Organizations Involved in Holocaust Rescue - Part 7 (S)

Note: +arrested; †tortured; *killed; ●Righteous Among the Nations (honored by the State of Israel)

Janina S Rescue Network

Hid several dozen Jews at her five-room flat at 11 Wielka St., Warsaw. Went to Crakow, Sambor, Warsaw Ghetto to help her wards. Her apartment was visited by the Gestapo and Polish officials.

Jewish survivor Iza testified after the war:

“I testify that during the Nazi occupation Janina S. and her daughter helped countless people of Jewish origin to the best of their modest abilities. Fully aware of the possible tragic consequences of what they did, they never hesitated to come to the rescue and give shelter in their own flat. On several occasions my mother and I availed ourselves of their hospitality, and at other times their moral support gave us strength to endure and thus to survive. It is difficult to describe in a few sentences that period of fear, despair and hopelessness. If my testimonial will help to direct attention to what these two wonderful women did, my debt of gratitude will have been in some small part repaid.” (Bartoszewski, 1969, pp. 175-180)

Janina S (Bartoszewski, 1969, pp. 175-180)

Eliza S, daughter (Bartoszewski, 1969, p. 179)

St. Carmine Hospital, Namur, Belgium, hid Jews in contagious ward (Gutman, 2005, p. 40)

St. Stanislaw Hospital, Warsaw, Poland, see also Iwanski Rescue Group

Hid and sheltered Jews from the Germans. Worked with the Henryk Iwanski Rescue Group. (Bartoszewski, 1969, p. 151)

Dr. Jan Trzebinski, St. Stanislaw Hospital

hospital staff at St. Stanislaw Hospital

Salomé Rescue Network, Limburg (Moore, 2010, p. 388n80)

Chiel Salomé, leader

Salvation Army

San Damiano Monastery, Assisi, Italy, see Assisi Underground (Gutman, 2007)

Father Ruffino Nicacci●

San Rufino Cathedral, Assisi, Italy, see Assisi Underground (Gutman, 2007)

Aldo Brunacci●

Professor Cannon

Oscar Schindler Rescue, Deutsche Emailwerke, Krakow Ghetto, Poland, Plaszow concentration camp, Krakow, Poland, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland, and Brunnlitz, Czechoslovakia (Rowe, 2004; Yad Vashem), see also Julius Madritch● and Raymund Titsch● Rescue Actions (Gutman, 2007, pp. 144-145) and Zegota, Crakow District, Poland

Oscar Schindler●

Emily Schindler●

Poldek Pfefferberg (Leopold Page; Jewish)

Mila Pfefferberg (Mila Page; Jewish)

Isaac Stern (Jewish)

Schowberg Créche Rescue Operation (Joodsch Schowberg), Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Worked with five rescue networks to save Jewish children: the NV, ASC, the Jewish Council, Utrechtse Kindercomité, and the Trouw Group. Helped rescue approximately 385 children. A total of 600 children were taken out of the Créche.

(Cammaert, 1994; Flim, 1996)

Staff of he Jewish Council, Amsterdam, Annonymous Coumpany (NV), Utrechtse Kindercomité, Walter Süskind (Jewish)

Joop Woortman, Annonymous Company (NV)

Anne MacLaine Pont, Utrechtse Kindercomité (Cammaert, 1994; Flim, 1996; Moore, 2010, pp. 298-299, 307, 315)

Fritz Iordens, Utrechtse Kindercomité (Cammaert, 1994; Flim, 1996; Moore, 2010, pp. 298, 307, 315)

Henriëtte Pimentel, Crèche director (Flim, 1996)

Johan Van Hulst, college principal (Flim 1996)

Dr. Gesina Van Der Molen, teacher in college, member Trouw Rescue Group (Flim, 1996, pp. 145-147)

Virrie Cohen (Jewish), nurse, Crèche director (Cammaert, 1994, pp. 401, 406; Flim, 1996, pp. 150-151, 223)

David Cohen (Jewish), co-chairman, Jewish Council (Flim, 1996)

Piet Meerburg (Flim, 1996)

Schweser Rescue Operation, Ozorkow (Eastern Poland), May 1940 – October 1941, Tepik, Ukraine after November 1941 (Gutman, 2007, pp. 151-152)

Konrad Edmund Schweser● (b. 1899), construction engineer, supervisor, Todt Organization. Saved dozens of Jewish laborers under his supervision. Provided food and humane working conditions in his work camps.

Scottish Mission, Budapest, Hungary (Sixth District; Gutman, 2007, p.287)

The Scottish Mission was operating with the protection of the Swedish legation. Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg● worked closely with the Scottish Mission.

Jane Haining●+* (1897-1944), Matron Girls’ Home. Saved Jews, deported to Auschwitz, murdered by starvation July 17, 1944 at age 47, awarded Righteous Among the Nations title (Yad Vashem Archives; Gutman, 2007, p. 170)

FatherLajos Nagybaczoni-Nagy● (Protestant), Scottish Mission, Sixth District, Budapest, hid, sheltered and protected numerous Jewish children, provided false Baptismal Certificates during the German occupation and Arrow Cross rule of Budapest, was able to secure protection of the Swedish legation and Raoul Wallenbeg, Nagy hid Jewish children in his residence, awarded Righteous Among the Nations title October 23, 1996 (Yad Vashem Archives; Gutman, 2007, p. 287)

Le Secours National (SN), France (Moore, 2010, p. 136)

Secours National groups in France hid Jewish children in the countryside.

Le Secours Suisse aux Enfants, see Swiss Rescue Organization (under Swiss Red Cross), Vichy, France, Walter Stucki, IRC representative

Secret Army (Armée Secrète), France (Gutman, 2003)

General Pierre Robert de Saint-Vincent (also member of Boegner Rescue Network and Christian Friendship; Gutman, 2003, pp. 472-473)

Section B, International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC), Budapest, Hungary, see also Good Shepard (Gutman, 2007, pp. 326-327)

Rescued Jewish children in Budapest under the auspices of the ICRC. Operated 32 “protected houses” in Budapest. Saved 1,500 Jewish children and 500 adults. Worked with Fredrich Born●, ICRC head in Budapest, and Hans Weyerman.

Dr. Gábor Sztehlo●, head, Good Shepard Houses

Security Corps, Poland, established November 1943

Polish underground resistance and fighting military group. Created by the merger of several groups including the Armed Liberation Group. Aided in the relief, sheltering and rescue of Polish Jews. (Bartoszewski, 1969, p. 152)

Self-Help of Emigrés from Central Europe, Inc., New York, NY, USA (American Committee for Christian German Refugees); established as Self Help of German Emigrés, Inc., in 1937, name changed to above in 1939

(Close, 1953; Davie, 1947; Duggan & Drury, 1948; Genizi, 1976; Genizi, 1983, pp. 96-136; Gutman, 1990, pp. 32-33, 1065-1066; Nawyn, 1981, pp. 159-181; Ross, 1981; Zucker, 2008; Dobkowski, Michael N. “The Social Service System of German-Jewish Immigrants from Central Europe”; Lessing, oral history; Selfhelp, Annual Reports, 1963-date; Selfhelp: 20 Years of Service, 1956; Strauss, Herbert A. “The Immigration and Acculturation of the German Jew in the United States of America.” Leo Baeck Institute Year Book, XVI (1971), pp. 63-94)

Service André, see also Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, Joseph Bass, father of Regis de Percevel; see also CIMADE, DELASEM (Gutman, 1990, 2003; Halle, 1979)

Joseph Bass (alias Mr. André; Jewish; Gutman, 2003)

Father de Parceval (Dominican prior; interned)

Father Bremond (Jesuit)

Father Marie-Benoit● (Capuchin monk; DELASEM; Gutman, 2003)

Pastor Hevze (Protestant; Reformed Church in Marseilles; interned and deported)

Pastor Severin Lemaire, Marseilles

Joseph Lasalarie (Attorney)

Murzi (attorney)

Israel Salzer (Chief Rabbi of Marseilles)

Angelo Donati, (Jewish) (banker), rescue activist, DELASAM

Chief Rabbi Rene Hirschler*, (Jewish)

Fernande Le Boucher, DELASEM, Marseilles, France, Rome, Italy, awarded Righteous Among the Nations title (Yad Vashem Archives; Gutman, 2003, pp. 347-348)

Service “D,” Liège/Luik Province, Belgium, resistance, rescue group; helped Jews in hiding; had 1,500 members (Gutman, 2005, pp. xxxi, 159)

Underground resistance organization that operated in the Liège (Luik) Province of Belgium. Max Hubert Lambrechts● and Jeanne Lambrechts● of Service “D” hid, sheltered and provided rations for Jews in the Aywaille, Liège Province.

Max Hubert Lambrechts● (Gutman, 2005)

Jeanne Sidonie Lambrechts● (Gutman, 2005)

François Vercheval● (Gutman, 2005)

Georges Vercheval● (Gutman, 2005)

Josephine Vercheval-Knops● (Gutman, 2005)

Service Social de Aid Aux Emigres, France, see International Migration Service, Social Service for Aid to Emigrants, France

Service Social des Étrangers (SSE), France, see Social Service for Foreigners

Sevenum, Netherlands (Cammaert, 1994; Moore, 2010, pp. 250-251)

Small Dutch community hid and sheltered Jews.

Eugénie Boutet, leader

Sezione Aerea de San Gioacchino (SASG), Rome, Italy (Gutman, 2007, pp. lxxxvi, 386, 387)

Hid, sheltered and fed refugee Jews during Naz occupation of Rome, September 1943 – June 1944.

