Among the thousands honored by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations are a small number of courageous diplomats who risked their lives and their careers rescuing imperiled Jews attempting to escape the Nazi juggernaut. Most diplomats hewed to the policies set by their respective governments and did nothing to help Jews. These few were able to set aside differences in nationality and religion and even defy the policies of their own country to offer, within the limits of their ability, a lifeline to sanctuary. For a few the ultimate consequences of their courage were devastating.
This collection contains visas and other documents – Letters of Protection, Schutzpasses, etc., signed by Righteous Diplomats. Each document saved the life of its bearer.
Three Americans have been honored as Righteous Among the Nations, but were not diplomats per se. The Sharps - Waitstill and Martha - were Unitarian aide workers whose humanitarian and rescue efforts in France and Czechoslovakia were recognized and were the second and third Americans to be so honored.
Varian Fry, the first American honored, was also not a diplomat, but a journalist who helped save thousands of lives in Vichy France of Jews and non-Jews alike - artists and intellectuals who were known anti-Nazis - as a volunteer for the Emergency Rescue Committee. His work angered US State Department personnel because his efforts jeopardized their “neutral status” with the Vichy collaborationist regime. He was eventually arrested and returned stateside.
One controversial case of a career diplomat rejected by Yad Vashem as a Righteous Diplomat was that of Hiram Bingham IV, scion of a notable Connecticut family, who worked with Varian Fry and is noted for having helped writer Lion Feuchtwanger and his wife leave France. Yad Vashem acknowledged Bingham’s “humanitarian disposition” during his tenure in the U.S. Consulate in Marseilles facilitating the emigration of Jews, but that he “never acted independently and always acted within the boundaries of the American Laws.” In other words, Bingham was not a “hero” as were others who risked their careers. Bingham did appear, however, on an American postage stamp in honor of his diplomatic service.
More recently, two more Righteous Gentiles have been honored in the United States: Lois Gunden, a Mennonite who rescued children from the internment camp Rivesaltes, and who established an orphanage. She received the honor posthumously in 2013. Finally, Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds who, taken prisoner by the Germans and placed in a Stalag, defied the order of his captors to separate out Jewish POWs from the other POWs, knowing full well what was intended. Instead, Edmonds ordered all POWs in his charge to stand together. When the German officer saw the lineup of POWs the next morning he snapped, “They can’t all be Jews.” Edmonds replied, “We are all Jews.” The German officer pulled his gun and threatened Edmonds, who responded by citing the Geneva convention rules for POWs and that he - the German - would be tried for war crimes. The German guard stood down. For saving the lives of the Jews in his command, Master Sergeant Edmonds became the fifth person to receive the honor of Righteous Among the Nations in 2015.
--Michael D. Bulmash, K1966
Browse the Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection.
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Stamped National Socialist Passport Issued to a Jew Attempting to Escape Germany to South America via the United Kingdom; Visa Signed by Diplomat Hero Arthur Dowden
2022.1.18
32 page passport issued to Karl Darmstadter, photograph stapled to top left corner of page 2, multiple stamps and hand stamps throughout.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
1938 German passport (Reisepass) with the letter ‘J’ stamped on first page, belonging to Mr. Karl Darmstadter, a 43-year-old Jewish businessman in Frankfurt-am-Main attempting to escape escalating racial persecution in Germany. The passport bears stamps and signatures revealing the efforts made by Mr. Darmstadter in 1938 to leave Germany for Valpariso, Chile with transit visas; stamps of approval by a Frankfurt bank and by police; stamps of the French consulate (travel permit); stamps of the Chilean consulate in Hamburg with Consul Cesareo Alvarez de la Rivera’s signature from October 1938; the signature of Arthur Dowden (p.14) on Darmstadter’s temporary transit visa from the United Kingdom to Valpariso, Chile; and a final pass stamp to Chile.
Arthur Dowden signed Darmstadter’s temporary visa to the United Kingdom less than one month before the Kristallnacht pogrom, enabling Darmstadter to leave Germany before this watershed moment throughout Germany and Austria in which thousands of Jews were swept up into the Nazi maelstrom. However, Dowden and Consul General Robert Smallbones - Dowden’s superior - would not be cowed by the Gestapo and would find ways to support Jews’ efforts to find sanctuary in other countries as well as helping them as best they could with the impositions placed upon them by the Nazi administration in Frankfurt. For example, they would allow Jews refuge in the consulate as they ran from unprovoked attacks by SA thugs. Or they famously delivered food in consular vehicles to the apartments of Frankfurt Jews after curfews were imposed that would not permit them to shop for their own groceries. Monumental efforts were made by Smallbones and Dowden to help Jews emigrate from Germany to the UK and even Mandatory Palestine. They were even willing to break regulations for issuing visas when the candidates themselves did not meet the necessary criteria.
Dowden would remain at his post until Britain declared war on Germany for attacking Poland in September 1939.
Both Smallbones and Dowden were awarded the British Hero of the Holocaust Medal for their extraordinary acts of courage and self-sacrifice rescuing Jews.
