Lutz Carl & Gertrud

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 theBritish 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.