Letter of Protection (“Oltalomlevel”) issued to a Hungarian Jew, Dr. Farago Gyorgy and signed by the Apostolic Nuncio in Budapest, Monsignor Angelo Rotta.

(HOLOCAUST).

15th November

Budapest

1944

Single printed page with typed entries and autograph signature.

Original protective pass granted by the Pope’s representative to Budapest. The campaign for the Church to issue passes to Jews under threat was led by Monsignor Angelo Rotta (1872-1965) the Papal Nuncio in Budapest, who was the first Vatican representative to denounce in an open forum Nazi aggression against the Jews. More significantly Rotta succeeded in persuading Pope Pius XII to issue protective-passes to Jews who had converted to Catholicism - although he instructed his Budapest office to overlook the religious identity of anyone applying for such a pass - hence the large number of Jews saved by this man. In 1997 Rotta was posthumously honored by Yad Vashem as one of the Righteous Among the Nations for being instrumental in saving some 15,000 Hungarian Jews.