Both Dowden and Smallbones were classified as “enemies of the state” by the Nazis, and placed on a list of those who were to be arrested after the “successful” invasion and occupation of Great Britain.
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National Socialist Passport Issued in Berlin to a Businessman and Signed by Constantin Karadja
2022.1.14
32 page passport for Walter Wilhelm Meyerkort; photo included and many pages stamped.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Constantin Karadja was a Romanian diplomat credited with saving the lives of 51,000 Jews. He spoke nine languages, studied law and became a barrister in England before becoming the Romanian Consul General for Romania in Berlin during World War II. His energies went into protecting the human rights of Romanian Jews trapped in Nazi Germany. Karadja’s signature appears on a visa on page 11 of Walter Meyerkort’s Reisepass as Consul General for Romania.
Constantin Karadja was awarded Yad Vashem’s “Righteous Among the Nations” honor for saving the lives of Romanian Jews during World War II and putting himself and his career at great risk in doing so.
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Japanese Ambassador Helps Greek Jewish Woman and Parents Attempting to Flee Europe and Emigrate to United States
2022.1.17
32 page Greek passport with photograph of female adhered to top left of page 3, multiple hand stamps throughout.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Greek passport of a 27-year-old Jewish woman, Berta Gershon Levy, issued in Sofia, Bulgaria in 1939. Berta and her parents were unwilling or unable to return home to Athens, Greece due to the advent of WW2 and preparations made by Greece in advance of the Italian-Greek war. Clearly the Levy family were desperate to flee Europe and abandoned any hope of returning to their home in Athens. They chose to emigrate to the United States by way of the Soviet Union and Japan. Accordingly, they obtained immigrant-status visas issued by Vice-Consul Rudolph Heftl, thereby permitting them to obtain the requisite transit visas to reach the United States by a longer, more complicated, and more taxing eastern route through the Soviet Union and Japan; the only option open to them given the danger at this time of Allied or “neutral” ships traversing the Mediterranean. Berta and her family obtained a Japanese transit visa issued on November 5th and signed by Hachiya Teruo, who was at this time the Japanese ambassador to Bulgaria. Lest there be questions concerning the Levy family’s arrival in Japan, such as the possible concern that they would be a financial burden, the Japanese visa contained a written statement (page 16) that Berta is a destitute Jew but will receive aid and assistance from the Jewish community in Japan during the time she remains there. Finally, Soviet transit visas are issued on November 15, all indicating optional points of entry at Odessa or Kherson, and departure at Vladivostok. Berta and family arrived in Odessa on November 19, 1940, reaching Japan December 5 at Fukui Prefecture. They came to Vancouver, Canada on December 23, 1940 and from there crossed the border into the United States.
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Signed Hiram Bingham IV Passport Issued in Buenos Aires, Argentina
2022.1.20
48 page American passport issued to Ernest Foss, photograph adhered on page 4, multiple stamps throughout.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Hiram Bingham IV served as United States Vice-Consul in Marseilles, France from 1940-1941. In the wake of Germany’s invasion of France in May 1940, refugees flooded Marseilles and other port cities fleeing the advancing German army. Diplomats at the U.S. consulate were inundated with long lines of refugees pleading for visas to flee the country. Hiram Bingham defied official State Department protocols, especially those of Breckenridge Long, Assistant Secretary of State and supervisor of the Visa Division, and issued hundreds of visas and travel documents to Jewish refugees. Working with Varian Fry’s Emergency Rescue Committee and other agencies, Bingham helped as many as 2500 Jews escape persecution and probable deportation: artists, writers, scientists, Nobel Prize winners. He helped the French OSE in its efforts to rescue Jewish children from the clutches of the Nazis and the French Milice. He smuggled Lion Feuchtwanger, a renowned German-Jewish author, out of an internment camp and hid him in his home until he could help him leave the country. With other consulates turning away Jewish refugees, consuls facing the real threat of arrest and imprisonment by Germans, Bingham supported Varian Fry’s humanitarian efforts until he was eventually relieved of duty. When Nazi officials eventually caught on to the maneuvering of Bingham and Fry they complained to the State Department. Not wishing to alienate German officialdom, Fry’s passport was revoked and Bingham was transferred, first to Lisbon and then to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Fry wrote in his diary that “his going will be a great loss to the refugees and seriously cripple our work…without his help much of what we have done could not have been done.”
Bingham’s attempts to alert the State Department on the relocation of Nazi war criminals to Argentina and on the activities of pro-Nazi groups fell on deaf ears, he was denied promotion and eventually retired from service in 1945. Bingham was honored with a 2006 commemorative postage stamp and a commendation by Yad Vashem.
