bern, Switzerland. This information was provided by the Swiss Task Force in 2000.]
Franjo Punčuh, (Franciszek Punczek) Commercial attaché, Yugoslavia in Warsaw
Punčuh, Franjo
File 10287
“Franjo Punčuh was born in Slovenia in 1902. After studying economics at Warsaw University, he became a commercial attaché at the Yugoslavian consulate in Warsaw. Later on, after leaving the service, he was nominated in 1938 as honorary consul at the Yugoslavian Legation. In 1931, Franjo had married Janka Glocer, a Jewish girl. After two years of marriage, the couple had a son, Andrei and according to Jewish law, the child was circumcised. During his years in Warsaw, Franjo had become acquainted with Ignacy and Janina Konigstein, a well-to-do Jewish family that owned Kawuska, a company that manufactured fountain pens. When the Germans occupied Poland and implemented their anti-Jewish racial policies, Franjo formally took over the Konigstein’s business, as well as the assets of another Jewish family, the Meszorers, to prevent their being confiscated by the Germans. To assist his Jewish friends in the ghetto, established in November 15, 1940, Franjo provided them with money from the assets that he was managing, which were also used to subsidize the escape of several Jews to the “Aryan” side of Warsaw. Among those were various members of the Meszorer (today, Meshorer) family. Further, Franjo used the money to support the fugitives while in hiding up until the time of the Warsaw Uprising in August 1944, when all contact were lost. In order to help those who had managed to escape from the ghetto, Franjo built a hidden space in his apartment by dividing his large pantry into two rooms using a false, movable wall.
This secret room could be used until safe havens could be found for the fugitives. Franjo employed Genowefa Olczak* in the Kawuska factory enabling her to support four members of the Rozenman family hiding at her home. He also supplied Genowefa with names and addresses of people she could trust to hide Jews. In the summer of 1943, when 14-year-old Bianka Rozenman (later, Kraszewski) had to leave her hiding place, Genowefa took her to the Punčuhs on Bagatela Street for a few days. From there Bianka was transferred to the Punčuh’s villa in Konstancin, where she stayed a few weeks until being moved once again to the Zubrzycki* family. Franjo also helped his sister-in-law, Eva Lavendel, her daughter, Wanda (later, Bincel), to escape to the “Aryan” side of Warsaw in the summer of 1942, and arranged for his niece to stay with a Polish couple, Witold and Władisława Krajewski. Franjo was also able to get the rest of the Lavendel family out of the Warsaw Ghetto just before its final liquidation. Lastly, he rescued his wife’s parents, Teofil and Marta Glocer, along with family friends, Cecilia Szegalowska, Wanda Meller, his mother, and many others. In September 1944, during the Warsaw Uprising, Franjo was killed and was buried in the Powazki cemetery in Warsaw.”
On August 15, 2004, Yad Vashem recognized Franjo Punčuh as Righteous Among the Nations.
Radigales, Sebastián de Romero
“Before World War II there were many Spanish Jews living abroad. After the war broke out the Spanish government did not hold itself responsible towards those Jews residing in countries under German or Fascist control, despite their having Spanish citizenship. Spanish diplomats, therefore, were not expected by their superiors to provide any help or protection to their country's Jewish citizens. Their return to Spain was radically restricted, and they were left without any protection from the murderous plans of Nazi Germany.
Spanish foreign policy in the case of the Spanish Jews living in Greece was no different. In March 1943 the deportations of Jews from Salonika to Auschwitz began, and within five months 48,000 Jews were deported. The thriving Jewish community, which existed since Hellenistic times, was almost completely decimated.
For pragmatic reasons, the Germans agreed to exempt Jews holding Italian and Spanish citizenship from deportation, on condition that they return to their countries. Italian Jews were thus spared and could return to Italy; but the Spanish Jews were faced with the reluctance of the Spanish government to permit them to be repatriated. Salomon Ezraty, of the Spanish diplomatic delegation in Salonika, reported to his superiors about Italy's protection of its Jewish citizens, and asked that the Spanish authorities do the same. On April 8, 1942 the request was formally rejected by the Department of Economy of the Spanish Foreign Ministry.
This was the situation which Sebastián de Romero Radigales, the newly-appointed head of the Spanish diplomatic delegation in Athens, found on his arrival. In a letter from April 15, 1943, written shortly after his arrival, Radigales thanked the Foreign Minister Jordana for his nomination and stated that he was busy with arranging the repatriation of 510 Jews from Salonika who had Spanish citizenship. Despite the strong opposition from the Spanish Foreign Office as well as that of the German Ambassador to Greece Altenburg, Radigales was determined to save these Jews. Following Radigales' cables asking Madrid to facilitate the repatriation of the fleeing Jews, the Spanish Foreign Minister Jordana instructed the Spanish ambassador in Rome to forward to Radigales a cable of March 18, 1943, with updated regulations, drastically restricting the number of Spanish citizens eligible for repatriation. This did not deter Radigales and in the beginning of June 1943 he proposed that the Spanish Jews would return to Spain by sea. Jordana ordered the Spanish ambassador in Berlin, who was officially Radigales' superior, to instruct the diplomat in Athens "to maintain a passive approach, avoid any personal initiative and to refrain from issuing collective passports". Still determined, Radigales devised a plan to evacuate the Spanish Jews of Salonika by using a Swedish ship that would sail under the Red Cross flag. He went on to issue the necessary travel documents and make the preparations for the repatriation. He made a report on his progress to Ambassador Vidal in Berlin, who passed the reports on to Madrid. In a cable from July 1, 1943 Jordana wrote: "it is crucial to curb the pro-activeness of the General Consul in Athens and to block his initiative". The same orders were repeated in the cables that followed. Radigales not only acted on behalf of Jews with Spanish citizenship, but also tried to extend his protection to others. In a cable from June 9, 1943 he broached the subject of widows and divorcées of Jewish Spanish citizens, who had lost their citizenship when their union with a Spanish-citizen spouse had ended. In one particular case, Radigales tried to provide protection for a Greek Jew and his crippled son who were housed by Ezaraty in Salonika and were about to be deported. These attempts were in complete defiance to the instructions he had received from his ministry, and must have aggravated his superiors. As the Spanish authorities continued to delay in their decision regarding the repatriation, the German authorities informed the Spanish ambassador in Berlin that until such a decision would be made they were considering transferring the Spanish Jews of Salonika to a camp in Germany, thereby giving the Spanish government some more time. The Germans nevertheless stressed that should there be no progress, they would transport the Jews to Poland. In his report to Jordana, Ambassador Vidal added: "I cannot conceal the tragic implications of such a transfer to Poland". On August 13, 1943 a group of 367 Jews with Spanish citizenship arrived in Bergen-Belsen. Radigales continued relentlessly in his attempts to protect these Jews until finally the Spanish government changed its position, and permitted the transfer of this group to Spanish Morocco. Their travel documents bore Radigales' signature. Isaac Revah, who was a child at the time, remembered how his group was allowed to leave the camp in February 1944. "Being released from a Nazi camp is an incredible event. It all happened thanks to an outstandingly courageous and humane man", he wrote to Yad Vashem. Revah did not forget his rescuer's actions, and applied to Yad Vashem to have Radigales honored and recognized as Righteous Among the Nations. Following the German occupation of Athens in September 1943, the Jews of Athens were now also in danger of deportation. Rachel-Lola Hassid Frances told Yad Vashem that when the Germans came to arrest her family on March 25, 1944, her father managed to phone Radigales. Radigales prompted him to flee with his family, and sent his wife over with an embassy car. But Rachel's father refused to go, and the family was deported to Bergen-Belsen along with another group of Spanish citizens. The family did survive, and in 2010 Rachel submitted her testimony about Radigales' actions to Yad Vashem as well. Radigales did everything in his power to help the Jews who went into hiding. He also intervened with the German authorities to have Jews released from the Haidari detention camp; supported those who went into hiding; kept the belongings of arrested Jews to ensure that they were returned to their owners or their rightful heirs after the war – actions that were all far beyond his duty as a diplomat, and often against the his government's policy.
On 26 February 2014 Yad Vashem recognized Sebastián de Romero Radigales as Righteous Among the Nations.”
Sebastián Romero Radigales, Spain, Consul General in Athens, 1943-44
Consul General Sebastián Romero Radigales, Consul General for Spain in Athens, intervened on behalf of more than 800 Jews of Athens and Salonica in 1943, preventing their deportation to Nazi concentration camps. In one instance, he managed to evacuate 150 Jews from a deportation train. Throughout the war, Radigales continued to protest German actions against Jews. As a result, the German Ambassador in Athens lodged a complaint against Radigales asking the Spanish government to instruct Radigales not to interfere in deportations. By the end of the war, Radigales was able to provide protection for numerous Jews in Greece and saved them from deportation to Auschwitz.
On 26 February 2014 Yad Vashem recognized Sebastián de Romero Radigales as Righteous Among the Nations.
[Avni, Haim. Spain, the Jews and Franco. (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1982), pp. 149-159, 178, 180. Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), p. 1394. Avni, Haim. “Spanish Nationals in Greece and their Fate during the Holocaust.” Yad Vashem Studies, 8 (1970), pp. 47-49, 52, 54, 57-60, 68. Laqueur, Walter (Ed.) and Judith Tydor Baumel (Assoc. Ed.). The Holocaust Encyclopedia. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), p. 602.]
