Dr. Harry / Harald Feller

Feller, Harald, First Secretary of the Swiss Legation and then as Charge d’Affaires in Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45

“Harald Feller was a Swiss diplomat in his thirties, in Budapest, Hungary. In March 1944, the Nazis took possession of the country and the Germans in Budapest ordered all the Jews to wear the yellow-star badge. Jews were concentrated in ghettos and transit camps and then deported to Auschwitz. From the beginning of December 1944 through 1945, first as First Secretary of the Swiss Legation and then as Charge d’Affaires, he managed to be involved in numerous rescue operations, saving Jews. He risked his life by using illegal methods in order to save Swiss citizens who were married to Hungarian Jews. He managed to rescue several Jews from a transit camp where they were being held and once succeeded in rescuing a group of Jews whom he transferred to Switzerland. After October 15, 1944, Feller hid at his home the Jewish Hungarian writer Gabor Devecseri, together with his wife Klara Huszar and their one-year-old son. Other Jews, as well as several soldiers who deserted the Hungarian army, also found refuge at his house. At the end of December 1944, Feller managed to rescue the Halasz couple, parents of Klara Huszar. They were also brought to his home, to join their family. According to numerous testimonies, Feller gave valuable assistance to the Zionist underground, supplying blank letters of protection, which were later filled in as needed. At the end of December, Feller was arrested by an Arrow Cross gang and tortured. Still, he kept his home as a refuge for persecuted Jews until the liberation.

After the liberation of Hungary he was captured by the Soviets in January 1945 and returned to Switzerland a year later.

On July 15, 1999, Yad Vashem recognized Harald Feller as Righteous Among the Nations.

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Dr. Harald Feller replaced Maximilian Jaeger as head of the Swiss legation in Budapest, Hungary, in 1944. From the beginning of his appointment, Dr. Feller was tireless in his efforts to support Consul Charles Lutz and the rescue of Jews under Swiss protection. Feller worked closely with the other neutral legations in constantly pressuring the Horthy and Sztójay puppet governments to end the persecution and deportations of Jews. He signed a joint protest of the treatment of Jews along with his fellow diplomatic representatives. Feller protected members of the Swedish legation, who were targeted by the Arrow Cross, by giving them false Swiss passports and providing shelter. Toward the end of the war, Feller hid dozens of Jews in the basement of his consular residence in Budapest. In February 1945, the Soviets arrested Feller and sent him to Moscow, along with other Swiss nationals. He was returned to Switzerland in February 1946. Feller received his Righteous Among the Nations award in 1999. He passed away in 2002 in Bern, Switzerland.