Ernest Prodolliet (diplomat)

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Ernest Prodolliet (born November 14, 1905 in Amriswil , † November 8, 1984 in Amriswil ) was a Swiss diplomat .

Prodolliet worked as Chancellor of the Swiss representation in Saint Louis in 1938 and during his vacation stay in Switzerland had been asked whether he would interrupt his vacation because many Jews from Austria had fled to Switzerland after the annexation of Austria to the German Reich. Prodolliet was used in the consular agency in Bregenz . There he issued several hundred entry and transit visas illegally and without being noticed.

The transit of refugees through Switzerland was organized by Recha Sternbuch and Gusty Bornstein-Fink and their husband Hermann Bornstein. Around 450 people reached the ship Aghia Zioni , which sailed from Fiume, Italy to Palestine in March 1939 , including a group from Gailingen .

The approximate number of visas issued could not be determined when Prodolliet was picked up while crossing the border with refugees, he told the Swiss immigration police that there were over 5,000 Jews in his office . His superior, the head of the consulate Carl Bitz , had already complained to his superiors in Bern about these activities and demanded that Prodolliet be dismissed.

Prodolliet was punished with a severe reprimand for the breach of official duty. His return to the USA and his career were rendered obsolete by a disciplinary transfer to Amsterdam . During the Second World War , he took hundreds of Jews from deportation trains there.

He later became consul in Besançon .

In 1982 he was admitted to the Israeli Yad Vashem Memorial among the Righteous Among the Nations .

literature

  • Frank Zeller: Ernest Prodolliet: a diplomat in the service of humanity. Master's thesis under the supervision of Jacques Picard . University of Basel, 2007.
  • Necrology for Ernest Prodolliet. In: Thurgauer Jahrbuch , Vol. 61, 1986, p. 193. ( e-periodica.ch )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Tapes of interviews from the Archives for Contemporary History at ETH Zurich with G. Bornstein-Fink and her husband Hermann Bornstein
  2. ↑ a b Jörg Krummenacher: Over 5000 Jews in the Limiter Pass Office , in: NZZ , June 10, 2017, p. 30
  3. ↑ Simone Prodolliet in: It was a matter of course that I had to act. There was no official channel. , P. 86.
  4. ↑ Only caught are known , LAT, 1, September 2005
  5. ^ Ernst Prodolliet and the ship to Palestine , NZZ, October 10, 2016
  6. ↑ Mordecai Paldiel : Diplomat Heroes of the Holocaust. KTAV Publishing House, 2007, pp. 35-38. ISBN 9780881259094
  7. ↑ Ernest Prodolliet on the Yad Vashem website (English)
personal data
SURNAME Prodolliet, Ernest
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH November 14, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Amriswil
DATE OF DEATH November 8, 1984
Place of death Amriswil