Rokicki, Konstananty (1899-1958), Polish diplomat in Bern Switzerland
File 13761/2 Recognized 2/19/19
Rotta, Monsignor Angelo, Apostolic Nuncio, Budapest, Hungary, 1944-1945
“Monsignor Angelo Rotta was the Apostolic Nuncio – the Vatican’s representative – in Hungary during the period of the Holocaust. In the period before the German occupation, Rotta helped absorb refugees from Poland, among them many Jews. After the German invasion, Monsignor Rotta was the first among the diplomats of the neutral states to press the Catholic Church and the Hungarian establishment to act against the anti-Jewish policies. When Rotta learned about the ghettoization and the brutal deportation of the Jews from Hungary, he was quick to register his protest. These policies must be brought to an end, he said, “because the real meaning of these is already widely known.” In the summer and winter of 1944, Rotta was a signatory on open letters of protest sent by representatives of the neutral states. These letters called for the end of the deportations, and demanded protection for Jewish children. Rotta did not limit his efforts to diplomatic measures. Beginning in the summer of 1944, when it seemed that converted Jews would not be sent to Auschwitz, and during the Arrow Cross period which began in October of that year, Rotta issued letters of Vatican protection for Jews serving in military labor-service companies. He signed these documents knowing full well that they would be used by Jews who had no intention of converting to Christianity, with whom he had never had any personal contact. During the Arrow Cross period, Rotta sent his representative, Sandor Ujvári, to follow the Jews who were sent by foot on death marches from Budapest to Vienna.
He gave Ujvári blank, pre-signed protection letters to be distributed to the persecuted Jews. As Ujvári later testified, Rotta granted him absolution in advance for all sins, lies, forgeries and other actions he might be forced to commit in order to save Jews, because although he would be breaking the law of the land, he would be acting in the spirit of God. Rotta supported the heroic actions of Giorgio Perlasca*, an Italian businessman who masqueraded as a Spanish diplomat in his quest to save Jews. When Perlasca revealed his true identity to Rotta, the Nuncio smiled and gave Perlasca his blessing. Rotta also cooperated with Nina Langlet*(see Sweden), who, together with her husband Valdemar, stood at the head of the Swedish Red Cross. In her book, written after the war, Langlet describes how Rotta told her that, although he received approval from the Hungarians to issue 2,500 letters of Vatican protection to Jews, he actually signed more than 19,000 such documents. Rotta took a tremendous risk by helping Jews. According to documents that later came to light, the Germans were secretly monitoring Rotta’s activities, and during the Arrow Cross period his messengers were arrested and shot. Despite the ever-present danger, Bishop Rotta continued in his diplomatic efforts and covert activities. He used the power of his official position to give strength to persecuted Jews all around him, and by doing so, saved many lives.
On July 16, 1997, Yad Vashem recognized Monsignor Angelo Rotta as Righteous Among the Nations.”
Monsignor Angelo Rotta, Italy, Vatican diplomat in Sofia, Bulgaria, and Papal Nuncio (Ambassador) in Budapest, 1944-45
Monsignor Angelo Rotta was a major rescuer of Jews and was one of the few Papal nuncios to take direct action to save Jews. At the time of his assignment in Budapest, he was 72 years old. As a member of the Vatican diplomatic corps in Sofia, Bulgaria, he took measures to save Bulgarian Jews by issuing false baptismal certificates and visas for Jews to travel to Palestine. Later, Rotta was the Dean of the diplomatic corps in Budapest. He actively protested the deportation and murder of Hungarian Jews. He eventually issued more than 15,000 safe conduct certificates to Jews who were protected by the Vatican neutrality. Rotta also issued hundreds of safe conducts and baptismal certificates to Jews in labor camps, at deportation centers and on the death marches. He set up and personally protected numerous safe houses throughout Budapest. Rotta was aided by his assistant, Father Gennaro Verolino. The Vatican utilized numerous Jewish and non-Jewish volunteers in its rescue efforts. Angelo Rotta received the title Righteous Among the Nations by the State of Israel in 1997.
[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). Morley, John. Vatican Diplomacy and the Jews during the Holocaust, 1939-1943. (New York: Ktav, 1980), pp. 80-81, 84, 90, 153-154. 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. 196-201, 226-227, 232-233, 304, 318-319, 354, 357-359, 364, 366-367, 371-373, 384, 397. 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. Morse, Arthur D. While Six Million Died: A Chronicle of American Apathy. (New York: Random House, 1967). Penkower, Monty Noam. The Jews Were Expendable: Free World diplomacy and the Holocaust. (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1983), pp. 194, 200, 207. 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. 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. 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).]
Routier, Albert Emile, Honorary Consul of Turkey in Lyon, Rhone, France 1942
File 13304
“Albert Routier was a French citizen who served as the Honorary Consul of Turkey in Lyon. In 1942 Jews who had citizenship of neutral countries, such as Spain and Turkey, were still exempted from deportations, and therefore passports or other documents from these countries were lifesaving. Despite the restrictive policy of the Turkish authorities, when faced with the plight of the Jews, Consul Routier did everything to help Turkish Jews, but he also issued Turkish documents to people who had no connection whatsoever to Turkey. Among those he saved were Rabbi Benjamin Assouline, born in Constatnine, Algeria, his wife, Sarah, and their children, Rose (b. 1942) and Jacques (b. 1944). Sarah, born in Karlsruhe, Germany, had fled to Lyon, where she met and married Rabbi Assouline. Rabbi Assouline had documents in Arabic stating that he was Jewish. Routier produced fake translations saying that they were a Muslim family by the name of Elma. Other families helped by Routier were Mendel and Perl Mersel, who received documents under the false names of Mustafa and Aisha Bekir, and Albert and Batsheva Semmelmann, who became Abdi and Leila Bekir.
On November 26, 1942, an anonymous denunciation letter reached the Turkish Consulate General in Marseilles, stating that Routier was engaged in helping Jews, including non-Turkish nationals. Routier wanted to hand in his resignation but decided to remain in his post and continue helping people in need. He was finally fired when his name appeared on a list of persons suspected of subversive activity against the authorities.
After the war the children who had been born to the Assouline, Semmelmann, and Mersel families during the war, and who therefore bore the false family names that Routier had given them, applied to the French authorities to change their family names. Jacques Elma thus became Jacques Assouline, Hazelie Bekir became Miriam Semmelmann, and Rifat Bekir became Alex Mersel.
On November 1, 2016, Yad Vashem recognized Albert Emile Routier as Righteous Among the Nations.”
Albert Emile Routier, Honorary Turkish Consul General in Lyon, France, 1942-43
A. Routier was the Honorary Turkish Consul General in Lyon, France. He issued certificates of citizenship and passports to Turkish Jews in southern France. These Turkish citizens had lost their right to citizenship due to their not registering with the Consul General for an extended period. They were assumed to be French citizens by the Turkish government.
On November 1, 2016, Yad Vashem recognized Albert Emile Routier as Righteous Among the Nations.
[Shaw, Stanford J. Turkey and the Holocaust: Turkey’s Role in Rescuing Turkish and European Jewry from Nazi Persecution, 1933-1945. (New York: New York University Press, 1993), pp. 62-63, 335. Report to the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the activities of the Honorary Turkish Consul-General in Lyon, Archives of the Turkish Embassy (Paris) Dossier 6127, no. 638 26 November 1942.]
Carlos Sampaio Garrido, ambassador of Portugal in Budapest, Hungary, 1944
“On 4 April 1944, Carlos Sampaio Garrido, the ambassador of Portugal in Hungary, sent a cable to his government in which he described the plight of the Jews in Hungary and the anti-Jewish decrees that were aimed to "humiliate, rob and persecute them". Because of Allied bombing, some of the embassies chose to move from Budapest to the outskirts of the city, among them the Portuguese. The ambassador rented a house in Galgagyörk some 60 Km. from Budapest, and moved the embassy offices and his home to the new location. In his new residence he hosted a dozen Hungarian citizens, most of them Jews, so as to protect them from the danger in the city. Among these people were his Jewish secretary, Magda Gabor, and many members of her family. Sampaio Garrido did not inform his government of this fact. On 23 April 1944 and following the German occupation of Hungary, the Portuguese ruler Salazar decided to order his ambassador to return to Lisbon and leave the Chargé D'affairs in his place. Five days later, on 28 April 1944, at 5 a.m., the Hungarian political police burst into the ambassador’s residence. The ambassador tried to physically stop them from entering his residence, insisting that his home was ex territorial and that they were violating his diplomatic immunity. In her testimony Annette (Tillemann) Lantos described the moments when the police broke into the ambassador's residence. "When the ambassador saw them taking Magda, he put his foot in the door and didn't let them leave."
Despite the ambassador's persistence, the policemen went on and arrested his “guests” and brought them to Budapest. Sampaio Garrido continued to argue for his protégés' release, until they were let go. Not deterred by this incidence and although he was due to leave Hungary within days, Sampaio Garrido submitted a complaint to the Hungarian government, demanded an investigation and apology. Several days later the Hungarians declared Sampaio Garrido persona non grata. It was only at this time that the ambassador informed Salazar of the identity of the people he had hosted in his home.
On 2 February 2010 Yad Vashem recognized Carlos Sampaio Garrido as Righteous Among the Nations.”
Dr. Carlos Almeida Afonseca de Sampaio Garrido, Ambassador Plenipotentiary for Portugal in Budapest, 1944
Dr. Garrido helped large numbers of Hungarian Jews who came to the Portuguese diplomatic mission in 1944 seeking Portuguese protection. Along with Branquinho, his successor, he rented houses and apartments to shelter and protect refugees from deportation and murder. He was instrumental in establishing the policy for the protection of Portuguese Jews in Hungary. In May 1944, he was reposted to Switzerland and on several occasions intervened on behalf of Jews from his post in Switzerland.
On 2 February 2010 Yad Vashem recognized Carlos Sampaio Garrido as Righteous Among the Nations.
[Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 795, 847, 887, 889, 1093-1095. Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Spared Lives: The Actions of Three Portuguese Diplomats in World War II. (Portugal: Diplomatic Institute, 2000). Milgram, Avraham. “Portugal, the Consuls, and the Jewish Refugees, 1938-1941.” Yad Vashem Studies, 27 (1999), pp. 123-155.]
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.