Pietro Lestini● (d. 1960), founder

Mrs. Giuliana Lestini● and two daughters

Father Antonia Dressino●, head, San Gioacchino Church

Mother Marguerite Berns●

Siamese (Thai) Consulate, Marseilles, France

Siamese (Thai) Consul, Marseilles, France, 1940

Varian Fry of the Emergency Rescue Committee (ERC) and other rescue and relief agencies used Siamese (Thai) visas as exit visas to leave Marseilles and Vichy France. Although there was no possible way of reaching Siam during the war, Portuguese and Spanish officials honored these visas. Once the refugees had the Portuguese and Spanish transit visas, they were able to go to Lisbon with ease. Eventually, the consulate of Siam was raided and the consul was arrested by the French authorities. After the raid, the Emergency Rescue Committee was no longer able to use these visas. (Fry, Varian. Surrender on Demand. (New York: Random House, 1945), pp. 15-17, 132. Marino, Andy. A Quiet American: The Secret War of Varian Fry. (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999), p. 119.)

Slovak Consulate, Budapest, Hungary

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

Dr. Spisiak, Slovakian Consul in Budapest, provided Slovakian Jewish refugees with false passports. Vince Tomek, a priest, helped distribute these passports. He also helped the Jews in the Pest ghetto. (Hetényi, Varga K., “Those Who Were Persecuted Because of the Truth.” Ecclesia, Budapest, 1985. Asaf, 1990, p. 105. Lévai, Jenö. Black Book on the Martyrdom of Hungarian Jewry. (Central European Times Publishing, 1948). Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981).)

Father Vince Tomek, Priaist Priest

Father Tomek distributed Slovakian false passports to Slovakian Jewish refugees in Budapest. These documents were issued by Dr. Spisiak, the Slovak Consul in Budapest. (Hetényi, Varga K., “Those Who Were Persecuted Because of the Truth.” Ecclesia, Budapest, 1985. Asaf, 1990, p. 105.)

Pastor Evert L. Smelik Rescue Network, The Netherlands (Gutman, 2004)

Pastor Evert L. Smelik

Social Service for Aid to Emigrants (Service Social d’Aide aux Emigrants; SSAE), France, established 1920 (YV M31/5891; Gutman, 2003; Moore, 2010, p. 142)

French social service agency to help emigrants. It had official status under the Vichy regime.

Lucie Chevalley-Sabatier, founder

Gilbert Lesage (AFSC), head, SSAE (Lazare, 1995, pp. 59-61; Moore, 2010, p. 142)

Social Service for Foreigners (Service Social des Étrangers; Gutman, 2003)

Vichy French agency within the Ministry of the Interior to supervise families of foreign workers.

The Social Welfare Department of the Municipal Administration, Warsaw, Poland (Bartoszewski, 1969, pp. 41-42, 51, 60, 61)

Irena Sendler (“Jolanta”)

Jan Dobraczynski

Irena Schultz

Socialist Fighting Organization (SOB; Socjalistyczn Organizcja Bojowa), Poland, helped Jews by taking them into organization (Bartoszewski, 1969, p. 63; Gutman, 1980; Ringelbaum, 1974)

Société Belge de Banque, Belgium (Steinberg, 1973)

Loaned BFr. 5,000,000 for rescue and relief of Jews in Belgium during the German occupation.

Société Génerale, Belgium (Steinberg, 1973)

Loaned BFr. 1,100,00 for rescue and relief of Jews in Belgium during the German occupation

Society of Friends, “Quakers,” see American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)

Society of Jesus (SJ; Compagnie de Jesus), Catholic Jesuit order. Members of this order helped Jews during the Shoa. (Gutman, 2005)

Socrates Resistance Network, Belgium (Mooer, 2010, p. 195)

Solidarity (Solidarité), France

Soviet Consulate, Kovno (Kaunas), Lithuania

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

The Russian consul in Kovno, Lithuania, Pozdniakov, obtained agreement from Soviet officials to allow Jewish refugees holding a “Sauf-Conduits” (safe conduct pass) for stateless persons to emigrate and escape through the USSR. This agreement was signed and proclaimed in Lithuania on April 22, 1940. Japanese consul Chiune Sugihara helped convince Pozdniakov to allow this escape to take place. (Bauer, Yehuda. American Jewry and the Holocaust. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), p. 116.)

Spanish Aid Committee, USA (Marino, 1999, pp. 38-39)

Harold Oram

Varian Fry, director of the Emergency Rescue Committee (ERC)

Spanish Comité de Union National (CUN)

Spanish Embassy/Consulate, Paris, France

Jewish refugees in Paris appealed to the Spanish embassy to permit them to escape to Spain. The embassy passed these requests along to Spanish foreign minister Francisco Gómez Jordana. On March 15, 1943, Jordana told German foreign ministry officials that Spanish nationals in France would be allowed to be repatriated. On March 22, a note was sent to the German foreign minister regarding this. (Bauer, Yehuda. American Jewry and the Holocaust. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), p. 211.)

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

In August 1941, Rolland actively intervened in the cases of 14 Jews who were deported to the Drancy concentration camp. At the same time, he embarked on a dangerous mission to transfer 2,000 Jews from the Drancy transit camp to safety in Morocco. Throughout the war, he denounced Nazi persecution of Jews. By September 1943, Rolland was in part responsible for the escape of thousands of French Jews to Spain. (Avni, Haim. Spain, the Jews and Franco. (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1982), pp. 84-88, 93, 128-129, 130, 134-139, 180. Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), p. 1393. Laqueur, Walter (Ed.) and Judith Tydor Baumel (Assoc. Ed.). The Holocaust Encyclopedia. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), p. 602. Spanish Foreign Ministry. “Spanish Diplomats During the Holocaust.” [Downloaded from http://www.mae.es on 3/21/04.])

Spanish Embassy/Legation, Berlin, Germany

Jewish refugees in Berlin appealed to the Spanish embassy to permit them to escape to Spain. The embassy passed these requests along to Spanish foreign minister Francisco Gómez Jordana. On March 15, 1943, Jordana told German foreign ministry officials that Spanish nationals in Germany would be allowed to be repatriated. On March 22, a note was sent to the German foreign minister regarding this. (Bauer, Yehuda. American Jewry and the Holocaust. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), p. 211; Braham, 1981; Levai, 1948; Yad Vashem Archives)

Dr. Jose Santaella,● Spanish Agricultural Attaché

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.

Carmen Waltraut Santaella● (wife of Dr. Jose 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.

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

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

Spanish Embassy, Rome,Italy

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

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

Spanish Embassy, Bucharest, Romania

José Rojas y Moreno Conde de Casa, Spain, Minister in Bucharest, Romania, 1941, and Ankara, Turkey, 1944

José Rojas y Moreno Conde de Casa was the Spanish Minister in Bucharest in 1941 and in Ankara in 1944. Rojas arrived in Bucharest in 1941 and from the beginning was a harsh critic of the Nazi policy of persecuting Jews. He was adamantly opposed to the deportation of Jews and the harsh conditions imposed by the Nazis. He posted diplomatic protective signs on over 300 houses where Jewish families lived. In 1944, Rojas was directly responsible for the evacuation of 65 Jews to Spain. (Avni, Haim. Spain, the Jews and Franco. (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1982), pp. 81, 93, 132-133. Laqueur, Walter (Ed.) and Judith Tydor Baumel (Assoc. Ed.). The Holocaust Encyclopedia. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), p. 602. Spanish Foreign Ministry. “Spanish Diplomats During the Holocaust.” [Downloaded from http://www.mae.es/documento/0/000/000/007/diplomaticos/enghlish/rojas.html on 3/21/04.])

Spanish Consulate, Athens, Greece

Sebastián Romero Radigales, Spain, Consul General in Athens, Greece, 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. (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.)

Eduardo Gasset, Spanish Consul General in Athens, Greece, 1942-43

The Spanish Consul General in Athens, Eduardo Gasset, helped to protect Spanish Jews from deportation in 1942-43. He also protested the antisemitic laws being enforced by the Nazis. In addition, he petitioned Madrid for permission to extend help to Spanish Jews in Athens and Salonika. (Avni, Haim. “Spanish Nationals in Greece and their Fate during the Holocaust.” Yad Vashem Studies, 8 (1970), pp. 38-41.)

Spanish Consulate, Salonika, Greece

Consul General Radigales, see Spanish Consulate, Athens, Greece

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

Solomon Ezrati served as a Vice-Consul at the Spanish consulate in Salonika. He had held the position for 28 years. Ezrati worked closely with Spanish Consul General Romero Radigales in helping to save Spanish Jews in Salonika. Because Solomon Ezrati was Jewish, he was arrested along with other Spanish nationals and deported to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. 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).)

Father Ireneo Typaldos, Translator at the Spanish Consulate in Salonika, Greece, 1943

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

Spanish Legation, Sophia, Bulgaria

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

In December 1940, Palencia organized protection for 150 Jews of Sephardic origin. In 1943, he stepped up his actions to protect Jews from deportation. He actively protested Bulgarian and Nazi persecutions of Jews. Palencia contributed to the saving of the lives of more than 600 Bulgarian Jews. For his actions, he was declared persona non grata and forced to return to Madrid. Upon his return, he was reprimanded for his actions in Bulgaria. (Avni, Haim. Spain, the Jews and Franco. (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1982), pp. 165-167, 180. Spanish Foreign Ministry. “Spanish Diplomats During the Holocaust.” [Downloaded from http://www.mae.es on 3/21/04.])

