(The Local-Switzerland) Carl Lutz, who worked as vice consul for Switzerland in Budapest during the years of World War II, together with colleagues Harald Feller, Gertrud Lutz-Fankhauser, Ernst Vonrufs and Peter Zurcher, helped save the lives of over 60,000 Jews from Nazi extermination camps. When the Germans occupied Hungary in 1944, the diplomat hammered out an agreement with them to provide safe passage for 8,000 Jews. He then applied the diplomatic letters of protection he obtained to whole families instead of individuals. When the 8,000 documents were used up, he simply began the numbering series again. Lutz and his colleagues also set up safe houses around the Hungarian capital where thousands of Jews took shelter. Lutz was honored by Israel with the title Righteous Among the Nations.
2018-02-16 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive