Organizations Involved in Holocaust Rescue - Part 8 (T-V)

A-B          C-D          E-H           I           J-N          O-R           S           T-V          W-Z

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

TD Group (Tweed Distributiestamkaart), the Netherlands (Gutman, 2004, p. liv)


Témoignage Chrétien (Catholic), France


Temporary Committee for Aid to Jews, Poland (Tymczasowy Kommitet Pomocy Żydom) Founded Sept. 1942 Became Council for Aid to Jews. See Zegota


Temporary Mutual Assistance (L’Entraide Temporaire), Paris, France (Gutman, 1990, 2003; Ménager, 2005, pp. 166-168; Moore, 2010, p. 119; Yagil, 2005, pp. 531-532)

Denise Milhaud, founder

Dr. Fred Milhaud (UJIF)


Ten Boom Rescue Network, Haarlem, Netherlands, hid Jews (De Jong; Gutman, 2003; Ten Boom, 1971, 1945)

Corrie (Cornelia) ten Boom+

Willem ten Boom+

Kik ten Boom+


Thomsen Rescue Operation, North Zealand, Denmark (Gutman, 2007, pp. 64-65)

The Thomsen’s were inkeeps in the village of Snekkersten, in North Zealand, Denmark.  Leaders of Rescue Network that saved hundreds of Danish Jews durng the attempted Nazi deportation in October 1943.  Arranged for transport of Jews to Sweden.  Inn served as rescue/resistance headquarters.

Henry Christian Thomsen●+* (b. 1906-1944), arrested twice, deported to Neuengamme concentration camp in Germany, murdered December 4, 1944

Ellen Margrethe Thomsen● (b. 1912)


Pastor F. W. Tjadens Rescue Network, Steenwijk, Netherlands (Hillbrink, 1989, p. 114)

Saved fifty percent of the Dutch Jews in this small community.


Village of Trôo, Loire-et-Cher, France (Ferrand, 2005, pp. 85-92)

Village of 671 people in Loire area of France.  Hid, sheltered approximately 28 Jewish children during German occupation.  Worked with Rue Amelot committee.

Major Louis Paul Pinchon (Ferrand, 2005, pp. 90-91)

Red Cross worker (Ferrand, 2005)

Physician (Ferrand, 2005)


Trouw Group, the Netherlands, Dutch underground group that published clandestine resistance newspapers, members were involved in the rescue of Jewish children (De Jong, Het Kroninkrijk, vol. VI; Flim, 1996, 2001; Gutman, 2004, p. xlv)

Dr. Gesina van der Molen●+, editor, underground newspapers “Vrij Nederland” and “Trouw” (De Jong, vol. VI, p. 338; Flim, 1996, p. 108; Gutman, 2006; Winkel, 1970, p. 8)

Hester van Lennep● (Baracs; Gutman, 2006)

Sándor Baracs (Jewish; Gutman, 2006)

Boissevain Family (De Jong; Flim, 1996, 2001)

Mies Nolte (Moore, 2010,p. 302)

Truitje van Lier, member UVSV (Flim, 1996, p.67; Hof, 1995, pp. 214, 219, 221-222, 229, 235)

Saved an estimated 150 Jewish children through her network.


Turin Network, Monsignor Vincenzo Barale


Turkish Consulate, Marsailles, France

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

Necdet Kent was the Vice Consul for the Turkish Republic stationed in Marseilles, France, in 1942.  He was later promoted to the rank of Consul and remained in Marseilles until 1945.  When Nazi Germany occupied France in 1940, many Jewish Turks and others fled to unoccupied Vichy France.  During the period of 1942-45, Kent issued numerous Turkish certificates of citizenship to Jewish refugees, preventing them from being deported to Nazi murder camps.  On one occasion, Kent boarded a deportation train bound for Auschwitz with Jews loaded on cattle cars.  Kent stopped the train and had the Jews released.  (Shaw, Stanford J. Turkey and the Holocaust: Turkey’s Role in Rescuing Turkish and European Jewry from Nazi Persecution, 1933-1945. (New York: New York University Press, 1993), pp. 64-66, 79, 95-96, 132-134, 148, 332, 341-344.)


Turkish Consulate/Embassy, Paris, France

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

In February 1942, Turkish Consul General in Paris Namik Kemal Yolga submitted a list of 631 Jews of Turkish nationality who were to be protected from deportation.  He tirelessly petitioned the Turkish Foreign Ministry to save additional Jews, Turkish and non-Turkish, from being deported.  (Browning, Christopher R. Browning. The Final Solution and the German Foreign Office: A Study of Referat D III of Abteilung Deutschland 1940-43. (New York: Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1978), pp. 155-156.  Shaw, Stanford J. Turkey and the Holocaust: Turkey’s Role in Rescuing Turkish and European Jewry from Nazi Persecution, 1933-1945. (New York: New York University Press, 1993), pp. 60-63, 66, 72, 79, 88, 96, 110-111, 129-130, 134, 160-161, 173, 175, 178, 183, 198, 277, 331, 337-340. Favez, Jean-Claude.  Edited and translated by John and Beryl Fletcher. The Red Cross and the Holocaust. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 242, 249-250.)


Turkish Consulate Rhodes

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

Selahattin Ülkümen was the Turkish Consul General in Rhodes, 1943-1945.  In July 1944, the Germans began rounding up the Jews of Rhodes.  The Turkish Consul General, Selahattin Ülkümen, interceded on behalf of those Jews who were Turkish nationals.  By his efforts, 42 Jewish families were set free from the deportation to Auschwitz-Birkenau.  In reprisal, the Nazi authorities bombed Ülkümen’s house, fatally injuring his pregnant wife and two employees of the consulate.  Consul General Ülkümen received the Righteous Among the Nations award in 1989.  He was awarded a special medal from Turkey in 2001.  Ülkümen died in 2003.  (Shaw, Stanford J. Turkey and the Holocaust: Turkey’s Role in Rescuing Turkish and European Jewry from Nazi Persecution, 1933-1945. (New York: New York University Press, 1993), pp. 253-254.)

Turkish Red Crecent


Ukrainian Central Council (Ukrainska Rada Glowna)


Umberto I Rome University Hospital, Rome, Italy (Gutman, 2007)

Hid Jews and others.  Sought by the Nazis during the German occupation of Rome, October 1943-June 1944.

Professor Giuseppe Caronia●, director of clinic of infectious diseases

Mother Salesia, chief nurse

Staff


Union for Peace and Liberty (Arbietgemeinschaft für Friede und Freiheit), Berlin, Germany

Werner Scharff


The Union of Danish Youth (Dansk Ungdomssamvirke), see also Council of Elders, Denmark; issued newsletter to youth leaders (Lederladet; Yahil, 1969, pp. 37, 38-40, 231)

Jørgen Jørgensen, Danish Minister of Education, member Council of Elders

Professor Hal Koch, University of Copenhagen


Unitarian Service Committee HQ (USC), Boston, MA, United States

The Unitarian Service Committee (USC) of Boston worked very closely with the ERC and Donald Lowrie of the YMCA.  The Unitarians provided medical supplies, food, and education to refugee children.  The distributed International Red Cross supplies.  The USC operated a clinic on the rue d’Italie in Marseilles.  Dr. Rene Zimmer, a refugee, supervised the clinic.  The USC helped distribute food, along with the Quakers.  The USC employed four full-time physicians and five part-time physicians, including three dentists, to aid refugee health concerns.  The USC shared space with OSC and other Jewish organizations that helped children.

There were a number of Jewish volunteers who worked in the Unitarian Service Committee’s office in Marseilles.  In addition, the USC cooperated with many Jewish rescue organizations and operations in and around Marseilles.

There were 16 persons who worked in the committee office in France.

Waitstill Sharp and Martha Sharp, from the Boston OSC office, helped distribute milk to Jewish refugee children.

The USC helped expedite about 100 immigration cases.

The USC also helped former Spanish republican soldiers who were fleeing Spain.

The USC oversaw the establishment of a kindergarten at the Rivesaltes camp and relief operations at Les Milles, Bompard, Atlantique, Terminus des Ports, and Levant.

References:

Archives and Manuscripts

American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. Archives. New York City.

Anderson, Paul B. Papers. University of Illinois Archives, Chambagne-Urbana, Illinois.

British Secret Intelligence Service. MI-6 Records. Public Records Office, Kew Gardens, London.

Dexter, Elisabeth Anthony, and Robert Cloutman Dexter. “Last Port of Freedom.” Unpublished manuscript. Multiple drafts, undated. Elisabeth Anthony Dexter Papers, Box 16. John Hay Library, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island.

Dexter, Elisabeth Anthony, and Robert Cloutman Dexter. Papers. John Hay Library, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island.

Dexter, Lewish A. “A Memoir of Elisabeth Anthony Dexter: Social Background and Personal Meaning of a Type of Feminist Research,” 17 pp. Undated, unpublished manuscript, in the author’s possession.

DiFiglia, Ghanda. “To Try the Soul’s Strength: A Woman’s Participation in the History of Her Time.” Unpublished manuscript. 1998. Martha and Waitstill Sharp Collection, Box 43, Folder 104, John Hay Library, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island.

Ebel, Miriam Davenport. Papers. U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC.

Eliot, Samuel Atkins. Papers. Andover-Harvard Theological Library, Harvard University Divinity School, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Feuchtwanger, Lion. Memorial Library. Special Collections, Doheny Memorial Library, University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

Fisera, Joseph. Archive. U.S. Hololcaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC.

Fry, Varian. Papers. Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscript Library, New York City.

Joy, Charles Rhind. Papers. Andover-Harvard Theological Library, Harvard University Divinity School, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Lewis, J. F., “The Unitarian Service Committee.” Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, 1952.

Long, Breckinridge. Papers. Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

Lowrie, Donald A., and Helen O. Lowrie. Papers. University of Illinois Archives, Champagne-Urbana, Illinois.

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Federal Bureau of Investigation. Office of Strategic Services. State Depaertment. State Department Decimal Files. Washington, DC, and College Park, Maryland.

Roosevelt, Eleanor. Papers. Franklin Delano Roosevelt Presidential Library, Hyde Park, New York.

Sharp, Martha and Waitstill. Collection. John Hay Library, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island.

Skidmore College. Archives, Saratoga Springs, New York.

Unitarian Service Committee. Records. Audiovisual Records. Andover-Harvard Theological Library, Harvard University Divinity School, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Unitarian Universalist Service Committee. Records. U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Institutional Archives: Assignment Rescue. Oral History Archives. Photo Archives. Washington, DC.

USC Archives, Harvard Divinity School Library, Harvard University, Boston, MA

War Refugee Board. Archives. Franklin Delano Roosevelt Presidential Library, Hyde Park, New York.

Published Works

American Labor Conference on International Affairs. “Guide to the American Labor Conference on International Affairs Records, 1939-1950,” Taminent Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, Elmer Holmes Bobst Library.  http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/tamwag/alcia.html

Baker Memorial Issue. The Tech. Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1950.

Bauer, Yehuda. American Jewry and the Holocaust: The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, 1939-45. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981, pp. 161-162, 207, 240.

Bazarov, Valery. “Schmolka and Stiener: The Return of the Heroes,” Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. www.hias.org/who_we_are/120stories/116Schmolka.pdf

Bénédite, Danny. La Filiere Marseillaise: Un Chemin Vers la Liberté Sous L’Occuption. Paris: Clancier Guenaud, 1984.

Brooks, H. L., Prisoners of Hope: Report on a Mission. New York: L. B. Fischer, 1942. 

DiFiglia, Ghanda. Roots and Visions: The First Fifty Years of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee. Cambridge, MA: Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, 1990.

Feuchtwanger, Lion. The Devil in France: My Encounter with Him in the Summer of 1940. New York: Viking Press, 1941.

Fry, Varian. Surrender on Demand. New York: Random House, 1945, pp. 73, 74, 80, 102, 106, 220, 239.

Genizi, Haim. American Apathy: The Plight of Christian Refugees from Nazism. Ramat-Gan, Israel: Bar-Ilan University, 1983.

Genizi, Haim. “Christian Charity: The Unitarian Service Committee’s Relief Activities on Behalf of Refugees from Nazism, 1940-45.” Holocaust and Genocide Studies 2, no. 2 (1987): 267-76.

Henry, Richard. Norbert Fabian Capek: A Spiritual Journey. Boston: Skinner House Books, 1999.

Howe, Charles A. For Faith and Freedom: A Short History of Unitarianism in Europe. Boston: Skinner House Books, 1997.

Lewis, Flora. Red Pawn: The Story of Noel Field. Garden City NY: Doubleday and Company, 1965.

Lewis, James Ford. “The Unitarian Service Committee.” PhD Diss., University of California, 1967.

London, Louise. Whitehall and the Jews, 1933-1948: British Immigration Policy, Jewish Refugees, and the Holocaust. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

Lowrie, Donald A. The Hunted Children. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1963.

Marino, Andy. A Quiet American: The Secret War of Varian Fry. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1999.

Morse, Arthur D. While Six Million Died: A Chronicle of American Apathy. New York: Random House, 1967, pp. 167, 334.

Pittet, Genevieve. “Passages de frontiers.” In Quelques Actions des Protestants de France: En Faveur des Juifs Persecutes Sous L’Occupation Allemande 1940-1944. Paris: CIMADE, 1945.

Romanofsky, Social Service Organizations, pp. 692-698. 

Ryan, Donna. “Vichy and the Jews: The Example of Marseille, 1939-44.” 2 vols. PhD diss., University of Maryland, 1984.

Samuel, Vivette. Rescuing the Children: A Holocaust Memoir. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2002.

Sanger, Clyde. Lotta and the Unitarian Service Committee Story. Toronto: Stoddard Publishing, 1986.

Weill, Joseph. Le Combat d’un Juste. Bron: Cheminements, 2002.

Wischnitzer, Mark. Visas to Freedom: The History of HIAS. Cleveland: World Publishing Company, 1956.

Wyman, Paper Walls; Ryan, 1996; Subak, Susan, Rescue and Flight: American Relief Workers who Defied the Nazis, Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2010

Zeitoun, Sabine. L’Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants (OSE) sous L’Occupation en France. Paris: L’Harmattan, 1990.


