UVic research sheds light on Swiss 'Schindler' who defied Nazis
Vancouver mother among estimated 62,000 Jews saved in Hungary by bureaucrat Carl Lutz
A University of Victoria researcher wants to shed light on the story of a Swiss bureaucrat who helped more than 60,000 Hungarian Jews escape the Nazi Holocaust.
Carl Lutz is credited with the largest civilian rescue of Jewish people in the Second World War, and yet his name and his actions remain largely unrecognized, compared to German businessman Oskar Schindler and Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg during the same period.
Charlotte Schallié, an associate professor in Germanic and Slavic Studies, will share the research in her new book, Under Swiss Protection:Jewish Eyewitness Accounts from Wartime Budapest at a gathering of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance in Switzerland Nov. 27.
It is co-edited with Lutz's stepdaughter Agnes Hirschi.
When Jews in the Hungarian countryside were rounded up and taken to the notorious Auschwitz death camp in 1944, Lutz "knew he had to come up with a strategy, " Schallié, whose own grandmother died at Auschwitz, told On the Island host Gregor Craigie.
"He knew he needed to disobey the law."
Lutz had arranged for the departure of more than 10,000 Jewish children and youth to Palestine between 1942 and 1944.
The vice consul also negotiated with the Nazis for authorization to issue protective letters for another 8,000 Jews who had certificates allowing them to go to Palestine.
Lutz then multiplied the number of letters issued by interpreting the authorization as applying to families and not just individuals, Schallié said.
Lutz also established 76 safe houses under Swiss protection to house people holding the protective letters.
One of those safe houses, a former glass factory known as the Glass House, sheltered about 3,000 Jews during the Nazi occupation in Hungary.
Among them was the mother of well-known Vancouver physician and author Gabor Maté and his brother Janos, an environmental activist.
Despite his efforts, Schallié said, Lutz did not receive official thanks from his home country until 1995, 20 years after his death. Hirschi said her stepfather was penalized for violating Swiss neutrality.
Lutz little-known in his own country
Although she grew up in Switzerland, Schallié did not know of Lutz until she stumbled across a monument to him during a trip to Budapest.
She believes he deserves the wider recognition as an example of what the leadership of one person can achieve.
"It was one man who did the right thing," Schallié said. "He could have remained neutral, but he did the right thing."