Letter of Protection (“Oltalomlevel”) issued to a Zsofia Gero, wife of Sandor Geleji. Signed by the Apostolic Nuncio in Budapest, Monsignor Angelo Rotta.

(HOLOCAUST).

10th 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 protect 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. In 1997 Rotta was posthumously honored by Yad Vashem as one of the “Righteous Among the Nations.”