Protective Pass issued to a Jew, Laszlo Kendrean, by the Swiss Legation in Budapest, with autograph signature of <<Carl Lutz.>>
AUCTION 83 |
Thursday, June 20th,
2019 at 1:00pm
Printed Books, Manuscripts, Autograph Letters, Holy Land Maps, Ceremonial Objects, Fine & Graphic Art
Lot 77
(HOLOCAUST).
Protective Pass issued to a Jew, Laszlo Kendrean, by the Swiss Legation in Budapest, with autograph signature of <<Carl Lutz.>>
Budapest: 4th December 1944
Est: $2,000 - $3,000
PRICE REALIZED $2,000
Original protective pass issued by the Swiss Embassy’s Department of Foreign Interests in Budapest, led by Carl Lutz.
Once the Nazis took over Budapest in 1944, they immediately began deporting Jews to Auschwitz. Consul Lutz negotiated a deal with both the Hungarian government and the Nazis and gained permission to issue protective letters to 8,000 Hungarian Jews for emigration to Palestine. Yet he went further, deliberately using his permission for 8,000 as applying to families rather than individuals, and so proceeded to issue tens of thousands of additional protective letters. He also set up some 75 “safe houses” throughout Budapest, declaring them annexes of the Swiss legation and thus off-limits to Hungarian forces or Nazi soldiers.
In 1965 Lutz was the first Swiss national honored by Yad Vashem as one of the “Righteous Among the Nations.”