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Varian Fry (1907-1967) 1994 Copy of 1941 Press Photograph
2022.1.31
Profile of male wearing glasses looking down, typed text along left side of image.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Varian Fry was a Harvard-trained classics scholar and journalist who helped Jews and other refugees escape France after the German occupation. He helped establish the Emergency Rescue Committee in New York to assist both Jewish and non-Jewish intellectuals, artists, musicians, and writers who were known anti-Nazis and whose lives would be in danger in Petainist Vichy France. Travelling first to Lisbon, Portugal, Fry met with Waitstill Sharp, the American Unitarian minister who helped him with contacts in Marseilles. Fry wasted no time setting up office space and gathering the requisite staff. He worked with Hiram Bingham IV, at this time the American vice-consul in Marseilles, and began helping refugees to safety in neutral Portugal, some crossing the so-called “Freedom Trail” across the Pyrenees to avoid Spanish border guards, before arriving safely in Lisbon. Fry and his staff worked to provide homes for refugees: Bingham, for example, hid the novelist Lion Feuchtwanger in his own home, until such time as Waitstill Sharp could ensure his safe passage to America. Fry and his network would help more than 4000 people and as many as 1000 refugees smuggled out of France, many to find sanctuary in the United States. The list included Hanna Arendt, the writers Franz Werfel and Heinrich Mann, the artist Marc Chagall and many others. The work of Fry and his staff would eventually anger both French and American authorities. United States Secretary of State Cordell Hull was concerned that Fry’s covert activities would jeopardize American neutrality, his (Hull’s) “sympathy” for the “unfortunate refugees” notwithstanding. Hull demanded that Fry return stateside immediately. When Fry refused, Hull had his passport revoked. Fry was arrested by French police on suspicion of being a terrorist, taken to the Spanish border, and returned to the US in 1941.
Fry received the French Croix de Chevalier and was the first American honored by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations.
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Postcard from Andrei Sheptytsky, Prisoner of War
2015.2.35
Front: Message in black ink written at top of page. Red hand stamp on right side of page. Writing in large blue crayon across middle of page, and pencil writing beneath the blue. Back: Red printed postcard text in Ukranian. Several hand stamps and writing in blue crayon.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
This is the only known military postcard written by Metropolitan Archbishop Sheptytsky during WWI. At the time of this writing, he has been deported from Lviv, and is on the way to Irkutsk. Sheptytsky had been head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Lviv from 1901-1944. At the outbreak of World War I, Sheptytsky was arrested by the Russians and imprisoned in both the Ukraine and Russia, but was ultimately released in 1918, whereupon he returned to Lviv. He became active in the struggle for Ukrainian national rights, supporting the Ukrainian Nationalist movement (OUN) and believing naively that the invading Nazis themselves would support Ukrainian independence against the loathed Russians. He endorsed the formation of a Ukrainian unit within the German army, believing perhaps that this unit would be a nucleus of a Ukrainian army that would ultimately serve to protect Ukraine from the Russians. To be sure, Sheptytsky's bargain with the devil ironically eventuated in many massacres being carried out by Ukrainian collaboration with the dreaded Einsatzgruppen. Sheptytsky, however, did not approve of terrorist activities against the Jews. It is known that he respected Jews, had learned Hebrew in an effort to relate to the Jewish community and, importantly, helped many Jews by providing sanctuary both in his own residence and in Greek Catholic monasteries. All of the children he saved were spared, and none were converted to Christianity. He had cordial relations with Lviv's chief Rabbi, Ezekiel Lewin. When the latter informed him of an impending pogrom, Sheptytsky offered him sanctuary along with his family. Rabbi Lewin refused the offer for himself but accepted it on his children's behalf. While two of his children were saved, the Rabbi himself was murdered in front of his son Kurt. He provided forged baptismal certificates for the Jews that he saved and instructed his priests to train the Jews in his charge to pray in Ukrainian so as not to be mistaken for Jews by the Nazis and their minions. Sheptytsky protested Nazi atrocities committed against Jews, pleaded with the Ukrainian Nationalists to stop their attacks on Jews, and interceded on behalf of the Jews in 1942 with Himmler and other Nazi officials to forbid Ukrainian police from murdering Jews. He wrote Pope Pius XII informing the latter of his own observations of the Nazis. He continued to inveigh against murdering of the Jews and wrote an epistle, somewhat coded and euphemized but understandable nevertheless, forbidding members of his flock from taking part in murdering Jews. Sheptytsky remains a divisive and enigmatic figure. While his name has been brought before Yad Vashem on numerous occasions to honor Jews, Sheptytsky has not been accorded the honor of Righteous Among the Nations (an honor which his brother Klementiy has received), the support that he has received notwithstanding. The Committee it seems has felt that despite his noteworthy legacy in rescuing Jews from the clutches of the murderous antisemitic Nazis and Ukrainian Nationalists, Sheptytsky didn't go far enough due to his encouragement of Ukrainian allegiance with Nazi Germany.