Sanz-Briz, Angel, chargè d’affaires at the Spanish Legation, Budapest Hungary, 1944
“Angel Sanz-Briz, (b. 1910) was appointed to the post of chargè d’affaires at the Spanish Legation in the summer of 1944. As soon as the persecutions of the Hungarian Jews began, he offered, on behalf of his government, to supply Jews of Spanish origin with Spanish passports and to negotiate with the Hungarian government for their protection. Sanz-Briz received the consent of the Hungarian authorities to enable 200 Spanish Jews to receive these rights, but he changed it to 200 families and then enlarged this group again and again. Sanz-Briz also accommodated Jews in rented buildings in Budapest under the Spanish flag, putting up signs that those buildings were extra-territorial property belonging to the Spanish Legation. He also prompted the International Red Cross representative to put Spanish signs in Budapest on hospital buildings, as well as orphanages and maternity clinics, to protect the Jews therein. Sanz-Briz acted heroically and succeeded in saving a great number of Jews, most of them not of Spanish origin. Sanz-Briz was ordered by his government to leave the Hungarian capital in December 1944. The survivors Enrique and Jaime Vandor recalled their war experiences and the role of Sanz-Briz in their rescue. As children they received together with their late mother, Anny Vandor, the protection of the Spanish Legation in Budapest from autumn of 1944 until the entrance of the Soviet troops. They were accommodated in one of the protected “Spanish Houses” from which the Jews were forbidden from going out, so Sanz-Briz arranged for food supplies to reach his wards.
Due to his endless efforts, they and many others survived, and they have never forgotten him. After liberation, Sanz-Briz continued his diplomatic career. On October 18, 1966, Yad Vashem recognized Angel Sanz-Briz as Righteous Among the Nations.”
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.]
Fernando Serra, Spanish honorary consul in Rome, 1944
Serra, Fernando
Serra, Eugenia
File 12586
“Ennio Ascarelli, a Jewish doctor, lived in Rome with his wife, Guglielmina (née Spierer), and their only son, Paolo (b. 1936). Although the lives of the Italian Jews had been severely disrupted by the introduction of the racial laws in 1938, it was not until the German occupation of Italy in September 1943 that they were in mortal danger. A wave of arrests took place soon after the occupation, and by the end of October, several transports had already set out from Italy, destined for Auschwitz. Like many others Dr. Ascarelli realized that he and his family would have to hide in order to survive. He turned to Claudio Serra, a patient of his and a good friend, and asked him for his help. The Ascarelli’s first priority was arranging shelter for 7-year-old Paolo. Claudio Serra referred them to his brother Fernando Serra, who readily agreed to help. Fernando Serra had been serving as a Spanish honorary consul in Rome since 1937. Although he held this title, he did not have diplomatic immunity, which made his involvement in rescuing a Jewish boy extremely dangerous. Nevertheless, he and his wife Eugenia took Paolo in and treated him as part of the family. Serra risked himself even further by procuring a forged passport for Paolo with the name Pablo Serra, which enabled Paolo to leave the Serra’s residence occasionally, without fear of being immediately apprehended as a Jew. Having entrusted Paolo to the Serras, the Ascarellis went into hiding in various places.
Guglielmina would risk visiting her son at the Serras’ home as often as she could. Dr. Ascarelli never accompanied her, afraid of being recognized by one of his patients or someone else on the streets of Rome. “Pablito”—as Paolo came to be called by the Serras—remained with his rescuers until the liberation. He always remembered the war years as a period of constant fear, but he still reflected on the time spent with the Serras with great warmth and fondness. He remains in close contact with Mirella Serra, daughter of Fernando and Eugenia, to this day.
On May 28, 2013, Yad Vashem recognized Fernando and Eugenia Serra as Righteous Among the Nations.”
Świder, Franciszek
Wąskowska-Tomanek, Maria
Sławik, Henryk
“With the defeat of Poland in September 1939 and the subsequent Nazi occupation, thousands of Poles crossed into Hungary and settled there. The Polish refugees were followed by hundreds of Jewish families. More Jewish refugees arrived in 1942 and 1943, when the Polish ghettos were liquidated and Hungary was still relatively safe. Henryk Sławik, a Polish activist, together with his Polish unit, was arrested when crossing the border and was interned as prisoner of the war in Hungary. In the camp he was introduced to József Antall, a member of the Hungarian Ministry of Interior, responsible for civilian refugees from Poland. Shortly after, Antall and Sławik created the Citizen's Committee for help for Polish Refugees. Sławik was deeply devoted to his work, and contrary to other officials, did not discriminate against the Jewish refugees. Together with Antall, Countess Erzsébet Szapáry and the head of the Polish Red Cross in Hungary, Jan Kołłątaj-Srzednicki, provided all Jewish refugees with forged Cristian documents, and located Jews in the refugee camps in Hungary. Among the Polish refugees were also many orphaned children. Itzhak Brettler (Władysław Bratkowski) and his wife, Mina, took care of many of them. In July 1943, they gathered a group of 76 children between the ages of three and nineteen from Budapest and led them out to the locality of Vac, some 30 kilometers away.
There, Izaak organized a boarding school and with the help of the local Jews he got in touch with the delegate to Hungary of the Polish Government-in-Exile, Mr. Henryk Sławik, and asked him for help. The latter agreed unhesitatingly. In September 1943, the boarding school was proclaimed a Polish educational institution that was acting on behalf of the Polish Committee in Hungary. All students and personnel were given forged documents and Polish Army officer, Franciszek Świder, was appointed as manager of the school. Maria Tomanek, a teacher, also volunteered to work there. With the invasion of Nazi troops into Hungary on March 19, 1944, the institution appeared to be under threat. To give the school a more Polish and Christian image, all the students and teachers attended regular church services at the local church. In addition, a priest from Slovakia, Dr. Pavel Boharčík (*Boharčík, Pavel, Slovakia) came to the school to teach religion, but in reality, he was merely teaching the students Hungarian. “With great difficulties I succeeded in protecting all of the residents of the boarding school, both the youth and the Jewish personnel, from deportation to Auschwitz,” wrote Franciszek Świder in his testimony to Yad Vashem. He also noted that both the adults and the students were brought over to Budapest and dispersed into private apartments. Upon the end of the war, some of the Vac students returned to Poland, but the majority resettled in the United States and Israel.
On January 26, 1977, Yad Vashem recognized Franciszek Świder, Maria Wąskowska-Tomanek and Henryk Sławik as Righteous Among the Nations.”
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).]
Dantas, Luiz Martins de Souza, Brazil’s ambassador to France, 1940-1945
“Luiz Martins de Souza Dantas had been Brazil’s ambassador to France since 1922. In June 1940, in Paris and then in Vichy, he witnessed the massive southward flight of Frenchmen and refugees as the country was overrun by German troops. From 1937 onward, Brazil prohibited Jewish emigration from entering Brazil. Souza Dantas tried to find ways to get around this ban. On October 8, 1940, Souza Dantas sought authorization from the Brazilian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Oswaldo Aranha, to “deliver visas, in exceptional cases, to carriers of Nansen passports (stateless persons) or other pieces of identification, under my own responsibility”. The ambassador interpreted the permission obtained from his minister in an extremely generous manner, delivering hundreds visas to Jews and non-Jewish refugees in the non-occupied zone, with the goal of allowing them to leave France. Even so, the recipients of these visas were considered “undesirables” by the Brazilian government. Souza Dantas was perfectly aware that he was contravening the instructions in the decrees sent by his minister to every Brazilian diplomatic mission in the world, which stipulated the ban on delivering visas to “Semites” or “undesirables”, as Jews were identified in the Foreign Office correspondence. Thanks to the infractions committed by the ambassador, hundreds of Jews were able to leave France and Europe. Some of them did not, however, manage to reach Brazil before the expiry date on their visas, and were subsequently turned back.
When the Brazilian authorities were preparing to take judicial action against Souza Dantas, he had already reached retirement age, which offered him complete immunity. The intrepid ambassador passed away in Paris in 1954.
On June 2, 2003, Yad Vashem recognized Luiz Martins de Souza Dantas as Righteous Among the Nations.”
Luis Martins de Souza Dantas, Brazilian Ambassador to France, 1940-43
Luis Martins de Souza Dantas was the Brazilian Ambassador to France between 1922 and 1943. Ambassador Dantas issued visas to hundreds of Jews in occupied France after the Nazi takeover in 1940. In March 1943, the Nazi representatives broke into Dantas’ embassy in Vichy and arrested him. He was deported to Germany and was incarcerated along with other diplomats. This was for his actions in helping Jews. Dantas was eventually freed in 1944, with the direct intervention of Portuguese Prime Minister Oliveira Salazar. Dantas issued the visas against the strict order of the pro-fascist Brazilian government headed by Getulio Vargas, and at great risk to his diplomatic career. The Brazilian government eventually reprimanded him for issuing these visas without authorization from Rio. Several of the Jews arrived in Brazil and were detained by the Brazilian government, but were later released. Dantas was designated Righteous Among the Nations in 2003.
[Milgram, Avraham, translated by Naftali Greenwood. “The Jews of Europe from the perspective of the Brazilian Foreign Service, 1933-1941.” Holocaust and Genocide Studies, 9 (1995), 94-120. Fry, Varian. Surrender on Demand. (New York: Random House, 1945), p. 128. Eck, Nathan. “The Rescue of Jews With the Aid of Passports and Citizenship Papers of Latin American States.” Yad Vashem Studies on the European Jewish Catastrophe and Resistance, 1 (1957), pp. 125-152.]
