Carl Lutz

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Carl Lutz (b. Walzenhausen, 30 March 1895; d. Berne,12 February 1975) was the Swiss Vice-Consul in Budapest, Hungary from 1942 until the end of World War II. He helped save tens of thousands of Jews from deportation to Nazi Extermination camps during the Holocaust. He is credited with saving over 62,000 Jews. In 1964, he was awarded the title of Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem.

Early life and education

Lutz was born in Walzenhausen, Switzerland in 1895 and attended local schools. He immigrated at the age of 18 to the United States, where he was to live and work for more than 20 years. He worked in Illinois to earn money for college, and started his studies at Central Wesleyan College in Warrenton, Missouri.

In 1920, Lutz found a job at the Swiss Legation in Washington, DC. He continued his education there at George Washington University, where he received a bachelor’s degree in 1924. During his time in Washington, DC, Lutz lived in Dupont Circle. He continued to work for the Swiss Legation.

Diplomatic career

In 1926 Lutz was appointed as chancellor at the Swiss Consulate in Philadelphia. He next was assigned to the Swiss Consulate in St. Louis, and served in total from 1926 to 1934 in the two cities.

In 1934 Lutz left the United States after more than 20 years. He was assigned as vice-consul to the Swiss Consulate General in Jaffa, in what was then Palestine. He served there until 1942.

Carl Lutz memorial in Budapest, Hungary

Actions during World War II

Appointed in 1942 as Swiss vice-consul in Budapest, Hungary, Lutz soon began cooperating with the Jewish Agency for Palestine. He issued Swiss safe-conduct documents that enabled almost 10,000 Hungarian Jewish children to emigrate.

Once the Nazis took over Budapest in 1944, they began deporting Jews to the death camps. Lutz negotiated a special deal with the Hungarian government and the Nazis. He gained permission to issue protective letters to 8,000 Hungarian Jews for emigration to Palestine.

Lutz deliberately used his permission for 8,000 as applying to families rather than individuals, and proceeded to issue tens of thousands of additional protective letters, all of them bearing a number between one and 8,000. He also set up some 76 "safe houses" around Budapest, declaring them annexes of the Swiss legation and thus off-limits to Hungarian forces or Nazi soldiers. Among the safe houses was the now well-known "Glass House" (Üvegház) at Vadász Street 29. About 3,000 Hungarian Jews found refuge at the Glass House and in a neighboring building.

Together with other diplomats of neutral countries, such as Raoul Wallenberg, appointed at the Swedish embassy; Angelo Rotta, the Apostolic nuncio of the Vatican; Angel Sanz Briz, the Spanish Minister; later followed by Giorgio Perlasca, an Italian businessman working at the Spanish embassy; and Friedrich Born, the Swiss delegate of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Lutz worked relentlessly for many months to prevent the planned deaths of innocent people. He and his colleagues dodged the actions of their German and Hungarian counterparts. Thanks to his diplomatic skills, Lutz succeeded in persuading Hungarian and Nazi-German officials, among them Adolf Eichmann, to tolerate, at least in part, his formal protection of Hungarian Jews.

The Swiss Minister, Maximilian Jaeger, supported Lutz thoroughly until his departure at his government orders as the Soviet Army approached. In the last weeks before the Red Army took the city, Lutz was greatly helped by Harald Feller, who took over responsibility of the Swiss legation after Jaeger's departure. Lutz's wife Trudi notably played a central supporting role during the whole period of her husband's activities in Budapest.

Lutz died in Bern, Switzerland, in 1975.

Legacy and honors

Lutz saved the lives of tens of thousands of people. As in the case of Paul Grüninger, however, his achievements were not immediately recognized in Switzerland. Soon after the war, he had first been criticized by the government for having exceeded his authority, as officials were fearful of endangering Switzerland's neutral status. In 1958, as part of Swiss national rethinking of the war years, Lutz was "rehabilitated" in terms of public reputation, and his achievements were honored.

• 1963 a street in Haifa, Israel was named after him.
• 1964, Lutz was the first Swiss national named to the list of “Righteous Among the Nations” by Yad Vashem, the Jewish people’s memorial to the Holocaust.
• 1991, a memorial to him was erected at the entrance to the old Budapest ghetto (see photo).

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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.

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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.

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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.”