Community Magazine April 2012

A mid the darkness and horror of the Holocaust era in the Nazi-occupied European countries, a small group of courageous and heroic diplomats and government officials risked their posts, reputations and the ire of their governments in order to save tens of thousands of persecuted Jews from the Nazi extermination machine. Several of these shining beacons of light, who exhibited remarkable resourcefulness and courage in successfully implementing their rescue operations, suffered personally and professionally for their outstanding humanity, some even ending their days in poverty, neglect and official ostracism. This month, 70 years after the Nazi German extermination camps Sobibor and Treblinka II opened in occupied Poland and the Jewish Star of David became required wearing for all Jews in the Netherlands and Belgium – all of which occurred in April 1942 – we take a look at some of the extraordinary heroes who stood against the Nazis, exploring their lives and the sacrifices they made on behalf of the Jewish nation during one of the darkest chapters in its history. Carl Lutz Credited with saving over 62,000 Jews from deportation and death, Carl Lutz was the Swiss Vice-Consul in Budapest, Hungary from 1942 until the end of World War II. Born in Walzenhausen, Switzerland in 1895, and raised as a Methodist, Lutz immigrated to the United States at the age of 18, where he lived and worked for over 20 years. In 1920, he began to work at the Swiss legation in Washington DC. In 1934, after working in the Swiss consulates in Philadelphia and St. Louis, he left the United States to take up the post of Swiss vice-consul in Jaffa, in the Land of Israel and served there until 1942, when he was appointed Swiss vice-consul in Budapest. Working in cooperation with the Jewish Agency for Palestine, he enabled 10,000 Hungarian Jewish children to emigrate by issuing them Swiss safe-conduct passes, a document allowing them to safely pass through Switzerland without fear of harm, harassment or death. In 1944, when the Nazis began deporting Jews to the death camps, Lutz obtained permission to issue protective letters to 8,000 Hungarian Jews allowing them to emigrate to the Land of Israel. He deliberately used the permission to apply for whole families and not just individuals. He also established 76 safe houses in Budapest, including the famous ”Glass House” at 29 Vadasz Street, where some 3000 Jews found refuge. These buildings were declared Swiss annexes and were off-limits to the Arrow Cross forces (Hungary 's pro-Nazi national socialist party during WWII) and Nazis. Lutz worked feverishly in close collaboration with other diplomats from neutral countries, including Raoul Wallenberg, Angelo Rotta, the Vatican representative, Angel Sanz Briz from Spain, and Friedrich Born, representative of the International Red Cross, to save innocent people from death. The Swiss government was reluctant to acknowledge Lutz’s achievements, and criticized him after the war for exceeding his authority and prejudicing Swiss neutrality. He never received a promotion, but in 1958, he was officially “rehabilitated” and honored. Lutz died in Berne in 1975. AHaifa street was named after him in 1963, and one year later, he became the first Swiss national to be named “Righteous Among the Nations” by Yad Vashem. In 1991, a memorial to him was unveiled at the entrance to the old Budapest ghetto, and in 1999, Switzerland issued a postage stamp to honor him. The Courageous Consuls NEHAMA CONSUELO AND DAVID HERMAN 28 COMMUNITY MAGAZINE