Ján Spišiak, Slovak diplomat in Budapest, Hungary, 1944-1945
“During the war Ján Spišiak served as a Slovak diplomat in Budapest. Following the German occupation of Hungary on 19 March 1944, Jewish refugees who had fled from Slovakia to the relative safety of Hungary came into danger again. Since in the first half of 1944 there were no deportations from Slovakia, many wanted to return home. Spišiak helped many of these Jews, among them Jewish children who had been sent to Hungary, but who now were to be returned to their parents in Slovakia. The Hungarian rescue organizations therefore turned to the Slovak diplomatic mission. The matter was brought to the Slovak authorities for their decision, and on 20 June 1944 it was decided to reject the request and not to permit the return of the refugees. Nevertheless, Spišiak managed to help many of them and secure their return. He did so also for Slovak Jews who were illegally staying in Hungary, who had lost their citizenship and were thus unable to return home. Notwithstanding his instructions, Spišiak provided them with passports or other protective papers, and in some cases used false names that identified them as non-Jews. Rumors about Spišiak’s help reached the German Plenipotentiary in Hungary, Edmund Veesenmayer, who asked Berlin “to prevail on the Slovak government not to come to the help of the Slovak Jews in Hungary so as to enable the Hungarian authorities to implement the [deportation] operation.” This request was passed in writing to Mach, the Slovak minister of Interior, by the German representative in Bratislava.
Among those helped by Spišiak were members of the Zionist Youth movements who were active in rescue operations. Peretz Revesz told Yad Vashem that Spišiak gave him five passports, for himself and for four his friends. Revesz did not use the passport to return to Slovakia, but remained in Hungary and continued to work for the rescue of children. Nevertheless, the passport provided cover for his activity.
On 25 December 2006 Yad Vashem recognized Ján Spišiak as Righteous Among the Nations.”
Sugihara, Chiune Sempo, Japanese Consul general in Kovno (Kaunas) Lithuania, 1940
“Chiune Sempo Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat, was born in 1900, in Yaotsu, Japan. In 1919, while studying at Waseda University he was recruited by the Japanese Foreign Ministry and sent to study Russian at a language institute in Harbin, China. He became an expert of Russian affairs. In November 1939, Sugihara was posted to the Japanese consulate in Kovno, the capital of the then independent Lithuanian republic. In August 1940, the Soviet authorities, who had occupied and annexed Lithuania that summer, ordered all foreign representatives to close their legations. While busy with packing and winding up operations in Kovno, he noticed a huge crowd in front of the consulate. Upon inquiry, he discovered that they were Jews who were begging for Japanese transit visas to allow them to proceed by way of the USSR and Japan to the Dutch colonies of Surinam and the island of Curaçao in the Caribbean, where no entry permit was necessary. Sugihara ignored his government’s instructions to issue visas on a limited scale and issued several thousand visas to any Jews who came to the consulate. “I may have to disobey the government” he told his wife, “But if I don’t, I would be disobeying God.” Until the Soviet Union closed down the consulate, Sugihara issued transit visas to Japan, enabling thousands of Jews to leave Lithuania and travel via the Soviet Union and Japan to various destinations. Zorah Wahrhaftig, Israel’s former Minister of Religion, was among those refugees helped by Sugihara.
After the closure of the consulate in Kovno, Sugihara served at the consulates in Prague, in Koenigsberg, and then at the Legation in Romania where he remained until the liberation. Upon his return to Japan in 1947, he was asked to resign, according to Sugihara’s testimony, for ignoring government orders in Lithuania. After his resignation from the Foreign Ministry, Sugihara supported his family by working for an export company. Sugihara died on July 31, 1986.”
On October, 4, 1984, Yad Vashem recognized Chiune Sempo Sugihara as Righteous Among the Nations.
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 asked 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, edited by Lani Silver and Eric Saul. Visas for Life. (South San Francisco, 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.]
Typaldos, Father Irineos, secretary at the Spanish embassy in Athens, 1943-1944
“In Athens, Father Irineos Typaldos, who had been born in Patra, helped save Jews. As he was employed in the central Catholic Church in the capital, as well as serving as secretary at the Spanish embassy in Athens, he had opportunity to help persecuted Jews by supplying Spanish identity cards. He also had the courage to take advantage of his diplomatic immunity. His endless efforts were done discreetly. He even left the capital and went to Thessaloniki on July 30, 1943, in order to convince the German occupation authorities that he was in the middle of negotiations to transfer the Spanish citizens of Thessaloniki to Athens, so their deportation should be detained. Although he acted at great personal risk, he failed in his mission. When he was in Thessaloniki, he managed to visit Solomon Ezratty, the deputy Spanish consul. He received from him for safekeeping part of the cash and valuables belonging to Spanish citizens that had been confiscated from them prior to their deportation. Typaldos arranged the property entrusted to him in personal packages with the names of the owners and a list of the contents. He placed everything in the custody of the Spanish embassy in Athens, to be returned after the war intact to the owners. The actions of Typaldos on behalf of the Jews who were citizens of Spain did not go unnoticed, and they aroused the hatred of the Gestapo. In 1944, he was taken for questioning and was kept in prison for several weeks.
In spite of all the pressure, Typaldos never revealed anything, and he was finally released due to the intervention of the Spanish embassy. When Typaldos, as the representative of the Spanish consul in Athens, demanded to join the convoy of 367 Jews with Spanish passports being deported to Bergen-Belsen, the Germans did not permit him to do so. As the church authorities in Greece called on the local population to open their homes and shelter Jews, Typaldos joined this effort, too. In his discreet manner, he would find hiding places for them. He was especially concerned with taking care of the children. In his capacity as administrative director of the Greek Catholic Orphanage in Athens, he was able to take Jewish children under his wing, offering them accommodations and food. Emmanuel and Rachel Saltiel testified about the noble activities of Typaldos. According to them, Father Irineos of Athens saved their two sons, Salomon (Nikos), 14, and Sergios (Theodorus), five. Typaldos gave refuge to the Saltiel children, as well as to the Ben-Sasson family at his Athens home. When frequent searches of the house by the Germans prompted Typaldos to look for safer places for his wards, he still continued to visit them and look after them.
On July 8, 1969, Yad Vashem recognized Father Irineos Typaldos as Righteous Among the Nations.”
Újváry, Alexander (Sándor)
“Alexander Sándor Újváry was a writer and journalist who joined the International Red Cross in the middle of October 1944. Újváry served as head of the section responsible for saving Jews. He also arranged for the coordination of rescue activities with parallel institutions of the legations of the neutral countries, and served as liaison with those in the Arrow Cross who were in charge of carrying out the government’s anti-Jewish policies. Thanks to Újváry’s strength of character, and because of his pivotal positions in the hierarchy of the Red Cross, Újváry was able to save the lives of thousands of Jewish men, women and children during the Arrow Cross period, from October 1944 until the liberation of Budapest, in February 1945. Újváry provided letters of protection to hundreds of Jews who had been sent to the Austrian border on death marches. These letters, issued by the Red Cross or the Vatican, allowed the Jews who held them to avoid being transferred to the German Reich. Újváry also managed to have many hundreds of Jews released from an Óbuda brickyard, where they were concentrated prior to deportation. Thanks to Újváry’s bold intervention, a group of Jews from Department T, a transport division of the International Red Cross, was saved from expulsion to the German Reich. Together with his staff, Újváry kept Arrow Cross gangs from entering Red Cross protected houses and Jewish children’s residences. By bravely standing up to the Arrow Cross, Újváry kept these Jews from being transferred to the closed ghetto.
Angelo Rotta*, the Apostolic Nuncio, or Vatican representative in the city, was witness to Újváry’s bravery. Rotta gave Újváry his blessing, and pardoned him for all the forgeries and illegal activities he participated in for the sake of saving Jewish lives, saying that Újváry was acting according to the will of God. Hans Weyermann, a representative of the International Red Cross stationed in Budapest during the Arrow Cross period, was another witness to Újváry’s actions. Weyermann confirmed that Újváry acted heroically at risk to his own life, saving thousands of Jewish individuals, including many children. Thanks to the testimony of Weyermann and others, Újváry received the Medal of Honor from the International Red Cross. After the war, Újváry left Hungary and settled in Munich. Although his survivors didn’t know the name of their rescuer and never met him personally, many articles and books were written about him, perpetuating his name and commemorating his heroism in the face of mortal danger.
On October 10, 1985, Yad Vashem recognized Alexander Sándor Újváry as Righteous Among the Nations.”
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.]
Ulkumen, Selahattin, Turkish consul general on the island of Rhodes
“In 1944, Selahattin Ulkumen, the Turkish consul general on the island of Rhodes, saved 42 Jews from deportation to Auschwitz. On July 19, 1944, all Jewish males over the age of 16 were ordered to report immediately to German headquarters with their identity cards and work permits. The Turkish consul knew the meaning of "temporary resettlement on a neighboring island.” He visited the German commander General von Kleeman, gambling that he could at least claim jurisdiction over the Turkish Jews. His reason: “The Turkish Republic is a neutral country and not involved in the war by any means.” Ulkumen’s gamble paid off and 42 Jews, some of whom were of doubtful Turkish nationality, were released and remained under his protection. Among the survivors was Maurice Soriano who survived due to his marriage to a Turkish citizen, Viktoria. Daniel Turiel and his wife Mathilde were also among the lucky ones and they said; “The only reason we were saved was through the relentless efforts of the Turkish Consul and the luck of one spouse in every Jewish family holding a Turkish passport.” Mathilde explained how Ulkumen acted on their behalf: Only about 15 men and women were Turkish, but Mr. Ulkumen included in his list 25 to 30 more people who he knew were no longer Turkish citizens since they had let their citizenship lapse. He also insisted that according to Turkish law, spouses of Turkish citizens were considered to be citizens themselves, and demanded their release.
By his pretense that all those he listed were Turkish, he was able to save more people. Among those who were saved were Alberto and Renata Amato and their daughter Lina, who were Italian citizens. The remaining 1,700 Jews of Rhodes were herded into three boats and deported to Auschwitz. On August 2, 1944, Turkey ceased its diplomatic relations with Germany, and Ulkumen returned to Turkey.
On December 13, 1989, Yad Vashem recognized Selahattin Ulkumen as Righteous among the Nations.”
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.]
