Diplomatic Rescue by Country

 

Table of Contents

Part 1 - See Below

Argentina
Belgium
Brazil
Bulgaria
Canada
China
Croatia
Cuba
Czechoslovakia
Denmark
Ecuador
El Salvador
Finland
France
Germany
Great Britain
Greece
Hungary
Iran
Ireland
 

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Italy
Japan
Lithuania
Mexico
Netherlands
Norway
Panama
Poland
Portugal
Red Cross
Romania
 

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Slovakia
Soviet Union
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Thailand
Turkey
 

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United States of America
Vatican
Yugoslavia
Jewish Diplomats


 

Argentina


Alberto Bafico, Argentine Consul in Budapest, 1939, and Copenhagen, 1943

Consul Alberto Bafico reported on the anti-Semitic persecution of Jews from his post in Budapest, Hungary.  Later, Bafico reported on the German invasion and occupation of Denmark.  He reported on the persecutions and danger to Danish Jews.

[Feierstein, Daniel and Miguel Galante. “Argentina and the Holocaust: The conceptions and policies of Argentine diplomacy, 1933-1945.” Yad Vashem Studies, 27 (1999), 182-183.]


José Caballero, Argentine Counselor for Commercial Affairs in Sofia, Bulgaria, 1941-42

José Caballero sent reports to the Argentine Foreign Ministry about the persecution of Bulgarian Jews.  He personally was repulsed by the racial and economic laws enacted against Jews, and publicly condemned these actions.  Caballero protected numerous Argentine Jews in Bulgaria. He did this against the instructions received from the Argentine Foreign Ministry.  Specifically, he freed Jews from forced labor and other persecutions. On Caballero’s urging, the Argentine Foreign Ministry agreed to provide diplomatic protection to Jewish Argentine citizens.

[Feierstein, Daniel and Miguel Galante. “Argentina and the Holocaust: The conceptions and policies of Argentine diplomacy, 1933-1945.” Yad Vashem Studies, 27 (1999), 181-182, 191, 198, 200-201.]


Haimoff Gozes, Honorary Argentine Consul in Bulgaria, 1943?

Haimoff Gozes was an honorary member of the Argentine consulate in Sofia, Bulgaria.  Gozes participated in helping to liberate Jews from forced labor and helping Jews emigrate.

[Feierstein, Daniel and Miguel Galante. “Argentina and the Holocaust: The conceptions and policies of Argentine diplomacy, 1933-1945.” Yad Vashem Studies, 27 (1999), 194.]


Luis Luti, Argentine Ambassador to Germany, 1942-1944

Luis Luti was the Argentine Ambassador in Berlin from March 1942 to January 1944.  Luti reported extensively to the Argentine government on the persecution of Jews in Germany and Poland.  He sent detailed reports on the deportation and mass murder of Jews from the Warsaw ghetto.  Luti’s report in June 1943 confirmed that Jews were being deported to the gas chambers of Treblinka and murdered.  In September 1943, Luti tried to gain exemptions for “Argentine citizens of Jewish race.”  He was able to get “the regular ration cards for food and clothing” for Jews.

[Feierstein, Daniel and Miguel Galante. “Argentina and the Holocaust: The conceptions and policies of Argentine diplomacy, 1933-1945.” Yad Vashem Studies, 27 (1999), 171-172, 179-181, 195-196, 198.]


Manuel Malbrán, Argentine Ambassador to Italy, 1938-39

Manuel Malbrán was the Argentine Ambassador to Italy in 1938-39.  Ambassador Malbrán reported to the Argentine Foreign Ministry regarding anti-Semitic persecution of Jews by the Italian government.  The Argentine Foreign Ministry declined to intervene on behalf of Argentine Jews in Italy.  Malbrán continued to request permission to protect Argentine Jewish property in Italy.  As a result of his repeated requests, he was granted limited powers to protect Argentine Jewish property.

[Feierstein, Daniel and Miguel Galante. “Argentina and the Holocaust: The conceptions and policies of Argentine diplomacy, 1933-1945.” Yad Vashem Studies, 27 (1999), 195-201.]


Ricardo Olivera, Argentine Ambassador to Germany, 1939-1942, later Ambassador to Vichy

Ricardo Olivera, the Argentine ambassador to Germany, strenuously objected to and condemned the discriminatory treatment of Jews in Germany during his tenure there from 1939 to 1940.  He sent numerous reports to the Argentine Foreign Ministry, including reports of mass deportations of German Jews to Poland.  In 1940, he became the Argentine Ambassador to Vichy.  There, he helped Argentine Jews in occupied France.  Olivera also helped Greek Jews avoid deportations and escape France.  In November 1943, the Argentine consulate in Paris, under instructions from Olivera, took steps to protect Greek Jews who were interned in French concentration camps.

[Feierstein, Daniel and Miguel Galante. “Argentina and the Holocaust: The conceptions and policies of Argentine diplomacy, 1933-1945.” Yad Vashem Studies, 27 (1999), 179, 187, 189, 190-184.]


José Carlos Ponti, Argentine Secretary of the Legation, Bucharest, Romania, 1942-44

José Carlos Ponti was a Secretary in the Argentine legation in Bucharest from 1942 to 1944.  He was in charge of representing business interests to the Romanian government.  Ponti helped save an Argentine Jewish woman from deportation.  This action created a diplomatic incident between Germany and Argentina in August 1944.

[Feierstein, Daniel and Miguel Galante. “Argentina and the Holocaust: The conceptions and policies of Argentine diplomacy, 1933-1945.” Yad Vashem Studies, 27 (1999), 194.]


Argentine Consul in Paris, 1943

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

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

 

Belgium


Henri François Deroover, Belgium, Consul in Bayonne, France, 1940

Consul Deroover issued 150 blank Belgian passports to French and Belgian Jews in Bayonne, France.  The visas were filled out by the Jewish refugees themselves, who used them to escape to neutral Portugal.  [Testimony of Doreen Steg.]


Belgian Representative to the Holy See, 1942

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

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


Belgian Congo Consulate, Vichy France, 1940-41?

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

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

 

Brazil


Ildebrando Pompeo Accioly, Brazilian Ambassador to the Holy See, 1942?

