Swiss diplomat Carl Lutz, from his post in Hungary, was behind the largest rescue operation during the Second World War. With Switzerland chairing the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, let us take a look back at an important yet largely unknown figure.
Last update March 23rd, 2018.
March 1944. Germany invaded Hungary, pressing the Hungarian government to finally participate in the "final solution" by deporting the country's Jews – who had been relatively spared until then – to Auschwitz. But in Budapest, a network was put in place over the course of several months to save as many of them as possible. Behind all this was a Swiss man – Vice-Consul Carl Lutz – who led "the largest rescue operation during the Second World War," according to historian Xavier Cornut, public affairs advisor in Geneva and a board member of the Carl Lutz Foundation.
In 1942, Lutz arrived in Budapest with his wife Gertrud on the heels of a six-year assignment in Jaffa. "Unforgettable years," he called them, immortalised in snapshots he had taken as a talented amateur photographer. In Palestine, which was under British mandate at the time, he defended German citizens in the region.
Born into a Methodist family in an Appenzell village in 1895, Lutz was "a typical Swiss man, introverted, serious, attached to religious values, but also, paradoxically, an adventurer with a strong sense of initiative. This combination of Christian values and entrepreneurial spirit accounts for the courage and shrewdness it took to set up such a large-scale protection system in the middle of a dangerous country like Hungary," says Cornut.
The invention of the protective letter.
As a Swiss diplomat, Lutz also represented the interests of countries that had severed diplomatic relations with Hungary, including the United States and Great Britain. Unwilling to turn away the hundreds of Jews who thronged the entrance to the Swiss legation every day, he came up with the idea of Schutzbriefe – protective letters – using 7,800 emigration certificates to Palestine that he acquired from Great Britain. The protective letters, still numbered from 1 to 7,800, were issued in an attempt to prevent deportation.
"Terrified Jews ask for protection letters, October/November 1944 in Budapest" © Archives of Contemporary History, ETH Zurich / Agnes Hirschi
"Terrified Jews ask for protection letters, October/November 1944 in Budapest" © Archives of Contemporary History, ETH Zurich / Agnes Hirschi
Another master stroke: he managed to extend diplomatic protection to 76 buildings in Budapest that housed, fed and helped Jews. The Jewish Agency for Palestine, which became the "The Swiss Legation's Emigration Department", was located at 29 Vadasz Utca, in the "Glass House" that now holds the Carl Lutz Foundation. "It was an unorthodox way of applying the right enshrined in the Vienna Convention," says Cornut. Lutz's private life was profoundly affected when he met Magda Csányi, who asked him to protect her and her daughter, Agnes. He hired her to work in his home and went on to marry her in 1949.
The Glass House.
The diplomat obviously did not work alone. The Glass House was the headquarters of the Zionist Youth, which oversaw "the huge logistical task" of fabricating immigration and protection papers, according to Anita Halasz, former representative of the Carl Lutz Foundation in Geneva. They were provided support by the International Committee of the Red Cross, other Swiss and foreign diplomats including the Swede Raoul Wallenberg, to whom Lutz explained his method, along with important Jewish figures like Miklos Krausz.
The Swiss authorities cautioned him to be prudent because his activities did not fall under the remit of representing foreign interests in the strictest sense, although they were of a humanitarian character. The Nazi authorities, including Lieutenant Colonel Adolf Eichmann, with whom Lutz negotiated several times, were also aware of his "troublemaking". The German proconsul in Budapest even recommended to Berlin that Lutz be eliminated, although his request was never answered, possibly because of Lutz's support for Berlin during his posting in Palestine.
Until the autumn of 1944 when the fascist Arrow Cross Party came to power, Lutz, with the unfailing support of his wife Gertrud, pulled out all the stops, going so far as to hide Jews in his black Packard and intervene in the forced marches of Jews toward the Austrian border. In the end, over half a million Hungarian Jews died, while 130,000 survived. According to estimates, Swiss activities, of which Carl Lutz was in charge, are thought to have helped to save 62,000 of them.
"Righteous Among the Nations"
Gertrud Lutz Fankhauser, whom Lutz divorced after the war, continued to engage in humanitarian work throughout her life, mainly with UNICEF. In 1978, she was awarded the title Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial, on behalf of the State of Israel. She died in 1995. Agnes Hirschi, Magda's daughter whom Lutz adopted, continues to travel the world – she was in Buenos Aires recently – to pay tribute to her father.