Vlastaris, Dimitrios, director of alien registration in the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
File 550
“Dimitrios Vlastaris was the director of alien registration in the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Through his job, he was able to grant Jewish refugees from Central Europe laissez-passer. It was in his capacity to authorize and instruct Greek embassies in Europe to grant such visas. Between 1938 and 1939, thousands of refugees arrived by sea from Central Europe and found a place of refuge in Greece until they could arrange their transportation (through “Aliyah Bet”) to Eretz Israel. Jacques Nahmias, a member of the committee organized to help the refugees, later recalled that Vlastaris was always willing to extend his help and grant the necessary visas. Thanks to his intervention, those refugees who were ill were also afforded medical help. In 1940, after the defeat of France, Vlastaris also authorized hundreds of Jews entry into Greece through Pireas; from there they left the country to Portugal and the United States. In collaboration with the Athens police department, in many cases he arranged for foreign Jews to receive false identity cards with Greek Orthodox names. In autumn 1943, Mr. Uziel managed to get an Argentine passport, through the Argentine consulate in Thessaloniki. The Uziels then registered at Vlastaris’s office and received papers that stated that they were Jews living in Greece with Argentine citizenship. Vlastaris granted Joseph Lovinger (who, after the war, was the president of KIS, the Central Board of the Jewish Communities in Greece) and his wife, identity cards bearing Greek Orthodox names, which enabled them, in 1944, to escape from Greece and reach Turkey safely.
The British consul general in Izmir later granted them passports with which they went to Aleppo, Syria.
On July 8, 1969, Yad Vashem recognized Dimitrios Vlastaris as Righteous Among the Nations.”
Vochoc, Vladimir, Czech consul in Marseilles, France, 1940-1941
File 13204
“Vladimir Vochoc had served in the Foreign Ministry of Czechoslovakia since the state was established following World War I. A lawyer by training, Vochoc served in different positions and by 1938 was his country’s consul in Marseilles. Following the Munich Agreement and the subsequent partition of Czechoslovakia, a government in exile was formed that resided first in France and then, following the German invasion of France, in London. The diplomatic delegations in the occupied countries ceased to exist. Although he no longer had any diplomatic status or immunity, Vochoc returned to the abandoned consulate in July 1940 and began issuing passports to the many refugees who were stranded in southern France, frantically trying to leave the country. Among these refugees were many Jews who had escaped from Germany and needed papers to be able to receive exit permits and visas. Vochoc found a limited number of regular empty passports in the consulate safe, as well as several hundred so called “pink passports,” which had only limited validity, to which he added a document that extended it. He began issuing the documents to both former Czechoslovak citizens and to people without any connection to Czechoslovakia. He soon ran out of documents and had copies printed by a local printing shop. Varian Fry (recognized as Righteous Among the Nations in 1994), who was active in Marseille on behalf of the American Emergency Rescue Committee, worked with Vochoc Many refugees, including Jews, benefited from his help.
In March 1941 the French police arrested Vochoc. The reason for his arrest is unknown, but he managed to escape and reach Lisbon a few months later. In January 1943 he addressed a report to the government in exile, describing his activity. This report shows that Vochoc had acted independently and not on behalf of his government. He said, “I’m taking the liberty of stating with certainty that during the said period, in the years 1940–1941 in Marseilles, I acted to save foreign nationals even if I did not have the assurance that I had the backing of my foreign ministry, and even if it was not initially the policy of the Czechoslovak government.” After World War II ended, Vochoc returned home and continued to serve in the diplomatic service. In 1948 he was arrested and sentenced to thirteen years prison in a show trial in 1953. He was released after seven years, living penniless until his death in 1984 at the age of 91.
On February 2, 2016, Yad Vashem recognized Dr. Vladimir Vochoc as Righteous Among the Nations.”
Vladimír Vochoc, Czech Consul in Marseilles, France, 1940-1941
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.]
Ernst Vonrufs, representative of the Department of Foreign Interests (Abteilung fremde Interessen) of Switzerland in Budapest Hungary, 1944-1945
Vonrufs, Ernst
“In 1935, the Swiss citizen Ernst Vonrufs went to Budapest, with his family, in order to manage a textile factory. In the summer of 1944, when the Red Army was approaching Hungary, he sent his family back to Switzerland, but he remained in the city in order to continue at the factory. On the recommendation of the Swiss representative in Budapest, the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs decided to appoint two Swiss industrialists residing there as the representatives of the Department of Foreign Interests (Abteilung fremde Interessen) in order to deal with Jewish affairs. Peter Zürcher* was appointed head of the department and Ernst Vonrufs was appointed Secretary. The time was October 1944, after the Szalasi takeover, and the establishment of the regime of terror under the leadership of the Arrow-Cross fascists. When it became clear that Budapest’s Jews were also destined for deportation, the two representatives of the Department of Foreign Interest under the auspices of the Swiss Deputy Consul Karl Lutz* began to act. Stubborn and determined, they went to work vis-à-vis representatives of the Hungarian fascist authorities in order to assist Jews. They helped not only Jews in Hungary who were foreign citizens – actions well within their terms of mission – but also many other persecuted Jews. They declared themselves responsible for the organizations dealing with emigration to British Mandate Palestine, and for the protection that Switzerland granted to such potential immigrants.
They, thus, prevented many from deportation to the camps. When the Red Army began shelling Budapest, Vonrufs and Zürcher, who would walk between the protected Jewish houses and the Ghetto area and the various Hungarian departments, were endangered. The threat did not prevent them from fulfilling their duty. On January 8, 1945, in the middle of the battle, they went to the town of Sopron, the residence of Erno Vaina, the last Arrow-Cross head in Hungary. Their objective was to protect the Jews that still remained in the ghetto and in the protected houses. Specifically, they wished to protect a group of Jews with American documents that the Hungarian police had banished to the ghetto, and those whose documents had been taken away by the police. This conversation helped save the lives of those Jews. The Soviets seized Budapest in February 1945. The Swiss government asked Zürcher and Vonrufs to stay in the city until all the countries that had broken off their relations with fascist Hungary would renew them with free Hungary, thus ending the function of the Department of Foreign Interests. Vonrufs returned to Switzerland in 1947.
On December 12, 2000, Yad Vashem recognized Ernst Vonrufs as Righteous Among the Nations.”
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).]
Verolino, Gennaro, Deputy to the Papal Nuncio in Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45
“In 1944, Father Gennaro Verolino was the secretary of Monsignor Angelo Rotta*, the Apostolic Nuncio (the Vatican’s representative) in Hungary. After the German invasion of Hungary in March, Msgr. Rotta was the first diplomat of a neutral state to press the Catholic Church and the Hungarian establishment to act against the new anti-Jewish policies.
In the summer and winter of 1944, Rotta was a signatory on open letters of protest sent by representatives of the neutral countries to the Hungarian Fascist regime. These letters called for the end of the deportations, and demanded protection for Jewish children. But Rotta did not limit his efforts to diplomatic measures. Beginning in the summer of 1944, and during the Arrow Cross period which began in October of that year, Rotta, with the help of Verolino, issued letters of Vatican protection for Jews. Per Anger*, Second Secretary at the Swedish Legation in Budapest and assistant to Raoul Wallenberg*, later testified that Verolino also cooperated with representatives of neutral states with regards to food supply, medication and medical treatment for Jews in “protected houses” in Budapest. He further wrote: “Not only was Verolino in constant danger from unrestrained local Nazi thugs, he shared the common danger of siege and bombardment with everyone else in the city.”
In 1944, 13-year-old Marta Egri was placed in a Budapest Catholic institution under Vatican protection along with 80 other Jews.
Despite the status of the building, Arrow Cross soldiers invaded it to arrest the Jews. Rotta and Verolino intervened, endangering their own lives, and contacted the Hungarian foreign minister to demand the return of the arrested Jews to the protected building. Egri credits this intervention with saving her life. György Ádám from Komarom was a student at the University of Budapest until he was expelled by the Germans in 1944. One day, during a heavy aerial bombardment, he hid in a Catholic high school. When the building itself was shelled, he ran out to seek a safer shelter. Not knowing where to turn, he wandered the streets until he found himself standing in front of a building with a sign “Apostolic Nunziatura.” He rang the bell and when the doorman opened the gate, he told him of his desperate situation and then collapsed. Verolino arrived, and immediately took Ádám inside the building, and offered him food and drink. After hearing his story, Verolino told Ádám to relax, and gave him false identification papers. Ádám later recalled: “One day, much to my surprise, Father Verolino gave me a statement, confirmed by the Hungarian Foreign Ministry, that I was employed at the Apostolic Nunziatura as a clerk.” Every morning, Verolino and Ádám left the building to distribute letters of protection signed by Rotta, and traveled by Vatican convoy to the northwestern border to save Jews on the "death marches" toward Austria. Monsignor Gennaro Verolino died in 2005 at the age of 99.
On April 30, 2007, Yad Vashem recognized Gennaro Verolino as Righteous Among the Nations.”
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).]
Wallenberg, Raoul, First Secretary of the Swedish Legation in Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45
“Raoul Wallenberg, (b.1912) a Swedish diplomat, volunteered to serve at the Swedish Legation in Budapest, and saved the lives of tens of thousands of Jews during 1944-1945. After the occupation of Hungary on March 19, 1944, the Swedish Legation launched a rescue operation to save Jews from being deported to death camps. When Wallenberg arrived in the Hungarian capital on July 9, 1944 to serve as the new legation attaché, provisional passports had been already issued by the legation to Hungarian Jews who had family ties or commercial connections with Sweden. Wallenberg operated fearlessly, developing the rescue operation and took serious risks in order to issue Swedish passports and protective letters to Jews who were otherwise doomed to deportation. This danger was imminent after October 15, 1944, when the fascist Arrow Cross party seized power. Filled with confidence, Wallenberg was able to offer thousands of Jews protection against the Germans and the Hungarian fascist police. During the dark days of horror and death, Wallenberg manifested himself as an angel of hope, issuing in three months thousands of protective letters to persecuted Jews. When Adolf Eichmann organized the death marches of thousands of Jews from Budapest to the Austrian border, Wallenberg pursued the convoys in his car and managed to release hundreds of Jews to whom protective letters were granted. He also released Jews whose names were on lists for forced labor as well as being responsible for renting and maintaining special hostels accommodating Jews in 31 “Swedish Houses.”
