Bidspirit auction | Swiss Letter of Protection for

Swiss Letter of Protection for a Jewish Holder of an Immigration Certificate – Issued under the Rescue Initiative of Carl Lutz Budapest, 23 October 1944 - Swiss Letter of Protection for a Jewish Holder of an Immigration Certificate – Issued under the Rescue Initiative of Carl Lutz Budapest (Hungary), 23 October 1944. An official Letter of Protection issued by the Swiss Legation, Department for the Immigration of Foreign Nationals of the Swiss Confederation. Official authorization for the Jew WERTHEIMER DEZSO, confirming that his Swiss passport was valid. The document bears the official stamp: “SCHWEIZERISCHE GESANDTSCHAFT – Budapest” [Swiss Legation, Budapest]. Through this document and thousands like it, the Swiss diplomat Carl Lutz (1895–1975)—one of the most prominent among the Righteous Among the Nations—saved tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust. Following the Nazi occupation of Hungary in 1944, the systematic deportation and extermination of Hungarian Jewry began. Lutz, who had already shown deep sympathy for the Jewish cause during his service at the Swiss Consulate in Jaffa (1935–1941), and who was closely associated with Moshe Krausz, head of the Palestine Office in Hungary (operating on behalf of the Jewish Agency to organize immigration to Eretz Israel), responded to Krausz’s appeal and acted decisively to rescue the Jews of Budapest. As part of this bold effort, Lutz issued Swiss Letters of Protection to Jews holding immigration certificates. After negotiations with senior Nazi officials and with the consent of the Hungarian authorities, approximately 8,000 such letters were issued—one for each certificate holder. The protection was later extended to the certificate holders’ family members, thereby placing tens of thousands of Jews under Swiss protection. In parallel, a large-scale operation forged thousands of additional letters on paper stolen from SS offices. On another front, Lutz and Krausz worked to ensure that Western governments—and later public opinion in those countries—became aware of what was occurring in the extermination camps. In total, Carl Lutz saved more than 60,000 Jews through the letters of protection he issued and the protected houses in which survivors were sheltered. In 1964, Carl Lutz was among the first to be recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem. In 1991, a memorial in his honor was erected at the entrance to the Budapest ghetto. Physical description: Paper document, 30 × 21 cm. Good condition. Folding marks and tiny tears.