Unitarian Service Committee, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

William Emerson, Chairman, Unitarian Service Committee

Seth Gano, Vice Chairman, Unitarian Service Committee (Subak, 2010, p. xxiv)

Percival Brundage, Vice Chairman (Subak, 2010, p. 30)

Edward Witte, Treasurer, member Board of Directors (Subak, 2010, p. xxiv)

Frederick Eliot, member Board of Directors (Subak, 2010, pp. 26, 35, 136, 164, 177, 190, 266n2))

Dr. Winfred Overholser, member Board of Directors

Marion Harris Niles, office manager, USC Office, Boston (Subak, 2010, pp. 81, 108)

Mrs. Campbell, Boston office (Subak, 2010, p. 108)

Ray Bragg, Treasurer, USC Boston office (Subak, 2010, pp. 138, 164, 177, 224-225)

Unitarian Service Committee (Le Comité Unitarien pour le Secours), Marseilles, France, see also the Emergency Rescue Committee (ERC), Marseilles, Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), Marseilles, Czech Aid, Marseilles

Noel H. Field (USA), Southern France

Noel Field, a Quaker, headed the Marseilles office of the Unitarian Service Committee (USC).  Field had previously worked for the US Department of State and the League of Nations.  The USC provided relief in the French concentration camps in Southern France, including the Rivesalt, Les Milles, Atlantique, Terminus des Ports, and Levant camps and the Marseilles reception center in Bompard.  In addition, the USC ran medical clinics that employed four full-time and five part-time physicians, and three dentists.  (Subak, 2010, pp. 84-86, 88, 89, 109-111, 121-122, 125-126, 148, 151-153, 164, 181, 195, 202, 214-215, 225)

Herta Field (Subak, 2010, pp. 85, 86, 88, 119, 120, 146-149, 151, 153, 154, 179-181, 214)

Reverend Dr. Howard Lee Brooks (USA), France (Brooks, 1942; Subak, 2010, pp. 103-107, 109, 113, 114, 132, 137, 138, 157-158, 161, 165, 176, 177, 194, 196)

Dr. René Zimmer, head USC Marseilles clinic, see René Zimmer Rescue Network (USC Archives; Subak, 2010, pp. 87, 103, 105, 109-112, 125, 148, 156-159, 164, 173-175, 181, 191, 194-195, 198, 209)

Fanny Zimmer, wife of Dr. René Zimmer (Subak, 2010, pp. 105, 111, 158, 191)

Reverend Waitstill Sharp●, (USA), Southern France, Czechoslovakia

Waitstill and Martha Sharp represented the Unitarian Service Committee in the Marseilles area.  They helped distribute relief supplies and medicine to needy refugees.  They also helped Spanish Civil War refugees as well as Jews who were interned in the French camps.  In 1940, the Sharps helped save a number of Jewish children by taking them to Spain.  They were helped by American diplomat Hiram Bingham IV.  They were recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by the State of Israel in 2006.  (Subak, 2010, pp. 1-24, 28-29, 33-36, 38, 47, 50-52, 54, 55, 57, 58, 66-67, 76, 94, 97, 172, 213-215)

Martha Sharp●, (USA), France, Czechoslovakia

Waitstill and Martha Sharp represented the Unitarian Service Committee in the Marseilles area.  They helped distribute relief supplies and medicine to needy refugees.  They also helped Spanish Civil War refugees as well as Jews who were interned in the French camps.  In 1940, the Sharps helped save a number of Jewish children by taking them to Spain.  They were helped by American diplomat Hiram Bingham IV.  They were recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by the State of Israel in 2006.  (Subak, 2010, pp. 2, 9-24, 30-32, 41, 52-53, 55, 60-65, 68, 76, 94-95, 119-120, 134-137, 177-178, 210, 214, 237)

Reverend Dr. Charles Rhind Joy (USA), France (Subak, 2010, pp. 52, 54-60, 70, 71, 78-83, 90-91, 114-115, 129, 130, 131-132, 186, 187, 189, 190, 194-196)

Robert C. Dexter and wife, Elizabeth Dexter (USA), WRB representative, Portugal, 1944-1945 (Subak, 2010, pp. 25-28, 35, 59, 64-65, 76-78, 81-82, 100-109, 137-141, 157-159, 164, 169-171, 174-176, 207-208)

Isaac Weissman, Portugal (Jewish)

Franzi von Hildebrand, assistant to Dr. Charles Joy (Fry, 1945; Subak, 2010, pp. 249n1)

Dr. Olmer (Jewish), OSE, Marseilles clinic

Dr. Wolf, pediatrician, OSE, Marseilles clinic (Subak, 2010, p. 155)

Dr. Joseph Weil (Jewish), OSE, Marseilles clinic (Ryan, 1996; Subak, 2010, pp. 86-88, 119, 145, 179-181, 201, 203, 204)

Dr. Richard Baer (Jewish), physician, USC medical staff (Subak, 2010, pp. 141, 143)

Mr. Raptopoulos (Ryan, 1996)

Madam Rene Lang, children’s teacher in Rivesaltes internment camp, supervised 12 workers in camp (Ryan, 1996; Subak, 2010, pp. 88, 155, 197)

Aba Scerbac (Jewish; Subak, 2010, p. 141)

Dr. Zina Minor (Jewish; Subak, 2010, pp. 87-88, 155)

Hedwig Himmelstern (Subak, 2010, pp. 141-143)

Mrs. Kirbach, teacher, Bompard (Ryan, 1996)

Dr. Ilse Hamburger, teacher, Bompard (Ryan, 1996)

Madam Chavoutier (Ryan, 1996; Subak, 2010, p. 67)

Dr. Mendel, physician (Subak, 2010,  p. 155)

Dr. Landsmann, physician (Subak, 2010, p. 155)

Dr. Karp (Subak, 2010, p. 155)

Margot Stein, relief worker Hotel Bompard, Marseilles (Subak, 2010, pp. 109-124)

Herta “Jo” Tempi, USC office, Paris (Subak, 2010, pp. 198-200)

Unitarian Service Committee, physicians and surgeons, Marseilles, France

Dr. René Zimmer, head USC Marseilles clinic, see René Zimmer Rescue Network (USC Archives; Subak, 2010, pp. 87, 103, 105, 109-112, 125, 148, 156-159, 164, 173-175, 181, 191, 194-195, 198, 209)

Dr. Zina Minor (USC Archives; Subak, 2010, pp. 87-88, 155)

Dr. Mendel (USC Archives; Subak, 2010, p. 155)

Dr. Richard Baer (USC Archives; Subak, 2010, pp. 141, 143, 155)

Dr. Karp (USC Archives; Subak, 1020, p. 155)

Dr. Landsmann (USC Archives; Subak, 2010, p. 155)

Dr. Joseph Weil (Jewish; USC Archives; Subak, 2010, pp. 86-88, 119, 145, 179-181, 201, 203-204; Weil, Joseph, Le Combat d’un Juste, Bron: Cheminements, 2002)

Dr. Carcassonne, surgeon (Subak, 2010, p. 191)

Unitarian Service Committee, Lisbon, Portugal

References:

Dexter, Elisabeth Anthony, and Robert Cloutman Dexter. “Last Port of Freedom.” Unpublished manuscript. Multiple drafts, undated. Elisabeth Anthony Dexter Papers, Box 16. John Hay Library, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island.

Dexter, Elisabeth Anthony, and Robert Cloutman Dexter. Papers. John Hay Library, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island.

Dexter, Lewish A. “A Memoir of Elisabeth Anthony Dexter: Social Background and Personal Meaning of a Type of Feminist Research,” 17 pp. Undated, unpublished manuscript, in the author’s possession.


Reverend Charles Joy, manager (Subak, 2010, pp. 55-61, 74)

Robert Dexter, manager, replaced Charles Joy (Subak, 2010, pp. 105-106)

Elizabeth Dexter, wife of Robert Dexter (Subak, 2010, pp. 105-106)

Martha Sharp●

Mary Jane Gold (Fry, 1945; Subak, 2010, pp. 115-116)

Pipa Harris (Subak, 2010, pp. 105-106)

Aurora Ramos, secretary (Subak, 2010, pp. 105-106)

Yugoslav Goldstajn and wife (Subak, 2010, pp. 105-106)

Max Hoffman, refugee (Subak, 2010, pp. 106, 160, 170)

Ninon Tallon (Subak, 2010, pp. 54-55, 74)

Reverend Howard Brooks (Subak, 2010)

Walter Meyerhoff (Jewish), son of refugee Dr. Otto Meyerhoff (Subak, 2010, pp. 46-47, 76-79)

Heinrich Müller, refugee, former staff of Emergency Rescue Committee (ERC), made head interviewer for refugees in USC office in Lisbon (Subak, 2010, p. 90)

Rene Dorian, wife of Heinrich Müller, volunteered in USC office (Subak, 2010, p. 90)

Unitarian Service Committee (American Unitarian Association), Prague, Czechoslovakia (Subak, 2010, p. xx)

Helped Jews leave Czechoslovakia after the German occupation in 1938.  Waitstill and Martha Sharp set up an office to facilitate successful emigration.  They employed a number of young Czech Jews to operate the office.  They processed hundreds of Jewish refugees.  They succeeded in having Jews released from jails by obtaining letters from the American consular offices in Prague.  One consul, Consul General Irving Linnell, was particularly helpful to the Unitarians.

Robert Cloutman Dexter (d. 1955), helped found Unitarian Service Committee (USC; Subak, 2010, pp. xi-xxiv)

Elizabeth Anthony Williams Dexter (d. 1972; Subak, 2010, pp. xi-xxiv)

Norbert Capek, head Unitarian Church, Prague, Czechoslovakia (Subak, 2010, pp. xxi, 10-13, 22-24, 244n3, 244n36)

Waitstill Sharp● (Subak, 2010)

Martha Sharp● (Subak, 2010)

Richard Wood, American Friends Service Committee (AFSC; Subak, 2010, p. xxii)

Alice Masaryk (Subak, 2010, pp. 4, 14-16)

Unitarian Service Committee Kindergarten Program (USC Archives; Subak, 2010)

Madam Lang, head (USC Archives; Subak, 2010, pp. 88, 155)

Madam Monteil (USC Archives; Subak, 2010, p. 155)

Madame Haber+, medical secretary, deported with her husband (USC Archives; Subak, 2010, p. 155)

Vivette Herman Samuel (Jewish), OSE, Rivesaltes camp (Subak, 2010, p. 120)

Jacqueline Levy (Jewish), OSE, Rivesaltes camp (Subak, 2010, p. 120)

Helped by (individuals):

Varian Fry●, Emergency Rescue Committee (ERC; Centre Americain de Secours), Marseilles

Donald and Helen Lowrie, YMCA, Czech Aid, Nimes Committee

Danny Benédite, Emergency Rescue Committee (ERC; Centre Americain de Secours), Marseilles

Paul Schmierer, Emergency Rescue Committee (ERC), Marseilles (Subak, 2010, pp. 147, 149, 156, 159-161)

Dr. Jourdan*+, courier for USC, arrested, executed (Subak, 2010, p. 200)

Czech Consul Vladimir Vochoc, Marseilles (Ryan, 1996; Subak, 2010)

French Consul, Portugal (Subak, 2010, p. 62)

Marshal Field III, Chicago, department store owner, provided financial assistance tor efugees and guarantees to US State Department (Sharp, p. 25; Subak, 2010, p. 62)

Frederike Zweig (Jewish refugee), helped fellow refugees escape France to Portugal, then to Mexico (Subak, 2010, p. 65)

Frank Boh, American Federation of Labor (AFofL), Marseilles, helped secure the release of refugeesstuck at the Spanish border for the Unitarian Committee (Subak, 2010, p. 74)

Vivette Herman (Jewish), volunteered to work in USC school for Jewish children in Rivesaltes French camp (Samuel, 2002; Subak, 2010, p. 120)

Jacqueline Levy (Jewish), French Jewish refugee, worked in USC children’s schools in Rivesaltes French camp (Samuel, 2002; Subak, 2010, p. 120)

Joseph Schwartz, American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee representative, Lisbon, Portugal; supported USC rescue and relief activities in France and Portugal (JDC Archives, NYC; Suabak, 2010, p. 124)

Helped by (groups):

Emergency Rescue Committee (Centre Americain de Secours), Marseilles

Joint Committee of the International Red Cross (Subak, 2010, p. 125)

Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), Marseilles

American Friends Service Committee, Marseilles (Subak, 2010)

International Migration Service

Madam Chevally (Lowrie, 1961, p. 87)

Nimes Committee (Lowrie, 1961; Ryan, 1996; Subak, 2010)

Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HICEM), New York, London, had 80 aid workers in Marseilles (YIVO Archives, NYC; Subak, 2010)

American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), Marsielles, supported rescue and aid with funds and support (JDC Archives, NYC; Bauer, 1981; Subak, 2010)

Secours Suisse (Subak, 2010)

Ouevre Secours Enfants (OSE; Subak, 2010)

Czech Aid (Subak, 2010, p. 129)


United Danish Emigrant Aid Committee, Denmark (Yahil, 1969, pp. 196-197)

George Breitscheid+, secretary


United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA; Gutman, 1990, pp. 1538-1540; Woodbridge, 1950)

Govenor H.H. Lehman (USA), Director General, January 1, 1944 to March 31, 1946

Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia, (USA), Director General, April 1, 1946 to December 31, 1946

Lowell W. Rooks, Director General, January 1, 1947 to September 30, 1948


United Resistance Movement (MUR), France

Francois Vernet (Albert Sciaky), chief


United States of America

Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady of the United States, Political Activist

Eleanor Roosevelt was one of the strongest advocates for aiding and rescuing refugees during World War II.  On numerous occasions, she intervened with her husband to advocate the rescue of endangered refugees from the Nazis.  She was instrumental in founding the Emergency Rescue Committee.  (Feingold, Henry. The Politics of Rescue: The Roosevelt Administration and the Holocaust, 1938-1944. (New Brunswick, NJ:(New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1970), pp. 116, 144-145, 150-154, 160, 171, 241, 261. Wyman, David S. The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust, 1941-1945. (New York: Pantheon, 1984), pp. 37, 46, 91-92, 133-134,145-146, 148-149, 156, 225, 271-273, 315, 339, 376.  Morse, Arthur D. While Six Million Died: A Chronicle of American Apathy. (New York: Random House, 1967), pp. 30-31, 254-256, 295, 303-304.)

US Senate

Senator Guy M. Gillette

Guy M. Gillette, U.S. Senator, advocated in Congress for rescue efforts on behalf of Jews and other refugees.  He also tried to pass legislation to liberalize immigration laws.  Introduced specific legislation to rescue Jews on November 9, 1943:  “Resolved, that the House of Representatives (Senate) recommends and urges the creation by the President of a commission of diplomatic, economic and military experts to formulate and effectuate a plan of action to save the surviving Jewish people of Europe from extinction at the hands of Nazi Germany.”  (Feingold, Henry. The Politics of Rescue: The Roosevelt Administration and the Holocaust, 1938-1944. (New Brunswick, NJ: (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1970), pp. 210, 223.  Wyman, David S. The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust, 1941-1945. (New York: Pantheon, 1984), pp. 146, 155, 193-194, 200-204, 282, 396.)

Senator William H. King

Senator Robert Wagner

US House of Representatives

Congressman Joseph C. Balwin

Joseph B. Baldwin, Member of Congress, advocated in Congress for rescue efforts on behalf of Jews and other refugees.  He also tried to pass legislation to liberalize immigration laws.  Introduced specific legislation to rescue Jews on November 9, 1943:  “Resolved, that the House of Representatives (Senate) recommends and urges the creation by the President of a commission of diplomatic, economic and military experts to formulate and effectuate a plan of action to save the surviving Jewish people of Europe from extinction at the hands of Nazi Germany.”  (Feingold, Henry. The Politics of Rescue: The Roosevelt Administration and the Holocaust, 1938-1944. (New Brunswick, NJ: (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1970), p. 223.  Wyman, David S. The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust, 1941-1945. (New York: Pantheon, 1984), pp. 155, 194, 396.)

Congressman Emmanuel Celler (Jewish)

Emanuel Celler, Member of Congress, advocated in Congress for rescue efforts on behalf of Jews and other refugees.  He also tried to pass legislation to liberalize immigration laws.  (Celler, Emanuel. You Never Leave Brooklyn. (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1948).  Feingold, Henry. The Politics of Rescue: The Roosevelt Administration and the Holocaust, 1938-1944. (New Brunswick, NJ: (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1970), pp. 9, 19, 165, 178, 206, 208, 210, 235-237, 244.  Wyman, David S. The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust, 1941-1945. (New York: Pantheon, 1984), pp. 55-56, 94, 100, 110, 121, 151, 198, 201-202, 313, 317, 337.)