Protection was granted by the Swedish Embassy, other diplomatic missions and international organizations. When the Red Army entered Budapest, Wallenberg was taken away by the Soviets on January 17, 1945, and then he disappeared. In the first years after his disappearance, the Soviets claimed that they had no knowledge of a person named Wallenberg. Nevertheless, people who were incarcerated in Soviet prisons claimed that they had met him in various prisons. In 1956, the Soviets finally claimed that he had died in prison in 1947. Since his disappearance, public committees throughout the world have tried to find out what happened to Raoul Wallenberg. After the war, memorial institutions and streets were named after him, films produced, and books and articles have been published about Wallenberg and his contribution to the rescue of Hungarian Jewry. In recognition of Wallenberg’s legendary work, the United States Congress awarded him honorary American citizenship.”
On November 26, 1963, Yad Vashem recognized Raoul Wallenberg as Righteous Among the Nations.”
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).]
Peter Zurcher representative of the Department of Foreign Interests (Abteilung fremde Interessen) of Switzerland in Budapest Hungary, 1944-1945
Zürcher, Peter
“Dr. Peter Zürcher (b. 1914) was a Swiss businessman in wartime Budapest. In 1944, he was employed by Vice-Consul Carl Lutz*, to work in the Department for Safeguarding the Interests of Foreigners in the Swiss Embassy, and as such was able to save Jews from deportation. One of the survivors, Maria Kormos, worked as his secretary and testified that he risked his life for her sake. According to Kormos, as soon as the Szalasi government seized power on October 15, 1944, the Jewish Houses were closed, and she therefore turned to Zürcher for help. His advice was to try and bribe the porter of the house to let her escape. When the porter turned her down, Zürcher sent four men, dressed in Arrow Cross uniforms to arrest her. After some “questioning” by the uniformed men, she was released, and they accompanied her to Zürcher who was waiting at the Swiss Legation, located at the American Embassy building. He soon realized that he was unable to hide her there, so he took her to his own flat and she stayed there for six weeks. He arranged false documents for her and located a pension for her where she lived until liberation. She concluded her testimony with her words: “Without him I would not be alive today.” Zürcher is credited with saving the Jews in the Swiss-protected houses in the International ghetto when he found out on January 8, 1945, that the Arrow Cross planned to evacuate them and most likely murder them. He immediately intervened with the leader of the Arrow Cross, Vajna, and demanded an end to the attacks on the inhabitants of the protected houses.
His efforts were credited with saving many Jews. On October 22, 1998, Yad Vashem recognized Peter Zürcher as Righteous Among the Nations.”
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).]
Zwartendijk, Jan, Dutch Consul, in Kaunas (Kovno), Lithuania, 1940
“Pessla Lewin, born in Amsterdam, became a naturalized Polish citizen through marriage to Issac Lewin in 1940 and was stranded in Kaunas, Lithuania, when the Soviets annexed the country in July of that year. It seemed that there was no escape from persecution, but Pessla decided to apply to the Dutch Embassy of the Baltic States, whose headquarters were in Riga, Latvia. In July 1940, the Ambassador, Mr. L.P.J. de Decker, wrote in her passport, in French, “The Consulate of the Netherlands, Riga, hereby declares that for the admission into Surinam, Curaçao, and other possessions of the Netherlands in the Americas, no entry visa is required.” After his wife had successfully obtained this quasi-visa notation in her passport, Pessla’s husband, Dr. Isaac Lewin, approached the Dutch Consul, Jan Zwartendijk, in Kaunas, Lithuania, and asked him to write the same in his Leidimas (safe-conduct) papers which served as his identity card. He received this notation on July 22, 1940, and his was the first such “visa” issued in Kaunas. With this Curaçao “visa,” the Japanese consul, Chiune Sugihara*, was prepared to stamp passports with the notation, “TRANSIT VISA”. In July 1940, Jan Zwartendijk had been asked to replace the Dutch Consul in Kaunas. Actually, Zwartendijk was not a professional diplomat at all. He was simply the representative of Philips in Lithuania, but he was a Dutchman and he was not a Nazi sympathizer. Having agreed to take on the position of Acting Dutch Consul, Zwartendijk could hardly have guessed what his short diplomatic career would have in store for him.
After having granted Isaac Lewin the Curaçao “visa” that served as the key to the Japanese transit visa and a Soviet exit visa, two Dutch students at Talmudic academies in Poland, Nathan Gutwirth and Chaim Nussbaum, who had also become fugitives in Lithuania, obtained the same “visa” from Zwartendijk and spread the word. In a matter of hours, hundreds of panic-stricken Jews lined up at the Dutch Consulate to obtain the same Curaçao-stamp from Zwartendijk. From July 23, 1940, until August 3, when the Soviets closed the embassies and consulates in Kaunas, Zwartendijk managed to issue possibly as many as 2,345 “visas” to Curaçao. The Japanese Consulate [Consul general Chiune Sugihara] issued close to 2,000 transit visas and some of these were re-used when sent back to relatives from Japan. Altogether, between 2,100 and 2,200 Jewish refugees arrived in Japan with these visas, where they remained for three to eight months. None of the refugees arrived in Curaçao, but more than half went on to free countries, while about 1,000 were transported by the Japanese to Shanghai, in China, where they survived the war. Zwartendijk was forced to close down the Consulate in Kaunas on August 3, 1940. He spent the rest of the month trying to get back to the Netherlands, but, before that, he burned all official papers, removing any trace of the illegal transactions he had initiated on behalf of the Jews. He spent the rest of the war in Holland, working for Philips. He never told anyone about his wartime deeds. The Dutch government first became aware of his activities in 1963.
On October 6, 1997, Yad Vashem recognized Jan Zwartendijk as Righteous Among the Nations.”
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.]
Other Diplomats
The following diplomats are documented in the testimony of holocaust survivors to Yad Vashem. At present they are not recognized as righteous persons.
Ezratty, Solomon, the deputy consul, Spanish embassy in Athens, 1943-1944
(not recognized as a righteous person)
“Typaldos, Father Irineos In Athens, Father Irineos Typaldos, who had been born in Patra, helped save Jews. As he was employed in the central Catholic Church in the capital, as well as serving as secretary at the Spanish embassy in Athens, he had opportunity to help persecuted Jews by supplying Spanish identity cards. He also had the courage to take advantage of his diplomatic immunity. His endless efforts were done discreetly. He even left the capital and went to Thessaloniki on July 30, 1943, in order to convince the German occupation authorities that he was in the middle of negotiations to transfer the Spanish citizens of Thessaloniki to Athens, so their deportation should be detained. Although he acted at great personal risk, he failed in his mission. When he was in Thessaloniki, he managed to visit Solomon Ezratty, the deputy Spanish consul. He received from him for safekeeping part of the cash and valuables belonging to Spanish citizens that had been confiscated from them prior to their deportation. Typaldos arranged the property entrusted to him in personal packages with the names of the owners and a list of the contents. He placed everything in the custody of the Spanish embassy in Athens, to be returned after the war intact to the owners. The actions of Typaldos on behalf of the Jews who were citizens of Spain did not go unnoticed, and they aroused the hatred of the Gestapo. In 1944, he was taken for questioning and was kept in prison for several weeks.
In spite of all the pressure, Typaldos never revealed anything, and he was finally released due to the intervention of the Spanish embassy. When Typaldos, as the representative of the Spanish consul in Athens, demanded to join the convoy of 367 Jews with Spanish passports being deported to Bergen-Belsen, the Germans did not permit him to do so. As the church authorities in Greece called on the local population to open their homes and shelter Jews, Typaldos joined this effort, too. In his discreet manner, he would find hiding places for them. He was especially concerned with taking care of the children. In his capacity as administrative director of the Greek Catholic Orphanage in Athens, he was able to take Jewish children under his wing, offering them accommodations and food. Emmanuel and Rachel Saltiel testified about the noble activities of Typaldos. According to them, Father Irineos of Athens saved their two sons, Salomon (Nikos), 14, and Sergios (Theodorus), five. Typaldos gave refuge to the Saltiel children, as well as to the Ben-Sasson family at his Athens home. When frequent searches of the house by the Germans prompted Typaldos to look for safer places for his wards, he still continued to visit them and look after them.
On July 8, 1969, Yad Vashem recognized Father Irineos Typaldos as Righteous Among the Nations.”
Belgian Consul in Campagnac, Tarn France
Rousseaux, Léopold
“Father Léopold Rousseaux was born in 1897 in Belgium. He became a priest in 1921 and taught in a religious high school. During the time he was a teacher, he was known for his advanced ideas: he taught his students to think for themselves and encouraged them to learn, to gain knowledge of new things, to be responsible, and to develop mutual understanding. Since his methods were not always well accepted by the church, he became distant from the ecclesiastical norms. He was sent to Lessines, where his mother joined him after the death of his father. There, in 1940, he received a warning that his name was on the Gestapo’s blacklist and that he should flee Belgium immediately and disappear. Father Rousseaux fled with his mother to France and settled in Campagnac, where they had a relative who was also a priest. There, Father Rousseaux began taking care of the many fugitives from Belgium, helping them as much as he could. In 1941 he joined the Resistance in Campagnac, and the rumor about his ability to help began to spread. Father Rousseaux used all of his contacts to assist the persecuted who turned to him for help: he made arrangements for different hiding places, gave people false identity papers, supplies, and food, and helped many to cross the border into Spain. He managed to get an official stamp of the Vichy regime from the Belgian consul in Sète, which allowed him to falsify papers. Among his many activities during the war, Father Rousseaux saved many Jewish families in danger, either by warning them of upcoming arrests or by helping them hide in different places.