Recognition came from abroad: Lutz was nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize and was the first Swiss person to be given the title Righteous Among the Nations, in 1964. He died in Bern on 13 February 1975. It took another 20 years for a major biography to be written about him in Switzerland: Carl Lutz und die Juden von Budapest (published in English in 2000 as Dangerous Diplomacy) by Theo Tschuy. "When he was young, Lutz asked God to give him a special mission. He felt that God answered him when Budapest's Jews came to him for help," says Cornut. "That's the essence of being Righteous Among the Nations: someone who, after others have given up, is able to maintain his human dignity in the direst of circumstances."
Carl Lutz Foundation
https://houseofswitzerland.org/swissstories/history/carl-lutz-swiss-man-who-saved-tens-thousands-jews
https://houseofswitzerland.org/swissstories/history/carl-lutz-swiss-man-who-saved-tens-thousands-jews
The Righteous Among The Nations.
The Lutz family.
Lutz Carl (1895 - 1975 )
Lutz Gertrud (1911 - 1995 ), wife.
Carl (Charles) Lutz (b. 1895), a Swiss diplomat, arrived in Budapest in January 1942 to represent the interests of countries that had severed relations with Miklos Horthy's government, among them, the United States and the United Kingdom. After the Germans invasion of Hungary on March 19, 1944, Lutz began his actions rescuing thousands of Jews. Appalled by the Nazi persecution of Jews, he pressured the Hungarian government to stop the deportations that had begun in mid-May. Risking his life, he brought thousands of Hungarian Jews under Swiss protection, thus saving them from deportations to Nazi death camps. In his capacity as vice-consul, Lutz issued protective letters (Schutzbriefe) to thousands of Jews, thus delaying their deportation to concentration camps until they were liberated by the Allied forces. His wife Gertrud participated actively and zealously in his rescue operations. She was active in providing food for thousand of Jews, as well as in assisting them to get medical treatment. Lutz instructed the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg* (see Sweden) on the best use of the protective letters and gave him information about government officials with whom it was best to negotiate. He rented 76 buildings for all the people under his protection. In the Glass House and its annex about 3,000 Jews found refuge. During the death marches of November 10-22, 1944, Lutz and Gertrud followed the Jews and they were able to pull many out of the march, by producing documents declaring them under Swiss protection. These Jews were allowed to return to Budapest. With the tightening of the Soviet siege of Budapest in December 1944, when all diplomatic and consular missions, except the Swedish, had left the Hungarian capital, Lutz remained there at risk of his life, waiving diplomatic regulations, in order to save Jews. Lutz and his wife stayed with a group of Jews they rescued for more than four weeks in a bunker under the residence of the British embassy. After the liberation in February 1945, the inquiry into Lutz's wartime actions jeopardized his career and prevented him from advancing. He was criticized on the home front for endangering Swiss neutrality.
Carl (Charles) Lutz (b. 1895), a Swiss diplomat, arrived in Budapest in January 1942 to represent the interests of countries that had severed relations with Miklos Horthy's government, among them, the United States and the United Kingdom. After the Germans invasion of Hungary on March 19, 1944, Lutz began his actions rescuing thousands of Jews. Appalled by the Nazi persecution of Jews, he pressured the Hungarian government to stop the deportations that had begun in mid-May. Risking his life, he brought thousands of Hungarian Jews under Swiss protection, thus saving them from deportations to Nazi death camps. In his capacity as vice-consul, Lutz issued protective letters (Schutzbriefe) to thousands of Jews, thus delaying their deportation to concentration camps until they were liberated by the Allied forces. His wife Gertrud participated actively and zealously in his rescue operations. She was active in providing food for thousand of Jews, as well as in assisting them to get medical treatment. Lutz instructed the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg* (see Sweden) on the best use of the protective letters and gave him information about government officials with whom it was best to negotiate. He rented 76 buildings for all the people under his protection. In the Glass House and its annex about 3,000 Jews found refuge. During the death marches of November 10-22, 1944, Lutz and Gertrud followed the Jews and they were able to pull many out of the march, by producing documents declaring them under Swiss protection. These Jews were allowed to return to Budapest. With the tightening of the Soviet siege of Budapest in December 1944, when all diplomatic and consular missions, except the Swedish, had left the Hungarian capital, Lutz remained there at risk of his life, waiving diplomatic regulations, in order to save Jews. Lutz and his wife stayed with a group of Jews they rescued for more than four weeks in a bunker under the residence of the British embassy. After the liberation in February 1945, the inquiry into Lutz's wartime actions jeopardized his career and prevented him from advancing. He was criticized on the home front for endangering Swiss neutrality.
On March 24, 1964, Yad Vashem recognized Carl Lutz as Righteous Among the Nations.
On February 13, 1978, Yad Vashem recognized Gertrud Lutz as Righteous Among the Nations.A
http://db.yadvashem.org/righteous/family.html?language=en&itemId=4035632
http://db.yadvashem.org/righteous/family.html?language=en&itemId=4035632
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