Congressman Samuel Dickstein

Samuel Dickstein, Member of Congress, advocated in Congress for rescue efforts on behalf of Jews and other refugees.  He also tried to pass legislation to liberalize immigration laws.  (Feingold, Henry. The Politics of Rescue: The Roosevelt Administration and the Holocaust, 1938-1944. (New Brunswick, NJ: (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1970), pp. 9, 14, 24-25, 97, 130, 194-195, 210.  Wyman, David S. The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust, 1941-1945. (New York: Pantheon, 1984), pp. 55-56, 110n, 121, 151, 198, 273-276, 317.)

Congressman Will Rogers, Jr.

Will Rogers, Jr., Member of Congress, advocated in Congress for rescue efforts on behalf of Jews and other refugees.  He also tried to pass legislation to liberalize immigration laws.  Introduced specific legislation to rescue Jews on November 9, 1943:  “Resolved, that the House of Representatives (Senate) recommends and urges the creation by the President of a commission of diplomatic, economic and military experts to formulate and effectuate a plan of action to save the surviving Jewish people of Europe from extinction at the hands of Nazi Germany.” Rogers was the son of noted U.S. humorist Will Rogers.   (Feingold, Henry. The Politics of Rescue: The Roosevelt Administration and the Holocaust, 1938-1944. (New Brunswick, NJ: (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1970), pp. 210-212, 223, 231-232, 280.  Wyman, David S. The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust, 1941-1945. (New York: Pantheon, 1984), pp. 148, 155, 194, 199.)

Charles A. Buckley

Hamilton Fish, Jr.

Frank Havenner

Hugh McRae

Edith Nourse Rogers

Sol Blum (Jewish)

Adolph Sabat (Jewish)


United States of America Department of the Interior

Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes, 1933-1946

U.S. Secretary of the Interior, Harold Ickes, was a strong advocate for providing refugees safe haven in the United States or its territories.  Specifically, he recommended settling refugees in Alaska or in the U.S. Virgin Islands.  Neither proposal was implemented.

Ruth Gruber, (USA), Rescuer, Oswego Project


United States of America Department of Labor (Zucker, 2008, pp. 1, 10-13, 15, 33-38, 41, 42, 46, 50, 65, 157, 170)

Francis Perkins, secretary


United States of America, Department of State, Washington, DC

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

On February 16 and 23, 1940, the Assistant Secretary of State Berle tried to persuade Secretary of State Cordell Hull to help Jews based on reports of deportations of Jews to concentration camps.  He also tried to persuade the State Department to condemn Nazi persecution of Jews.  Later, Berle helped liberalize State Department policy toward issuing visas.  In late 1943, Berle approved a license for a transfer of funds to save Jewish rabbis in Czechoslovakia.  Berle stated that the “no ransom” policy was no longer pertinent.  (Friedman, Saul S. No Haven for the Oppressed. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1973), pp. 128, 134. Wyman, David S. The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust, 1941-1945. (New York: Pantheon, 1984), pp. 74, 80, 111, 145, 190-191.  NA/SDDF, 840.48 Refugees / 5136, January 29, 1944, Berle memorandum to Rabbi Riegelmann.  Feingold, Henry. The Politics of Rescue: The Roosevelt Administration and the Holocaust, 1938-1944. (New Brunswick, NJ: (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1970), pp. 101, 142, 217, 227.)

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

On August 26, 1942, Ambassador Biddle forwarded an eight-page memorandum prepared by Ernest Frischer, who was a member of the Czechoslovakian State Council in Exile.  This report detailed the wholesale organized murder of Jews by the German government.  Biddle thought this document was so important that he forwarded it directly to President Roosevelt.  Biddle was a personal friend of Roosevelt.  This report had a significant impact on US diplomats in Washington.  As Ambassador to Poland in 1938, Biddle sent a report to US Secretary of State Cordell Hull warning him regarding Nazi Germany and the dangers of a future Holocaust.  He advocated that something be done to protect Jews.  (Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 698-699.  Morse, Arthur D. While Six Million Died: A Chronicle of American Apathy. (New York: Random House, 1967), pp. 10, 33, 232-233.  Feingold, Henry. The Politics of Rescue: The Roosevelt Administration and the Holocaust, 1938-1944. (New Brunswick, NJ:(New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1970), p. 171.)


United States Embasssies/Consulates

Embassy,Vienna, Austria

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

Embassy, Berlin, Germany Legation Consulate

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

Between 1929 and 1939, Dr. Raymond Herman Geist was the American Consul General in Berlin.  Geist sent a number of reports to the State Department about the increasing persecution of Jews between 1933 and 1939.  In December 1938, Geist warned Assistant Secretary of State Messersmith that the Jews of Germany were being condemned to death, and urged measures to rescue them.  In May 1939, Geist sent another warning to Washington stating that if resettlement opportunities did not open up soon, the Jews of Germany would be doomed.  In a letter to his former supervisor in Washington, Geist wrote:  “The Jews in Germany are being condemned to death and their sentence will be slowly carried out; but probably too fast for the world to save them…After we have saved these refugees, and the Catholics and Protestants have not become new victims of the wrath here, we could break off relations and prepare to join in a war against them [the Germans].  We shall have to do so sooner or later; as France and England will be steadily pushed to the wall and eventually to save ourselves we shall have to save them.  The European situation was lost to the democracies at Munich and the final situation is slowly being prepared.  The age lying before us will witness great struggles and the outcome when it comes will determine the fate of civilization for a century or more.”  During the period of 1938-39, he helped many Jews and anti-Nazis to emigrate from Germany.  He personally intervened on behalf of these refugees with the Nazi high officials.  He did this well beyond his official duties as Consul General.  Further, he helped Jews and others who were under imminent threat of deportation to the concentration camps leave Germany.  Geist opposed the transfer of German quotas to US consulates outside of Nazi Germany.  He did this because he felt German Jews were in much more danger than Jews in other parts of Europe at the time.  Geist also issued letters to German refugees indicating that they appeared to be eligible for visas, and that their quota number would come up soon.  Often, these letters were sufficient to have people released from Nazi concentration camps.  The letters were also used to help refugees gain entry to neighboring countries.  Geist was encouraged not to follow this practice.  (Breitman, Richard and Alan M. Kraut, American Refugee Policy and European Jews. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987), p. 40, 43, 45-46, 54-55, 64-69, 258 n. 58, 265 n. 72.  Laqueur, Walter (Ed.) and Judith Tydor Baumel (Assoc. Ed.).  The Holocaust Encyclopedia. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), p. 10. Levin, Nora. The Holocaust: The Destruction of European Jewry, 1933-1945. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1968), p. 724. Shafir, Shlomo. “American Diplomats in Berlin (1933-1939) and their Attitude to the Nazi Persecution of the Jews.” Yad Vashem Studies, 9 (1973), pp. 98, 102-103.  Rublee, George. “The Reminiscences of George Rublee.” Columbia University Oral History Collection.  Feingold, Henry L. “Who Shall Bear the Guilt for the Holocaust: The Human Dilemma.” American Jewish History, 7, 22-24.  Geist to Secretary of State, 5 March 1934, 150.626J/74, RG 59, NA-WNRC, as cited in Feingold, Henry L. “Who Shall Bear the Guilt for the Holocaust: The Human Dilemma.” American Jewish History, 7, 22-24. Geist to Secretary of State, 10 September 1934, 150.062 PD/705, RG 59, NA-WNRC, as cited in Feingold, Henry L. “Who Shall Bear the Guilt for the Holocaust: The Human Dilemma.” American Jewish History, 7, 22-24.  Data cited by Raymond Geist, then quota control officer in Berlin and quoted in “Troubleshooter in Berlin,” New York Times, 23 July 1939, as cited in Feingold, Henry L. “Who Shall Bear the Guilt for the Holocaust: The Human Dilemma.” American Jewish History, 7, 22-24.)

Embassy, Sofia, Bulgaria

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

Franklin Mott Gunther was the US Ambassador stationed in Bucharest, Romania, in 1941.  Gunther sent detailed dispatches and reports to the State Department outlining the atrocities committed by the fascist Iron Guard party in January 1941.  Gunther also reported on the deportation of Romanian Jews to the eastern territories by the Germans.  In addition, he contacted President Roosevelt in a private letter where he provided advice for the possible resettlement of Jews in Africa.  He further stated the Romanian officials were willing to negotiate with countries regarding receiving Romanian Jews.  Gunther’s reports and letter were criticized by U.S. State Department officials.  The U.S. State Department did not act in any way on Gunther’s recommendations.  (Feingold, Henry. The Politics of Rescue: The Roosevelt Administration and the Holocaust, 1938-1944. (New Brunswick, NJ:(New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1970), pp. 48, 179, 182.  Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS), II, p. 870, November 2, 1941, Franklin Gunther to Cordell Hull.  Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS), II, pp. 875-876, November 12, 1941, Memorandum by Cavendish Canon.)

Embassy, Vatican (Holy See)

Myron Taylor, US Representative to the Vatican, 1942?

The US representative to the Vatican, Myron Taylor, sent a strongly worded note to Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Maglione in September 1942 declaring that Jews were being sent to the east and being murdered.  Taylor also had a personal audience with the Pope and other Vatican officials, at which he gave the Pope a memorandum detailing American assistance to French Jews.  (Morley, John. Vatican Diplomacy and the Jews during the Holocaust, 1939-1943. (New York: Ktav, 1980), pp. 3, 61, 65, 88, 93, 138, 157, 175.  Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), p. 1137.  Tittmann, Harold H., Jr., Harold H. Tittman III (Ed.). Inside the Vatican of Pius XII: The Memoir of an American Diplomat During World War II. (New York: Image Books Doubleday, 2004), pp. 4-12, 14, 20-21, 23, 33, 58, 76, 80, 112, 125.  Feingold, Henry. The Politics of Rescue: The Roosevelt Administration and the Holocaust, 1938-1944. (New Brunswick, NJ:(New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1970), pp. 28-29, 31, 37, 39, 42, 44, 60, 64, 69, 71-72, 74-75, 78-79, 82-85, 87-88, 105-106, 113, 115, 122, 145, 213, 253, 305.)

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

Harold H. Tittmann was the US Chargé d’Affaires to the Holy See.  He was the assistant to Myron Taylor, who was President Roosevelt’s representative to the Vatican.  Tittmann worked closely with representative Taylor in trying to get the Vatican to condemn the Nazi massacre of Jews in eastern Europe.  (Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 1064-1065, 1070. Leboucher, Fernande. Translated by J. F. Bernard. Incredible Mission. (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1969).  Morley, John. Vatican Diplomacy and the Jews during the Holocaust, 1939-1943. (New York: Ktav, 1980), pp. 65, 88, 118-119, 135, 173-178. Morse, Arthur D. While Six Million Died: A Chronicle of American Apathy. (New York: Random House, 1967), pp. 14-15. Levin, Nora. The Holocaust: The Destruction of European Jewry, 1933-1945. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1968), pp. 686-687.  Tittmann, Harold H., Jr., Harold H. Tittman III (Ed.). Inside the Vatican of Pius XII: The Memoir of an American Diplomat During World War II. (New York: Image Books Doubleday, 2004).)

Embassy, Istanbul, Turkey

Ambassador Laurence A. Steinhardt, 1943-1945

Laurence Steinhardt was the only Jewish senior member of the US State Department prior to and during World War II.  In 1939, President Roosevelt appointed Laurence Steinhardt Ambassador to the Soviet Union.  This was a crucial and sensitive appointment, particularly in light of the recently signed Nazi-Soviet pact.  With the outbreak of war and the Nazi invasion of Poland, Steinhardt took secret steps to help Eastern European Jews escape the Nazis.  Aware, however, that the Soviets were planting agents among refugees seeking admission to the U.S., Steinhardt opposed their indiscriminate admission, urging careful screening.  He was instrumental in negotiating the first lend-lease agreement with the Soviets and transferred the Embassy to Kuybyshev when Stalin moved the Soviet government thence from threatened Moscow.  Early in 1942, Steinhardt was made Ambassador to Turkey, and for the next three years played a vital part in helping to win the Turkish republic to the Allied cause.  Steinhardt was further instrumental in completing lend-lease agreements with Turkey.  While in Turkey, Steinhardt was responsible for helping Jews throughout Eastern Europe.  He worked with Jewish rescue and relief agencies and other diplomats, including Papal representative in Ankara Cardinal Roncalli, later Pope John XXIII, in helping to save Jews.  Steinhardt also worked with the newly-established War Refugee Board, founded in January 1944.  He worked closely with board representative Ira Hirschmann.  As a result of this successful collaboration, nearly 50,000 Jews were saved.  In 1950, he was killed in a place crash while on a mission for the State Department.  (Feingold, Henry. The Politics of Rescue: The Roosevelt Administration and the Holocaust, 1938-1944. (New Brunswick, NJ:(New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1970), pp. 145, 281-291.  Friedman, Saul S. No Haven for the Oppressed. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1973), pp. 120, 147. Wyman, David S. The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust, 1941-1945. (New York: Pantheon, 1984), pp. 216-217, 219, 239-240, 244. Hirschmann, Ira A. Life Line to a Promised Land. (New York: Vanguard Press, 1946), pp. 18, 22, 42-43, 49, 58, 61, 63-64, 71, 84-85, 105, 109, 131, 137, 153, 166-167, 168. Hirschmann, Ira. Caution to the Winds. (New York: David McKay Co.), pp. 179-185. Hirschmann, Ira A.  The Embers Still Burn. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1949).  Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 945, 947, 1095, 1108, 1286 fn165, 1288 fn209.  Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), pp. 239, 665.  Shaw, Stanford J. Turkey and the Holocaust: Turkey’s Role in Rescuing Turkish and European Jewry from Nazi Persecution, 1933-1945. (New York: New York University Press, 1993), pp. 124-126, 128, 291-295, 300-301. Morse, Arthur D. While Six Million Died: A Chronicle of American Apathy. (New York: Random House, 1967), pp. 331-332, 368-369. Penkower, Monty Noam. The Jews Were Expendable: Free World diplomacy and the Holocaust.  (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1983), pp. 63-67, 174-175, 177-178, 250.  See Yishuv in Turkey, Ira Hirschmann and Cardinal Roncalli. Levin, Nora. The Holocaust: The Destruction of European Jewry, 1933-1945. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1968), pp. 629-630, 634. Hebblethwaite, Peter. Pope John XXIII: Shepherd of the modern world. (New York, 1985), pp. 141-143. Lapide, Pinchas E. Three Popes and the Jews. (New York: Hawthorn Books, 1967). Morley, John. Vatican Diplomacy and the Jews during the Holocaust, 1939-1943. (New York: Ktav, 1980), pp. 43, 45, 61, 91-92, 94, 122-123, 161, 206. Ofer, D. “The Rescue Activities of the Jewish Agency Delegation in Istanbul in 1943.” In Rescue Attempts during the Holocaust. Proceedings of the Second Yad Vashem International Historical Conference, edited by Y. Gutman and E. Zuroff, pp. 435-450. (Jerusalem, 1977). Bauer, Yehuda. American Jewry and the Holocaust. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), pp. 395, 397, 406.  Friling, Tuvia, translated by Ora Cummings. Arrows in the Dark: David Ben-Gurion, the Yishuv Leadership, and Rescue Attempts during the Holocaust (Vols. 1 and 2). (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2005).)