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Postcard with View of Protestant Temple, Chambon-Sur-Lignon, France
2014.1.466
Front: Black and white photograph of a small church, titled, "Le Chambon-sur-Lignong Hte-Loire -- Le Temple Protestant."Back: Message written in blue ink.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
From 1940 to 1944 the villagers of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon had provided shelter in their homes and farms, saving more than 3000 Jewish children fleeing the Nazis and their Vichy collaborators. This extraordinary effort was guided by the Protestant pastor of the village, André Trochmé and his wife Magda. Despite continued threats by Vichy collaborators, the villagers did not betray their charges. This effort did not go seamlessly. Five children were arrested in school in 1943 and deported to Auschwitz where they were murdered. Trochmé’s cousin Daniel was arrested and deported, and the town physician was shot. André Trochmé himself was forced to go into hiding, while Magda continued the work of sheltering Jews.
The entire community of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon has been honored by Yad Vashem as Righteous Gentiles, the first community to be so honored.
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Letter Signed by British Hero Major Frank Foley
2016.1.23
Typewritten letter on ‘British Passport Control Office’ letterhead, signature of F. Foley
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
In this letter Foley, in his role as British Passport Control Officer, in the early years of the Nazi rise to power, attempts to reassure one Carl Heinz Grebenau that he will be able to obtain a visa to Palestine when certain conditions are met. He is perhaps referring to the Havaara agreement, which was to help Jews emigrate to Palestine by giving up possessions to German authorities. In the 1930s, Major Frank Foley worked as a passport officer at the British Embassy in Berlin. But the job was a cover: Foley was an MI6 agent and he did everything he could - without diplomatic immunity and at great personal risk to his own life - to help Jews escape Nazi Germany by providing them with visas, passports and other means of exit to Britain or Palestine. He is known to have hidden Jews in his home, and even went to concentration camps to help free them. It is estimated that he saved as many as 10,000 Jews. He was posthumously accorded the status of Righteous Among Nations by Yad Vashem.
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Passport issued to Egon Hertzka by Chiune Sugihara
2014.1.477
Grey booklet titled, "Republicka Československá République Tchécoslovsque Cestovný Pas" with seal on cover. Interior includes a black and white photograph of a man, as well as various stamps and writing.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Czechoslovakian Travel Passport issued for Egon Hertzka in 1936. Curacao visa, Japan transit visa and many border crossing seals inside. Chiune Sugihara was a Japanese diplomat who served as Vice-Consul for the Japanese Empire in Lithuania. During World War II, he helped several thousand Jews to leave the country by issuing transit visas to Jewish refugees so that they could travel to Japan. Most of the Jews who escaped were refugees from German-occupied Poland or residents of Lithuania. Sugihara issued travel visas that enabled the escape of more than 6,000 Jewish refugees to Japanese territory, risking his career and his family's lives. In 1985, Israel honored him as Righteous Among the Nations for his actions.
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Postcard with View of Chambon-Sur-Lignon, France
2014.1.465
Front: Black and white photograph of a forest.Back: Message written in blue ink.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
While the Nazis and their Vichy collaborators delivered 83,000 Jews - including 10,000 children - to concentration camps, the ordinary citizens of the town of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, in the hills of southeastern France, took in and protected Jews at great peril to their own lives. Approximately 5,000 Jews were saved, sheltered, educated, or, with the help of the underground, spirited to Spain or Switzerland. Jews were housed in private homes, on farms and public institutions, and when Gestapo or their Vichy French collaborators approached, villagers would hide the children in the forest. As soon as they left, villagers would sing a song signaling that it was safe to emerge from hiding. This extraordinary effort involving the entire village was guided by the Protestant pastor of the village, André Trochmé, and his wife Magda. Despite being threatened by Vichy collaborators, he would not betray his charges. His cousin Daniel Trochmé, however, was arrested and sent to the concentration camp Majdanek, where he perished. When André Trochmé was finally forced to go into hiding, his wife Magda continued his work of sheltering the Jews of Le Chambon until the end of the war. The entire community of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon has been honored by Yad Vashem as Righteous Gentiles, the first community to be so honored.
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Wojciech Rychlewicz Signed Passport
2023.1.1
Small burgundy booklet with “TURKIYE CUMHURIYETI PASAPORT” printed on cover.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Wojciech Rychlewicz was the Consul General of the Consulate of the Republic of Poland in Istanbul, Turkey between 1937 and 1941. During this period Polish Jews were fleeing the Nazis. Other countries were not interested in absorbing Polish Jews and Turkey did not want to be a host country to so many Jewish refugees. Palestine was under a mandate and the British had a strict quota on Jews. After 1937 Turkey would prohibit Jewish immigration, and while professing neutrality during the war, it nevertheless implemented antisemitic laws and forced labor for Jews. Jews living abroad were denaturalized, exposing them to deportation to death camps.
Rychlewicz understood the precarious situation for Jewish refugees and made the decision to issue false documents alleging that they were Catholics, thus enabling them to emigrate to Latin American countries such as Brazil. Once there they could obtain the requisite visas to enter Palestine and ultimately escape the Holocaust.