Ildebrando Pompeo Accioly, the Brazilian Ambassador to the Holy See, approached Pope Pius XII to try to persuade him to condemn publicly the Nazi atrocities that were perpetrated in German occupied zones.  Accioly, along with a number of other ambassadors, on a number of occasions continued to encourage the Pope to speak out publicly.  Accioly also submitted joint démarches with other Vatican representatives.

[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. 101, 117-118.]


Luis Martins de Souza Dantas,* Brazilian Ambassador to France, 1940-43

Luis Martins de Souza Dantas was the Brazilian Ambassador to France between 1922 and 1943.  Ambassador Dantas issued visas to hundreds of Jews in occupied France after the Nazi takeover in 1940.  In March 1943, the Nazi representatives broke into Dantas’ embassy in Vichy and arrested him.  He was deported to Germany and was incarcerated along with other diplomats.  This was for his actions in helping Jews.  Dantas was eventually freed in 1944, with the direct intervention of Portuguese Prime Minister Oliveira Salazar.  Dantas issued the visas against the strict order of the pro-fascist Brazilian government headed by Getulio Vargas, and at great risk to his diplomatic career.  The Brazilian government eventually reprimanded him for issuing these visas without authorization from Rio.  Several of the Jews arrived in Brazil and were detained by the Brazilian government, but were later released. Dantas was designated Righteous Among the Nations in 2003.

[Milgram, Avraham, translated by Naftali Greenwood.  “The Jews of Europe from the perspective of the Brazilian Foreign Service, 1933-1941.”  Holocaust and Genocide Studies, 9 (1995), 94-120.  Fry, Varian. Surrender on Demand. (New York: Random House, 1945), p. 128. Eck, Nathan. “The Rescue of Jews With the Aid of Passports and Citizenship Papers of Latin American States.” Yad Vashem Studies on the European Jewish Catastrophe and Resistance, 1 (1957), pp. 125-152.]


Ildefonso Falcão, Brazilian Consul in Cologne, Germany, 1933-?

Ildefonso Falcão was the Brazilian Consul in Cologne, Germany, 1933-?  After the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, Falcão sent numerous reports on the persecution of Jews. Falcão acted on his own authority in liberally granting visas to German Jews who wished to immigrate to Brazil.  He believed that the German Jews could be a productive asset to Brazil.  Despite the anti-Semitic policies written by the Brazilian Foreign Ministry, Falcão continued to help Jewish refugees immigrate to Brazil.

[Milgram, Avraham, translated by Naftali Greenwood.  “The Jews of Europe from the perspective of the Brazilian Foreign Service, 1933-1941.”  Holocaust and Genocide Studies, 9 (1995), 94-120.]


Aracy de Carvalho-Guimaraes Rosa,* Aide to the Brazilian Ambassador in Berlin

For her actions to save Jews in Berlin, Rosa was awarded the Righteous Among the Nations life saving award in 1982.


Brazilian Ambassador to Romania, 1941-42

The Brazilian Ambassador to Romania reported on the massacre of 280,000 Jews.  The Brazilian Ambassador was in contact with the Swiss Ambassador to Romania, René de Weck.  [Laqueur, Walter (Ed.) and Judith Tydor Baumel (Assoc. Ed.).  The Holocaust Encyclopedia. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), p. 620.]

 

Bulgaria


Boyan Atanassov, Bulgarian Diplomat in Paris, France, 1940

Boyan Atanassov was serving as a consul at the Bulgarian embassy in Paris in 1940.  He saved scores of Jewish people, many of whom were Bulgarian Jews trapped in France after the Nazi occupation.  He issued Bulgarian passports and visas and arranged transport for these people through Germany to a safe refuge in Bulgaria.  He did this without authorization from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Sofia.

 

Canada


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

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

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


Canadian Ambassador to Japan

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

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

 

China


Dr. Feng Shan Ho,* Consul General of China in Vienna, 1938-40

Dr. Feng Shan Ho was among the first diplomats to save Jews during the Holocaust. Ho issued innumerable visas to Jews seeking to escape Austria after the Anschluss of 1938. These visas enabled thousands of Jewish refugees to reach safe haven in North and South America, Cuba, the Philippines, Palestine and Shanghai. Many Jews were released from Nazi concentration camps on the strength of Chinese visas. Ho issued the life-saving visas on his own authority, despite orders to desist and a reprimand from his superiors. After the war, he continued a 40-year diplomatic career in the Mideast and Latin America. Ambassador Ho died in San Francisco in September 1997 at age 96.  Dr. Ho was awarded the status of Righteous Among the Nations by the state of Israel in October 2000.


Lai Sai Lo, Chinese Diplomat in Milan, Italy, 1939-?

This diplomat issued visas to Austrian Jewish families.  There is a copy of a visa issued to a Jewish family that states:  “Vu au Consulat de Chine à Milan pour la Lombardie, pour se rendre en Chine, Milan le 10 Febrier 1939, Le Consul.”  There is a Chinese signature chop with the name Lai Sai Lo and a seal of the Consulat de la Republique de Chine a Milan.


Chinese Diplomat in Berlin, Germany, 1938-1939

A number of Chinese visas were issued by the Chinese embassy in Berlin.  Copies of these visas are in the collection of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives.  They were issued to Jewish refugees who used them to leave Germany and, in some cases, go to Shanghai.

[US Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives, Washington, DC.]


Chinese Diplomat in Hamburg, Germany, 1939

A number of Chinese visas were issued by the Chinese consulate in Hamburg.  Copies of these visas are in the collection of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives.  They were issued to Jewish refugees who used them to leave Germany and, in some cases, go to Shanghai. 

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

[US Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives, Washington, DC.]


Chinese Consul, Marseilles, France, 1940-?

Many refugees in Marseilles received a visa stamp from the Chinese consul stationed there.  In Chinese characters that virtually no one could read, the stamp read, “Under no circumstances is this person to be allowed entrance to China.”  Anxious refugees used the visa stamp as an exit visa.  Frank Bohn  of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), Varian Fry of the Emergency Rescue Committee (ERC), and other rescue and relief agencies utilized many of these Chinese visas. 