Burton Berry, US Consul, Istanbul, Turkey, 1943

US Consul in Istanbul, Burton Berry, sent numerous reports regarding the treatment of Jews in Greece.  Berry made continuous desperate appeals to his superiors in the US State Department to save Greek Jews from deportation and death.  He also suggested that the State Department assist Jews in escaping to Palestine, the Middle East and the mountains of Greece.  Berry sent Washington a report on the arrest and deportation of the Jews in Salonika.  (Matsas, Michael. The Illusion of Safety: The Story of the Greek Jews During World War II. (New York: Pella Publishing Co.1997), p. 21-23, 67, 95, 98, 411.  Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, Hyde Park, New York.)

Consul Ira Hirschmann, 1944-1945 (WRB representative)

Ira Hirschmann was an early American activist in helping to save Jewish refugees in Europe.  Ira Hirschmann attended the Evian conference in France in July 1938.  Witnessing the hypocrisy of the Western powers and their reluctance to save Jews, he volunteered to go on missions to save Jews as a private citizen.  Later, in July 1938, he went to Vienna, Austria, and vouched for hundreds of Austrian refugees, which allowed them to leave the country.  He volunteered and was appointed with the Emergency Committee to Save the Jewish People in Europe, which was also known as the Bergson Group.  Hirschmann was later appointed head of the Middle East Delegation of the War Refugee Board (WRB) stationed in Istanbul, Turkey.  Hirschmann worked throughout the period 1944-45 for the rescue of Jews in Nazi occupied territories of Central and Eastern Europe.  He helped Jews throughout the Balkans and in Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary.  He worked with Vatican Cardinal Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli and US Ambassador Laurence Steinhardt and Yishuv representative Chaim Barlas in Turkey to help save Jewish refugees.  Hirschmann was responsible for a success in March 1944 when he persuaded Alexander Cretzianu, the Romanian ambassador to Turkey, to insist that the Romanian government transfer 48,000 Jews in Transnistria to a safe zone in Romania.  In 1946, Hirschmann was appointed to the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) to inspect Jewish displaced persons (DP) camps.  (Hirschmann, Ira A. Life Line to a Promised Land. (New York: Vanguard Press, 1946).  Hirschmann, Ira. Caution to the Winds. (New York: David McKay Co., 1962). Hirschmann, Ira A.  The Embers Still Burn. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1949).  Shaw, Stanford J. Turkey and the Holocaust: Turkey’s Role in Rescuing Turkish and European Jewry from Nazi Persecution, 1933-1945. (New York: New York University Press, 1993).  Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), pp. 669-672. Laqueur, Walter (Ed.) and Judith Tydor Baumel (Assoc. Ed.).  The Holocaust Encyclopedia. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001). Morse, Arthur D. While Six Million Died: A Chronicle of American Apathy. (New York: Random House, 1967), pp. 314-321, 329, 332, 356-358, 365-366, 382-383. Penkower, Monty Noam. The Jews Were Expendable: Free World diplomacy and the Holocaust.  (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1983), pp. 163-174, 188, 200. Levin, Nora. The Holocaust: The Destruction of European Jewry, 1933-1945. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1968), pp. 560, 587-589, 630, 634-635, 658-659.  Feingold, Henry. The Politics of Rescue: The Roosevelt Administration and the Holocaust, 1938-1944. (New Brunswick, NJ: (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1970), pp. 33, 221, 246, 254, 262, 272, 281-292. Bauer, Yehuda. American Jewry and the Holocaust. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), pp. 395, 404-406.  Friling, Tuvia, translated by Ora Cummings. Arrows in the Dark: David Ben-Gurion, the Yishuv Leadership, and Rescue Attempts during the Holocaust (Vols. 1 and 2). (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2005.)

Embassy, Stockholm, Sweden

Minister Herschel V. Johnson Johnson

Herschel V. Johnson was the American Minister in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1943.  During the refugee crisis and Nazi deportation actions in Denmark and central Europe, Johnson was predisposed toward, and advocated help for, Jewish refugees.  Johnson reported that Swedish government officials and members of the Foreign Ministry had taken actions on behalf of Dutch and Norwegian Jews.  He tried to get the US government to help during this refugee crisis.  Johnson was thwarted by the US State Department in his attempts to rescue Jews.  In October 1943, he reported on the Danish-Swedish rescue of Jews.  (Breitman, Richard. “American rescue activities in Sweden.” Holocaust and Genocide Studies.  Feingold, Henry. The Politics of Rescue: The Roosevelt Administration and the Holocaust, 1938-1944. (New Brunswick, NJ:(New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1970), p. 258.)

Ivor C. Olsen, Fnancial Attaché, US Embassy, Stockholm, Sweden, War Refugee Board (WRB) Representative

(War Refugee Board Archives, FDR Library, Hyde Park, Final Report, WRB)

Embassy, Bern, Switzerland

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

US Ambassador to Switzerland Leland Harrison was sympathetic to Jewish rescue and relief operations working out of Switzerland.  From the US embassy in Bern, Switzerland, Harrison worked closely with World Jewish Congress agent Gerhardt Riegner.  Harrison forwarded numerous reports to the State Department regarding the murder of the Jews of Europe.  He endorsed many of these reports as being credible and recommended action be taken to provide rescue and relief to Jews.  Harrison also allowed Riegner and his staff to forward messages around the world using the embassy’s cable system.  Members of his staff Paul Chapin Squire and Howard Elting, Jr., were also sympathetic to Jewish relief causes. (Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 699, 1098, 1113, 1119.  Morse, Arthur D. While Six Million Died: A Chronicle of American Apathy. (New York: Random House, 1967), pp. 9, 13, 17-21, 45-46, 73, 75-77, 80-85, 87-88, 91.  Wyman, David S. The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust, 1941-1945. (New York: Pantheon, 1984), pp. 50, 179, 181, 184, 186.  Feingold, Henry. The Politics of Rescue: The Roosevelt Administration and the Holocaust, 1938-1944. (New Brunswick, NJ: (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1970), pp. 180-181, 239-240. Bauer, Yehuda. American Jewry and the Holocaust. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), pp. 401, 404.)

Vice-Consul Howard Elting Jr.

US Consul Howard Elting, stationed at the US embassy in Bern, Switzerland, was one of the first diplomats in Europe to recognize the importance of the Auschwitz Report (also known as the Auschwitz Protocols).  This document was written by two escapees from Auschwitz.  Elting immediately understood the enormity of the events described in this document.  The Protocols detailed the systematic murder of millions of Jews in Auschwitz.  Elting forwarded this document, with his endorsement of its authenticity, to the US State Department in Washington, DC, and to Jewish community leaders in Europe.  The US Secretary of State and other State Department officials did not release the document.  (Friedman, Saul S. No Haven for the Oppressed. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1973), pp. 130-131, 136, 140, 142. Wyman, David S. The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust, 1941-1945. (New York: Pantheon, 1984), pp. 43-44. Koblik, Steven. The Stones Cry Out: Sweden’s Response to the Persecution of the Jews, 1933-1945. (New York: Holocaust Library, 1988), pp. 144, 196-197. Morse, Arthur D. While Six Million Died: A Chronicle of American Apathy. (New York: Random House, 1967), pp. 7-9, 11. Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), p. 1275.)

Paul Chapin Squire, US Consul, Switzerland

Gerhardt Riegner, representative of the World Jewish Congress in Switzerland, sent information confirming the murder of Jews through Consul Paul Chapin Squire.  Squire was very sympathetic to the cause of Jewish refugee organizations operating out of Switzerland.  He allowed Riegner to use the embassy’s cable system to contact outside agencies.  Squire extensively investigated the reports of the murder of Jews and verified many of the stories.  (Morse, Arthur D. While Six Million Died: A Chronicle of American Apathy. (New York: Random House, 1967), pp. 5, 7, 15-21.  Wyman, David S. The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust, 1941-1945. (New York: Pantheon, 1984), pp. 50.  Feingold, Henry. The Politics of Rescue: The Roosevelt Administration and the Holocaust, 1938-1944. (New Brunswick, NJ: (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1970), p. 171.)

Embassy, Vichy France

Ambassador H. Pinkney Tuck

H. Pinkney Tuck was the US Chargé d’Affaires in Vichy, France, in 1942.  In the summer of 1942, Tuck complained and vigorously protested against the deportation of Jewish children from Vichy France.  This complaint was lodged personally with French Prime Minister Pierre Laval.  Laval, with sarcasm, asked Tuck if the United States would not take these Jewish refugee orphans off his hands.  Tuck then asked the US State Department to seriously consider Laval’s offer to hand over these Jewish orphans.  There were between 5,000 and 8,000 Jewish orphans in Vichy.  At this point, Tuck knew that if these children could not leave they would certainly be deported.  He also knew that deportation meant that these children would probably be murdered.  On September 28, Secretary of State Cordell Hull authorized 1,000 visas to have these children immigrate to the United States.  On October 23, Laval reneged on his offer and proposed to give over only 500 children.  Laval imposed so many difficult preconditions that they virtually ended the rescue efforts.  As a result, only 350 children were able to be saved and brought to the US.  This was done in spite of Vichy’s lack of cooperation.  Tuck was commended by a number of organizations for trying to help Jewish orphans survive.  (Marrus, Michael, R., and Robert O. Paxton. Vichy France and the Jews. (New York: Basic Books, 1981).  Poznanski, Renée. Jews in France during World War II. (Hanover: Brandeis University Press, 2001).  Ryan, Donna F. The Holocaust and the Jews of Marseille: The Enforcement of Anti-Semitic Policies in Vichy France. (Urbana, IL: The University of Illinois Press, 1996), pp. 117, 152-153.  Wyman, David S. The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust, 1941-1945. (New York: Pantheon, 1984), pp. 36-37.  Bauer, Yehuda. American Jewry and the Holocaust. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), pp. 175-176, 259-262, 264.  Breitman, Richard and Alan M. Kraut, American Refugee Policy and European Jews. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987), pp. 162-163, 166.)

Consulate, Prague, Czechoslovakia

Consul General Irving Linnell

Helped Martha and Waitstill Sharp with their activities on behalf of the Unitarian Service Committee in Prague.  He had been transferred from the consulate in Shanghai, China.  (Strauss, At Peace with its Purpose; Subak, 2010, pp. 7, 242n17) 

Consulate, Marseilles, France

Vice-Consul Hiram “Harry” Bingham IV, 1937-1941

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

(Fry, Varian. Assignment Rescue. (New York: Scholastic, 1997).  Fry, Varian. Surrender on Demand. (New York: Random House, 1945), pp. 10-12, 14, 17-18, 32-33, 49, 56-57, 69-70, 83, 87-90, 147, 172, 215. Marino, Andy. A Quiet American: The Secret War of Varian Fry. (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999), pp. 99-100, 196, 107-108, 117, 120, 187, 209, 231, 268, 285, 287. Isenberg, Sheila. A Hero of Our Own: The Story of Varian Fry. (New York: Random House), pp. 75-76, 83, 86, 89, 125, 142, 150, 152-153, 193, 193n. Ryan, Donna F. The Holocaust and the Jews of Marseille: The Enforcement of Anti-Semitic Policies in Vichy France. (Urbana, IL: The University of Illinois Press, 1996), pp. 130, 142, 144. Hockley, Ralph M. Freedom is not Free. (2000). US Holocaust Memorial Museum. Assignment Rescue: The Story of Varian Fry and the Emergency Rescue Committee. [Exhibit catalog.] (Washington, DC: US Holocaust Memorial Museum, 1997), p. 7.  Wyman, David S. Paper Walls: America and the Refugee Crisis, 1939-1941. (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), pp. 167-168.  Varian Fry Papers, Columbia University.  HICEM records, France, YIVO Archives.  Bauer, Yehuda. American Jewry and the Holocaust. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), p. 171.  American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee Archives, New York City.  Bauer, Yehuda. American Jewry and the Holocaust. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), p. 171.  Subak, Susan, Rescue and Flight, Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska, 2010, pp. 48-50, 63, 89-90, 93-94. 252n8, 254n36)

            Vice-Consul Myles Standish, 1937-1941

Myles Standish, like Hiram Bingham, issued visas to Jewish and other refugees seeking to escape France to Portugal.  He was active in the rescue of Lion Feuchtwanger from a French-German internment camp in 1940.  After his assignment in Marseilles, Standish took a position with the War Refugee Board finding escape routes for refugees in Europe. 

(Fry, Varian. Surrender on Demand. (New York: Random House). Marino, Andy. A Quiet American: The Secret War of Varian Fry. (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999), pp. 99-100, 120.  FDR Library War Refugee Board Archives, 1944-1945.  JDC Archives, NYC.  Feuchtwanger, Lion, The Devil in France: My Encounter with Him in the Summer of 1940, Viking, 1940.  Subak, Susan, Rescue and Flight, Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska, 2010, p. 48)

Consulate in Oslo, Norway

After the Nazis invaded and occupied Norway in April 1940, the US consulate in Oslo gave diplomatic protection to numerous German Jewish refugees who had fled to Norway.  They were helped until they were eventually able to escape to Sweden.  (Wyman, David S. Paper Walls: America and the Refugee Crisis, 1939-1941. (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), p. 167.)

Legation in Madrid, Spain

First Secretary of the United States Legation in Madrid, Spain

The First Secretary to the US legation in Madrid, on November 9, 1942, intervened with Spanish authorities to prevent the deportation of Jewish refugees from Spain.  This was done to prevent a precedent of deporting Allied soldiers to Axis countries.  (Bauer, Yehuda. American Jewry and the Holocaust. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), p. 209.)

Consulate, Tangiers

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

Rives Childs, the head of the US legation in Tangier, Algeria, made connections with the Spanish authorities in Madrid and in Morocco and helped saved more than 1,200 Jews.  He persuaded Spanish authorities to issue the Jewish refugees visas and access to Spanish safe houses until they could emigrate from Algeria.  Childs worked closely with Renée Reichmann and her rescue committee and Luis Orgaz, the Spanish High Commissioner for Tangier.  Orgaz helped obtain Spanish transit visas for Jewish refugees.  (Alexy, Trudy. The Mezuzah in the Madonna’s Foot, pp. 200-201. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993). Bianco, Anthony. The Reichmanns: Family, Faith, Fortune, and the Empire of Olympia & York. (New York: Times Books, 1997). Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 1061-1062, 1092. Kranzler, David. The Man Who Stopped the Trains to Auschwitz George Mantello, El Salvador, and Switzerland’s Finest Hour. (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2000), p. 196. Kranzler, David. Thy Brother’s Blood: The Orthodox Jewish Response During the Holocaust. (Brooklyn, NY: Mesorah, 1987), pp. 250-254. Childs, Rives. Foreign Service Farewell, pp. 116-117.  Rozett, Robert. “Child Rescue in Budapest,” Holocaust and Genocide Studies, 2 (1987), pp. 49-59.)