This passport with several transit visas was signed by Rychlewicz as an attaché at the Consulate of Poland in Istanbul, during the time he helped Polish refugee Jews. It belonged to Letta Asim Turgut, daughter of the eminent Czech professor, author and physician Prof. Dr. Franz Mracek; and wife of statesman and diplomat Mustafa Assim Turgut Bey, who held posts in both the Stockholm and Sofia Embassies before becoming Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Ottoman ambassador to Tehran during WW1. Turgut Bey later served as Vienna Ambassador and continued to live here after leaving his post. He returned to Turkey in 1932 after the Republic was proclaimed. His daughter Leyla Turgut was a renowned swimmer and architect.
Assim Turgut died in 1937, and Letta’s transit visas perhaps reflect family circumstances surrounding this matter, and not the existential concerns of Jewish refugees.
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Feng Shan Ho Signed ROC Visa on Reisepass Issued to Robert Wand
2014.1.472
Brown booklet titled, "Deutsches Reich, Reisepass." Includes photograph on page 2 of 32 pages, no back cover.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Passport for Robert Wand, a clerk, issued in Vienna, November 23, 1938. A German passport with the infamous red J-Stamp, an ROC visa issued by the Consulate in Vienna (Dr. Feng Shan Ho is Consul General of China in Vienna from 1938-1939) on Austrian attached and sealed passport page, a British Consulate-issued visa in Basel, Switzerland for Palestine with several Government of Palestine stamps, and a French visa for Syria and Libya. A Righteous Diplomat, Feng Shan Ho issued countless visas for Jewish refugees attempting to leave Austria after the Anschluss.
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Rare Late-Issue "Nansen" Passport with Visa Signed by Aristides de Sousa Mendes for Woman Fleeing France for Safety
2023.1.10
‘FRANCE PASSEPORT NANSEN’ on cover; orange with green stripes at top left and lower right of cover; photograph on page 3; pages 16-17 blank; accordion fold
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Valentine Kurow was a 34-year-old Jewish woman originally from the seaport town of Odessa in Russia. She had fled Russia with her mother just after the Revolution in 1917 and the ensuing civil war. She was apparently an opera singer from information obtained on a Brussels, Belgium work permit she had completed in 1939. She cited impresario Jean van Glabbeke of the Théatre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels where in 1939 she may have sung in the opera Carmen. In any case, she found herself in Bordeaux, France just ahead of the German invasion on May 10, 1940, a stateless immigrant along with thousands of Jews fleeing south attempting to escape the advancing Nazi juggernaut. On June 5, 1940, diplomat Aristides de Sousa Mendes, the Consul General in the Portuguese Legation in France, signed a Portuguese visa for her, and Valentine was able to cross into Portugal and sail from Lisbon to the United States on the Exeter on July 18, 1940.
This story is all the more remarkable because de Sousa Mendes himself was at this time undergoing a crisis of conscience. Rabbi Chaim Kruger, a Belgian refugee, had prevailed upon de Sousa Mendes, a devout Catholic, to issue visas for all Jewish refugees. After an initial demurral, and a firm refusal on the part of the Rabbi to accept visas for his own family unless all Jews were served, de Sousa Mendes capitulated and, “standing with God against man,” defied Salazar and the notorious “Circular 14” and began issuing lifesaving visas to all refugees. For his sustained defiance of his orders and his actions on behalf of the beleaguered Jews, de Sousa Mendes would be dismissed from service by Salazar and denied retirement benefits for his large family. (See 2022.1.19ab)
The passport itself is a French “Nansen” passport, issued to Ms. Kurow in Paris, France on August 22, 1939, and numbered 27.699. Her photograph is on page 3. Nansen passports were first issued in 1922 by the League of Nations to manage the staggering refugee crisis after World War I. In the wake of that war, governments were upended, national boundaries redrawn with some nations absorbed by other nations, thus creating enormous chaos for stateless refugees trapped in the untenable situation of trying to find sanctuary in countries where they did not fear persecution but lacked the requisite identity documents and proof of nationality to cross borders legally. Many no longer had passports, making international travel virtually impossible. The first Nansen passport was a recognition of the need on the part of both the International Red Cross and the League of Nations to create identity certificates for refugees from the civil war following the Russian Revolution, with the new government of the Soviet Union revoking the citizenship of Russians living abroad, and with the refusal of many former citizens to return. Fridtjof Nansen convened the first conference on this crisis to provide stateless refugees with international protection by way of a travel and identity instrument that gave them an identity and legitimacy. The so-called Nansen passport would in time be recognized by fifty governments.
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Passport with Lifesaving Visa Issued by Aristides de Sousa Mendes, Consul General for Portugal in Bordeaux, France
2022.1.19ab
a: ‘No. 3835’ ‘GOVERNMENT OF PALESTINE’ printed at top left corner with photograph of female at bottom left, signature below photograph. Multiple long strips of tape along seems. b: red wax seal with purple ribbon at top left.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Laura Glass and her daughter Mirjam received their visas from Aristides de Sousa Mendes, signed by his secretary José de Seabra, in Bordeaux on June 19, 1940. They had crossed the border into Spain December 27, 1940 at Port-Bou exiting France at Cerbere. They entered Portugal December 31, 1940, and arrived in Palestine May 31.