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

 

Croatia


Stj. Peric, Croatian Ambassador to Rome, 1942

Stj. Peric, the Croatian Ambassador to Rome, had a conversation with Roberto Ducci regarding the deportation of Jews in Croatia.  Peric was personally against the deportation of Jews, as he was aware the deportation would mean their murder.  [Verax [Roberto Ducci]. “Italiani ed ebrei in Jugoslavia,” Politica Estera, I. (Rome, 1944), pp. 21-29.  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, 1972), pp. 483-484.]

 

Cuba


Cuban Representative to the Holy See, 1942

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

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


Cuban Consul in Vichy France, 1940-41?

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

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

 

Czechoslovakia


Dr. Anna (Anni) Binder*, Czech diplomat in Europe

Dr. Anna (Anni) Binder (later Urbanová), a Czech diplomat, was arrested for helping to hide Jewish property and transfer it overseas.  She was deported to the Auschwitz death camp in March 1942.  While there, she helped assign slave laborers to work that would save their lives.  She provided moral support to Jewish inmates.  For helping Jews, she was sent to do hard labor in Birkenau, where she fell gravely ill.  She survived the war.  Anna Binder was honored on July 18, 1967, as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Memorial Museum in Jersualem, Israel.

“Anna (Anni) Binder (later Urbanová) was born to German parents in Ceske Budejovice.  Knowing foreign languages led to her being accepted for a job with the Czech Foreign Office in Prague in 1936, which allowed her a diplomatic passport. The political changes at the end of 1938 led to Anna’s immediate dismissal.  She thus started giving private lessons in foreign languages to refugees who had found a temporary refuge in the Czech Republic.  Dr. Urbanová’s democratic worldview and her sensitivity to the persecution of others motivated her to assist any refugees who asked her for help.  She helped them to hide their valuables and money and to transfer them to a secure place in Switzerland.  This activity led to the arrest of her and her sister for a short period.  Despite this, after her release, more than once Dr. Urbanová gave her diplomatic passport and her lineage certificate (Ahnenpass) to members of the underground to utilize.  Dr. Urbanová was arrested by the Gestapo in 1941, and she was deported to a concentration camp.  Dr. Urbanová’s incarceration in Ravensbrück came to an end with the transfer of 1000 German women—of which she was one—to Auschwitz, in March 1942, in order to supervise Jewish inmates that the Germans planned to bring to this camp.”

[Gutman, Israel. The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations: Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust, Europe (Part 1) and Other Countries. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2007), p. 39-40.]



Hubert Ripka, Acting Czechoslovak Minister of Foreign Affairs, 1944

The Acting Czechoslovakian Minister of Foreign Affairs Hubert Ripka requested that the Allied governments issue an emphatic demarche and warning to the German government regarding war crimes in the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp and elsewhere. 

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


Vladimir Vochoc, Czech Consul in Marseilles, France, 1940

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

 

Denmark


Dr. Johannes Holm, Danish Representative Attached to the Swedish Red Cross, Germany, March-April 1945

In March-April 1945, Dr. Johannes Holm was a representative for the Danish Foreign Ministry attached to the Swedish Red Cross expedition to rescue Jews from the Theresienstadt concentration camp in Czechoslovakia.  Holm had obtained papers from the Protektorat Böhmen-Mähren (Protectorate of Bohemia) to take Danish Jews from the concentration camp.  [See Sandheden om de hvide busser (The Truth About the White Buses), Dr. Holm, published in 1984.]


Dr. Hvass, Danish Foreign Ministry, 1944

Dr. Hvass of the Danish Foreign Ministry, in the fall and winter of 1944, began diplomatic negotiations with Germany to secure the release of Danish prisoners.  Most of these prisoners were Danish Jews and were interned in Theresienstadt.  [Werner, Emmy E. A Conspiracy of Decency: The Rescue of the Danish Jews during World War II. (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2002), p. 116.]


Henrik Kauffmann, Danish Minister to the United States, 1943?

Henrik Kauffmann was a Danish Minister to the United States during the October 1943 action against Jews in Denmark.  Kauffmann asked the American government for help in rescuing Danish Jews.  He offered to reimburse the United States or any government for monies expended in rescue efforts.  He raised and administered funds to support Danish Jews and other refugees in Sweden.  He also distributed funds from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.  He helped to develop the Danish underground’s foreign policy.  In addition, he notified the US Secretary of State of the deportation actions and kept the State Department apprised of Nazi actions in Denmark.  The US government took no action.

[American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee Archives, New York City.  Breitman, Richard. “American rescue activities in Sweden.” Holocaust and Genocide Studies.  Yahil.  Yahil, Leni. The Rescue of Danish Jewry: Test of a Democracy. (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1969), pp. 62, 358, 443 Fn 86.]

 

Ecuador


Dr. Manuel Antonio Muñoz Borrero, Ecuadorian Consul in Stockholm, Sweden

Dr. Manuel Antonio Muñoz Borrero issued hundreds of passports/visas to Jewish refugees in Europe.  Borrero issued the visas at the request of a local rabbi, Abraham Israel Jacobson.  According to a recent report, Borrero came into conflict with the Ecuadorian foreign minister, who had asked him to cease issuing visas.  Despite pressure from Ecuador, Borrero continued to issue visas.  In 1942, Borrero worked in cooperation with a Chilean minister in Ankara, Turkey, and the Polish Consul General in Exile in Ankara, Turkey.  The German government put pressure on the Ecuadorian government to fire Borrero.  Borrero was warned and interrogated several times by the Swedish police and by the Swedish secret service (Säkerhetstjänsten).  Borrero was eventually dismissed from his job as Consul General of Ecuador in Stockholm under pressure from the Nazi regime.  He did not return to Ecuador.  Borrero died in Stockholm after the war.