Renée Reichmann, Tangiers

Renée Reichmann was a Jewish rescuer who operated in Europe and Tangiers.  She worked with US diplomat Rives Childs.  Together, they helped several hundred Jewish refugees emigrate to Tangiers.  (Bianco, Anthony. The Reichmanns: Family, Faith, Fortune, and the Empire of Olympia & York. (New York: Times Books, 1997). Alexy, Trudy. The Mezuzah in the Madonna’s Foot, pp. 192-202. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993). Avni, Haim. Spain, the Jews and Franco. (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1982). Childs, Rives. Foreign Service Farewell, pp. 116-117.  Rozett, Robert. “Child Rescue in Budapest,” Holocaust and Genocide Studies, 2 (1987), pp. 49-59.)

Helped by:

General Orgaz


United States Catholic Conference, Division of Migration and Refugee Services, Washington, DC, USA, established 1936

(Romanofsky, Social Service Organizations, pp. 212-216.  Report of the Committee for Catholic Refugees from Germany: Covering the Period from Jan. 1, 1937 to Sept. 30, 1938.  Tenth Annual Report of Catholic Committee for Refugees, Oct. 1, 1945 to Sept. 30, 1946.  Twenty-Fifth Annual Report of Catholic Committee for Refugees, Oct. 1, 1960 to Sept. 30, 1961.)


United States Children’s Bureau, established 1912 (U.S. Children’s Bureau, Care of Children Coming to the United States for Safety Under the Attorney General’s Order of July 13, 1940: Standards Prescribed by the Children’s Bureau. Bureau Publ. No. 268. Washington, DC, 1941.  U.S. Children’s Bureau, Five Decades of Action for Children: A History of the Children’s Bureau. Washington, DC: 1962)


United States Committee for the Care of European Children (USCOM), New York, NY, USA, established June 1940 (Superceded Non Sectarian Foundation for Refugee Children

(American Committee for Christian German Refugees, 1945; Close, 1953; Davie, 1947; Duggan & Drury, 1948; Feingold, 1970; Genizi, 1976; Genizi, 1983, pp. 96-136; Gutman, 1990, p. 1263; Morse, 1968; Nawyn, 1981, pp. 159-181; Ross, 1981; Zucker, 2008; Close, K. Transplanted Children: A History. New York, 1953.  Genizi, “American Non-Sectarian,” pp. 204-213.  Romanofsky, Social Service Organizations, pp. 731-734.)

Eleanor Roosevelt (USA), honorary chair and president, First Lady of the United States of America

Clarence E. Picket, Founder

Marshal Field III (USA), philanthropist, President, 1940-1953

Robert Lang (USA), Executive Director

Joseph Alsop (USA), journalist

Raymon Clapper (USA)


United States Committee of International Student Service, established 1926 (World University Service, World Student Relief 1940-1950. Geneva, 1951.)


United States Emergency Refugee Shelter at Fort Ontario, Oswego, NY, USA, established June 8, 1944 (National Archives and Records Service, Civil Archives Div., RG 210;  Columbia University, Rare Book and Manuscript Library; American Jewish Historical Society; U.S. Department of the Interior, War Relocation Authority, Token Shiopment: The Story of America’s War Refugee Shelter. Washington, DC, 1946.)


United States National Youth Administration (NYA), established 1935 (National Archives and Records Service, Civil Archives Div., RG 119.  Final Report of the National Youth Administration, Fiscal Years 1936-1943. Washington, DC, 1944.  Rutberg, Tesse, “A Study of an Experiment in Training of Refugee Youth in National Youth Administration Resident Centers.” Unpublished master’s thesis, New York School of Social Work, Columbia Univ., Dec. 1940.)


United States President’s War Relief Control Board, established September 1939 (President’s War Relief Control Board, Compilation of Documents, President’s Committee on War Relief Agencies and President’s War Relief Control Board. Washington, DC, 1946.  President’s War Relief Control Board, Voluntary War Relief During World War II. Washington, DC, 1946.  National Archives and Records Service, Washington National Records Center, RG 220 and 286)


United Yugoslav Relief Fund, Switzerland


Uruguayan Consulate, Hamburg, Germany

The Uruguayan Consul General in Hamburg in 1938-39(?) issued visas to Jews at a cost.  Arthur Prinz, a member of the Hilfsverein, in an article that he wrote in 1945, recalled:  “One last word about the part played by some consuls.  Some of them as, for instance, the Uruguayan consul in Berlin and the Consul General in Hamburg (father and son Rivas, if I am not mistaken) showed a very friendly approach to Jewish emigration stemming from private commercial reasons.  They granted a great number of visas which undoubtedly helped to bring hundreds of people out of Germany and into a good immigration country.  But they enriched themselves in the process to a fantastic degree.  They made their own regulations for good conduct certificates which emigrants needed, etc. and then traveled all over Germany in order to examine the genuineness of these documents, a task for which they exacted generous allowances.  One day they were instructed by cable from Uruguay not to issue any further visas, not even if they had already promised them.  Since our emigrants were sitting on packed suitcases, the Hilfsverein intervened in the case, but Senor Rivas, the Consul General, told me literally: ‘What can I do if they tell me in Uruguay: You have already made enough money.  Stop!” 

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

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


Uruguayan Representation to the Holy See, 1942

The Uruguayan representative to the Holy See sent a message to Pope Pius XII asking him to publicly condemn Nazi atrocities being perpetrated in German-occupied areas of Europe.  (Tittmann, Harold H., Jr., Harold H. Tittmann III (Ed.). Inside the Vatican of Pius XII: The Memoir of an American Diplomat During World War II. (New York: Image Books Doubleday, 2004), pp. 117-118.)

Utrecht Children’s Committee (Utrechts Kindercomite; UKC), Utrecht, the Netherlands, established summer 1942, see also Amsterdam Student Group (ASG; Cammaert, 1994; De Jong, 1969-1988, Vol. VI; Flim, 1996; Gutman, 2004, pp. xxiii, xlv, xlvi, xlvii; Klempner, 2006, p. 22)

Saved about 400 Jews during German occupation of the Netherlands, 1940-1944.  Worked closely with the Amsterdam Student Group.

Ad Groenendijk, founder

Cor Bastianne, founder

Jan Meulenbelt (De Jong, VI; Flim, 1996)

Frits Iordens (Cammaert, 1994; Flim, 1996)

Anne Maclaine Pont●  (Cammaert, 1994; Flim, 1996; Gutman, 2004)

Rutger (Rut) Marthijsen● (Gutman, 2004)

Gerertjan (Gerert) Lubberhuizen● (Gutman, 2004)

Hetty Voûte●, member UVSV (Flim, 1996; Gutman, 2004)

Gisela Söhnlein● (later Wieberdink; Gutman, 2004)

Olga Hudig, member UVSV (Flim, 1996)

Tieneke Haak (Cammaert, 1994)

Jur Haak (Cammaert, 1994)

Piet Meerburg●, member, Amsterdam Student Corps (USHMM RG 50.030.154)

Wouter van Zeytveld (Cammaert, 1994)


Van den Berg Rescue Network, Liège/Luik Region, Belgium, see also Louis-Joseph Kerkhofs Rescue Network (Yad Vashem Archives; Gutman, 2005, pp. xxxi, 73, 252-253; Matteazzi, 1999; Moore, 2010, pp. 197-199, 201, 282-284, 285-289, 328; Papeleux, 1980, 1981)

Rescue network that cooperated with Kerkhofs Rescue Group in Liège area of Belgium.  Hid Jewish children and provided aid to 229 Jews, 80 of them children.  Van den Berg was arrested and sent to the Vaught concentration camp in Holland, and later to the Neuengamme concentration camp in Germany.  He died of exhaustion shortly after his liberation.  His brother-in-law, Georges Fonsny, took over the network after van den Berg’s arrest.

Albert van den Berg●+*, leader, organizer, lawyer, awarded Righteous Among the Nations title (Yad Vashem Archives; Gutman, 2005, pp. 252-253; Matteazzi, 1999)

Georges Fonsny●, took over network after Van Den Berg’s arrest by the Gestapo, awarded Righteous Among the Nations title (Yad Vashem Archives; Gutman, 2005, p. 119)

Germaine (Van den Berg) Fonsny●, wife of Georges Fonsny, awarded Righteous Among the Nations title (Yad Vashem Archives; Gutman, 2005, p. 119)

Monsignor Louis-Joseph Kerkhofs●, leader of Kerkhofs Rescue Network, awarded Righteous Among the Nations title (Yad Vashem Archives; Gutman, 2005, p. 151)

Father Dom Bruno (Henri Reynder)●, Mont César, Louvain, leader of Reynders Rescue Network, awarded Righteous Among the Nations title (Yad Vashem Archives)

Pierre Coune●+, awarded Righteous Among the Nations title (Yad Vashem Archives)

Abbé Louis Jamin●, awarded Righteous Among the Nations title (Yad Vashem Archives; Gutman, 2005, p. 146)

Paula Marchal, civil clerk, Bressous, Liège, Belgium (Gutman, 2005, p. 119)

George Ponsenni

Father Ernst Rixon●, awarded Righteous Among the Nations title (Yad Vashem Archives; Gutman, 2005, pp. 220-221)

Lucienne Tilman+

Berthe Vandenkieboom, Bureau de L’Enfance au Grandair

Father (Abbé) Emil Boufflette●+* (killed), awarded Righteous Among the Nations title (Yad Vashem Archives; Gutman, 2005, pp. 52-53)

Helped by:

Capuchin Fathers from Verviers, Belgium (Papeleux, 1980, 1981)

German Franciscans, Herstal, Belgium (Papeleux, 1980, 1981)

La Vierge des Pauvres Home, at Château des Fawes, Sisters of Saint Vincent de Paul (Papeleux, 1980, 1981)


Van den Boogert’s Escape Line (Moore, 2010, p. 53)

Helped Allied plane crews and Jews.  Boogert cooperated with Divers organizations (DO).

J. J. Van Den Boogert, leader, organizer (Moore, 2010, p. 53)


Van der Vort-Dohmen Rescue Network, Netherlands (NIOD 251a ES-4 Lo District, Maastricht, 251a ES-4 Eugenie Boutet, Vit Sevenu, 471/14f; YV M31/2878 Nico Dohmen;Cammaert, 1994; Flim, 1996, pp. 148-149)

Placed 123 Jewish children in hiding in Limberg area.

Hanna Van der Vort● (Cammaert, 1994; Flim, 1996)

Nico Dohmen● (Cammaert, 1994; Flim, 1996)


Truitje van Lier Rescue Network

Saved an estimated 150 Jewish children.

Truitje van Lier, member UVSV (Flim, 1996, p.67; Hof, 1995, pp. 214, 219, 221-222, 229, 235)


Arie Van Mansum Rescue Network, Apeldorn, Maastrict, Netherlands

Helped Jews in hiding.  Warned them of impending actions.  Smuggled Jews across the Belgin border.  Helped approximately 150 Jews, 50-60 of whom were children.

Arie Van Mansun (Cammaert, 1994; Keith, 1991; Moore, 2010, p. 250)


Varian Fry Committee, see Emergency Rescue Committee, France


The Vatican, Rome, Italy

The Vatican allowed hundreds of Jews to take refuge in monasteries, churches, convents, and even the Vatican complex during the Nazi deportations in Italy.  In addition, a number of Vatican nuncios (diplomats) were active in protesting the deportations of Jews and aiding in their rescue.  (Morley, John. Vatican Diplomacy and the Jews during the Holocaust, 1939-1943. (New York: Ktav, 1980). Leboucher, Fernande. Translated by J. F. Bernard. Incredible Mission. (Garden city, NY: Doubleday, 1969). Lapide, Pinchas E. Three Popes and the Jews. (New York: Hawthorn Books, 1967). Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), Aid to Hungarian Jews, pp. 259, 925, Aid to Romanian Jews, pp. 306, 1322-1323.  See Papal Nuncios by name.)


Vatican Nunciatura (diplomats)

Bulgaria

Monsignor Angelo Rotta●

Monsignor Angelo Rotta was a major rescuer of Jews and was one of the few Papal nuncios to take direct action to save Jews.  At the time of his assignment in Budapest, he was 72 years old.  As a member of the Vatican diplomatic corps in Sofia, Bulgaria, he took measures to save Bulgarian Jews by issuing false baptismal certificates and visas for Jews to travel to Palestine.  Later, Rotta was the Dean of the diplomatic corps in Budapest.  He actively protested the deportation and murder of Hungarian Jews.  He eventually issued more than 15,000 safe conduct certificates to Jews who were protected by the Vatican neutrality.  Rotta also issued hundreds of safe conducts and baptismal certificates to Jews in labor camps, at deportation centers and on the death marches.  He set up and personally protected numerous safe houses throughout Budapest. Rotta was aided by his assistant, Father Gennaro Verolino.  The Vatican utilized numerous Jewish and non-Jewish volunteers in its rescue efforts.  Angelo Rotta received the title Righteous Among the Nations by the State of Israel in 1997.  (Gutman, 1990, 2007.  Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary.

(New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 717-718, 744, 795, 832-833, 862, 881, 914, 955, 967, 1015, 1034, 1051, 1067-1077, 1196, 1216-1225. Vatican (Holy See). Actes et documents du Saint-Siège relatifs à la Seconde Guerre Mondiale. 12 vols. (1966-1981). Morley, John. Vatican Diplomacy and the Jews during the Holocaust, 1939-1943. (New York: Ktav, 1980), pp. 80-81, 84, 90, 153-154. Asaf, Uri. Christian support for Jews during the Holocaust in Hungary. In Braham, Randolph L. (Ed.) Studies on the Holocaust in Hungary, pp. 65-112. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990), p. 97. Lévai, Jenö. Black Book on the Martyrdom of Hungarian Jewry. (Central European Times Publishing, 1948), pp. 196-201, 226-227, 232-233, 304, 318-319, 354, 357-359, 364, 366-367, 371-373, 384, 397. Lévai, Jenö, translated by Frank Vajda. Raoul Wallenberg: His Remarkable Life, Heroic Battles and the Secret of his Mysterious Disappearance. (Melbourne, 1988, originally published in Hungarian in 1948), pp. 87-88, 161, 167. Morse, Arthur D. While Six Million Died: A Chronicle of American Apathy. (New York: Random House, 1967). Penkower, Monty Noam. The Jews Were Expendable: Free World diplomacy and the Holocaust.  (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1983), pp. 194, 200, 207. Conway, John S. “Records and documents of the Holy See relating to the Second World War.” Yad Vashem Studies, 15 (1983), 327-345. Kramer, T. D. From Emancipation to Catastrophe: The Rise and Holocaust of Hungarian Jewry. (New York: University Press of America), pp. 247-286. Lévai, Jenö. Fehér könyv, Külföldi akciók zsidók megmentésére [White Book, Foreign Actions for the Rescuing of Jews.]. (Budapest: Officina, 1946). Meszlényi, Antal (Ed.). A magyar katolikus egyház és as emberi jogok védelme [The Hungarian Roman Catholic Church and the Protection of Human Rights]. (Budapest: Stephaneum, 1947).  (Includes an essay by Monsignor Angelo Rotta.) Péterffy Gedeon, a katolikus papnevelde elöljárójának nyilatkozata a magyar katolikus egyház szerepér öl a zsidótörvények és zsidóüldözések idején [The Statement of Gedeon Péterffy, the Leader of the Catholic Seminary During the Period of the Jewish Laws and Jewish Persecutions]. (Budapest, Haladás [Progress], December 29, 1945.  (Emphasizes the rescue activities of Angelo Rotta and Gennaro Verolino.) Rotta, Angelo. “A budapesti nunciatura diplomáciai akciója a zsidók érdekében [The diplomatic campaign of the Budapest Nunciature on behalf of the Jews].” In Antal Meszlényi (Ed.), A magyar katolikus egyház és as emberi jogok védelme [The Hungarian Roman Catholic Church and the Protection of Human Rights]. (Budapest: Stephaneum, 1947), pp. 21-30.  (The rescue of Jews in Budapest by Angelo Rotta and Gennaro Verolino.) György, Ferenc. A budai Szent Erbébet-kórház legendája [The Legend of Saint Elizabeth Hospital of Buda]. (Budapest: Világ [World], 1947. (Periodical article on the rescue activities of Angelo Rotta and Gennaro Verolino.) Ujvári, Sándor. “Szabálytalan önéletrajz [An Irregular Autobiography].” Menora, February 17, 1979. (The author’s rescue activities under the auspices of Rotta and Verolino.) Fein, Helen. Accounting for Genocide. (New York: Free Press, 1979), pp. 107-110. Anger, Per. Translated by David Mel Paul and Margareta Paul. With Raoul Wallenberg in Budapest: Memories of the War Years in Hungary. (New York: Holocaust Library, 1981).)

Archbishop Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli (Pope John XXIII; Gutman, 1990)

Archbishop Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli (1881-1963), who later became Pope John XXIII, interceded with King Boris of Bulgaria on behalf of the Bulgarian Jews, and with the Turkish government on behalf of Jewish refugees who had fled to Turkey.  He also did his utmost to prevent the deportation of Greek Jews.  One of the main sources of information to the Vatican about the Holocaust was provided by Roncalli.  He provided reports about the annihilation of millions of Jews in Poland and Eastern Europe.  During the German occupation of Greece, he helped the local population and did his utmost to prevent the deportation of Greek Jews.  Roncalli issued a form of Vatican protective paper to numerous eastern European Jewish refugees in the areas of Slovakia, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Italy and France.  He also worked closely with US Ambassador Laurence Steinhardt, WRA representative Ira Hirschmann, Yishuv representative Chaim Barlas, and others in helping Jewish refugees come to Turkey.  In 1944, he was appointed Nuncio to Paris.  In 1953, he was appointed Patriarch of Venice.  In 1958, Roncalli was elected Pope.  He was responsible for instituting many of the reforms in the Catholic church, especially under his Vatican II Council.  These actions led to closer relations between Jews and Catholics.  Roncalli died in 1963. 

(Giovanni XXIII.  Il Pastore.  Corrispondenza dal 1911 al 1963 con I preti del Sacro Cuore di Bergamo. (Padova, 1982), pp. 256, 261. Della Rocca, Roberto Morozzo. “Roncalli Diplomatico in Turchia e Grecia, 1935-1944” in Cristianesimo nella Storia, VIII/2. (1987), pp. 33-72, particularly pp. 55-56, 58.  Vatican (Holy See). Actes et documents du Saint-Siège relatifs à la Seconde Guerre Mondiale. 12 vols. (1966-1981). Hoffmann, Peter. “Roncalli in the Second World War: Peace Initiatives, the Greek Famine and the Persecution of the Jews.” Journal of Ecclesiastical History, XL (1989), pp. 74-99. Rubin, Barry. Istanbul Intrigues, pp. 47-48, 93-94, 213-214. Hebblethwaite, Peter. Pope John XXIII: Shepherd of the modern world. (New York, 1985), pp. 141-143. Righi, Vittoro Ugo. Papa Giovanni sulle rive del Bosforo. (Padua, Italy, 1971).  Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 1065, 1070.  Morley, John. Vatican Diplomacy and the Jews during the Holocaust, 1939-1943. (New York: Ktav, 1980), pp. 43, 45, 61, 91-92, 94, 122-123, 161, 206. Hirschmann, Ira A. Life Line to a Promised Land. (New York: Vanguard Press, 1946), p. 70. Rothkirchen, Livia. “Vatican Policy and the ‘Jewish Problem’ in ‘Independent’ Slovakia (1939-1945).” Yad Vashem Studies, 6 (1967), pp. 44, 50. Cahill, Thomas. Pope John XXIII. (New York: Viking, 2002), pp. 135-137. Elliott, Lawrence. I will be called John: A biography of Pope John XXIII. (New York: Reader’s Digest Press, E. P. Dutton, 1973), pp. 125-170.  Lapide, Pinchas E. Three Popes and the Jews. (New York: Hawthorn Books, 1967), pp. 31, 145-146, 150, 152, 161, 165-167, 171, 179-181, 221-222, 301, 306-353. Laqueur, Walter (Ed.) and Judith Tydor Baumel (Assoc. Ed.).  The Holocaust Encyclopedia. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), p. 642. Morse, Arthur D. While Six Million Died: A Chronicle of American Apathy. (New York: Random House, 1967), pp. 335-336. Shaw, Stanford J. Turkey and the Holocaust: Turkey’s Role in Rescuing Turkish and European Jewry from Nazi Persecution, 1933-1945. (New York: New York University Press, 1993), pp. 274-279, 297. Gilbert, Martin. Auschwitz and the Allies: A Devastating Account of How the Allies Responded to the News of Hitler’s Mass Murder. (New York: Henry Holt, 1981), p. 122. Hirschmann, Ira. Caution to the Winds. (New York: David McKay Co.), pp. 179-185. Penkower, Monty Noam. The Jews Were Expendable: Free World diplomacy and the Holocaust.  (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1983), pp. 154, 200. Ofer, D. “The Rescue Activities of the Jewish Agency Delegation in Istanbul in 1943.” In Rescue Attempts during the Holocaust. Proceedings of the Second Yad Vashem International Historical Conference, edited by Y. Gutman and E. Zuroff, pp. 435-450. (Jerusalem, 1977). Conway, John S. “Records and documents of the Holy See relating to the Second World War.” Yad Vashem Studies, 15 (1983), 327-345. Levin, Nora. The Holocaust: The Destruction of European Jewry, 1933-1945. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1968), pp. 544, 658, 688. Lévai, Jenö. Black Book on the Martyrdom of Hungarian Jewry. (Central European Times Publishing, 1948).  Rotkirchen, L. Hurban Yahadut Slovakyah (1961) 29f. (Eng. Pt.).  Bea, A. The Church and the Jewish People (1966).  Gilbert, A. The Vatican Council and the Jews (1968).  Friling, Tuvia, translated by Ora Cummings. Arrows in the Dark: David Ben-Gurion, the Yishuv Leadership, and Rescue Attempts during the Holocaust (Vols. 1 and 2). (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2005), Vol. 1 pp. 218-219, 225, Vol. 2, p. 5.)

Hungary

The Vatican Legation in Budapest was headed by Monsignor Angelo Rotta.  He was ably assisted by Father Genarro Verolino.  Some estimates are that they issued more than 15,000 Vatican protective papers.  They also maintained protected houses for Jewish refugees in Budapest.  The Nunciatura employed some Jewish Halutzim as part of their rescue operation.  György Adam, a Jewish refugee in Budapest, volunteered and appointed himself “Second Secretary of the Nunciatura.”  He worked under the supervision of Rotta and Verolino, and went on numerous rescue missions to save Jews from deportation.  On several occasions, Adam went to the deportation center of the Obuda brickyards to secure the release of Jews in order to prevent their imminent deportation.

(Braham, 1981; Levai, 1948; Gutman, 1990, 2007; Gyorgy Adam Oral History; Váradi, “Külföldi diplomáciai mentési kisérletek a budapesti zsidóságért” [Foreign Diplomatic Rescue Efforts on Behalf of the Jews of Budapest]. Medvetánc [Bear Dance], Budapest, no. 2-3 (1985): 99-110; E. Szatmári, Bericht über die Tätigkeit der neutralen Vertretungen in Budapest. [Report on the Activities of the Neutral Representstives in Budapest.];  Rotta, )

Monsignor Angelo Rotta●, see above, Sofia, Bulgaria

(Váradi, “Külföldi diplomáciai mentési kisérletek a budapesti zsidóságért” [Foreign Diplomatic Rescue Efforts on Behalf of the Jews of Budapest]. Medvetánc [Bear Dance], Budapest, no. 2-3 (1985): 99-110; E. Szatmári, Bericht über die Tätigkeit der neutralen Vertretungen in Budapest. [Reprot on the Activities of the Neutral Representstives in Budapest.]; Rotta, Angelo, “A budapesti nunciatura diplomáciai akciója a zsidók érdekében” [The Diplomatic Campaign of the Budapest Nunciature in Behalf of the Jews], in A Magyar katolikus egyház és az emberi jogok védelme [The Hungarian Catholic Church and the Protection of Human Rights], ed. Antal Meszlényi [Budapest: A Szent István Társulat, 1947], pp. 21-30.  Újváry, Sándor, “Szabálytalan önéletrajz” [Unorthodox Autobiography]. Menóra, Toronto, February 17, 1979, p. 8.  Lévai, Fehér könyv: Külföldi akciók zsidók megmentésére [White Book: Foreign Activities for the Rescuing of Jews], Budapest: Officina, n.d.  Summary Report of the Activities of the War Refugee Board with Respect to the Jews of Hungary [Washington, October 9, 1944), p. 4 [Typescript].  The report was prepared by Lawrence S. Lesser, the assistant of John W. Pehle, the head of the WRB.)

Father Gennaro Verolino●

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

(Élet és rodalom, Budapest (Hungarian weekly), March 22, 1985.  Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 717-718, 744, 795, 832-833, 862, 881, 914, 955, 967, 1015, 1034, 1051, 1067-1077, 1196, 1216-1225. Vatican (Holy See). Actes et documents du Saint-Siège relatifs à la Seconde Guerre Mondiale. 12 vols. (1966-1981). Lévai, Jenö. Black Book on the Martyrdom of Hungarian Jewry. (Central European Times Publishing, 1948), pp. 196-201, 226-227, 232-233, 304, 318-319, 354, 357-359, 364, 371-373, 383-384, 387-388, 397.  See documentary Passport to Life, 2002. Conway, John S. “Records and documents of the Holy See relating to the Second World War.” Yad Vashem Studies, 15 (1983), 327-345. Kramer, T. D. From Emancipation to Catastrophe: The Rise and Holocaust of Hungarian Jewry. (New York: University Press of America), pp. 247-286. Rosenfeld, Harvey. Raoul Wallenberg, Angel of Rescue: Heroism and Torment in the Gulag. (Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books), chapter 5. Lévai, Jenö, translated by Frank Vajda. Raoul Wallenberg: His Remarkable Life, Heroic Battles and the Secret of his Mysterious Disappearance. (Melbourne, 1988, originally published in Hungarian in 1948), pp. 87-88, 161, 167. Lévai, Jenö. Fehér könyv, Külföldi akciók zsidók megmentésére [White Book, Foreign Actions for the Rescuing of Jews.]. (Budapest: Officina, 1946). Meszlényi, Antal (Ed.). A magyar katolikus egyház és as emberi jogok védelme [The Hungarian Roman Catholic Church and the Protection of Human Rights]. (Budapest: Stephaneum, 1947).  (Includes an essay by Monsignor Angelo Rotta.) Péterffy Gedeon, a katolikus papnevelde elöljárójának nyilatkozata a magyar katolikus egyház szerepér öl a zsidótörvények és zsidóüldözések idején [The Statement of Gedeon Péterffy, the Leader of the Catholic Seminary During the Period of the Jewish Laws and Jewish Persecutions]. (Budapest, Haladás [Progress], December 29, 1945.  (Emphasizes the rescue activities of Angelo Rotta and Gennaro Verolino.) Rotta, Angelo. “A budapesti nunciatura diplomáciai akciója a zsidók érdekében [The diplomatic campaign of the Budapest Nunciature on behalf of the Jews].” In Antal Meszlényi (Ed.), A magyar katolikus egyház és as emberi jogok védelme [The Hungarian Roman Catholic Church and the Protection of Human Rights]. (Budapest: Stephaneum, 1947), pp. 21-30.  (The rescue of Jews in Budapest by Angelo Rotta and Gennaro Verolino.) György, Ferenc. A budai Szent Erbébet-kórház legendája [The Legend of Saint Elizabeth Hospital of Buda]. (Budapest: Világ [World], 1947. (Periodical article on the rescue activities of Angelo Rotta and Gennaro Verolino.) Ujvári, Sándor. “Szabálytalan önéletrajz [An Irregular Autobiography].” Menora, February 17, 1979. (The author’s rescue activities under the auspices of Rotta and Verolino.) Fein, Helen. Accounting for Genocide. (New York: Free Press, 1979), pp. 107-110. Lévai, Jenö. Zsidósors Magyarországon [Jewish Fate in Hungary]. (Budapest: Magyar Téka, 1948), p. 441. Lévai, Jenö. Fehér könyv, Külföldi akciók zsidók megmentésére [White Book, Foreign Actions for the Rescuing of Jews.]. (Budapest: Officina, 1946), pp. 144-145. Lévai, Jenö. Hungarian Jewry and the Papacy. (London: Sands and Co., 1968), pp. 39, 44. Refers to M. Rotta and to Uditore Verolino by name.  15,000 safe passes issued (only 2,500 were permitted). Anger, Per. Translated by David Mel Paul and Margareta Paul. With Raoul Wallenberg in Budapest: Memories of the War Years in Hungary. (New York: Holocaust Library, 1981).  Váradi, “Külföldi diplomáciai mentési kisérletek a budapesti zsidóságért” [Foreign Diplomatic Rescue Efforts on Behalf of the Jews of Budapest]. Medvetánc [Bear Dance], Budapest, no. 2-3 (1985): 99-110; E. Szatmári, Bericht über die Tätigkeit der neutralen Vertretungen in Budapest. [Reprot on the Activities of the Neutral Representstives in Budapest.]  Rotta, Angelo, “A budapesti nunciatura diplomáciai akciója a zsidók érdekében” [The Diplomatic Campaign of the Budapest Nunciature in Behalf of the Jews], in A Magyar katolikus egyház és az emberi jogok védelme [The Hungarian Catholic Church and the Protection of Human Rights], ed. Antal Meszlényi [Budapest: A Szent István Társulat, 1947], pp. 21-30.  Újváry, Sándor, “Szabálytalan önéletrajz” [Unorthodox Autobiography]. Menóra, Toronto, February 17, 1979, p. 8.  Lévai, Fehér könyv: Külföldi akciók zsidók megmentésére [White Book: Foreign Activities for the Rescuing of Jews], Budapest: Officina, n.d.  Summary Report of the Activities of the War Refugee Board with Respect to the Jews of Hungary [Washington, October 9, 1944), p. 4 [Typescript].  The report was prepared by Lawrence S. Lesser, the assistant of John W. Pehle, the head of the WRB.)

