Carl (Charles) Lutz

Carl Lutz (30 March 1895 – 12 February 1975) was a Swiss diplomat. He served as the Swiss Vice-Consul in Budapest, Hungary, from 1942 until the end of World War II. He is credited with saving over 62,000 Jews during the Second World War in a very large rescue operation.

Due to his actions, half of the Jewish population of Budapest survived and was not deported to Nazi extermination camps during the Holocaust. He was awarded the title of Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Charles “Carl” Lutz, Consul for Switzerland in Budapest, Hungary, 1942-45, and Gertrud Lutz, Wife of Consul Carl Lutz, Budapest, Hungary

Carl Lutz (1895-1975) was the first neutral diplomat in Budapest to rescue Jews. He is credited with inventing the Schutzbrief (protective letter) for Jewish refugees in Budapest. After March 19, 1944, the Germans occupied Hungary and the new government of Döme Sztojay closed the Hungarian borders to Jewish emigration. In tough negotiations with the Nazis and the Hungarian government, Lutz obtained permission to issue protective letters to 8,000 Hungarian Jews for emigration to Palestine. Using a ruse and interpreting the 8,000 “units” not as persons but as families, he and his staff issued tens of thousands of additional “protective letters." He established 76 Swiss safe houses throughout Budapest and, with the help of his wife Gertrud, liberated Jews from deportation centers and death marches. In 1942-43, in cooperation with the Jewish Agency for Palestine, Lutz had helped 10,000 Jewish children and young people to emigrate to Palestine. Lutz worked with hundreds of Jewish volunteers who helped him process the protective letters and distribute them throughout Budapest. Lutz was told that as long as he stayed in Budapest, his protectees would survive. He is credited by Jewish relief agencies with saving 62,000 Jews from the Nazi Holocaust.

Carl Lutz was made Righteous Among the Nations by Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Authority in 1965. In addition, he has been declared an honorary citizen of the State of Israel. Carl Lutz died in 1975 at the age of 80.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lutz, Charles Lutz, & Gertrud

“Carl (Charles) Lutz (b. 1895), a Swiss diplomat, arrived in Budapest in January 1942 to represent the interests of countries that had severed relations with Miklos Horthy’s government, among them, the United States and the United Kingdom. After the Germans invasion of Hungary on March 19, 1944, Lutz began his actions rescuing thousands of Jews. Appalled by the Nazi persecution of Jews, he pressured the Hungarian government to stop the deportations that had begun in mid-May. Risking his life, he brought thousands of Hungarian Jews under Swiss protection, thus saving them from deportations to Nazi death camps. In his capacity as vice-consul, Lutz issued protective letters (Schutzbriefe) to thousands of Jews, thus delaying their deportation to concentration camps until they were liberated by the Allied forces. His wife Gertrud participated actively and zealously in his rescue operations. She was active in providing food for thousand of Jews, as well as in assisting them to get medical treatment. Lutz instructed the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg* (see Sweden) on the best use of the protective letters and gave him information about government officials with whom it was best to negotiate. He rented 76 buildings for all the people under his protection. In the Glass House and its annex about 3,000 Jews found refuge. During the death marches of November 10-22, 1944, Lutz and Gertrud followed the Jews and they were able to pull many out of the march, by producing documents declaring them under Swiss protection.

These Jews were allowed to return to Budapest. With the tightening of the Soviet siege of Budapest in December 1944, when all diplomatic and consular missions, except the Swedish, had left the Hungarian capital, Lutz remained there at risk of his life, waiving diplomatic regulations, in order to save Jews. Lutz and his wife stayed with a group of Jews they rescued for more than four weeks in a bunker under the residence of the British embassy. After the liberation in February 1945, the inquiry into Lutz’s wartime actions jeopardized his career and prevented him from advancing. He was criticized on the home front for endangering Swiss neutrality. On March 24, 1964, Yad Vashem recognized Carl Lutz as Righteous Among the Nations.

On February 13, 1978, Yad Vashem recognized Gertrud Lutz as Righteous Among the Nations.”