The Battle of France commenced May 10, 1940, the German blitzkrieg overwhelming Belgium, the Netherlands and France. Thousands of refugees, including Jews, streamed south in the hope of escaping France through the southern border into Spain, and then, hopefully armed with a lifesaving transit visa, proceeding to Salazar’s Portugal, a neutral country. For Jews this journey would be a gateway to safety away from the clutches of Nazis and Milice collaborators bent on murdering them. From Portugal - if all went well -they could sail to the United States or South America or even Mandatory Palestine by ship. Some few desperate refugees might even attempt the harrowing, physically taxing remote mountain passes of the so-called Le Chemin de la Liberté or Freedom Trail, escaping by foot over the Pyrenees, the 300-mile border between France and Spain, negotiating the weather and rugged terrain to avoid deportation and death if discovered. The Salazar government was prepared to permit those passing through Portugal with transit visas to overseas destinations. The borders were closed, however, to those refugees - especially Jews and other stateless persons - without such visas “who could not freely return to their country of origin.” The Portuguese government had instructed its consular service accordingly in what is known as “Circular 14.”
Approximately 30,000 refugees - among them more than 10,000 Jews - were stranded in Bordeaux without the requisite visa. Belgian Rabbi Haim Kruger - himself a refugee -prevailed upon Aristides de Sousa Mendes, Consul General for Portugal in Bordeaux, to issue visas to the refugee Jews, but Mendes was initially reluctant to break the rules laid out in Circular 14. He willingly offered the lifesaving visa to Rabbi Kruger and his family, but the Rabbi refused unless all the needy were served. That refusal created a crisis of conscience for Sousa Mendes, a devout Catholic. In this moment the Rabbi had inspired a sense of humanitarian responsibility, and Sousa Mendes’ initial reluctance gave way to a fervid sense of duty and responsibility to all the needy.
Thus began the process of issuing visas for all in need regardless of the distinctions made in Circular 14, which would be tantamount to an outright defiance of the dictator Salazar. Assisted by family members, his secretary Jose de Seabra, Rabbi Kruger, and others, the visas were developed and handed to the refugees. There is a dispute about the exact number issued - numbers vary anywhere from the hundreds to 10,000 to 30,000 in all. De Seabra himself participated in stamping and writing the visas and believed that the number of visas issued was in the hundreds, while others believe that as many as 10,000 were written for Jews alone. But not just Jews. Sousa Mendes saved the entire Habsburg family, including the crown prince and Empress. He created visas for the Belgian cabinet in exile. Thousands of Portuguese visas were created between June 17 and 19.
Sousa Mendes continued to issue passports even after the German army entered Bordeaux. When Jews fled to Bayonne and Hendaye he instructed the Portuguese consul in Bayonne to issue visas. And at Hendaye he conducted refugees himself across the border checkpoint on the Spanish frontier.
Sousa Mendes left Bordeaux on July 8 and returned to Lisbon. For his activities on behalf of refugees - in violation of the orders and policies of the Salazar government - he was summarily dismissed from the consular service and denied retirement benefits. He died in poverty in Lisbon in 1954. To the end both de Sousa Mendes and Salazar were unrepentant. On October 18,1966 Yad Vashem recognized Aristides de Sousa Mendes as Righteous Among the Nations.
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Konstanty Rokicki Signed Polish Passport of 13-Year-Old Jewish Child in Bern, Switzerland
2023.1.9
‘PASZPORT’ and ‘RZECZPOSPOLITA POLSKA’ on cover; photograph of Maks Hans Freund on page 3; missing pages 7 and 8; pages 12-23 are blank.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
This passport had been issued at the Polish consulate in Milan, Italy to 13-year-old Maks Hans Freund on May 27, 1940 as indicated on the Polish consular stamp, and set to expire in November. The passport was extended at the Polish Legation in Bern, Switzerland by Polish vice-consul Konstanty Rokicki on June 10, 1943.
Only recently has Rokicki received recognition for his work saving Jewish lives during World War II. Prior to joining the consular service, he had been a second lieutenant in the Polish army and an intelligence operative. He had worked in several consular settings before Bern. As vice-consul in Bern, and as a member of the secretive Lados Group, Rokicki and his subordinate Julius Kuhl produced what is estimated to be several thousand illegal passports which were tantamount to documents of protection for Jews in Polish ghettos bound for eventual deportation to death camps. The scheme involved bribing the consul of Paraguay Rudolf Hugli, who would provide the blank Paraguayan forms to be fabricated into passports with the names of Polish Jews. The money came from Jewish and Polish donors, the lists of Jews from Jewish organizations in Switzerland. Finally, the completed passports would be smuggled into Poland and the Netherlands and given to those in imminent danger of deportation.
The estimates of how many recipients of these documents were saved run into the thousands.