Spanish Legation, Budapest, Hungary (Braham, 1981; Gutman, 2007, pp. 396-397)

Minister 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. “Summary Report of the Activities of the War Refugee Board with Respect to the Jews of Hungary. (Washington, October 9, 1944). Report prepared by Lawrence S. Lesser, assistant to John W. Pehle, head of the WRB. Levai, White Book, n.d. Levai, Gray Book, n.d. Yad Vashem Archives, M-20/47, Notiz über die Situation der Juden in Ungarn [Notes on the Situation of the Jews in Hungary], November 14, 1944. Váradi, 1985, pp. 99-110. Szatmári, Bericht über die Tätigkeit der neutralen Vertretungen in Budapest [Report on the Activities of the Neutral Representatives in Budapest].)

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

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

(Avni, Haim. Spain, the Jews and Franco. (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1982), pp. 170-171. Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981). Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Spared Lives: The Actions of Three Portuguese Diplomats in World War II. (Portugal: Diplomatic Institute, 2000). Spanish Foreign Ministry. “Spanish Diplomats During the Holocaust.” [Downloaded from http://www.mae.es on 3/21/04.] “Summary Report of the Activities of the War Refugee Board with Respect to the Jews of Hungary. (Washington, October 9, 1944). Report prepared by Lawrence S. Lesser, assistant to John W. Pehle, head of the WRB. Levai, White Book, n.d. Levai, Gray Book, n.d. Yad Vashem Archives, M-20/47, Notiz über die Situation der Juden in Ungarn [Notes on the Situation of the Jews in Hungary], November 14, 1944. Váradi, 1985, pp. 99-110. Szatmári, Bericht über die Tätigkeit der neutralen Vertretungen in Budapest [Report on the Activities of the Neutral Representatives in Budapest].)

Giorgio “Jorge” Perlasca●, volunteer, “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. “Summary Report of the Activities of the War Refugee Board with Respect to the Jews of Hungary. (Washington, October 9, 1944). Report prepared by Lawrence S. Lesser, assistant to John W. Pehle, head of the WRB. Levai, White Book, n.d. Levai, Gray Book, n.d. Yad Vashem Archives, M-20/47, Notiz über die Situation der Juden in Ungarn [Notes on the Situation of the Jews in Hungary], November 14, 1944. Váradi, 1985, pp. 99-110. Szatmári, Bericht über die Tätigkeit der neutralen Vertretungen in Budapest [Report on the Activities of the Neutral Representatives in Budapest].)

Dr. Zoltan Farkas (Jewish), advisor, Department of Cooperation

Dr. Zoltán Farkas worked at the Spanish consulate in Budapest, 1944-45. He helped Spanish Minister Don Angel Sanz-Briz issue and distribute protective papers to Jews. He also worked with Sándor Újváry in the Department of Cooperation. (Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), p. 840. Asaf, 1990, p. 77. Lévai, J. “Grey Book on the Rescuing of Hungarian Jews.” Budapest: Officina, 1946.)

Lázló Szamosi (underground), ICRC Volunteer

Laszlo Szamosi worked for the Spanish legation in Budapest and the International Red Cross in Section A. He worked to help save Jewish children during the Arrow Cross raids of late 1944. (Born, 1945; Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 1243-1244, fn 157.)

Dr. Elemér Palkovits, Lawyer, Volunteer with the Spanish Legation, Budapest, 1944-45

Dr. Elemér Palkovits distributed Spanish protective papers as a volunteer for the Spanish legation in Budapest, 1944-45. (Asaf, 1990, p. 93.)

Spanish High Commissioner, Tangier

General Luis Orgaz, Spanish High Commissioner for Tangier

General Luis Orgaz, the Spanish High Commissioner for Tangier, provided more than 700 entry visas for children to immigrate to Tangier from Budapest, Hungary. General Orgaz was persuaded to issue the visas and permit entry of the Jewish refugees to Tangiers by US Chargé d’Affaires Rives Childs and Jewish rescue activists Renée and Eva Reichmann. The Reichmanns’ organization was called the Tangier Committee for Aid to Refugees. (Alexy, Trudy. The Mezuzah in the Madonna’s Foot, pp. 200-201. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993). Bianco, Anthony. The Reichmanns: Family, Faith, Fortune, and the Empire of Olympia & York. (New York: Times Books, 1997). Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 1061-1062, 1092. Kranzler, David. The Man Who Stopped the Trains to Auschwitz George Mantello, El Salvador, and Switzerland’s Finest Hour. (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2000), p. 196. Kranzler, David. Thy Brother’s Blood: The Orthodox Jewish Response During the Holocaust. (Brooklyn, NY: Mesorah, 1987), pp. 250-254. Childs, Rives. Foreign Service Farewell, pp. 116-117. Rozett, Robert. “Child Rescue in Budapest,” Holocaust and Genocide Studies, 2 (1987), pp. 49-59.)

Spanish Red Cross, Madrid, Spain

El Conde de la Granja, President of the Spanish Red Cross in Madrid, 1943?

El Conde de la Granja was President of the Spanish Red Cross in Madrid. The Spanish Red Cross was under government control. It gave permission for Jewish relief agencies to send parcels to Jewish refugees. Normally, these parcels could not be sent to Jewish refugees because they were not considered officially as prisoners of war. In addition, Granja allowed these relief packages to be sent without shipping charges. (Kranzler, David. Thy Brother’s Blood: The Orthodox Jewish Response During the Holocaust. (Brooklyn, NY: Mesorah, 1987), pp. 249-251.)

Special Department on Jewish Questions in the Liberated Territories (Serviciu Special Pentru Problemele Evreesti din Teritoriile Eliberate), Romania

The Special Department was established on November 4, 1944, under the administration of Ionel Pop, the High Commissioner for the Administration of Liberated Transylvania (Inhalt Comisar Pentru Administrarea Transilvaniei Eliberate). The Special Department organized relief for Jews, repatriated Jewish property and pressured the Szálasi Hungarian government to help Jews in German camps in Northern Transylvania and to generally protect Romanian Jews. Appeals were made to the International Red Cross and the Vatican to help Jews.

(Braham, 1991, pp. (1046-1047, 1055n34, 1056n35; Renasterea Noastra [Our Rebirth], Bucharest, October 20, 1941, cited in Braham, 1991)

The Student Committee of Copenhagen University, Denmark

The Student Intelligence Service (Studenternes Efterretningstjeneste), Denmark (La Cour III, p. 392, cited in Yahil, 1969)

Students Group, Regensen, Denmark

Worked with Lyngby Group and Aage Bertelsen. (Bertelsen, 1954, pp. 85-86, 131)

Langhoff, leader

Kileby, leader

“The Study Circle,” “The Circle,” “The Ring”, Copenhagen, Denmark (Bertelsen, 1954; Jakobsen ms cited in Yahil, 1969; Yahil, 1969, pp. 226-227, 246, 247, 254, 274, 292-294, 311)

Major rescue group founded by Frode Jakobsen. Had 10,000 members in 1942, 20,000 in Autumn 1943, then 30,000 members. Medical doctors and theologians were particularly active in this group. Seventy-five percent of Danish doctors joined the Ring, and 90% of clergy belonged.

Frode Jakobsen, founder, leader

Christmas Møller

Professor E. Husfeld, M.D.

Aage Bertelsen, district leader

Richard Ege, professor

Vibeke Ege

Mrs. Ina Haxen, assistant to Professor Ege

Subranie, see Bulgarian Parliament

Swedish Church, Landhausstrasse, Rescue Network, Germany, protected Jews, smuggled 20 Jews into Sweden in October 1944 (Gutman, 2007, pp. 123-124)

Countess Maria von Gräfin Maltzan●

Swedish Government (Adler-Rudel, 1966; Bernadotte, 1945; Carlgren, 1977; Lindberg, 1973; Valentin, 1953; Yahil, 1983; Yahil, 1967)

Sweden allowed thousands of Jewish and other refugees to enter their country after 1940. Thousands of Jews from Finland, Norway and Denmark were given safe refuge. The Swedish government encouraged diplomats throughout Europe to provide protection in the form of protective papers, visas and documents. This was particularly true in Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45.

King Gustav V

King Gustav V of Sweden sent a firm message protesting the deportation of Hungarian Jews to Hungarian Regent Miklós Horthy. This note, along with protests by the British and American governments, contributed to Horthy’s decision to stop the deportations in July 1944.

Prince Carl of Sweden, Head of the Swedish Red Cross

(Koblik, Steven. The Stones Cry Out: Sweden’s Response to the Persecution of the Jews, 1933-1945. (New York: Holocaust Library, 1988), pp. 60, 203-205. Swedish Foreign Office, The Swedish Relief Expedition to Germany 1945: Prelude and Negotiations [Stockholm, 1956], White Book, 1956; Koblik, 1988, pp. 60, 203-205; Persson, 2009, p. 78.)

Per Albin Hansson, Swedish Prime Minister

Swedish Prime Minister Per Albin Hansson agreed to accept Jewish refugees from Denmark during the German action of October 1943. In addition, Hansson met with German diplomat Georg Duckwitz.