 

El Salvador


Colonel José Arturo Castellanos, Consul General for El Salvador in Geneva, Switzerland, 1942-45

Colonel José Arturo Castellanos was the Salvadoran Consul General in Geneva, Switzerland in 1942-45.  He appointed George Mandel-Mantello, a Hungarian Jewish refugee living in Geneva, as the First Secretary at his consulate.  He authorized Mantello to issue thousands of “citizen certificates” to Jewish refugees throughout Nazi occupied Europe.  These certificates stated that the holder was a recognized citizen of El Salvador who was then protected from deportation.  In 1944, Castellanos requested that Switzerland represent El Salvador’s interests in Nazi occupied Hungary.  Soon, Mantello was issuing thousands of Salvadoran citizenship papers to Hungarian Jews through the office of Swiss Consul Charles Lutz.


George Mandel-Mantello, Honorary First Secretary for El Salvador in Geneva, 1942-45

George Mandel was born into an orthodox Jewish family in Hungary in 1901.  Because of his business contacts, he was appointed honorary consul of El Salvador in Geneva in 1941.  As early as 1942, George Mandel-Mantello began issuing Salvadoran citizenship papers and documents to Jews in Nazi occupied Europe from his offices in Geneva.  Mantello worked closely with Jewish organizations and neutral legations to develop an elaborate network to distribute these life-saving papers, especially in Hungary.  Many of these were blank forms that could be filled out by the recipients.  Mantello spent thousands of dollars of his own money covering the costs of issuing these life-saving documents.  Mantello also was largely responsible for the widespread dissemination of the Auschwitz Protocols in Europe.

 

Finland


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

After the German Anschluss (annexation of Austria) in March 1938, several hundred foreign Jews arrived in Finland.  Most were in transit to other countries, but some stayed.  At first, the Finnish government had no consistent policy regarding Jewish refugees.  The Finnish Vice Consul in Vienna, Kauko Supanen, generously granted provisional visas to Jews.  On August 13, 1938, 50 Jews on the ship Ariadne sailed into Helsinki harbor and were allowed to enter Finland.  A week later, 60 Jews on the same ship were refused entry.  Supanen pretended to act out of ignorance of the Home Office visa policy.  He told refugees as late as August 1938 that Finland was open to Jews bearing Austrian passports, with or without visas.  He thus allowed many Austrian Jews to immigrate to Finland.  Supanen received a severe reprimand for his conduct from the Foreign ministry in Helsinki.  In his reprimand, it said: “As a responsible officer, you are forbidden to give advice apt to generate a flood of aliens seeking to enter Finland.  It is your duty to prevent such a flood with all your might.”  [Rautkallio, Hanno. Finland and the Holocaust: The Rescue of Finland's Jews, pp. 65-70. (New York: Holocaust Library, 1987). Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990).  ]

 

France


De Maricourt, French Chargé d’Affaires to Vichy France

[Mazower, Mark. Inside Hitler's Greece: The Experience of Occupation, 1941-1944. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1993).]


Yves Debroise, French diplomat in Rome, Italy, 1943

Mr. Yves Debroise, of the French consulate in Rome, issued counterfeited French protective papers to assist French and Italian Jews in Rome, Italy, after the surrender of Italy on September 8, 1943. He worked with the Jewish relief agency Delegazione Assistenze Emigranti Ebrei (Jewish Emigrant Association; Delasem) and Father Marie-Benoit.  [Waagenaar, Sam. The Pope’s Jews. (La Salle, IL: Open Court Publishers, 1974), pp. 395.]


François de Vial, Diplomat at the French Embassy in Rome, 1943

François de Vial was a diplomat at the French embassy in Rome in 1943.  De Vial helped Father Benedetto and the Jewish relief agency Delegazione Assistenze Emigranti Ebrei (Jewish Emigrant Association; DELASEM) in their rescue of Jews.  He did this without permission from Vichy.  [Waagenaar, Sam. The Pope’s Jews. (La Salle, IL: Open Court Publishers, 1974), p. 400.]


Ms. Solange Pinzauti-Fivé, French Consulate in Rome, Italy, 1943

Mademoiselle Solange Pinzauti-Fivé, of the French consulate in Rome, helped Jews and other refugees in Rome during the Nazi occupation.  [Waagenaar, Sam. The Pope’s Jews. (La Salle, IL: Open Court Publishers, 1974), p. 427.]


Carlo Sommaruga, French Legation Counselor in Rome, 1943

Carlo Sommaruga was the Legation Counselor at the French embassy in Rome.  He had been helping Father Benedetto and the Jewish relief agency Delegazione Assistenze Emigranti Ebrei (Jewish Emigrant Association; Delasem) in rescuing Jews.  He did this without permission from Vichy.  [Waagenaar, Sam. The Pope’s Jews. (La Salle, IL: Open Court Publishers, 1974), p. 400.]


Mssr. Figuière, Honorary Consul for Panama in Marseilles, 1940-41

The Panamanian Honorary Consul in Marseilles was a French shipping agent by the name of Figuière.  He provided Panamanian visa stamps to refugees as a means of escaping Vichy France.  Hans and Lisa Fittko, refugees, obtained Panamanian visas from the honorary consul.  They stated in Lisa’s autobiography that he “sells” these visas for the price of a salami.  It was clear that no one was going to Panama on these visas.

[Fry, Varian. Surrender on Demand. (New York: Random House, 1945), pp. 82-83.  Fittko, Lisa, translated by David Koblick. Escape through the Pyrénées. (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1991), pp. 165-166.]

 

Germany


W. von Blücher, German Minister to Finland

[Yahil.  Yahil, Leni. The Rescue of Danish Jewry: Test of a Democracy. (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1969), pp. 332, 404-415, 514 Fn 47.]


Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz,* Trade Attaché to the German Embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark, 1943

Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz was a member of the Nazi Party and was sent as a Trade Attaché to the German Embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark.  When Duckwitz learned that the Nazi occupying government was planning to deport Danish Jews, he alerted the Danish government and Jewish community leaders.  In addition, he made a clandestine trip to Stockholm to meet with the Prime Minster of Sweden to arrange for safe haven for the Jews.  For these actions, he could have been killed.  The Danish underground in turn implemented the rescue of more than 7,000 Danish Jews.  As a result, 99% of Danish Jews were hidden and smuggled into neutral Sweden, where they survived the war.  After the war, Duckwitz became the German Ambassador to Denmark.  Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz was designated Righteous Among the Nations in 1971. 

[Duckwitz, Georg Ferdinand. Die geplannte Aktion gegen die dänischen Juden und ihre Verhinderung. (Copenhagen: Rigsarkivet, Duckwitz Archives, 1957; and Jerusalem: Yad Vashem Archives File #027/13).  Duckwitz, Georg Ferdinand. Die Aktion gegen die dänischen Juden im Herbst 1943—Plan und Durchführing. (Copenhagen: Rigsarkivet, Duckwitz Archives, 1964). Dose, Johannes. Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz in Dänemark: 1943-1945, 2nd ed. (Bonn: Auswärtiges Amt, 1992), Referat 012, p. 16.  Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), pp. 364, 409, 1282, 1438. Yahil, Leni. The Rescue of Danish Jewry: Test of a Democracy. (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1969), pp. 127, 129, 148-151, 161-164, 173, 239, 269, 329, 417. Kirchhoff, Hans. “SS-Gruppenführer Werner Best and the action against the Danish Jews – October 1943.” Yad Vashem Studies, 24 (1994), 195-222.]

Gerhart Feine, Director of the Jewish Department of the German Plenipotentiary in Budapest, 1944-45

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

[Tschuy, Theo. Dangerous Diplomacy. (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2000). Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 388, 507. Lévai, Jenö. Black Book on the Martyrdom of Hungarian Jewry. (Central European Times Publishing, 1948), p. 283.]


Werner Otto von Hentig, Head of Pol. VII in the German Foreign Ministry, 1937-?

Werner Otto von Hentig was the Head of Pol. VII, Oriental Office (Palestine Desk) in the German Foreign Ministry in 1937.  Von Hentig was a critic of the Nazis with long experience in the German Foreign Ministry.  He had previously served with the Palestine Office in the German embassy in Constantinople.  Von Hentig was highly sympathetic toward Jews.  Von Hentig supported the Zionist movement and even met with Chaim Weizmann.  He was against brutalization and stripping Jews of their property and wealth.  He supported the emigration of Jews from Germany and supported immigration to Palestine.  He was very much in support of the Havara transfer agreement, which allowed Jews to transfer their property and assets to Palestine.  Von Hentig worked with Ernst Marcus, of the Paltreu Company, part of the Havara Company.  Working with Hentig, Marcus prepared a memorandum that was called “Report to Hitler by the Foreign Office.”  It outlined the advantages to Germany of the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine.  Remarkably, Hitler had made a decision in favor of this and the Ha’avara agreement.  Von Hentig, at personal risk, protested harsh measures enacted against Jews.  He interceded with German Undersecretary of State Ernst von Weizsäcker on behalf of Jews who were being persecuted.  Von Hentig was even able to have prominent Jewish members of the Reichsvertretung released from German concentration camps.

[Nicosia, Frances R. The Third Reich & the Palestine Question. (New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 2000), pp. 51, 126, 132, 140-142. Levin, Nora. The Holocaust: The Destruction of European Jewry, 1933-1945. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1968), pp. 82, 132. Marcus, Ernst. “The German Foreign Office and the Palestine Question in the Period 1933-1939.” Yad Vashem Studies, 2 (1958), pp. 187-202.]


Fritz Kolbe, German Diplomat

Fritz Kolbe was a spy and an asset for the US Office of Strategic Services during World War II.  He also had saved Jews by issuing them various documents.


Krüger, German Consul

German consul Krüger provided exit visas to Palestinian Jews who were trapped in Denmark.  They went to Sweden, then to Palestine through Russia and Turkey.

[Margolinsky, cited in Yahil.  Yahil, Leni. The Rescue of Danish Jewry: Test of a Democracy. (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1969), pp. 199, 480 Fn 11.  Sapir. Copenhagen on the Day of the German Invasion.]


Eitel Friedrich Möllhausen, German Acting Consul General in Rome, 1943

Eitel Friedrich Möllhausen became the German Acting Consul General in Rome, Italy, after the Consul General had been seriously injured in an automobile accident. Möllhausen thwarted a plan by Himmler to deport all of Rome’s Jews in September 1943.  Möllhausen understood that the deportation of the Jews would mean that they would be murdered.  Möllhausen approached German Field Marshall Kesselring to help him to stop the planned deportation.  Kesselring supported Möllhausen.  As a result, many Jews were spared deportation. Möllhausen even wired German Foreign Minister Ribbentrop personally to try to rescind the order to deport the Jews of Rome. Möllhausen used the term “liquidate” in his personal telegram to Ribbentrop.  Ribbentrop was furious over Möllhausen’s use of the word “liquidate,” and reprimanded Möllhausen for his indiscretion. 

[Katz, Robert. Black Sabbath: A Journey Through a Crime Against Humanity. (Toronto: MacMillan, 1969), pp. 53-65, 135-139. Möllhausen, Eitel Friedrich. Die Gebrochene Achse [The Broken Axis].  (Luxembourg: Alpha Verlag, 1949). Möllhausen, Eitel Friedrich. Il giuoco è fatto! (Florence, 1951).  Rahn, Rudolph. Ruheloses Leben: Aufzeichnungen und Erinnerungen [Restless Life: Reflections and Memories]. (Dusseldorf: Diederichs Verlag, 1949). Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), p. 1301. Michaelis, Meir. Mussolini and the Jews: German-Italian Relations and the Jewish Question in Italy, 1922-1945. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978), pp. 351, 354, 362-366, 369.]


Baron Wolfgang zu Putlitz, In Charge of the Germany Embassy’s Consular Department, London, June 1934 – May 1938

Baron Wolfgang zu Putlitz, who was in charge of the German embassy’s consular department in London, claimed in his memoirs that he and other non-Nazi consular officials in the German embassy in London found ways to help refugees.  Putlitz worked with Chief of the Aliens Department at the British Home Office Mr. E. N. Cooper.  Putlitz, at the time, was also providing high level intelligence on secret German rearmament to the British secret service (MI5).  [London, L. Whitehall and the Jews, 1933-1948: British immigration policy, Jewish refugees and the Holocaust, pp. 64-65. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000).]


Rudolph Rahn, German Ambassador in Tunisia and Rome, Italy, 1942-1944?

Rudolph Rahn, the German Ambassador in Tunisia in 1942 and in Italy in 1943-1944?, intervened to remove Jews from the jurisdiction of the Gestapo to protect them from being deported.  He recommended that Jews be used for local labor service for the benefit of the German Army in lieu of deportation.  He did this with the approval of German commander and Field Marshall Kesselring.  Rahn, along with diplomat Möllhausen, helped stop Hitler from his proposed occupation of Vatican City after the fall of Mussolini in 1943. [Katz, Robert. Black Sabbath: A Journey Through a Crime Against Humanity. (Toronto: MacMillan, 1969), pp. 56-62, 136-139.  Rahn, Rudolf. Un diplomate dans la tourmente. (Paris, 1948).  Rahn, Rudolph. Ruheloses Leben: Aufzeichnungen und Erinnerungen [Restless Life: Reflections and Memories]. (Dusseldorf: Diederichs Verlag, 1949). Möllhausen, Eitel Friedrich. Die Gebrochene Achse [The Broken Axis].  (Luxembourg: Alpha Verlag, 1949). Reitlinger, Gerald. The Final Solution: The Attempt to Exterminate the Jews of Europe, 1939-1945. (New York: The Beechhurst Press, 1953), p. 353.]


Dr. Riensberg, German Shipping Attaché stationed in Stockholm, Sweden, 1943

Dr. Riensberg was the German shipping attaché stationed in Stockholm, Sweden.  He worked closely with Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz, the German shipping attaché stationed in Copenhagen, in the rescue of Danish Jews.  They worked out a secret code that would allow them to communicate regarding the rescue action of October 1943.  This arrangement would expedite the rescue efforts and inform Duckwitz if the Jewish refugees arrived safely in Stockholm. 

[Duckwitz, Georg Ferdinand. Die geplannte Aktion gegen die dänischen Juden und ihre Verhinderung. (Copenhagen: Rigsarkivet, Duckwitz Archives, 1957; and Jerusalem: Yad Vashem Archives File #027/13).  Duckwitz, Georg Ferdinand. Die Aktion gegen die dänischen Juden im Herbst 1943—Plan und Durchführing. (Copenhagen: Rigsarkivet, Duckwitz Archives, 1964).  Yahil, Leni. The Rescue of Danish Jewry: Test of a Democracy.(Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1969), p. 151.]


Dr. Gerhardt Wolf, German Consul in Florence, Italy

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

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


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

The German Consul General in Jerusalem, Dr. Heinrich Wolff, worked to make the immigration of Jews from Germany to Palestine easier.  He believed in Zionism and in the possibility of reconciliation of a Jewish state in Palestine and the National Socialist movement.  He did not fully understand Nazi intentions in the early 1930s.  He refused to join the Nazi party and was dismissed from the diplomatic service in September 1935.

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


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

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

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


German Consul in Zagreb, Yugoslavia, 1940?

The German Consul General in Zagreb helped Jews in 1940 by issuing them protective papers.  He also advised them that they did not have to wear the yellow star.  In the autumn of 1940, a Jewish refugee from Mannheim, Germany, Jacob Kahn, went on an odyssey to escape Nazi deportation to a concentration camp.  In an autobiography, he stated that he went to the German consulate where he received instructions that he did not have to wear the Jewish star and that he was under the protection of the German consulate there.  Kahn reported that the German Consul General was later dismissed for these actions.  [Korman, Gerd (Ed.). Hunter and Hunted: Human History of the Holocaust. (New York: Viking Press, 1973), pp. 163-167.]


Germany Embassy in Bucharest, Romania, 1944

In the spring of 1944, Jewish survivors and refugees in northern Transylvania began to organize rescue efforts in Bucharest.  The purpose was to help Jews flee from Hungarian territories to escape the Nazi persecutions.  In summer 1944, this group became active in Bucharest and called itself The Committee for Refugee Affairs.  The Committee established contact with officials at the German embassy in Bucharest, reaching an agreement to permit Jewish refugees from Hungary to emigrate to Palestine through the port of Constanta.  [Braham, Randolph L. (Ed.) Hungarian-Jewish Studies. (New York: World Federation of Hungarian Jews, 1966), pp. 203-204.]

 

Great Britain


Ambassador Sir Ronald Campbell, Great Britain, in Lisbon, Portugal, 1943-45

Sir Ronald Hugh Campbell was Great Britain's wartime Ambassador to Lisbon.  Campbell was responsible for obtaining transit visas for stranded Jews in Eastern Europe.  He persuaded Portugal to issue entrance visas.  In April 1944, he persuaded the British Colonial Office to give destination visas to more than 1,000 rabbis and their families.  The destination visas were to Mauritius, which was a destination in name only. Using these life-saving documents, the Jewish refugees were able to escape through Europe.

[Morse, Arthur D. While Six Million Died: A Chronicle of American Apathy. (New York: Random House, 1967), pp. 43-44, 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. 214.]


John Carvel, British Consul General in Munich, 1939-?

John Carvel, the British Consul General in Munich, sent reports to the British Foreign Ministry regarding the horrific conditions inside the Dachau concentration camp.

[Gilbert, Martin. “British government policy towards Jewish refugees (November 1938-September 1939). Yad Vashem Studies, 13 (1979), 134.]


Ernest Napier Cooper, Chief of the Aliens Department, British Home Office

Ernest Napier Cooper, Chief of the Aliens Department of the British Home Office, had a very liberal policy toward letting Jewish refugees into Great Britain.  Cooper also cooperated discretely on refugee matters with non-Nazi elements within the German embassy in London.  He worked directly with Baron Wolfgang zu Putlitz, who was in charge of the embassy’s consular department from June 1934 to May 1938. 

[London, L. Whitehall and the Jews, 1933-1948: British immigration policy, Jewish refugees and the Holocaust, pp. 37, 43-44, 199. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000).]


Frank Foley,* British Vice Consul in Charge of Visas in Berlin, 1933-1939

Frank Foley was a Vice Consul in charge of visas in the British embassy in Berlin from 1929 to 1939.  He also worked as an MI6 intelligence agent.  Jewish officials estimate that he issued ten thousand visas to Jewish refugees between 1933 and 1939.  Ironically, these actions were a time when the British government was anxious to limit immigration, particularly to Palestine.  Despite British policy of giving few visas to Jews, it was known that Foley did everything he could to help. Frank Foley was designated by the State of Israel as Righteous Among the Nations in 1999. 

[Smith, Michael. Foley: The Spy Who Saved 10,000 Jews. (London: Hodder & Stroughten, 1999).] 


Sir Reginald Hoare, British Ambassador to Bucharest, Romania

Sir Reginald Hoare was the British Ambassador in Bucharest, Romania.  He advocated helping the Jews of Eastern Europe.  Hoare stated that it was unfair the British should treat Polish Jews who were Britain’s only allies in Eastern Europe shabbily.

[Bauer, Yehuda. American Jewry and the Holocaust. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), p. 135.  British Foreign Office document FO 371-25243/299, July 11, 1940.]


Sir Samuel Hoare, British Ambassador to Spain in Madrid

Sir Samuel Hoare, the British Ambassador in Madrid, put pressure on the Spanish government to improve the treatment of its nationals in Nazi occupied territories. 

[Bauer, Yehuda. American Jewry and the Holocaust. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), p. 214.  Hoare, Sir Samuel. Ambassador on Special Mission.  (London: Collins, 1946), p. 237. Avni, Haim. “Spanish Nationals in Greece and their Fate during the Holocaust.” Yad Vashem Studies, 8 (1970), pp. 31-68.  Avni, Haim. Spain, the Jews and Franco. (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1982).]


Sir Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen, British Ambassador to Turkey, 1943-44?

British Ambassador Sir Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen advocated for the humane treatment of Jewish refugees who landed in Palestine.  He also encouraged the Colonial Office to allow Jews who went to Turkey to be given transit passes to Palestine.  Ambassador Knatchbull-Hugessen worked closely with the US Ambassador to Turkey, Laurence A. Steinhardt, and the Papal Nuncio, Monsignor Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli (later Pope John XXIII) to help Jewish refugees stranded in Turkey.  Knatchbull-Hugessen’s actions to help refugees made the British Colonial Office uneasy. 

[Papers of Ambassador Laurence Steinhardt, US Library of Congress, National Archives Records Administration, and Steinhardt family papers.  Laqueur, Walter (Ed.) and Judith Tydor Baumel (Assoc. Ed.).  The Holocaust Encyclopedia. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), p. 641. 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. 282, 302. Wasserstein, Bernard. Britain and the Jews of Europe, 1939-1945. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979), pp. 129-130, 142, 214.]


Douglas MacKillop, British Chargé d’Affaires, Bern, Switzerland

Douglas MacKillop was the British Chargé d’Affaires in Bern, Switzerland.  He persuaded the Swiss foreign minister Pilet-Golaz to proceed with the plan to rescue Jews under the Anglo-American guarantees.

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


Clifford Norton, Chargé d’Affaires, Warsaw, Poland

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


Sir George Ogilvie-Forbes, Chargé d’Affaires in British Embassy in Berlin, 1938?

Sir George Ogilvie-Forbes, Chargé d’Affaires in the British embassy in Berlin, reported to the British Foreign Office on the Kristallnacht pogrom against Jews in Berlin in November 1938. 

[Gilbert, Martin. “British government policy towards Jewish refugees (November 1938-September 1939). Yad Vashem Studies, 13 (1979), 128.  Communication from Dr. Alastair Noble, Historian, Information Management Group, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, received 4/15/2008.]


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.]


Thomas Preston, Consul for Great Britain in Kovno, Lithuania, 1940

Thomas Preston was a consul for Great Britain in Kovno, Lithuania.  In 1940, in Kovno (Kaunas), Lithuania, Preston provided 400 illegal Palestine certificates for Jews who were able to escape from Lithuania through Istanbul to Palestine.  In addition, he provided 800 Jews legal travel certificates.  A few hundred of these Jews were able to cross the Baltic Sea to neutral Sweden.  At least 400 forged copies of the Preston visas were discovered by British officials in Istanbul.

[Bauer, Yehuda. American Jewry and the Holocaust. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), p. 120.  Gilbert, Martin. Atlas of the Holocaust: Completely Revised and Updated. (New York: William Morrow & Company, 1988, 1993).  United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Flight and Rescue. (Washington, DC: Author, 2001), p. 58.  British Foreign Office document FO 371-23610, report by Thomas Preston from Kovno, Nov. 7, 1939.]


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

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

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


(Edward Henry) Gerald Shepherd, British Consul General, Danzig, Poland

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


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

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

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


Major Arthur Whittal, Passport Control Officer, Istanbul, Turkey

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

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


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

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

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


British Ambassador to Washington, 1938

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

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

 

Greece


Archbishop George Damaskinos,* Metropolitan of Athens, Acting Head of State for Greek Government in Exile

After the Greek government went into exile, Archbishop George Damaskinos, Metropolitan of Athens, became temporary head of state.  During his tenure as Metropolitan of Athens, he encouraged members of the Greek Orthodox Church and clergymen to hide Jews throughout Greece.  He made numerous protests against the Nazi persecution of Jews.  He issued church encyclicals, hid Jewish children, and issued false Baptismal Certificates to Jews.  For his actions, he was declared Righteous Among the Nations in 1969.


Greek Embassy in Ankara, Turkey

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

 

Hungary


György (George) Adam, “Second Secretary,” Vatican Embassy, Budapest, Hungary, 1944-1945

György Adam was a Jewish refugee who sought refuge in the Vatican embassy in Budapest.  While there, he 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 500 Jews from the brickyards.  He also worked with Father Gennaro Verolino in rescuing Jews from death marches.  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.

[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).]


Károly Binder, Hungarian Consul in Paris, France

Károly Binder was a Hungarian Consul in Paris, France, and helped rescue Hungarian Jews.  He worked with Antal Uhl and they both distributed Christian identification papers to Jewish refugees in Paris. [Hetényi, Varga K., “Those Who Were Persecuted Because of the Truth.” Ecclesia, Budapest, 1985.  Lévai, J. “Grey Book on the Rescuing of Hungarian Jews.” Budapest: Officina, 1946. Szenes, S., “Unfinished Past.” Budapest: Author, 1984. 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. 106. Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 263-264.]