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Visa Issued by Chiune Sugihara and Jan Zwartendijk to A. Silberberg as Part of Polish ID Certificate
2014.1.473
White papers titled, "Zaświadczenie Certificat." Includes a black and white photograph of a man,Silberberg, as well as various handwritten information. Handstamps and signatures on interior.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Polish Identity certificate issued to Abraham-Adam Silberberg including a Sugihara visa and a visa issued and signed by Dutch acting consul Jan Zwartendijk, who also saved Jewish lives in Lithuania. A unique combination of two visas issued by two Righteous Diplomats.
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Censored Envelope from Bendsburg, Poland
2014.1.155
Front: An off-white envelope with writing in blue and black ink and two pasted stamps of Adolf Hitler in profile in green and blue. Includes black, red and purple hand stamps, as well as a white and red pasted stamp.Back: Writing in black ink, several black and purple hand stamps.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
The Bendsberg Ghetto was among the first to be liquidated by the Nazis on August 1, 1943. This cover is stamped with the Jewish ghetto administrations stamp. Alfred Schwarzbaum was a wealthy Jew from Bendzin who escaped to Switzerland and conducted relief and rescue work for Jews in occupied Poland, as well as supporting armed resistance by Jews in the ghettos. On the envelope, he is referred to as Treue (“ever-faithful”) because of his support for Jews trapped in ghettos.
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Spanish Vice-Consul in Thessaloniki, Greece, Solomon Ezrati Signed Attestation of Citizenship for Mentech Saltiel, Sephardi Jew in Thessaloniki During German Occupation
2022.1.58
Page with photograph stapled in top right corner, purple handstamp on bottom half of photograph, typewritten 'Bestatigung' underlined at center.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Document on Spanish Consulate in Thessaloniki letterhead during the German occupation confirming Mentech Saltiel’s address and that he is a Spanish subject. It is dated June 29, 1941, just two months after the occupation, and signed by Solomon Ezrati. Ezrati served as a Vice-Consul at the Spanish consulate in Thessaloniki, Greece. He worked closely with Consul General Romero Radigales helping save Sephardi Jews and was acknowledged as such by Yad Vashem. Jewish himself, Ezrati was arrested along with other Spanish nationals and deported to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. He survived the war.
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Safe-Conduct Pass for Jewish Mother and Child Caught in Vichy, France
2022.1.39
Form bordered in red with two diagonal red stripes through page; two photographs and multiple stamps on front and back
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Vichy France travel document for Ryfka and Emile Spira, a Jewish mother and her 11-year-old son, both of Polish origin who found themselves in Vichy, France, during the occupation, thankfully avoiding the infamous January 1943 systematic roundup of 2,000 Jews of Marseilles by the Germans in concert with the French Gendarmes, orchestrated by the collaborationist Vichy regime and Pierre Laval. The Jews in this roundup were sent to the internment camp at Drancy and from there deported to Auschwitz. The Spiras were given a Cuban visa at Marseilles by Marino Estrada, Consul of Cuba in Marseilles (at the same time Hiram Bingham IV was Vice-Consul of the United States in Marseilles). They traveled to Seville, Spain and boarded a ship for Cuba where they were able to obtain an entry visa issued by George R. Hukill to reach New York.
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Early Vice-Consul Carl Lutz Signed Schutzpass Issued by the Swiss Legation to Joseph Kardoss
2014.1.479
Front: Pass is divided up into 4 blue boxes. Identification photo in upper right corner. Signature of Carl Lutz in bottom right.Back: Text written in English in upper left corner dated April 5, 1944. Issued from the Swiss legation.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Early Schutzpass signed by Carl Lutz. Issued to Joseph Kardoss, U.S. citizen. Document issued from the Swiss legation in interest of the United States, Budapest 28 December 1942.
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Postcard with View of Beach, Chambon-Sur-Lignon, France
2014.1.467
Front: Black and white photograph of people on a beach.Back: Message written in black ink.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
While the Nazis and their Vichy collaborators delivered 83,000 Jews - including 10,000 children - to concentration camps, the ordinary citizens of the town of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, in the hills of southeastern France, took in and protected Jews at great peril to their own lives. Approximately 5,000 Jews were saved, sheltered, educated, or, with the help of the underground, spirited to Spain or Switzerland. Jews were housed in private homes, on farms and public institutions, and when Gestapo or their Vichy French collaborators approached, villagers would hide the children in the forest. As soon as they left, villagers would sing a song signaling that it was safe to emerge from hiding. This extraordinary effort involving the entire village was guided by the Protestant pastor of the village, André Trochmé, and his wife Magda. Despite being threatened by Vichy collaborators, he would not betray his charges. His cousin Daniel Trochmé, however, was arrested and sent to the concentration camp Majdanek, where he perished. When André Trochmé was finally forced to go into hiding, his wife Magda continued his work of sheltering the Jews of Le Chambon until the end of the war. The entire community of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon has been honored by Yad Vashem as Righteous Gentiles, the first community to be so honored.