Arvid Richert, Swedish Foreign Minister

Christian Günther, Swedish Foreign Minister

In the autumn of 1943, Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs Christian Guenther negotiated for the release of Danish and Norwegian prisoners held in German camps. This eventually led to the release of thousands of prisoners to the Swedish Red Cross under the supervision of Folke Bernadotte in March and April 1945. (Swedish Foreign Office, The Swedish Relief Expedition to Germany 1945: Prelude and Negotiations [Stockholm, 1956], White Book, 1956; Persson, 2009, pp. 64, 66-68, 72, 75-76, 82, 97, 144-14, 160-161, 178, 202, 204, 222-223, 225-226, 242, 251-252, 255; Friedman, Philip. Their Brothers’ Keepers: The Christian Heroes and Heroines Who Helped the Oppressed Escape the Nazi Terror. (New York: Holocaust Library, 1978), pp. 171-172. Levine, Paul A. From Indifference to Activism: Swedish Diplomacy and the Holocaust: 1938-1944. (Uppsala, Sweden: 1998), pp. 115, 145, 163, 167, 181, 185, 217, 220, 222, 224, 226, 234-241, 249. Yahil, L. “Scandinavian Countries to the Rescue of Concentration Camp Prisoners.” Yad Vashem Studies, 6 (1967), pp. 196, 201-202.)

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

Gösta Engzell headed the Legal Division of the Swedish Foreign Office throughout the war. He was the individual most responsible for the positive switch in the Swedish government’s official policy and response to the murder of European Jews. He convinced the Swedish government to help Jews in Nazi controlled territories. He empowered diplomats in Norway, Denmark and later in Budapest. He was responsible for empowering Swedish diplomats Carl Ivan Danielsson and Per Anger to issue Swedish protective papers to Budapest Jews. By the end of the war, Swedish action on behalf of Jews in Europe, almost always initiated or supported by Engzell and his staff, contributed to the rescue and relief of 30,000-40,000 Jews. (Levine, P.A., p. 212, in Cesarani, D., & Levine, P.A., 2002. Levine, Paul A. From Indifference to Activism: Swedish Diplomacy and the Holocaust: 1938-1944. (Uppsala, Sweden: 1998), pp. 115-116, 126, 132, 134, 138, 154-155, 159-162, 169, 171, 174, 176-177, 181-185, 213, 216, 223, 226, 232-234, 241-243, 249-252, 259-276. Yahil, L. “Scandinavian Countries to the Rescue of Concentration Camp Prisoners.” Yad Vashem Studies, 6 (1967), pp. 216-217. Koblik, Steven. The Stones Cry Out: Sweden’s Response to the Persecution of the Jews, 1933-1945. (New York: Holocaust Library, 1988), pp. 170, 176, 203, 206-207, 217, 238, 248-251, 290-293. Penkower, Monty Noam. The Jews Were Expendable: Free World diplomacy and the Holocaust. (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1983), pp. 267-268, 273-275, 279-280, 288. Swedish Foreign Office, The Swedish Relief Expedition to Germany 1945: Prelude and Negotiations [Stockholm, 1956], White Book, 1956; Swedish Foreign Office Archives [UDA], Stockhom; Persson, 2009, pp. 29, 55, 63, 65, 83, 142-143, 159-160, 186, 195)

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

(Levine, Paul A. From Indifference to Activism: Swedish Diplomacy and the Holocaust: 1938-1944. (Uppsala, Sweden: 1998), pp. 116, 139, 144, 149-153, 177, 218, 222, 227, 252-253. Koblik, Steven. The Stones Cry Out: Sweden’s Response to the Persecution of the Jews, 1933-1945. (New York: Holocaust Library, 1988), pp. 58, 128-132, 145, 199, 202, 206-207, 270-274, 278-280. Swedish Foreign Office, The Swedish Relief Expedition to Germany 1945: Prelude and Negotiations [Stockholm, 1956], White Book, 1956; Swedish Foreign Office Archives [UDA], Stockhom; Persson, 2009, pp. 36, 43, 55, 57, 65, 75-76, 88, 96-97, 108, 195, 231, 233-236, 238, 252.)

Swedish Embassy, Berlin, Germany

Tried to help Norwegian civilian political prisoners in Germany in concentration camps. The help was rejected by the German government. (Persson, 2009, pp. 37-38.)

Arvid Richert, Swedish Minister in Berlin, Germany, October 1943

Arvid Richert was the Swedish Minister in Berlin in October 1943. In response to the proposed deportation of Danish Jews in October 1943, Richert submitted an official proposal to the German Foreign Ministry that would place Danish Jews as refugees in camps in Sweden. The Germans never answered the proposal. The Swedish government announced that it would accept Danish Jewish refugees. Soon, 9,000 Danish Christians and 7,000 Danish Jews reached Sweden. Later, 100 Finnish Jews were brought to Sweden. (Reitlinger, Gerald. The Final Solution: The Attempt to Exterminate the Jews of Europe, 1939-1945. (New York: The Beechhurst Press, 1953), pp. 350-351. Levine, Paul A. From Indifference to Activism: Swedish Diplomacy and the Holocaust: 1938-1944. (Uppsala, Sweden: 1998), pp. 115-118, 124, 129-130, 138-139, 151-154, 157, 159-160, 166, 171, 175-179, 182-183, 215-216, 218, 223, 235-246. Yahil, L. “Scandinavian Countries to the Rescue of Concentration Camp Prisoners.” Yad Vashem Studies, 6 (1967), pp. 185, 187, 191, 194, 196. Koblik, Steven. The Stones Cry Out: Sweden’s Response to the Persecution of the Jews, 1933-1945. (New York: Holocaust Library, 1988), pp. 22, 57-60, 65, 122-126, 132, 143-147, 154, 157, 161, 174-176, 185-190, 195-197, 199-203, 219-220, 270, 273-281. Yahil, Leni. The Rescue of Danish Jewry: Test of a Democracy. (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1969), pp. 329-331. Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), p. 1438. Swedish Foreign Office, The Swedish Relief Expedition to Germany 1945: Prelude and Negotiations [Stockholm, 1956], White Book, 1956; Swedish Foreign Office Archives [UDA], Stockhom; Persson, 2009, pp. 55-56, 60, 62, 64, 66, 67, 69-70, 75-77, 79, 81-82, 96-97, 108-109, 152, 167, 177-178, 189-190, 190-191, 251-252.)

Göran von Otter, Swedish Consul in Berlin, Germany, 1942?

Swedish Consul Göran von Otter received secret information from German SS Lieutenant Kurt Gerstein regarding the gassing of Jews at the Belzec death camp in eastern Poland. Gerstein personally witnessed the gassing of Jews. This is perhaps the first time that a first-hand, reliable report of the German death camps was received by a western power. Von Otter passed the information on in a report to the Swedish Foreign Ministry. It was not publicized and remained buried in the Swedish records. (Levine, Paul A. From Indifference to Activism: Swedish Diplomacy and the Holocaust: 1938-1944. (Uppsala, Sweden: 1998), pp. 127-129, 163, 179-180, 215, 218-219, 225-226, 243. Koblik, Steven. The Stones Cry Out: Sweden’s Response to the Persecution of the Jews, 1933-1945. (New York: Holocaust Library, 1988), pp. 58-59, 145-146, 151, 154, 198-199, 216.)

Consul Marc Giron, Attaché, Swedish Legation, Berlin, Germany (Persson, 2009, pp.84, 101)

Lennart Nylander, Legation Counsellor, Swedish Legation, Berlin, Germany (Swedish Foreign Office Archives [UDA], Stockhom; Persson, 2009, p. 77, 83, 253)

Swedish Embassy, Oslo, Norway

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

Claes Adolf Hjalmar Westring was able to secure the release of 50 Norwegian Jews in Oslo in February 1943. In November 1942, the Germans began large-scale deportations of Jews in Norway. This event made the front page of Swedish newspapers. Swedish minister Gösta Engzell ordered diplomats to protect Jews who might have some connection with Sweden. The Swedish Foreign Ministry demanded information regarding the deportations against Jews who were either Swedish or had Swedish relatives. They demanded the release from internment camps of those who had already been rounded up. Sweden told the German government that they were “prepared to accept all remaining Jews in Norway should they be subject to removal.” (See Holocaust Encyclopedia, Yale University, pp. 615-616. Levine, P.A., p. 212, in Cesarani, D., & Levine, P.A., 2002. Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), p. 1438. Levine, Paul A. From Indifference to Activism: Swedish Diplomacy and the Holocaust: 1938-1944. (Uppsala, Sweden: 1998), pp. 123, 135, 145-147, 165, 167. Koblik, Steven. The Stones Cry Out: Sweden’s Response to the Persecution of the Jews, 1933-1945. (New York: Holocaust Library, 1988), pp. 203-209, 292. Yahil, L. “Scandinavian Countries to the Rescue of Concentration Camp Prisoners.” Yad Vashem Studies, 6 (1967), pp. 181-220.)

Eric Bache, Swedish Consul in Norway, 1943-44?

(Yahil, L. “Scandinavian Countries to the Rescue of Concentration Camp Prisoners.” Yad Vashem Studies, 6 (1967), p. 190.)

Swedish Embassy, Bucharest, Romania

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

Swedish Consulate, Paris, France

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

Swedish Consul General Raoul Nordling had smuggled to safety scores of French men and women, some of whom were Jewish, who were threatened with arrest by the Nazis. Nordling was also responsible for negotiating with the German commander of Paris in 1944 to prevent him from carrying out Hitler’s order to destroy Paris. (Favez, Jean-Claude. Edited and translated by John and Beryl Fletcher. The Red Cross and the Holocaust. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 260-261. Bernadotte, Folke, Count. The Fall of the Curtain: Last Days of the Third Reich. (London: Cassell, 1945), pp. 13-14. Koblik, Steven. The Stones Cry Out: Sweden’s Response to the Persecution of the Jews, 1933-1945. (New York: Holocaust Library, 1988), pp. 123, 163. Swedish Foreign Office Archives [UDA], Stockhom; Persson, 2009.)