One of those families was the Dudelczycs from Paris. They fled the capital in 1942 with their daughter, Diana (b. 1924), after the Vel d’Hiv roundup. They arrived in Gaillac, where they found a small place to rent, and they lived under their real names and identities from 1942 to 1944, mainly thanks to Father Rousseaux, who sheltered them in his home a few times when they sensed danger. He warned them every time he heard rumors about arrests in the neighborhood and managed to find shelter for Diana’s parents. Diana recalls being at Father Rousseaux’s house and knowing his mother, who always treated her like a granddaughter. Father Rousseaux took care of all the Dudelczycs’ needs for more than two years, bringing them supplies and food. He is also mentioned in Mendel Landau’s testimony to Yad Vashem: “I was myself, with my family, saved by him; we owe him our lives.” After the war Father Rousseaux went back to Belgium. He passed away in 1966, but his generosity, courage, and actions during the war to help and save every single person who turned to him are remembered until today. On November 23, 2010, Yad Vashem recognized Léopold Rousseaux as Righteous Among the Nations.”
File 11863
Belgian 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.]
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.
del Campo Samuel, Chilean Consul, Bucharest, Ilfov, Walachia, Romania
Provided forged documents
[Bauer, Yehuda. American Jewry and the Holocaust. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), p. 349.]
Dutch Consul general in Lyon, Rhone, France
Lachaud, Mathieu
Lachaud, Suzanne
File 6951
“Mathieu Lachaud of Lyons was a clerk for the SCNF railroad company. His wife Suzanne ran a kindergarten. The Lachauds had two sons, Paul and André, and a daughter, Anne-Marie. Anne-Marie, who attended high school, became friends with Mariette Rozenberg, a classmate who in 1940 had fled to the south from Besançon and came to as-yet-unoccupied Lyons. Mariette’s father was arrested in February 1943, but because he held Dutch citizenship, the Dutch consul in Lyons succeeded in securing his release. However, Rozenberg decided to reduce the danger to his family by placing them in different locations. The Lachauds offered to take in his two daughters, Mariette and Eliane. During their stay, the Lachauds treated them as warmly as they did their own daughters. The girls later remembered the pleasant atmosphere in the home with nostalgia. Mariette’s friendship with Anne-Marie outlasted the occupation by many years and remained warm and deep. On January 7, 1996, Yad Vashem recognized Mathieu and Suzanne Lachaud as Righteous Among the Nations.”
Post, van der, Jaap & Annie (Schuylenburg)
File 3595
“Jaap and Annie van der Post, originally from Holland, owned a large farm in the tiny village of Grand Chatel in the French Jura, where they lived with their two young children. They were in contact with the Dutch consul general in nearby Lyon, who, from late 1941, became overwhelmed by an ever-increasing flow of refugees from the Netherlands and Belgium trying to cross over to neutral Switzerland or Spain. Many of these refugees needed a temporary hiding place until a safe escape route could be organized. Thus, the van der Posts offered to open their farm to refugees. The farm was conveniently located outside the tiny village and it was an ideal shelter for temporary lodgers. They housed the fugitives mainly in an unused section of the farm, out of sight. From November 1941, there was a constant coming and going at the van der Post farm of Jews and other people being persecuted by the Nazi authorities. The first ones to arrive at the farm were Polish Jews who had previously fled to Belgium. In April 1942, the first Dutch Jews arrived and they continued to come in a steady stream until March 1943. Among them were Walter Son, Max Wins, Brandon Zeehandelaar, Mr. Nathans, Verveer, Bernard van Gech, and Hans Kahn. In November 1942, Anna Jagla arrived at the farm with her French friend Mandelbaum, who stayed until March 1943. In 1943, the van der Posts took in Mrs. A. Wolf-van Tijn. Both she and her husband had previously fled Holland and arrived in the French Free Zone.
There, they were caught and transferred to Camp Chateau-neuf-les-Bains. Mr. Wolf was then transported to a concentration camp, where he perished. Mrs. Wolf managed to escape and reach relatives in the Haute Savoie. When she had to leave them, she too was referred to the van der Posts, where she stayed until the liberation 18 months later, in August 1944. She was the only person who lived in the farmhouse with Jaap and Anne, being represented as the nanny and maid. After the war, the Dutch Government decorated Jaap and Annie for their role in the Resistance. On March 4, 1987, Yad Vashem recognized Jaap van der Post and his wife, Annie van der Post-Schuylenburg, as Righteous Among the Nations.”
Dutch Consul in Toulouse region of France
Aan De Stegge, John, ‘Dutch-Paris’ rescue network
File 824
“Father John aan de Stegge, born in the Netherlands was active in France, in the Toulouse region during the war, in conjunction with the resistance group was called ‘Dutch-Paris’ under the leadership of Jean Weidner*.Father aan de Stegge managed to find hiding places for many Jews and thus saved their lives. He used to visit them there and regularly brought them food and money, but especially moral support. In the years 1941/2 he assisted prisoners of internment camps in the south of France to escape, most of whom were Jews and he helped them reach the Spanish border. Clara Majerzak-Bilgrai, her husband and four children lived in Holland in July 1942 when the husband was summoned to report. They decided to escape to Switzerland, but they were caught near the Swiss border and sent to a concentration camp near Perpignan. A Swiss children organization, known as ‘Secours Suisse’ managed to smuggle the children out and put them in a home run by their organization . Their father was summoned to work in Germany, but he decided to flee to Spain. His wife was transferred to another camp where she received notification from the Dutch consul in Toulouse that her husband had been found dead in the Pyrenées Mountains. He had been identified by the documents he had carried. She was allowed eight days out of the camp and went to see the Dutch consul, begging him to help her. He gave her the address of Pastor aan de Stegge who headed a monastery outside the city.
She told him that it had now become known that she and her four children were Jewish and she feared for their safety. Father aan de Stegge let her stay in his monastery that night and found her a family where she could remain for a week. Meanwhile he was able to find a permanent hiding place for her at the monastery of ‘La Petite Soeur’, an old age home, where people under the age of 65 were usually not admitted. Clara Majerzak was however much younger. She remained there for two and a half years and never left the monastery and hardly her room. Aan de Stegge also placed there another Jewish couple, the Mendels. He also found safe hideouts for the four children. The two older twin boys were placed in a Catholic boarding school in Toulouse and the younger boy and girl in a Catholic orphanage outside the city of Toulouse. At that time there were already sixty Jews hidden in his own monastery. Witnesses relate some eighteen people whom Father aan de Stegge rescued: Edmond Chait, Rens J. Koning, Paul Veerman and his wife, Claire Bilgrai-Mayerzak and her four children, Leon Kesner and his wife, Nicholas Medgyesi, Mr. Nijkerk, Mr. and Mrs. Raabe, Mr. Warandijn. Wolf Machol and his wife, Paul Wurzburger and four members of the Mendel Montezinos family. In 1949 Father aan de Stegge, a Dutch citizen, was honored the Dutch Queen. On January 2, 1974, Yad Vashem recognized Father John aan de Stegge as a Righteous among the Nations
French consul in town of Galatz Romania
Ardoin, Anne-Marie Cécile, Mother Superior, Order of St. Vincent de Paul, Romania
“Madeleine Woloch was born in 1933 in France, to emigrant parents. Her father had been born in Poland and her mother came from Romania. Every year the mother would travel to Romania with little Madeleine to visit the family. In the summer of 1939, her mother was nine months pregnant and stayed in Paris, and therefore it was a relative who took Madeleine to visit her grandmother who lived in the region of Bukovina. With the outbreak of World War II the borders of Romania were closed and what seemed like a harmless summer vacation turned into a separation of several years. As Nazi Germany in summer 1941 began to implement the systematic murder of Europe’s Jews, the Romanian State unleashed its own program for the destruction of its Jews. In October 1941 Romanians began slaughtering the Jews of Bessarabia and Bukovina and deporting them to the area beyond the Dniester river that came to be known as Transnistria. On account of her French passport, Madeleine was taken to the French consulate in the town of Galatz. On arrival she was very ill, and the consul had her admitted to the hospital, which was run by the nuns of the Order of St. Vincent de Paul. When she recovered, the consul, Richard Gabriel, asked the head nun, Mother Superior Anne-Marie Ardoin, to keep the child in the convent, so that she should not fall into the hands of the Romanians. The nun complied with all her heart and soul. Madeleine wrote to Yad Vashem that the nun took her under her personal protection and did everything she could to calm her down after her traumatic experiences.
She loved the lonely girl, treated her with warmth and never tried to influence her to convert to Christianity. Unfortunately for Madeleine at some point the nun was sent back to France to take up a new position in her Order. Madeleine, who was too young to understand, felt as if she had been abandoned once again. Moreover, once the Mother Superior had left, the other nuns began to bully Madeleine. With the advance of the Red Army into Romania, the nuns were transferred to Bucharest, and Madeleine was placed in the Convent of Notre Dame de Sion, which ran a boarding-school for girls. In 1946 she was finally returned to her Parents in Paris. She found it very difficult to adjust. The reunion was not to last for long, and her father died a year after her return. After graduating from high school, Madeleine wanted to study medicine, but her mother could not afford the university fees. She then turned to the nun who had saved her and asked her to write her a letter of recommendation for a scholarship. The letter, which Madeleine still has describes how Madeleine had been persecuted in Romania because of her being a Jews. In view of the traumatic past, Madeleine had repressed many of her memories about the war years in Romania, and only after receiving psychological treatment did these memories return. On 3 May 2009, Yad Vashem recognized Anne-Marie Cécile Ardoin as Righteous Among the Nations.”