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Samuel Del Campo, Chilean Diplomat in Bucharest, Romania Signed Consular ID Document for Polish Refugee
2022.1.15
Trifold identification document, ‘LEGACION DE CHILE EN RUMANIA’ on one side; reverse has black and white photo of S. Kaminski adhered at top of center along with fingerprint and hand stamp below, both in purple ink.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
ID issued by Chilean legation in Bucharest, Romania in 1943 and signed by Samuel Del Campo, Charge d’Affaires at the Chilean Representation in Bucharest. Special Polish Refugee ID signed by Kasmir Szymonowicz, head of the refugee department. Del Campo issued Chilean passports and IDs for Polish Jews. Approximately 1200 Jews were saved from deportation to Transnistria by issuing Chilean passports. In 2016 he was recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations.
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Postcard, "Le Chambon-sur-Lignon -- Le Pic du Lizieux vu des Barandons"
2014.1.468
Front: Black and white photograph of a forest.Back: Message written in blue ink.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Postcard to Lyon by resident of Chambon during the years Jewish children were kept safe from Nazis. On February 23, 1943, Pastors Trochmé and Theis, along with the headmaster of the local primary school, were arrested by French police and interned near Limoges. They were eventually released, but continued rescue operations until late in the year. On June 29, 1943, Nazis raided a local school and arrested eighteen students, five of whom were identified as Jews. They were sent to Auschwitz where they were murdered. Their teacher, Daniel Trochmé, the cousin of Pastor Trochmé, was also arrested and deported to Majdanek, where he perished. Roger Le Forestier, the village physician who helped Jews obtain false documents, was arrested and shot on August 20, 1944 in Lyon on Gestapo orders.
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Lifesaving ID Issued to Sephardi Jew Rachel Pinhas de Saltiel by Sebastian de Romero Radigales, Consul General of Spain in Athens, Greece During German Occupation
2022.1.16
Identification sheet with printed text at top left “CONSULADO GENERAL DE ESPANA EN ATENAS”, top right includes adhered black and white photograph of female with purple handstamp covering lower corner, bottom left includes adhered stamps and handstamps.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Rachel Pinhas de Saltiel and her husband Mentech Saltiel y Saporta, both of Spanish descent, belonged to the ancient Sephardi community of diaspora Jews in Thessaloniki, Greece, whose origin could be traced to the Spanish Expulsion of 1492. Sebastian de Romero Radigales - Consul General of Spain in Athens - used his authority to try to protect the Sephardi Jews who were being deported from Thessaloniki to Auschwitz (48,000 Jews deported between March and August 1943), invoking a 1924 decree which gave Sephardi Jews of the diaspora -descendants of the Spanish Expulsion of 1492 - a right to Spanish citizenship. Romero Radigales made repeated demands on the German ambassador that Jews with Spanish heritage should not be deported, but rather repatriated to their country of origin. Ironically, he found the Germans amenable to this, while Spain’s Francoist regime resisted his efforts to repatriate Jews from Thessalonica who had Spanish citizenship, the 1924 decree notwithstanding.
In August 1943, the Germans identified 367 Jews with Spanish citizenship who were subsequently interned in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp from August 1943 to February 1944, to be used for a possible trade with the Allies. The group included Rachel Saltiel and her husband Mentech. Heated negotiations occurred between Spanish diplomats and German authorities until Romero Radigales was able to change his own government’s position and allow these Belsen interns to be transferred to Spanish Morocco.
To the Germans, Romero Radigales would continue to be perceived as demanding and difficult, chronically interfering with their work. However, for his unwavering devotion to the Sephardic Jews of Athens and Thessalonica and his repeated efforts at saving Jewish lives, Sebastian de Romero Radigales would be honored as Righteous Among the Nations. His signature appears on this document as Consul General of Spain in Athens.
[Related item: 2022.1.56]
[Related item: 2022.1.56]
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Provisional Passport for Ilona Gergely of Hungary Signed by Per Anger
2021.1.91
Provisional Passport for Ilona gergely of Budapest, Hungary signed by Per Anger.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Per Anger was a Swedish diplomat who served as secretary at the Swedish Legation in Budapest Hungary in 1942. Anger had already been exposed to the Nazi persecution of Jews, having worked previously at the Swedish Embassy in Berlin. In Budapest, he worked with Raoul Wallenberg, Carl Danielsson, and Valdemar Langlet of the Swedish Red Cross helping Jews avert deportation and internment. When Arrow Cross thugs began to terrorize Jews, Anger provided documents which identified the Jews in question as being under Swedish protection. He developed the idea of the provisional passport, which attested that the bearer would be respected as a Swedish citizen and thus would not have to wear the Star of David, which would mean deportation and death. Anger also issued special certificates to the many Jews who had applied for Swedish citizenship, allowing them to be recognized as Swedish citizens by the Hungarian government.
For putting his life at risk in an effort to save Hungarian Jews, Per Anger was recognized as "Righteous Among the Nations" by the State of Israel and Yad Vashem in 1942.
Sadly, Ilona Gergely, pictured on the Per Anger-signed provisional passport, was nevertheless murdered in the Holocaust.