Swedish Legation, Denmark (Yahil, 1969, pp. 148-151, 327-329, 341)

Ambassador Gustav von Dardel

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Von Dardel, G. Lyckliga och Stormiga Aar. (Stockholm: Wahlstroem & Widstrand, 1953). Werner, Emmy E. A Conspiracy of Decency: The Rescue of the Danish Jews during World War II (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2002), pp. 33, 41. Levine, Paul A. From Indifference to Activism: Swedish Diplomacy and the Holocaust: 1938-1944. (Uppsala, Sweden: 1998), pp. 231-240, 244. Koblik, Steven. The Stones Cry Out: Sweden’s Response to the Persecution of the Jews, 1933-1945. (New York: Holocaust Library, 1988), pp. 217-218, 222. Yahil, Leni. The Rescue of Danish Jewry: Test of a Democracy. (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1969), pp. 327-329, 341. Swedish Foreign Ministry Archives (JM/1215-1219). Persson, 2009.)

Embassy Staff

Niels Eric Ekblad, Swedish Consul in Denmark, 1943

Consul Niels Eric Ekblad was sent by the Swedish government to report on the action of the Germans in the impending deportation of Danish Jews in October 1943. Ekblad accompanied German diplomat Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz to a clandestine meeting with Swedish Prime Minister Per Albin Hansson. Ekblad relayed advance warning from Duckwitz to the Swedish government. At the Swedish embassy in Copenhagen, Ekblad issued many passports to Danish citizens. (Werner, Emmy E. A Conspiracy of Decency: The Rescue of the Danish Jews during World War II. (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2002), pp. 33-36, 39, 41. Ekblad, Niels Eric. Aufzeichnung über gewisse Ereignisse im Zusammenhang mit der deutschen Aktion gegen die dänishen Juden um den 1 Oktober 1943. (Hamburg, January 22, 1958; Jerusalem: Yad Vashem Archives, File #027/13). Yahil, Leni. The Rescue of Danish Jewry: Test of a Democracy. (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1969).)

Swedish Legation, Vichy, France

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

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

Swedish Legation, Budapest, Hungary, 1944-1945 (Anger, 1981; Berg, 19??; Braham, 1981; Gutman, 2007; Levai, 1948; Werbel, 1981; Yahil, 1983, pp. 7-54)

Minister 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).)

First Secretary Per Anger●, 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).)

Consul Raoul Wallenberg● (1912-?), 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, Raoul Wallenberg was arrested by the Russians and disappeared. He was honored as Righteous Among the Nations by the State of Israel in 1963. In 1981, Wallenberg was bestowed the title of honorary citizen of the United States, at that time, an honor reserved only for Winston Churchill. In addition, he has been honored all over the world for his life-saving activities. After 60 years of investigation, his whereabouts or fate in the hands of the Soviet Union has never been proven. (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). Born, Friedrich, Bericht an das Internationale Komitee vom Roten Kreuz in Genf [Report to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva], Geneva, June 1945, pp. 34-36.)

Consul 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).)

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

Dénes Von Mezey was a consular officer at the Swedish legation in Budapest, Hungary. He participated in the rescue of Jews. (Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981). Anger, Per. Translated by David Mel Paul and Margareta Paul. With Raoul Wallenberg in Budapest: Memories of the War Years in Hungary. (New York: Holocaust Library, 1981), pp. 48, 85, 132, 135, 139. Asaf, Uri. Christian support for Jews during the Holocaust in Hungary. In Braham, Randolph L. (Ed.) Studies on the Holocaust in Hungary, pp. 65-112. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990), p. 90. Skoglund, Elizabeth R. A Quiet Courage: Per Anger, Wallenberg’s Co-Liberator of Hungarian Jews. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1997), p. 59.)

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

Göte Carlsson was a Swedish diplomat stationed with the Swedish legation in Budapest in 1944-1945. Along with Per Anger, Lars Berg and Raoul Wallenberg, he was active in rescuing Jews from the Nazi and Arrow Cross. (Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), p. 1439. Anger, Per. Translated by David Mel Paul and Margareta Paul. With Raoul Wallenberg in Budapest: Memories of the War Years in Hungary. (New York: Holocaust Library, 1981), pp. 55, 63f, 69, 78ff, 85, 121, 127, 129f. 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. 73. Skoglund, Elizabeth R. A Quiet Courage: Per Anger, Wallenberg’s Co-Liberator of Hungarian Jews. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1997), pp. 36, 99, 116.)

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

Asta Nilsson was a relative of King Gustav of Sweden. In 1944, Nilsson volunteered for an extremely dangerous mission in Budapest, Hungary. Nilsson worked with the Swedish Red Cross with Valdemar and Nina Langlet. In Budapest, Nilsson was active in saving and protecting Jewish children. When the Arrow Cross raided some of the children’s protected institutions, they arrested Nilsson and took her to the Arrow Cross headquarters. She was later released with the intervention of Raoul Wallenberg. (Born, Friedrich, Bericht an das Internationale Komitee vom Roten Kreuz in Genf [Report to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva], Geneva, June 1945, pp. 34-36. Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981). Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), pp. 258, 1439. Anger, Per. Translated by David Mel Paul and Margareta Paul. With Raoul Wallenberg in Budapest: Memories of the War Years in Hungary. (New York: Holocaust Library, 1981), pp. 52, 55, 58, 78f, 80,136. 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. 93. Lévai, Jenö. Black Book on the Martyrdom of Hungarian Jewry. (Central European Times Publishing, 1948), pp. 364, 392. 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). Koblik, Steven. The Stones Cry Out: Sweden’s Response to the Persecution of the Jews, 1933-1945. (New York: Holocaust Library, 1988), p. 72. Skoglund, Elizabeth R. A Quiet Courage: Per Anger, Wallenberg’s Co-Liberator of Hungarian Jews. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1997), pp. 36, 38, 116.)

Valdemar 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). Born, Friedrich, Bericht an das Internationale Komitee vom Roten Kreuz in Genf [Report to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva], Geneva, June 1945, pp. 34-36. 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.)

Nina Langlet●, Swedish Red Cross

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). Born, Friedrich, Bericht an das Internationale Komitee vom Roten Kreuz in Genf [Report to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva], Geneva, June 1945, pp. 34-36. 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.)

Alexander Kasser●+ (Sándor Kasza), Swedish Red Cross (Hungarian Citizen; Gutman, 2007, p. 248)

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. (Born, Friedrich, Bericht an das Internationale Komitee vom Roten Kreuz in Genf [Report to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva], Geneva, June 1945, pp. 34-36.)

Elisabeth (Kasza) Kasser, interpreter for Raoul Wallenberg, wife of Alexander Kasser

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

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

Margarete Bauer worked directly for the refugee section of the Swedish embassy in Budapest. She was responsible for processing thousands of the protective papers. On occasion, she was responsible for delivering these protective papers directly to refugees. On one occasion, she was arrested by the Arrow Cross, along with Asta Nilsson. She was freed by Friedrich Born. (Lévai, Jenö. Black Book on the Martyrdom of Hungarian Jewry. (Central European Times Publishing, 1948), p. 392. Anger, Per. Translated by David Mel Paul and Margareta Paul. With Raoul Wallenberg in Budapest: Memories of the War Years in Hungary. (New York: Holocaust Library, 1981), pp. 48, 78f, 80, 136. Asaf, 1990, p. 71. Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 869, 1089. Skoglund, Elizabeth R. A Quiet Courage: Per Anger, Wallenberg’s Co-Liberator of Hungarian Jews. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1997), pp. 36, 38, 59.)

Dr. Lázló Bisits, Volunteer Ambulance Service

Dr. Lázló Bisits worked with the Volunteer Ambulance Service in Budapest, Hungary. As a physician, he helped transfer the ill and the aged in Budapest. He worked directly with Raoul Wallenberg, and rescued Jews from the death marches at Hegyeshalom. (Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), p. 853.)

Birgit Brulin, Secretary of the Swedish Legation, Budapest, 1944-45

Birgit Brulin worked directly for the refugee section of the Swedish embassy in Budapest. She was responsible for processing thousands of the protective papers. On occasion, she was responsible for delivering these protective papers directly to refugees. This work was extremely dangerous, as the US and the Russians were bombing Budapest. (Lévai, Jenö. Black Book on the Martyrdom of Hungarian Jewry. (Central European Times Publishing, 1948). 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. Asaf, 1990. Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981). Skoglund, Elizabeth R. A Quiet Courage: Per Anger, Wallenberg’s Co-Liberator of Hungarian Jews. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1997), p. 59.)

Mrs. István Csányi

Mrs. István Csányi worked under the guidance of Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg. Working with Gedeon Dienes, she saved hundreds of Jews from death marches and the Obuda brickyards by supplying them with Swedish protective papers. (Asaf, 1990, p. 74. Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), p. 1069.)

Gedeon Dienes

Gedeon Dienes worked under the guidance of Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg and Swedish Red Cross representatives Dr. Valdemar and Nina Langlet. Dienes saved hundreds of Jews from death marches and the Obuda brickyards by supplying them with Swedish protective papers. He became involved in rescue efforts by taking Jews to hiding places and delivering Red Cross protective papers. On one occasion, Dienes distributed over 100 protective papers to Jews in a slave labor battalion. (Asaf, 1990, p. 75. Braham, 1981, p. 1089.)

Father József Jánosy, Priest, Leader of the Hungarian Holy Cross Society

Father Jánosy led one of the most active religious organizations involved in the rescue of Jews in Budapest. He worked with the staff and volunteers of the Swedish legation in Budapest. (Asaf, 1990, p. 84. Braham, 1981. Szenes, S. “Unfinished Past.” (Budapest: Author, 1984). Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), p. 1051.)