Arthur Jäger, Director General of the Hungarian Consulate in Amsterdam, 1943?

Arthur Jäger, the Director General of the Hungarian Consulate in Amsterdam, protected Jews from deportation.  [Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981).]


Dr. Ernst (Ernö) Katinsky, Legal Counsellor to the Hungarian Legation in Berlin, 194?

Dr. Ernst (Ernö) Katinsky was a German lawyer, possibly of Hungarian origin, who was appointed as a legal counsellor to the Hungarian legation in Berlin.  He represented the legal interests of the Hungarian government in the German Reich.  He was in charge of protecting the legal rights of Hungarian Jews resident in or trapped in Nazi occupied territory.

[Braham, Randolph L. “The treatment of Hungarian Jews in German-occupied Europe.” Yad Vashem Studies, 12 (1977), 127.]


Paul Komor, Honorary Consul for Hungary in Shanghai, China, 1938-1941

Before December 1941, Paul Komor held the title of Honorary Consul General for Hungary in Shanghai.  In 1938, when the first Jewish refugees fleeing the Holocaust arrived in Shanghai from Germany and Austria, Komor co-founded the International Committee for European Immigrants (IC).  The IC provided housing, jobs and financial assistance for the 20,000 Austrian, German and other Jewish refugees who came into Shanghai.  The IC also issued international passports to the Jews of Shanghai whose Nazi passports were confiscated or no longer valid.  These passports gave the refugees “legal” status so they could emigrate to the United States, Canada, Australia and elsewhere.  Komor was arrested by the Japanese occupation forces in Shanghai and was briefly held in jail for his activities on behalf of Jews.


Count Pongrácz, Acting Diplomat for Portugal in Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45

Count Pongrácz represented the Chargé d’Affaires at the Portuguese embassy. Pongrácz energetically acted to protect the Jews in the Portuguese protected houses.  He signed many Portuguese protective passes so that the Arrow Cross would not be able to dispute the legality of the Portuguese documents. Pongrácz often acted in the absence of Consul General Gulden. Pongrácz also signed a number of petitions to protect Jews in Budapest.


Spányi, Hungarian Consul in Prague, Czechoslovakia, 1943

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

[Braham, Randolph L. “The treatment of Hungarian Jews in German-occupied Europe.” Yad Vashem Studies, 12 (1977), 131-133.]


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

Viktor Szász was the Hungarian Consul in German-occupied Italy.  He was an assistant in the rescue activity of Father Marie-Bénoit.  He issued hundreds of identity documents for the Jewish protectees of Father Bénoit. He worked with the Jewish relief agency Delegazione Assistenze Emigranti Ebrei (Jewish Emigrant Association; Delasem).  [Waagenaar, Sam. The Pope’s Jews. (La Salle, IL: Open Court Publishers, 1974), pp. 395.]


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Dr. Antal Uhl, Vicar at Baranyaszentgyörgy, Hungary

Dr. Antal Uhl provided false baptismal certificates to Hungarian Jews in Paris who were being deported.  Antal was assisted by Károly Binder, the Hungarian Consul in Paris. [Hetényi, Varga K., “Those Who Were Persecuted Because of the Truth.” Ecclesia, Budapest, 1985.  Lévai, J. “Grey Book on the Rescuing of Hungarian Jews.” Budapest: Officina, 1946. Szenes, S., “Unfinished Past.” Budapest: Author, 1984. Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), p. 264.]


Sándor Újváry,* International Red Cross, Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45

Sándor 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, R. L., “The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary.” New York: Columbia University Press, 1981. [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.]


Hungarian Consul General in Paris

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

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


Honorary Hungarian Consul in Marseilles, France, July 1940

The honorary Hungarian consul in Marseilles helped Jewish refugee Hecht.

[Hecht oral statement.]


Hungarian Consul in Brussels, Belgium

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

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


Hungarian Consul in Prague, Czechoslovakia

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

 

Iran


Abdol Hossein Sardari Qajar, Iranian Consul in Paris, France, 1942-?

Consul Qajar took it upon himself to issue Iranian passports to Iranian and non-Iranian Jews in Paris who were faced with deportation to the concentration camps.  [Atchildi, Asaf. Rescue of Jews of Bukharan, Iranian and Afghan Origin in Occupied France (1940-1944), pp. 257-281.]

 

Ireland


Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, Ireland

Father O’Flaherty helped escaped prisoners of war and Jews in Rome, 1943.  He led a group that gave out false identities and hid refugees throughout Rome.

[Leboucher, Fernande. Translated by J. F. Bernard. Incredible Mission. (Garden city, NY: Doubleday, 1969).  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. 97, 189-190.]


De Valera, Ireland

De Valera instructed Thomas J. Kiernan, Ireland’s diplomatic envoy to the Vatican, to intervene on behalf of Jews both in Hungary and in Slovakia.  De Valera secretly supported the Allied powers during the war.  In addition, he supported the Irish Jewish community.

[Wyman, David S. (Ed.). The World Reacts to the Holocaust. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996), p. 654.]


Thomas J. Kiernan, Ireland’s Envoy to the Holy See

Thomas J. Kiernan was the Envoy of Ireland to the Vatican and the Holy See.  He attempted to intervene on behalf of Jews in Hungary and Slovakia.  His intervention was not successful.

[Wyman, David S. (Ed.). The World Reacts to the Holocaust. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996), p. 654.]


Briscoe, Ireland, World War II

US Diplomat Harry Clinton Reed stated in a report dated May 17, 1949: “during the Hitler regime Briscoe was instrumental in smuggling an undetermined number of Central European Jewish refugees into Ireland.  When confronted by the Government authorities with proof that over 300 of these persons had illegally entered Ireland through his good offices, he staunchly denied it and has never admitted that he was engaged in this traffic.”

[Wyman, David S. (Ed.). The World Reacts to the Holocaust. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996), p. 654.]

 

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