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.
-
George F. Duckwitz
2015.2.77
Black and white photograph of a dower-looking man in glasses, with his dark hair slicked back, wearing a three-piece suit and tie. The tie has a pearl pin in it, and is askew. Back: Pasted sticker naming Duckwitz a West German personality. Beneath a black handstamp giving copyright to Camera Press.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Press photograph of George F. Duckwitz (1904-1973). Duckwitz had been a German businessman who joined the Nazi Party in 1932. He was eventually assigned to the German embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark, as an attaché. After 1942 Duckwitz worked with Werner Best, the Gestapo leader in Copenhagen. The latter informed Duckwitz about an intended roundup of Danish Jews to occur on October 1, 1943. After a failed attempt to stop the deportations through official channels in Berlin, Duckwitz flew to Sweden and prevailed upon the Prime Minister in Stockholm to receive Danish Jewish refugees. Back in Denmark Duckwitz was able to inform - through an intermediary - the chief Rabbi of the Danish Jewish community about the intended deportations. Word spread and resulted in sympathetic Danes organizing the escape of over 7000 Jews in boats to Sweden under the nose of the Nazis. At great personal risk to himself, in giving advance warning to the Jewish community of Denmark about the planned deportations of Jews, Duckwitz enabled the people of Denmark to help most of its Jews escape in boats to Sweden. He was named Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in 1971 for his efforts on behalf of Jews.
-
Signed Photograph of Nicholas Winton, Savior of 669 Jewish Children in the Czechoslovakian Kindertransport, Holding a Child
2014.1.471
Matted black and white photograph of Nicky Winton holding a child with his signature beneath.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Nicholas Winton had personally saved 669 Czechoslovakian children from the Nazi scourge by finding homes for them in England. Many of their parents were to be murdered at Auschwitz. For his extraordinary work on the Czechoslovakian Kindertransport he received numerous honors, including a knighthood.
-
Oskar Schindler
2016.1.38
Woman in white, man in suit looking straight at camera
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Second generation press photograph of Oskar Schindler, the German businessman who saved the lives of more than a thousand Polish-Jewish refugees during the Holocaust by employing them in his factories.
-
Portuguese First Day Cover Holocaust Commemorative Stamps
2023.1.4
Envelope with five colorful postage stamps; an image of a different man in each.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: First day of issue honoring five righteous diplomats from Portugal who saved the lives of Jews imperiled by the Nazis. The five diplomats are Aristides de Sousa Mendes, Alberto Texeira Branquinho, Jose Mendes, Padre Joaquim Carreira, and Carlos Garrido.
-
Aleksander Lados
2023.1.13
front: image of smiling man in suit and tie
back: “Editors: This radiophoto just received from Switzerland ties in with the Himmler story, recently sent you by International News Service.
RC1030578-Watch your credit-International News Photos Slug (Lados)
Polish Minister aided refugees Switzerland……M. Lados (above), Polish minister in Switzerland in 1941, who aided Jewish refugee groups by obtaining South American passports.”
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Aleksander Lados was a Polish-born diplomat and politician who headed the Polish Legation to Switzerland and led the eponymous Lados group. He was instrumental in saving Polish Jews in German-occupied Poland from murder in the death camps by providing them with illegal Paraguayan passports. 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.
Members of his team included Konstanty Rokicki, Abraham Silberschein, Stefan Ryniewicz, Chaim Eiss, and Juliusz Kuhl. Recha Sternbuch also supported this work. Lados himself provided diplomatic cover. The Lados group produced what is estimated to be several thousand illegal passports and citizenship papers which were tantamount to documents of protection for Jews in Polish ghettos bound for eventual deportation to death camps.