Sára Karig●+, Hungarian citizen, Swedish Red Cross volunteer, worked with Asta Nilsson

Sára Karig distributed Swedish protective papers to Budapest Jews. She was also active in assigning Jewish children to Swedish protected houses. She became Righteous Among the Nations in 1985. (Asaf, 1990, p. 85. Szenes, S. “Unfinished Past.” (Budapest: Author, 1984). Born, 1945)

Kázmer Kállay●+, Swedish Red Cross volunteer (Born, 1945; Gutman, 2007, pp. 247-248)

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

Mária Kóla worked with Dr. Valdemar and Nina Langlet of the Swedish Red Cross. Together, they did everything in their power to protect Jews who were being robbed and deported by the Arrow Cross. This was particularly important after the summer of 1944. (Born, 1945)

Antal Lukacs●, Swedish Red Cross volunteer, worked wih Langlets (Born, 1945; Gutman, 2007, p. 274)

Champagnat French Boarding School, Marist Order, Budapest (Born, 1945; Gutman, 2007, p. 302)

Father Jakob Raile● (Braham, 1981; Gutman, 2007, pp. 303-304)

Károly Szabó

Károly Szabó worked with Raoul Wallenberg and other members of the Swedish legation in Budapest. He worked with Pal Szalai to help thwart the plan to destroy the Pest ghetto and kill its inhabitants. (Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 871, 874-875.)

Pal Szalai

Pal Szalai was a Hungarian who helped thwart the German plan to destroy the Pest ghetto. He tried to convince Vanja to cancel the action against the ghetto. He worked with Károly Szabó. (Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 871, 873-874.)

Géza Szentes●, Volunteer with Raoul Wallenberg, Budapest

Géza Szentes and his wife volunteered on rescue missions with Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg. He was named Righteous Among the Nations in 1973. (Asaf, 1990, p. 102.)

Reverend Gábor Sztehló●, Good Shepard Committee

Reverend Sztehló volunteered for and supervised Section B of the International Red Cross, which established a special department for the feeding, housing and protection of Jewish children in Budapest. Section B provided emergency safe houses for Jews, and worked closely with Valdemar Langlet of the Swedish Red Cross and Friedrich Born of the International Red Cross. Sztehló also smuggled Jewish children out of the Pest ghetto. He was responsible for saving more than one thousand Jewish children during the last months of the German occupation. Sztehló was honored by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations in 1972. (Asaf, 1990, p. 103. Szenes, S. “Unfinished Past.” (Budapest: Author, 1984). Sztehló, Gábor. “In God’s Hand.” (Budapest: A Magyarországi Evangelikus Egyház Sajtóosztálya, 1986). Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 855, 1052-1053, 1056, 1062.)

Dr. Ida Urr, MD●, doctor for Swedish Red Cross in Budapest (Gutman,2007, pp. 333-334)

Eva Bihari Wimmer, Volunteer for the Swedish legation in Budapest, 1944-45

Eva Bihari Wimmer was a young woman who volunteered to work for Dr. Valdemar Langlet to help distribute food to the Jewish protected houses in the Pest ghetto and to take doctors into the ghetto to take care of the sick in these houses. Langlet later introduced her to Raoul Wallenberg. Wallenberg needed a non-Jewish interpreter, and Wimmer volunteered. On a number of occasions, she accompanied Wallenberg to the various Hungarian ministries to negotiate the placement of Jews in protected houses. She told Hungarian police officials that she was helping Wallenberg by supplying him orders to retrieve Jews from the death marches, ostensibly so that they could be exchanged for high ranking German prisoners of war. Because of the danger, Wimmer was forced to sleep at different safe houses every night.

Simón Margel

Jewish volunteers:

Béla Forgács

Volunteered at the Swedish legation in Budapest, 1944-45. Were involved in the rescue of Jewish refugees with Swedish diplomats, especially Per Anger and Raoul Wallenberg. (Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), p. 1087. Skoglund, Elizabeth R. A Quiet Courage: Per Anger, Wallenberg’s Co-Liberator of Hungarian Jews. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1997). 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).)

Vilmos Forgács

Volunteered at the Swedish legation in Budapest, 1944-45. Were involved in the rescue of Jewish refugees with Swedish diplomats, especially Per Anger and Raoul Wallenberg. (Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), p. 1087. Skoglund, Elizabeth R. A Quiet Courage: Per Anger, Wallenberg’s Co-Liberator of Hungarian Jews. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1997). 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).)

Elizabeth Kasza-Kasser

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

Vilmosh Langefeld+*

Vilmosh Langefeld was an assistant to Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg. He was captured and taken prisoner by the Soviet Union along with Raoul Wallenberg on June 17, 1945. He and Wallenberg disappeared into the Russian gulags and their whereabouts have not been determined. (Skoglund, Elizabeth R. A Quiet Courage: Per Anger, Wallenberg’s Co-Liberator of Hungarian Jews. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1997). 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).)

Thomas Veres

Thomas Veres was a Jewish volunteer for Raoul Wallenberg at the Swedish legation in Budapest, 1944-45. Veres was also the driver and translator for Wallenberg. He took many of the photographs showing Wallenberg on his rescue missions in Budapest. (Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981). Bierman, John. Righteous Gentile: The Story of Raoul Wallenberg, Missing Hero of the Holocaust. (New York: Viking, 1981). Anger, Per. Translated by David Mel Paul and Margareta Paul. With Raoul Wallenberg in Budapest: Memories of the War Years in Hungary. (New York: Holocaust Library, 1981).)

Hugo Wahl

Volunteered at the Swedish legation in Budapest, 1944-45. Were involved in the rescue of Jewish refugees with Swedish diplomats, especially Per Anger and Raoul Wallenberg. (Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), p. 1087. Skoglund, Elizabeth R. A Quiet Courage: Per Anger, Wallenberg’s Co-Liberator of Hungarian Jews. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1997). 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).)

Swedish Legation, Rome, Italy

Swedish Minister to Rome

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

Swedish Protected Houses, Budapest, Hungary, Pest Ghetto, 1944-1945

Ara Jeretzian● (b. 1918), commander, Civil Defense, Sixth Quarter, Budapest. Organized/set up children’s clinic in Pest Ghetto under the auspices of the Swedish Legation.

Lazló Nagy●, clinic protected as many as 400 Hungarian Jews (Gutman, 2007, pp. 243-244)

Maria Kóla

Mária Kóla worked with Dr. Valdemar and Nina Langlet of the Swedish Red Cross. Together, they did everything in their power to protect Jews who were being robbed and deported by the Arrow Cross. This was particularly important after the summer of 1944.

Swedish Red Cross, Budapest, Hungary (Gutman, 1990)

Valdemar Langlet● and Nina Langlet●, Budapest, Hungary

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.)

Asta Nilsson, Budapest, Hungary

Asta Nilsson was a relative of King Gustav of Sweden. In 1944, Nilsson volunteered for an extremely dangerous mission in Budapest, Hungary. Nilsson worked with the Swedish Red Cross with Valdemar and Nina Langlet. In Budapest, Nilsson was active in saving and protecting Jewish children. When the Arrow Cross raided some of the children’s protected institutions, they arrested Nilsson and took her to the Arrow Cross headquarters. She was later released with the intervention of Raoul Wallenberg. (Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981). Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), pp. 258, 1439. Anger, Per. Translated by David Mel Paul and Margareta Paul. With Raoul Wallenberg in Budapest: Memories of the War Years in Hungary. (New York: Holocaust Library, 1981), pp. 52, 55, 58, 78f, 80,136. 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. 93. Lévai, Jenö. Black Book on the Martyrdom of Hungarian Jewry. (Central European Times Publishing, 1948), pp. 364, 392. 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). Koblik, Steven. The Stones Cry Out: Sweden’s Response to the Persecution of the Jews, 1933-1945. (New York: Holocaust Library, 1988), p. 72. Skoglund, Elizabeth R. A Quiet Courage: Per Anger, Wallenberg’s Co-Liberator of Hungarian Jews. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1997), pp. 36, 38, 116.)

Alexander Kasser●+ (Sándor Kasza)

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. (Born, 1945)

Reverend Gábor Sztehlo●, Good Shepard Committee(Born, 1945; Braham, 1981)

Dr. Ida Urr●, Swedish Red Cross (Born, 1945)

Dr. Lázló Bisits

Dr. Lázló Bisits worked with the Volunteer Ambulance Service (BOME) in Budapest, Hungary. As a physician, he helped transfer the ill and the aged in Budapest. He worked directly with Raoul Wallenberg, and rescued Jews from the death marches at Hegyeshalom. (Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), p. 853.)

Mrs. Istvan Csanyi

Mrs. István Csányi worked under the guidance of Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg. Working with Gedeon Dienes, she saved hundreds of Jews from death marches and the Obuda brickyards by supplying them with Swedish protective papers. (Asaf, 1990, p. 74. Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), p. 1069.)

Gedeon Dienes

Gedeon Dienes worked under the guidance of Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg and Swedish Red Cross representatives Dr. Valdemar and Nina Langlet. Dienes saved hundreds of Jews from death marches and the Obuda brickyards by supplying them with Swedish protective papers. He became involved in rescue efforts by taking Jews to hiding places and delivering Red Cross protective papers. On one occasion, Dienes distributed over 100 protective papers to Jews in a slave labor battalion. (Asaf, 1990, p. 75; Born, 1945; Braham, 1981, p. 1089)

Bela Elek

Maria Kóla

Mária Kóla worked with Dr. Valdemar and Nina Langlet of the Swedish Red Cross. Together, they did everything in their power to protect Jews who were being robbed and deported by the Arrow Cross. This was particularly important after the summer of 1944. (Born, 1945)

Karoly Szabó

Károly Szabó worked with Raoul Wallenberg and other members of the Swedish legation in Budapest. He worked with Pal Szalai to help thwart the plan to destroy the Pest ghetto and kill its inhabitants. (Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 871, 874-875.)