György (George) Adam

György Adam was a Jewish refugee who sought refuge in the Vatican embassy in Budapest.  The Papal Nuncio, Angelo Rotta, agreed to let Adam represent the Vatican office.  While there, Adam volunteered to go on missions to the Obuda brickyards to release Jews from custody.  In doing so, he was able to prevent Jews from being deported to the death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau.  Armed with Vatican protective documents, Adam was able to release hundreds of Jews from the Obuda brickyards transit camp.  He worked with Father Gennaro Verolino, the assistant to Angelo Rotta, in rescuing Jews from death marches to the Austrian border.  On one occasion, he prevented the arrest of Admiral Horthy, the Regent of Hungary, and his family, by Nazi occupying forces.  At that time, he announced that he was the Second Secretary to the Nunciatura.  This title stuck with him throughout the war.  Adam provided testimony to Yad Vashem on behalf of Father Gennaro Verolino that enabled Father Verolino to be recognized as Righteous Among the Nations. 

(György Adam oral history testimony.  Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981).  Lévai, Jenö. Black Book on the Martyrdom of Hungarian Jewry. (Central European Times Publishing, 1948).  Rotta, 1947, pp. 21-30;  Újváry, 1979, p. 8; Lévai, White Book, n.d.)

Father Köhler

Father Köhler was a Lazarist Catholic priest.  Father Köhler, working with the Ujváry group, fought to save the lives of Jewish deportees at the Hungarian border town of Hegyeshalom. Köhler filled out blank apostolic safe-conducts for Jewish deportees and sought their release. Köhler, along with Ujváry, Kiss and Biro, fought for and obtained the release of 4,700 Jews who were put on trucks and returned to Budapest.  Father Köhler was in constant danger from the Arrow Cross party, who called him “a servant of the Jewish Pope.” 

(Vatican (Holy See). Actes et documents du Saint-Siège relatifs à la Seconde Guerre Mondiale. 12 vols. (1966-1981). Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981). Lévai, Jenö. Black Book on the Martyrdom of Hungarian Jewry. (Central European Times Publishing, 1948), pp. 373-374. Rosenfeld, Harvey. Raoul Wallenberg, Angel of Rescue: Heroism and Torment in the Gulag. (Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books), chapter 5.  Rotta, 1947, pp. 21-30;  Újváry, 1979, p. 8; Lévai, White Book, n.d.)

volunteers: 

György Adam (Jewish), see above

Janós Antal●

Janós Antal was the Head of the Salesian house in Rákospalota.  Many Jews were protected at the house with Vatican protective papers.  For his activities, Mr. Antal was arrested but released with the intervention of Papal Nuncio Angelo Rotta.  He was awarded the title of Righteous Among the Nations in 1992.  (Asaf, 1990, p. 68.  Hetényi, Varga K. “Those Who Were Persecuted Because of the Truth.” Ecclesia, Budapest, 1985.  Rotta, 1947, pp. 21-30;  Újváry, 1979, p. 8; Lévai, White Book, n.d.)

Baroness Gizella Apor

Baroness Apor worked as a nurse in the Honvéd Tiszti Hospital. She worked with Sándor Újváry and Ference Kálló.  (Asaf, 1990, p. 69. Hetényi, Varga K. “Those Who Were Persecuted Because of the Truth.” Ecclesia, Budapest, 1985.  Braham, 1981, p. 1076. Lévai, J. “Grey Book on the Rescuing of Hungarian Jews.” Budapest: Officina, 1946.  Rotta, 1947, pp. 21-30;  Újváry, 1979, p. 8; Lévai, White Book, n.d.)

Father Ferenc Bády, Roman Catholic Priest

Father Bády gave hundreds of Jews safe conduct protective papers. He was persecuted by the Arrow Cross party.  (Asaf, 1990, p. 69. Hetényi, Varga K. “Those Who Were Persecuted Because of the Truth.” Ecclesia, Budapest, 1985.  Rotta, 1947, pp. 21-30;  Újváry, 1979, p. 8; Lévai, White Book, n.d.)

Tibor Báránszky●, secretary, manager “protected houses”

Tibor Báránszky, as a secretary in the Nunciature, was primarily responsible for safeguarding Vatican-protected buildings in the Pest international ghetto. Báránszky also distributed Vatican protective passes to Jews in the Obuda brickyards.  He also rescued Jews on the Hegyeshalom death marches.  He was awarded the title Righteous Among the Nations by the State of Israel in January 1979.  (Asaf, 1990, p. 71. Rosenfeld, Harvey. Raoul Wallenberg, Angel of Rescue: Heroism and Torment in the Gulag. (Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books), chapter 5.  Rotta, 1947, pp. 21-30;  Újváry, 1979, p. 8; Lévai, White Book, n.d.)

Dr. Istvan Biro

Dr. Istvan Biro was a lawyer, member of the Hungarian Parliament and a volunteer worker for the International Red Cross in Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45. Biro worked with Sándor Ujváry, who worked with apostolic nuncio Angelo Rotta and his assistant, Father Gennaro Verolino.  They filled out hundreds of blank Vatican safe-conducts and distributed them to Jews at the Hungarian checkpoint in Hegyeshalom. As part of the Ujváry group, Biro faked certificates of baptism and other documents for Jews to rescue them from the Arrow Cross. They also distributed truckloads of medical supplies and food to Jews on deportations.  According to contemporary records, 4,700 Jews were returned to Budapest from deportation.  The Ujváry group was in constant danger from the Arrow Cross.  (Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991), pp. 967, 1280n78.  Rotta, 1947, pp. 21-30;  Újváry, 1979, p. 8; Lévai, White Book, n.d.)

József Eszterházy (Department of Cooperation)

József Eszterházy worked with Sándor Újváry in the Department of Cooperation in Budapest, Hungary. He also served as the Department’s liaison to the Arrow Cross Foreign Minister.  (Asaf, 1990, p. 77. Braham, 1981. Lévai, J. “Grey Book on the Rescuing of Hungarian Jews.” Budapest: Officina, 1946. Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991), pp. 1076, 1225, 1280n78.  Rotta, 1947, pp. 21-30;  Újváry, 1979, p. 8; Lévai, White Book, n.d.)

Imre Farkas (Department of Cooperation)

Imre Farkas worked with Sándor Újváry in the Department of Cooperation in Budapest, Hungary.  He was awarded the title of Righteous Among the Nations in 1996.  (Asaf, 1990, p. 77. Lévai, J. “Grey Book on the Rescuing of Hungarian Jews.” Budapest: Officina, 1946.  Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991), p. 1280n78.  Rotta, 1947, pp. 21-30;  Újváry, 1979, p. 8; Lévai, White Book, n.d.)

Dr. Zoltan Farkas (Spanish Consulate)

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, 1991), pp. 965, 1242.  Rotta, 1947, pp. 21-30;  Újváry, 1979, p. 8; Lévai, White Book, n.d.)

Father Gyula Mátyás Fehér*

Father Fehér helped distribute Vatican protective papers in Budapest.  He was imprisoned by the Arrow Cross for these activities.  (Asaf, 1990, p. 78. Hetényi, Varga K. “Those Who Were Persecuted Because of the Truth.” Ecclesia, Budapest, 1985.  Rotta, 1947, pp. 21-30;  Újváry, 1979, p. 8; Lévai, White Book, n.d.)

Major István Fehér, Hungarian Army

Major István Fehér was active in the rescue of Jews while working in the Department of Cooperation.  (Lévai, J. “Grey Book on the Rescuing of Hungarian Jews.” Budapest: Officina, 1946. Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), p. 539.  Rotta, 1947, pp. 21-30;  Újváry, 1979, p. 8; Lévai, White Book, n.d.)

Istvan Földiák (Department of Cooperation)

István Földiák worked with Sándor Újváry in rescue activities of the Department of Cooperation. (Asaf, 1990, p. 79. Lévai, J. “Grey Book on the Rescuing of Hungarian Jews.” Budapest: Officina, 1946.  Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991), p. 1280n78.  Rotta, 1947, pp. 21-30;  Újváry, 1979, p. 8; Lévai, White Book, n.d.)

Dr. Lazló Helle (Department of Cooperation)

Dr. László Helle worked with Sándor Újváry in the Department of Cooperation.  (Asaf, 1990, p. 81. Lévai, J. “Grey Book on the Rescuing of Hungarian Jews.” Budapest: Officina, 1946.  Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991), p. 1280n78.  Rotta, 1947, pp. 21-30;  Újváry, 1979, p. 8; Lévai, White Book, n.d.)

Zoltán Horváth, Captain, Department of Cooperation

Captain Horváth saved a large number of Jewish men from deportation by enlisting them in the Hungarian labor service.  (Asaf, 1990, p. 83. Lévai, J. “Grey Book on the Rescuing of Hungarian Jews.” Budapest: Officina, 1946. Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), p. 548.  Rotta, 1947, pp. 21-30;  Újváry, 1979, p. 8; Lévai, White Book, n.d.)

Father Géza Izay, Jesuit Priest

Father Izay worked with Vatican Nuncio Angelo Rotta in supplying Jews with Vatican protective papers.  He also helped shelter and feed Jews.  (Asaf, 1990, p. 84. Hetényi, Varga K. “Those Who Were Persecuted Because of the Truth.” Ecclesia, Budapest, 1985.  Rotta, 1947, pp. 21-30;  Újváry, 1979, p. 8; Lévai, White Book, n.d.)

Mrs. László Katona

Mrs. László Katona sent blank baptismal documents to Sándor Újváry in the Department of Cooperation.  These documents were distributed to Jewish protectees.  (Asaf, 1990, p. 85. Braham, 1981. Lévai, J. “Grey Book on the Rescuing of Hungarian Jews.” Budapest: Officina, 1946. Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), p. 1075.  Rotta, 1947, pp. 21-30;  Újváry, 1979, p. 8; Lévai, White Book, n.d.)

Dr. Géza Kiss●

Dr. Kiss was a volunteer worker for the International Red Cross in Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45. Kiss worked with Sándor Ujváry, who worked with apostolic nuncio Angelo Rotta.  They filled out hundreds of blank Vatican safe-conducts and distributed them to Jews at the Hungarian checkpoint in Hegyeshalom. As part of the Ujváry group, Kiss faked certificates of baptism and other documents for Jews to rescue them from the Arrow Cross. They also distributed truckloads of medical supplies and food to Jews on deportations.  According to contemporary records, 4,700 Jews were returned to Budapest from deportation.  The Ujváry group was in constant danger from the Arrow Cross. Dr. Kiss was designated Righteous Among the Nations by the State of Israel in 1989.  (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.  Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 841, 1076.  Rotta, 1947, pp. 21-30;  Újváry, 1979, p. 8; Lévai, White Book, n.d.)

Milán Kosztics (Department of Cooperation)

Milán Kosztics worked under the auspices of the Department of Cooperation as a liaison for Sándor Újváry.  (Asaf, 1990, pp. 87-88. Braham, 1991. Lévai, J. “Grey Book on the Rescuing of Hungarian Jews.” Budapest: Officina, 1946.  Rotta, 1947, pp. 21-30;  Újváry, 1979, p. 8; Lévai, White Book, n.d.)

Father Jakob Raile●, (Jesuit), head, monstary, Budapest (Gutman, 2007; Rotta, 1947, pp. 21-30;  Újváry, 1979, p. 8; Lévai, White Book, n.d.)

Margit Sterneder● (Rotta, 1947, pp. 21-30;  Újváry, 1979, p. 8; Lévai, White Book, n.d.)

Géza Tolnay

Géza Tolnay worked with Sándor Újváry helping Jewish refugees as a volunteer for the International Red Cross.  (Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991), p. 1280n78.  Rotta, 1947, pp. 21-30;  Újváry, 1979, p. 8; Lévai, White Book, n.d.)

Sándor Újváry● (Department of Cooperation)

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

(Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 841, 998, 1075-1076. Lévai, J. “Hungarian Jewry and the Papacy.” London: Sands and Company, 1968. Lévai, J. “Grey Book on the Rescuing of Hungarian Jews.” Budapest: Officina, 1946. Lévai, Jenö. Black Book on the Martyrdom of Hungarian Jewry. (Central European Times Publishing, 1948), pp. 371-374. Ben-Tov, Arieh. Facing the Holocaust in Budapest: The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Jews in Hungary, 1943-1945. (Boston: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1988). Rosenfeld, Harvey. Raoul Wallenberg, Angel of Rescue: Heroism and Torment in the Gulag. (Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books), chapter 5.  Rotta, 1947, pp. 21-30;  Újváry, 1979, p. 8; Lévai, White Book, n.d.)

Rózsi Vájkay and Éva Vájkay, Head of the Safe Conduct Office in the Nunciature of Angelo Rotta

Rózsi Vájkay was the Head of the Safe Conduct Office in Monsignor Angelo Rotta’s Nunciature in Budapest, Hungary.  Éva Vájkay, who had received a safe conduct herself, volunteered to issue certificates of protection to all Jews who submitted baptismal papers, without checking whether they were authentic. Due to their connections to the neutral legations and consulates, the Vájkay’s were extremely effective in their rescue operations.  (Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), p. 1075. Asaf, 1990, p. 106. Sztehló, Gábor. “In God’s Hand.” (Budapest: A Magyarországi Evangelikus Egyház Sajtóosztálya, 1986).  Rotta, 1947, pp. 21-30;  Újváry, 1979, p. 8; Lévai, White Book, n.d.)

Tibor Verebély, worked with Sandor Ujvary (Braham, 1991, p. 1280n78)


Romania

Monsignor Andrea Cassulo

Monsignor Andrea Cassulo was the Vatican nuncio in Bucharest, Romania.  Cassulo was appointed Nuncio in June 1936.  He was 72 years old.  In 1941, he began protecting baptized Jews in Romania.  He was responsible for protesting the deportation of Romanian Jews in 1942 and 1943.  He was tireless in his actions and his work was successful in saving Jewish lives.  He protested the deportations to the Romanian government and Nazi officials.  Cassulo worked closely with leaders of the Jewish community, including Chief Rabbi Dr. Alexander Safran and Swiss diplomat Rene de Weck.  Cassulo expedited relief efforts for deported Jews and served on committees establishing Jewish orphanages in Transnistria.  Cassulo remained in Bucharest until 1947, when he was forced to leave by the Communists.  He received many post-war commendations from the Jewish community.  He died in 1952 at age 83.  (Vatican (Holy See). Actes et documents du Saint-Siège relatifs à la Seconde Guerre Mondiale. 12 vols. (1966-1981). Morley, John. Vatican Diplomacy and the Jews during the Holocaust, 1939-1943. (New York: Ktav, 1980), pp. 25-47, 153, 199, 202, 216-220. Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), pp. 306, 1297-1298, 1322. Vago, Bela. “Political and Diplomatic Activities for the Rescue of the Jews of Northern Transylvania.” Yad Vashem Studies, 6 (1967), pp. 71-72. Safran, Alexandre. “The Rulers of Fascist Rumania Whom I Had to Deal With.” Yad Vashem Studies, 6 (1967), pp. 179-180. Reitlinger, Gerald. The Final Solution: The Attempt to Exterminate the Jews of Europe, 1939-1945. (New York: The Beechhurst Press, 1953), p. 404. Lavi, Theodore. The Vatican’s Endeavours on Behalf of Roumanian Jewry during World War II. (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 1961), pp. 1333-1346. Levin, Nora. The Holocaust: The Destruction of European Jewry, 1933-1945. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1968), pp. 567, 579, 586. Pawlikowski, John T. The Catholic response to the Holocaust: Institutional perspectives.  In Berenbaum, Michael, and Abraham J. Peck (Eds.). The Holocaust and History: The Known, the Unknown, the Disputed, and the Reexamined, pp. 551-565. (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1998), pp. 557-559.  Herzer, 1989, p. 236. Butnaru, I. C. The Silent Holocaust: Romania and its Jews. 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. Conway, John S. “Records and documents of the Holy See relating to the Second World War.” Yad Vashem Studies, 15 (1983), 327-345. Lavi, T. “Documents on the struggle of Rumanian Jewry for its rights during the Second World War.” Yad Vashem Studies, 4 (1960), 310. Lapide, Pinchas E. Three Popes and the Jews. (New York: Hawthorn Books, 1967), pp. 163-169.)