File 11567
German consul in Athens Greece,
warned Jews
Alexopoulos, Ioakim (Metropolitan)
“Rabbi Moshe (Moissis) Pessah, the chief rabbi of the Jewish community of Volos, was summoned to German headquarters on September 30, 1943 (first day of Rosh Hashana) and ordered to submit a list of the names of all members of the Jewish community of Volos within 24 hours. Rabbi Pessah immediately contacted the Metropolitan of Dimitriada, Ioakim Alexopoulos, (b.1873) to discover what were the real intentions of the Germans. As he was also on good terms with the German consul, Alexopoulos immediately sent a trustworthy clergyman to the consul’s house. The consul suggested that the Jews should leave town as soon as possible, and Alexopoulos advised the chief rabbi to urge the Jews to leave town at once and find refuge in the villages in the mountains. He gave Pessah a letter of introduction addressed to the clergymen in the villages surrounding Volos, instructing them to help and protect the Jews “in every way.” With the help of members of the resistance movement, Rabbi Pessah escaped that same night, thus setting an example for the whole community to go into hiding. Alexopoulos’s actions contributed to the high percentage of Volos Jews who were saved. Before they left, the Jews brought valuable objects to the Metropolitan for safekeeping. The only Jews left in the town were those who had not listened to his advice; they were arrested and sent to extermination camps. After the liberation, all the valuables that had been guarded by Alexopoulos were returned.
Among them were the ritual objects from the synagogue, that the Metropolitan hid in the crypt of the church. He also announced in the newspapers that all those in possession of Jewish clothing, furniture, or other objects were kindly requested to return them. The Metropolitan died in 1959. On October 13, 1997, Yad Vashem recognized Metropolitan Ioakim Alexopoulos as Righteous Among the Nations.” File M.31.2/7795
Italian diplomat in Zagreb, Yugoslavia
Krtić, Frano
“Frano Krtić (b. 1919) lived in Sarajevo (Bosnia) and worked for the shipping department of the postal service. In this capacity, Krtić traveled a lot, and he was always well informed about the situation. When the deportation of Jews from Sarajevo began in October 1941, Krtić drove his postal vehicle straight to the home of his friend, Tilda Švarc, who lived in the city center. Krtić took her and her mother, hidden among the packages, to the post office, until the evening, and then he moved them to his one-room apartment. Krtić obtained false travel papers for the two women and took them both to Dubrovnik, from where they eventually fled to Italy. In 1942, Krtić was relocated to Zagreb by the postal authority. There, he decided to devote himself to rescuing Jews and to use his good relationship with the Italian consul in the city to obtain visas to Italy. He supplied many of his Jewish friends and acquaintances with false identity papers, among them: Dr. Ullman, a Jewish refugee from Germany for whom he obtained a travel permit, and put him in contact with Tito’s partisans, who used him as a doctor until the end of the war; the mother of Bogdan Neumann (Tito’s advisor), Zora Neumann, by arranging a travel permit in her name, and traveling to Novigrad Podravski (150 km from Zagreb), where he handed Neumann the papers, escorted her to her son in Dubrovnik, pretending for the duration of the journey that she was his mother. The Kleinstein couple from Mostar, good friends of Krtić, also benefited from his help.
He obtained false documents for them, took them to his parents’ home in Dubrovnik and arranged for them to sail to Italy. He accompanied Hana Klein from Zagreb to Dubrovnik, using the identity papers of his sister Stefani. Krtić, who loved the theater, was friendly with many actors, among them Jews. Krtić arranged a travel permit for Paula Hercberger, an actress in the Croatian National Theater, and personally accompanied her to Dubrovnik, where she was welcomed, thanks to his recommendation, into the local theater group. Krtić also helped Artur Feldbauer, his son, Željko, and daughter, Verica, with false papers and arranged their travel to Italy. Krtić took Jelisaveta Papai and her daughter Judita (Dita) under his wing after they were thrown out of their home in Zagreb and urgently needed to flee the city. He obtained false papers for them and took them to Dubrovnik, where he rented an apartment for them and found them both jobs in the theater. He later married Judita Papai. Driven by friendship, and due to his devout Catholic education that had taught him that people in distress should be helped and starving people should be fed, he worked persistently to save the lives of Jews while endangering his own life. After the war, Krtić studied drama and became a well-known actor in the Croatian State Theater. He later wrote a book entitled Dita about his wartime experiences. He dedicated the book to his beloved wife. On February 25, 1998, Yad Vashem recognized Frano Krtić as Righteous Among the Nations.”
File M.31.2/7553
Polish ambassador to Japan and a senator in the Polish parliament
“Mazurek, Stanisław
Before the war, Stanisław Mazurek had been the private secretary of Stanisław Patek, the Polish ambassador to Japan and a senator in the Polish parliament. During the German occupation, Mazurek and Patek lived in the same apartment in Warsaw, and Mazurek began to work to save Jews immediately after the establishment of the ghetto in the city. Sent by his former employer, Mazurek entered the ghetto with food provisions, money and medicine for the senator’s Jewish friends, including Leon Berenson, a renowned attorney in prewar Poland. During the large-scale deportation in the summer of 1942, Mazurek, of his own volition, rushed to the aid of Maryla Dąb, a young attorney. He helped her escape from the ghetto and then hid her in his apartment for a few days. He continued to extend his assistance to her even after she left to hide in other places. She continued to visit him and after the war, remained in Poland. Everything Mazurek did to save persecuted Jews was motivated by pure altruism, and he never asked for or received anything in return for his efforts. After he was recognized as a Righteous Among the Nations, Mazurek visited in Israel.
On December 28, 1987, Yad Vashem recognized Stanisław Mazurek as Righteous Among the Nations.”
File 3736
Swiss Consul in Zagreb, Yugoslavia
“In 1942, when the situation worsened in the area because of the struggle of Tito's partisans against the Germans and the Ustaša, Mr. Sonenschein asked Šemso to help them send a letter to the Swiss Consul in Zagreb. Šemso, who was aware of the danger of sending such a letter through the mail, took advantage of his relations to get it to the Consulate. After a short time, a Swiss representative came to Bosanski Novi with the papers required for the family to move to Switzerland. When the desired consular documents were in the Sonenscheins' possession they left the Kapetanović home directly for Switzerland.”
Kapetanović, Sultanija
Kapetanović, Šemso
Kapetanović, Hasna
Kozarčanin-Kapetanović, Esma
Kapetanović, Vasva
“With the occupation of Yugoslavia in April 1941, the Sonenschein family, parents and two daughters, 17-year-old Fany and 15-year-old Vera Zeitlin (née Sonenschein), fled from Slovenia to Bosnia. The father Hinko had helped Jewish fugitives who had fled from Austria into Yugoslavia in the years 1939-1940, and he feared reprisals by the Germans. The Sonenscheins accepted the invitation of their friends who were also Jewish, the Metsch family, to come to their town of Bosanski Novi in Bosnia, which had been annexed to the new Independent State of Croatia under Ustaša fascist leadership. On their recommendation, they rented two rooms from the Kapetanović family. During the family's stay with the Kapetanovićs, ties of friendship grew between them, in particular with the son Šemso, who was a clerk at the post office and who had relations with the municipal authorities. His good relations there also derived from the status of his late father who had served as mayor. Curious neighbors were told that the tenants were friends from Slovenia. When Šemso learned of the Ustaša persecutions and expulsions against the Jews, he took the family into the mountains until the danger had passed. "When we hid in the mountains", Vera recounted, "his sisters, 20-year-old Vasva and 25-year-old Esma, brought us food, clothing, blankets and everything necessary so that we could stay there safely."
“In 1942, when the situation worsened in the area because of the struggle of Tito's partisans against the Germans and the Ustaša, Mr. Sonenschein asked Šemso to help them send a letter to the Swiss Consul in Zagreb. Šemso, who was aware of the danger of sending such a letter through the mail, took advantage of his relations to get it to the Consulate. After a short time, a Swiss representative came to Bosanski Novi with the papers required for the family to move to Switzerland. When the desired consular documents were in the Sonenscheins' possession they left the Kapetanović home directly for Switzerland. The Sonenschein family had lived in the Kapetanović home from the occupation of Yugoslavia in April 1941 until they left for Switzerland in mid-1942. Subsequently, they learned that, as a result of betrayal, the mother Sultanija and her two daughters, Vasva and Esma, had been deported to a camp in Prijedor, while the third daughter Hasna had been sent to the Stara Gradiška concentration camp. A year later they were released and returned to Bosanski Novi. The mother died after a short time and Hasna died shortly after the Liberation. Šemso managed to escape before the arrest of the rest of his family. The Kapetanovićs had risked their lives, were arrested and tortured by the Ustaša because of the help they had given to Jews. On June 11, 2001 Yad Vashem recognized Sultanija Kapetanović and her children Šemso, Hasna, Vasva Kapetanović and Esma Kapetanović-Kozarčanin as Righteous Among the Nations.”
File M
Turkish consul in Paris
Camps, Marie-Thérèse, Codalet (Pyrénées-Orientales).
“Marie-Thérèse Camps, a widow of modest means, lived alone in a small house in Codalet (Pyrénées-Orientales). Her husband, a farmer, had died in 1935. Previously, the couple had tragically lost two of their children. In 1943, Sebastian, their only surviving child, was conscripted into Forced Labor Service (STO) and sent to Austria, where he was seriously injured in a work-related accident. It was during this time that Marie-Thérèse rescued the Mouchabacs, a Jewish family of Turkish origin who had fled Paris for Codalet. After a long trek with a railroad employee who was in the resistance, Sabetaï Mouchabac, his wife Nelly and their daughter Renée were warmly welcomed by Marie-Thérèse, who gave them shelter for a year and helped them find a way to be smuggled into Spain. Sabetaï was the first to make the trip, leaving his family behind. Shortly after his departure, and before his family could also be smuggled into Spain, the collaborationist mayor of Codalet threatened to expose Nelly and her daughter to the police, but Marie-Thérèse successfully dissuaded him. He demanded, nevertheless, that they leave the village immediately. After the mayor’s warning, the local railway man who had entrusted the refugees to Marie-Thérèse, concealed them in a cart and took them to the Prades station. He paid for their tickets to return to Paris, as they were completely penniless. In May 1944, Nelly and Renée managed to board a convoy leaving for Istanbul under the protection of the Turkish Consul.
Marie-Thérèse had saved their lives during the critical year when they were without diplomatic protection. On January 18, 2001, Yad Vashem recognized Marie-Thérèse Camps as Righteous Among the Nations.”
File M.31.2/8628