Géza Szentes●

Géza Szentes and his wife volunteered on rescue missions with Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg. He was named Righteous Among the Nations in 1973. (Asaf, 1990, p. 102.)

Eva Bihari Wimmer

Eva Bihari Wimmer was a young woman who volunteered to work for Dr. Valdemar Langlet to help distribute food to the Jewish protected houses in the Pest ghetto and to take doctors into the ghetto to take care of the sick in these houses. Langlet later introduced her to Raoul Wallenberg. Wallenberg needed a non-Jewish interpreter, and Wimmer volunteered. On a number of occasions, she accompanied Wallenberg to the various Hungarian ministries to negotiate the placement of Jews in protected houses. She told Hungarian police officials that she was helping Wallenberg by supplying him orders to retrieve Jews from the death marches, ostensibly so that they could be exchanged for high ranking German prisoners of war. Because of the danger, Wimmer was forced to sleep at different safe houses every night.

Sara Karig●

Sára Karig distributed Swedish protective papers to Budapest Jews. She was also active in assigning Jewish children to Swedish protected houses. She became Righteous Among the Nations in 1985. (Asaf, 1990, p. 85. Szenes, S. “Unfinished Past.” (Budapest: Author, 1984).)

Kázmer Kallay●+, Swedish Red Cross volunteer (Gutman, 2007, pp. 247-248)

Antal Lukacs●, Swedish Red Cross volunteer, worked wih Langlets (Gutman, 2007, p. 274)

Swiss Childrens Aid

Swiss Government (Bonjour, 1970-1976; Hässler, 1969; Ludwig, 1957; Rings, 1974)

Jean-Marie Musy, President of the Federal Council of Switzerland

Jean-Marie Musy was the President and head of State in Switzerland. Musy made contact with the head of the SS Foreign Communications Service, Walter Schellenberg, and managed to ransom 1,200 Jews from the Theresienstadt concentration camp. They were brought to Switzerland. (Favez, Jean-Claude. Edited and translated by John and Beryl Fletcher. The Red Cross and the Holocaust. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 262, 265. Laqueur, Walter (Ed.) and Judith Tydor Baumel (Assoc. Ed.). The Holocaust Encyclopedia. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), p. 622. Koblik, Steven. The Stones Cry Out: Sweden’s Response to the Persecution of the Jews, 1933-1945. (New York: Holocaust Library, 1988), pp. 125-127, 132, 278. Penkower, Monty Noam. The Jews Were Expendable: Free World diplomacy and the Holocaust. (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1983), pp. 247, 256-264, 274, 277, 278.)

Swiss Embassy, Berlin, Germany (Gutman, 2007, p. 522)

Jean Edouard Friedrich● (b. 1912), helped Herbert and Lotte Strauss to escape Berlin, Germany, to Switzerland in 1943

Marcel Junod (Swiss), Berlin, Germany

Swiss Consulate, Bregenz, Austria (Wagner, 2001)

Consul Ernst Prodolliet● (1905-1984; Swiss Federal Archives, Bern, Switzerland. This information was provided by the Swiss Task Force in 2000.)

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.)

Swiss Consulate General, Lyons, France (Wagner, 2001, p. 163)

René Nodot●, Social worker, Foreign and Displaced Persons Section 1940-1944

Léon Froment, Worked with René Miolane (Underground Resistance, Lyon)

Swiss Consulate, Milan, Italy

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

Pio Perucchi was a Swiss consular official stationed in Milan in 1938-1939. Perucchi and his colleague Candido Porta were responsible for issuing more than 1,600 illegal and unauthorized visas to Jews who had fled Austria after the Anschluss. The two consuls issued visas against the specific regulations and policies of the Swiss Federal Department of Justice and Police. For his activities, Perucchi was not allowed to continue working at the consulate after March 1939. (Swiss Federal Archives, Bern, Switzerland. This information was provided by the Swiss Task Force in 2000.)

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

Candido Porta was a Swiss consular official stationed in Milan in 1938-1939. Porta and his colleague Pio Perucchi were responsible for issuing more than 1,600 illegal and unauthorized visas to Jews who had fled Austria after the Anschluss. The two consuls issued visas against the specific regulations and policies of the Swiss Federal Department of Justice and Police. For his activities, Porta was demoted and transferred to a different section. (Swiss Federal Archives, Bern, Switzerland. This information was provided by the Swiss Task Force in 2000.)

Swiss Consulate, Trieste, Italy

(See book on Paul Grüninger by Stefan Keller.)

Swiss Consulate, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (Gutman, 2007, p. 525; Wagner, 2001, p. 23)

Vice Consul Ernst Prodolliet● (1905-1984)

René de Weck

Swiss Consulate, Bucharest, Romania

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

In spring 1933, de Weck was appointed Plenipotentiary Minister for Switzerland in Romania, Yugoslavia and Greece, stationed in Bucharest, Romania. In November 1941, as a result of the Nazi persecutions of Jews in Romania, de Weck contacted the Red Cross and urged them to send a special representative to Bucharest to protect Jews who were being murdered. As a result, the ICRC sent two representatives. Working with ICRC representative Carl Kolb in the summer of 1943, de Weck managed to gather more than 2,000 Jewish orphans in Moldavia to prevent their deportation and from being forced into ghettoes. De Weck also managed to protect Hungarian Jews who had sought refuge in Romania and who would otherwise have been murdered. De Weck worked to prevent the Romanian government from harming Jews of Swiss nationality or of those countries whose interests were being represented by Switzerland in Romania. (Bauer, Yehuda. American Jewry and the Holocaust. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), pp. 349-350. Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), pp. 1231, 1297-1298. Favez, Jean-Claude. Edited and translated by John and Beryl Fletcher. The Red Cross and the Holocaust. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 109, 198-200, 202, 206-207, 210, 212-213. Vago, Bela. “Political and Diplomatic Activities for the Rescue of the Jews of Northern Transylvania.” Yad Vashem Studies, 6 (1967), p. 161. Laqueur, Walter (Ed.) and Judith Tydor Baumel (Assoc. Ed.). The Holocaust Encyclopedia. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), p. 621. Lavi, T. Rumanian Jewry in World War II: Fight for Survival. (Jerusalem, 1965). Hebrew. Lavi, T. (Ed.). Rumania, Vol. 1. In Pinkas Hakehillot, Encyclopaedia of Jewish Communities. (Jerusalem, 1969). Hebrew. Butnaru, I. C. The Silent Holocaust: Romania and its Jews.)

Swiss Consulate, Bratislava, Slovakia

The Swiss legation in Slovakia protested the deportations of Jews in September 1944. (Bauer, Yehuda. American Jewry and the Holocaust. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), p. 448.)

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

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

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

Hans Keller personally saved more than 25 Jews by smuggling them from Bratislava into Switzerland. He did this against the official policy and regulations of Switzerland. Hans Keller was sent to Bratislava in December 1944. He worked with ICRC representative Georges Dunand and helped to hide Jews there. Keller died at the age of 91 in Bern, Switzerland. (Favez, Jean-Claude. Edited and translated by John and Beryl Fletcher. The Red Cross and the Holocaust. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), p. 196. AG, G59/2, letter from Dunand of 18 December 1944.)

Swiss Legation, Sophia, Bulgaria (Todorov, 2001, pp. 92-94)

Charles Rédard, Chargé d’Affairs

Swiss Legation, Budapest, Hungary, 1944-1945 (Braham, 1981; Gutman, 2007; Levai, 1948; Tschuy, 19??; Wagner, 2001)

Maximillian Jaeger, Swiss Minister in Budapest, 1936-44

In 1936, Jaeger was transferred to Budapest, where Switzerland had set up a legation that same year. He was head of the Swiss mission, and was Carl Lutz’s direct supervisor. Jaeger played an active role in opposing the deportation of Jews by the Nazi and Arrow Cross officials. In particular, he tried to persuade the Nazis from deporting Jews to Auschwitz and to respect the neutrality of the 76 Swiss protected houses. The activities of Minister Jaeger were instrumental in providing Lutz with the necessary conditions for the rescue of Jews in Budapest. Lutz stated that the Minister always allowed him a good deal of freedom of action, and had total confidence in him. Beginning early in the war, Jaeger sent regular reports to the Ministry in Bern regarding the fate of the Jews in Hungary. (Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 756, 978, 1079. Lévai, Jenö. Black Book on the Martyrdom of Hungarian Jewry. (Central European Times Publishing, 1948), p. 227, 276-277, 355.)

Consul General, Harald Feller●

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; Gutman, 2007)

Vice Consul Carl Lutz● (1895-1975)

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. Gutman, 2007)

Gertrud Lutz●, wife of Carl Lutz (Gutman, 2007)

Consul Ernst Vonrufs●

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).)

Consul Dr. Peter Zurcher● (1914-1975)

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).)

Vice Consul Franz Bishof

Franz Bischof was actively involved in rescuing Jews along with Carl Lutz in the Swiss Embassy in Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45. In addition, Bischof personally hid more than 30 Jews from Nazi deportation and murder. (Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981).)

Friedrich Born●, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)

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.)