Slovakia

Monsignor Giuseppe Burzio

Monsignor Giuseppe Burzio was the Papal Nuncio in Bratislava, Slovakia, 1940-1945.  Burzio was 39 at the time of his posting.  On October 27, 1941, Burzio sent a report to the Holy See that Jews were being systematically murdered.  He further reported from Pressburg (Bratislava) of the imminent deportation of 20,000 Slovakian Jews.  In March 1942. he sent a new report about the deportation of Slovak Jews to Poland.  In the report, he stated that this deportation meant certain death.  Burzio’s protests of the mistreatment and deportation of Jews were addressed to Slovakian Prime Minister Tuka.  Ironically, Tuka was an ordained Catholic priest.  Burzio sent a copy of the Auschwitz Protocols to the Vatican in Rome in May 1944.  As a result, in June 1942, Prime Minister Tuka asked Wislicency for information regarding the deportation of Slovakian Jews to the General Government in Poland.  Wislicency denied the actions.  Burzio was responsible for implementing the rescue of a number of Slovakian Jews.  After the war, Burzio served as Nuncio to Bolivia from 1946-1950 and to Cuba from 1950-1954.  He left Vatican diplomatic service.  He became a canon of the Lateran Basilica in Rome.  He died in 1966. (Vatican (Holy See). Actes et documents du Saint-Siège relatifs à la Seconde Guerre Mondiale. 12 vols. (1966-1981). Morley, John. Vatican Diplomacy and the Jews during the Holocaust, 1939-1943. (New York: Ktav, 1980), pp. 73-91, 94-100, 117, 135, 199, 202, 226-233, 239-246. Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 710, 714, 937, 1064, 1067. Rothkirchen, Livia. “Vatican Policy and the ‘Jewish Problem’ in ‘Independent’ Slovakia (1939-1945).” Yad Vashem Studies, 6 (1967), pp. 36-52. Pawlikowski, John T. The Catholic response to the Holocaust: Institutional perspectives.  In Berenbaum, Michael, and Abraham J. Peck (Eds.). The Holocaust and History: The Known, the Unknown, the Disputed, and the Reexamined, pp. 551-565. (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1998), pp. 555-558. Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), pp. 122, 1137, 1183. Rozett, Robert and Shmuel Spector. Encyclopedia of the Holocaust. (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2000), p. 357. Conway, John S. “Records and documents of the Holy See relating to the Second World War.” Yad Vashem Studies, 15 (1983), 327-345. Lapide, Pinchas E. Three Popes and the Jews. (New York: Hawthorn Books, 1967), pp. 138-139, 142, 144, 147.)

Spain, Madrid

Monsignore Gaetano Cicognani

Monsignore-Archbishop Gaetano Cicognani, the Papal Nuncio in Madrid, had given orders to issue protective papers to any Jew in southern France “who somehow could prove his Spanish affiliation, even in the most embryonic manner.”  His efforts were unsuccessful due to the surrender of the Italian government on September 8, 1943.  (Waagenaar, Sam. The Pope’s Jews. (La Salle, IL: Open Court Publishers, 1974), p. 382. Vatican (Holy See). Actes et documents du Saint-Siège relatifs à la Seconde Guerre Mondiale. 12 vols. (1966-1981). Morley, John. Vatican Diplomacy and the Jews during the Holocaust, 1939-1943. (New York: Ktav, 1980), p. 66.)

Switzerland

Monsignor Philippe Bernardini, Papal Nuncio and Dean of the Diplomatic Corps, Bern, Switzerland, 1942-45

Monsignor Philippe Bernardini, Papal Nuncio in Bern, Switzerland, repeatedly intervened on behalf of Jewish refugees who were stranded in Switzerland after fleeing Germany and Nazi occupied countries.  This prevented them from being deported from Switzerland during the war.  Bernardini placed couriers of the Vatican diplomatic service at the disposal of Jewish relief agencies.  They were thus able to issue visas through Ambassador Lados and Dr. Julius Kuhl in countries that had severed diplomatic relations with Poland.  Bernardini personally intervened on behalf of the Jews of Slovakia.  In addition, Bernardini helped Jewish relief agencies to save Jews by acquiring and distributing fictitious South American passports.  Bernardini also worked with the Red Cross to obtain recognition of these documents by South American governments.  Bauer, Yehuda.

(American Jewry and the Holocaust. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), p. 289.  Friedenson, Joseph, and David Kranzler, forward by Julius Kuhl. Heroine of Rescue: The Incredible Story of Recha Sternbuch Who Saved Thousands from the Holocaust. (Brooklyn, NY: Mesorah Publications, 1984). Vatican (Holy See). Actes et documents du Saint-Siège relatifs à la Seconde Guerre Mondiale. 12 vols. (1966-1981). Morley, John. Vatican Diplomacy and the Jews during the Holocaust, 1939-1943. (New York: Ktav, 1980), pp. 31-32, 35, 40, 60-61, 67-68, 79-80, 84, 117, 135-136, 140-142, 203, 212. Rothkirchen, Livia. “Vatican Policy and the ‘Jewish Problem’ in ‘Independent’ Slovakia (1939-1945).” Yad Vashem Studies, 6 (1967), pp. 40. Kranzler, David. Thy Brother’s Blood: The Orthodox Jewish Response During the Holocaust. (Brooklyn, NY: Mesorah, 1987), pp. 190, 197-199, 202-203. Penkower, Monty Noam. The Jews Were Expendable: Free World diplomacy and the Holocaust.  (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1983), pp. 63, 249, 252, 365n.7. Pawlikowski, John T. The Catholic response to the Holocaust: Institutional perspectives.  In Berenbaum, Michael, and Abraham J. Peck (Eds.). The Holocaust and History: The Known, the Unknown, the Disputed, and the Reexamined, pp. 551-565. (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1998), p. 557. Conway, John S. “Records and documents of the Holy See relating to the Second World War.” Yad Vashem Studies, 15 (1983), 327-345.  Tittmann, Harold H., Jr., Harold H. Tittman III (Ed.). Inside the Vatican of Pius XII: The Memoir of an American Diplomat During World War II. (New York: Image Books Doubleday, 2004), pp. 36-37.)

Vice Consul Julius Kuhl (Polish Jew), Polish Consul in Bern, Switzerland, 1938-45

Consul Dr. Julius Kuhl was born to a prominent Jewish family in Sanok, Poland.  Kuhl issued thousands of protective visas and passports to Jews from the Polish embassy in Bern, Switzerland, 1938-45.  Kuhl worked with help and encouragement from Polish ambassador Alexander Lados.  Both Kuhl and Lados gave visas to a number of Jewish relief and rescue agencies working out of Europe.  These precious papers enabled Jews to remain in Switzerland or emigrate to the United States, Canada, South America, Africa, Palestine and other countries.  (Friedenson, Joseph, and David Kranzler, forward by Julius Kuhl. Heroine of Rescue: The Incredible Story of Recha Sternbuch Who Saved Thousands from the Holocaust. (Brooklyn, NY: Mesorah Publications, 1984). Kranzler, David. Thy Brother’s Blood: The Orthodox Jewish Response During the Holocaust. (Brooklyn, NY: Mesorah, 1987), pp. 195, 200-203. Penkower, Monty Noam. The Jews Were Expendable: Free World diplomacy and the Holocaust.  (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1983), pp. 66-68, 78, 190, 249, 263, 265n.7, 368n.46.)

Recha Sternbuch

The Sternbuch’s were Orthodox Jews living in Bern, Switzerland.  They ran a major Jewish rescue operation out of Switzerland throughout the war.  Thousands of Jews were saved by the Sternbuch’s.  Recha Sternbuch was arrested for her activities by Swiss authorities and was later released from jail.  They worked with Chinese Consul General Dr. Feng Shan Ho, from his office in Vienna, and with Polish Ambassador Alexander Lados and his assistant Julius Kuhl, from their office in Bern.  (Isaac Sternbuch:  Penkower, Monty Noam. The Jews Were Expendable: Free World diplomacy and the Holocaust.  (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1983), pp. 68-71, 190, 201, 204, 209-210, 253, 247, 250-251, 255, 257-258, 261, 287, 365n.13. Kranzler, David. Thy Brother’s Blood: The Orthodox Jewish Response During the Holocaust. (Brooklyn: Mesorah, 1987). Friedenson, Joseph, and David Kranzler, forward by Julius Kuhl. Heroine of Rescue: The Incredible Story of Recha Sternbuch Who Saved Thousands from the Holocaust. (Brooklyn, NY: Mesorah Publications, 1984).)

Turkey

Archbishop Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli (later Pope John XXIII), see above (Sofia, Bulgaria)

USA

Archbishop Amleto Cicognani

Archbishop Amleto Cicognani was the Apostolic Delegate to the United States.  He forwarded a request from Rabbi Stephen Wise for an appeal for intervention to help Jews in Bucharest, Romania.  During World War II, he transmitted a number of requests to the Vatican to intervene on behalf of persecuted Jews in Nazi occupied territories.  He also worked with Nahum Goldman of the World Jewish Congress.  He showed personal initiative and great sympathy on behalf of Jews.  (Morley, John. Vatican Diplomacy and the Jews during the Holocaust, 1939-1943. (New York: Ktav, 1980), pp. 39, 63-64, 67, 93, 97, 137, 140-141, 144-145, 152, 157-158, 175-177, 190.  Tittmann, Harold H., Jr., Harold H. Tittman III (Ed.). Inside the Vatican of Pius XII: The Memoir of an American Diplomat During World War II. (New York: Image Books Doubleday, 2004), pp. 47-48, 63, 77, 104, 144, 149-153, 158.)

Yugoslavia

Abbot Giuseppe Ramiro Marcone

Monsignor Giuseppe Ramiro Marcone, the Vatican representative in Zagreb, intervened via diplomatic channels to halt deportations of Jews.  His efforts initially were to no avail.  (Carpi, Daniel. "The Rescue of Jews in the Italian Zone of Occupied Croatia." In Rescue Attempts During the Holocaust. Proceedings of the Second Yad Vashem International Historical Conference, edited by Y. Gutman & E. Zuroff. (Jerusalem, 1977), pp. 477, 490. Morley, John. Vatican Diplomacy and the Jews during the Holocaust, 1939-1943. (New York: Ktav, 1980), pp. 149-165, 202.  Tittmann, Harold H., Jr., Harold H. Tittman III (Ed.). Inside the Vatican of Pius XII: The Memoir of an American Diplomat During World War II. (New York: Image Books Doubleday, 2004), p. 51.)

Vatican City

Sir Francis de’Arcy Godolphin Osborne, British Minister to the Holy See, 1942

Sir Francis de’Arcy Godolphin Osborne was the British Minister to the Holy See in 1942.  In December 1942, the British government tried to get the Vatican to condemn the Nazi genocide.  Osborne wrote to the Vatican Secretary of State:  “A policy of silence in regard to such offenses against the conscience of the world must necessarily involve a renunciation of moral leadership and a consequent atrophy of the influence and authority of the Vatican” (Gutman, 1990, p. 1137).  Osborne tried again in January 1943 and failed to get a Vatican statement condemning Nazi war crimes against Jews and others.  (Leboucher, Fernande. Translated by J. F. Bernard. Incredible Mission. (Garden city, NY: Doubleday, 1969). Morley, John. Vatican Diplomacy and the Jews during the Holocaust, 1939-1943. (New York: Ktav, 1980), pp. 58, 65, 82, 87, 118-119, 143-144, 157, 173, 175-176. Michaelis, Meir. Mussolini and the Jews: German-Italian Relations and the Jewish Question in Italy, 1922-1945. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978), pp. 342-344, 396, 424. Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), p. 1137.  Tittmann, Harold H., Jr., Harold H. Tittman III (Ed.). Inside the Vatican of Pius XII: The Memoir of an American Diplomat During World War II. (New York: Image Books Doubleday, 2004), pp. 11, 22-23, 53, 75, 81-82, 89-90, 100-101, 128, 134, 145-148, 154, 166, 167, 169, 177-178, 181-182, 188-190.)


Village of Vence, Southern France (Lazare, p. 239; Moore, 2010, pp. 27-28; Zasloff, 2003, pp. 112, 115)

School refugee colony for children of Czechoslovakian Jews.  Worked with OSE.

Josef Fisera (Moore, 2010, p. 27)


Verein zur Abwehr des Antisemitismus (“Association for Defense Against Antisemitism”), Germany, established in Germany by non-Jews to combat anti-Semitism (Gutman, 2007, p. 159)

Hans Walz●, German industrialist, Director General, Bosch Works, Stuttgart, Germany

Robert Bosch, founder Bosch Works


Pastor Paul Vargara Rescue Network, Oratoire du Louvre, Paris, France (Gutman, 2003, pp. 538-539; Yagil, 2005, p. 527)

Pastor Paul Vergara, with the help and aid of members of his congregation, helped to save 63 Jewish children during the German occupation of Paris.  Bergara worked with the UGIF.

Pastor Paul Vergara●, awarded Righteous Among the Nations title (Yad Vashem Archives; Gutman, 2003, pp. 538-539; Yagil, 2005, p. 527)

Marcelle Vergara●, awarded Righteous Among the Nations title (Yad Vashem Archives; Gutman, 2003, pp. 538-539; Yagil, 2005, p. 527)

Bechards●, awarded Righteous Among the Nations title (Yad Vashem Archives; Gutman, 2003, pp. 538-539; Yagil, 2005, p. 527)

Marcelle Guillemot●, awarded Righteous Among the Nations title (Yad Vashem Archives; Gutman, 2003, p. 539)

Wilfrid Monod, founder, La Clairiere, Paris, France


Cornelissen-Verhoeven Rescue Network, Baarle-Hertog, Belgium (Moore, 2010, p. 55)

Helped local Jews and Allied air crews.  Miet was arrested and executed for his activities.

Maria Joseph (Miet) Cornelissen-Verhoeven+*, organizer


Villa Santa Maria, Italy, hid Jews in village (Gutman, 2007, p. 368)

Roberto Castracane●

Menina Castracane


Vivarais-Lignon Plateau Rescue Area, France (Gutman, 2003, p. xxviii)


Volunteer Ambulance Service of Budapest (Budapesti Önkéntes Mentögyesület; BÖME; Braham, 1991, pp. 1122-1123; Levai, 1948)

Ambulance Unit rescued, aided and hid Jews during German occupation and Nylas era.  Many Jews served as physicians and medical personnel in BÖME.

Dr. Lásló Bisits (Braham, 1991, pp. 1122-1123; Levai, 1948)

Károly Harkány (Braham, 1991, pp. 1122-1123; Levai, 1948)

Dr. Lásló Szennik (Braham, 1991, pp. 1122-1123; Levai, 1948)


Vrij Groep (Group), Maastricht, Netherlands, helped Jews who were in hiding (Moore, 2010, p. 53)

Jacques Vrij, leader, organizing (Moore, 2010, p. 53)