Hans Weyerman, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)

In December 1944, Hans Weyermann, Swiss Chargé of the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC), arrived in Budapest and was active in the rescue work along with other neutral diplomats. He was successful in keeping Jewish children from being placed in the Pest ghetto. He was the assistant to Friedrich Born. Weyermann worked closely with Jewish community leaders and set up a number of special Red Cross sections. Born and Weyermann worked to protect and organize 150 clinics, hospitals, homes and other institutions in the winter of 1944-45. The ICRC helped distribute thousands of Red Cross protective papers to Jews in Budapest. Weyermann stayed in Hungary after Born’s departure from Budapest and continued to provide aid to Jewish refugees. (Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 854, 981, 1063, 1149. Lévai, Jenö. Black Book on the Martyrdom of Hungarian Jewry. (Central European Times Publishing, 1948), pp. 381, 386-387, 391. Ben-Tov, Arieh. Facing the Holocaust in Budapest: The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Jews in Hungary, 1943-1945. (Boston: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1988), pp. 335, 339-344, 377-378. Asaf, Uri. Christian support for Jews during the Holocaust in Hungary. In Braham, Randolph L. (Ed.) Studies on the Holocaust in Hungary, pp. 65-112. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990), p. 107. Kramer, T. D. From Emancipation to Catastrophe: The Rise and Holocaust of Hungarian Jewry. (New York: University Press of America), pp. 249-250. Lévai, Jenö, translated by Frank Vajda. Raoul Wallenberg: His Remarkable Life, Heroic Battles and the Secret of his Mysterious Disappearance. (Melbourne, 1988, originally published in Hungarian in 1948). Favez, Jean-Claude. Edited and translated by John and Beryl Fletcher. The Red Cross and the Holocaust. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 242, 249, 250.)

Maria Kormos (Jewish), secretary to Zurcher

Leopold Breszlauer

Swiss consular official Leopold Breszlauer, along with Ladislaus Kluger, issued 300 protective papers to Hungarian Jews. Breszlauer and Kluger produced a report in November 1944 on the death marches from Budapest to Hegyeshalom. (Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), p. 841.)

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

Ladislaus Kluger was a member of the Swiss consulate in Budapest, Hungary. He participated in the rescue of Jews on the Hegyeshalom death marches. (Asaf, Uri. Christian support for Jews during the Holocaust in Hungary. In Braham, Randolph L. (Ed.) Studies on the Holocaust in Hungary, pp. 65-112. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990), p. 86.)

Helped by:

Gerhardt Feine

Consul Gerhart Feine was Director of the Jewish Department of the German Plenipotentiary in Budapest in 1944-1945. He informed Carl Lutz, Raoul Wallenberg and other members of the neutral legations of the plans of Hitler’s Foreign Minister Veesenmayer and SS Colonel Adolf Eichmann to deport and murder the Jews of Budapest. Without Feine’s help, the rescue of Jews would have been far more difficult and dangerous. Feine betrayed the confidence of Veesenmayer and Eichmann. He was never discovered for informing on his superiors. Feine also rescued several Jewish families in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, prior to his assignment in Budapest. Feine was killed after the war while attempting to rescue people from a burning building. (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. 388, 507. Lévai, Jenö. Black Book on the Martyrdom of Hungarian Jewry. (Central European Times Publishing, 1948), p. 283.)

Swiss Legation, Rome, Italy

Father Marie-Benoit, under the auspices of DELASEM, obtained protective documents for Jews from the Swiss legation in Rome. These documents protected Jews, at least in part, from deportation. (Chadwick, Owen. “Weizsäcker, the Vatican, and the Jews of Rome.” In Michael Marrus (Ed.), The Nazi Holocaust: Historical Articles on the Destruction of European Jews. (Westport, CT: Meckler, 1989), pp. 1281-1282.)

Mr. Chauvet, Swiss Legation in Rome, Italy, 1943

Mr. Chauvet, of the Swiss legation in Rome, issued Swiss protective letters to Jews and certified that they were French citizens. Eventually, Chauvet expanded his protection to falsely certify that all refugees were French. Chauvet distributed false documents to hundreds of Jews. He worked with the Jewish relief agency Delegazione Assistenze Emigranti Ebrei (Jewish Emigrant Association; Delasem) and Father Marie-Benoit. (Waagenaar, Sam. The Pope’s Jews. (La Salle, IL: Open Court Publishers, 1974), pp. 394-395, 399.)

Swiss Protestant Federation (Moore, 2010, p. 129)

Pastor Alphonse Koechlin, Basle, president (Moore, 2010, p. 129)

Swiss Red Cross, France

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

Walter Stucki, the Swiss Minister to Vichy France and Acting Director of the Swiss Red Cross, protested the treatment and deportation of French Jews in southern France. He made his protest to the leader of Vichy France, Marshal Phillipe Petain. Stucki tried to prevent Jewish children from being taken from institutions represented by Swiss charities. Petain refused to change French policy against Jews. (Bauer, Yehuda. American Jewry and the Holocaust. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), p. 262. Levin, Nora. The Holocaust: The Destruction of European Jewry, 1933-1945. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1968), pp. 447-448.)

Swiss Relief Agency

Swiss Rescue Organization (Le Secours Suisse aux Enfants), Swiss Red Cross, Le Chambon sur Lignon, Toulouse, Haute Loire, France, see also Chateau de la Hille Orphanage, Department of the Ariège (Gutman, 1990; Gutman, 2007, pp. 519-520, 521, 523, 525; Wagner, 2001)

Hid and cared for 120 Jewish children. Many were smuggled to Switzerland.

Auguste Bohny●, sheltered 800 children

Friedel Bohny-Reiter●, sheltered 800 children

Maurice DuBois●, leader Swiss Red Cross, Toulouse, France

Elénore Dubois● (wife)

Rose (Rösli) Naëf●, Head, Chateau de la Hille Orphanage

Frederic Reymond●

Victoria Cordier●

Madeleine Cordier●

Anne-Marie Im Hof Piquet●, Chateau de la Hille Orphanage

Germaine Hommel●, Head, Swiss Childrens home at Cergues-les-Voiron, Haute-Savior

Sébastian Steiger●, Chateau de la Hille Orphanage

Swiss Service Civil Internationale

Stanislawa Karsov-Szymaniewska Rescue Group/Network, Warsaw, Poland (Bartoszewski, 1969, pp. 159-170)

Stanislawa Karsov-Szymaniewska, rescue group founder, leader Counter-Intelligence Section, Warsaw District Command, Home Army (AK)

Janina Radwan-Przepelska, mother of Stanislawa Szymaniewska

Hichal Rybolowicz (Bartoszewski, 1969, p. 160)

Lilian Symaniewska, daughter of Stanislawa Szymaniewska (Bartoszewski, 1969, p. 161)

Ewa Szymaniewska, daughter of Stanislawa Szymaniewska (Bartoszewski, 1969, p. 161)

Leszek Przdpelski* (Bartoszewski, 1969, p. 161)

Jerzy Przedpelski (Bartoszewski, 1969, p. 161)

Pawel Smietena+* (Bartoszewski, 1969, p. 162)

Marianna Chmielewska (Bartoszewski, 1969, p. 162)

Jan Sobotnik (Bartoszewski, 1969, p. 162)

Pawel Kurodym (Bartoszewski, 1969, p. 162)

Zygmunt Okun, Sergeant, “Blue Police” (Bartoszewski, 1969, p. 162)

Janina Okun, wife of Zygmunt Okun (Bartoszewski, 1969, p. 162)

Waclaw Mila, Second Brigade Leader (Bartoszewski, 1969, p. 163)

Zofia Gurcman+, arrested by Gestapo (Bartoszewski, 1969, p. 163)

Maria Kossakowska (Bartoszewski, 1969, p. 163)

Barbara Zemanek*, killed during Warsaw Uprising (Bartoszewski, 1969, p. 163)

Stefania Klosinska*, killed during Warsaw Uprising (Bartoszewski, 1969, p. 163)

Jerzy Michalewicz (Bartoszewski, 1969, p. 164)

Marek Szacki (Bartoszewski, 1969, p. 164)

Tadeusz Wolowski (Bartoszewski, 1969, p. 164)

Leszek Przedpelski (Bartoszewski, 1969, p. 164)

Jerzy Przedpelski (Bartoszewski, 1969, p. 164)

Maria Szymanska (“Isia”; Bartoszewski, 1969, p. 164)

Antoni Niedzielski (Bartoszewski, 1969, p. 164)

Konrad Trapszo (Bartoszewski, 1969, p. 164)

Zofia Wyrozebska, clerk in Records Office (Bartoszewski, 1969, p. 165)

Marceli Krawczyk, chief, Address Department, Records Office, Warsaw City Hall (Bartoszewski, 1969, p. 165)

Janina Garstka, clerk, Arbeitsamt (Labor Office; Bartoszewski, 1969, p. 166)

Irena Kielczewska (Bartoszewski, 1969, p. 166)

Zofia Debicka, aided and hid 85 Jews (Bartoszewski, 1969, p. 166)

Aniela Tomaszewska, hid Jewish girl (Bartoszewski, 1969, p. 167)

Mrs. Zurawska, aided and hid numerous Jews (Bartoszewski, 1969, p. 167)

Mr. Bursztynski (Bartoszewski, 1969, p. 168)

Julianna Kozerska and Stanislawa Kozerska, sisters (Bartoszewski, 1969, p. 168)

Zofia Gurcman (Bartoszewski, 1969, p. 165)

Mr. Kordowsk, Warsaw City Council employee (Bartoszewski, 1969, p. 165)