Friedrich Born

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Friedrich Born (born June 10, 1903 in Langenthal ; † January 14, 1963 in Zollikofen ) was a Swiss economic diplomat. From May 1944 to January 1945 he was a delegate for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Budapest . He supported the Jewish population there by building hospitals, children's and orphanages and people's kitchens, as well as issuing protective papers . Through his activities he saved about 11,000 to 15,000 Hungarian Jews from deportation . On June 5, 1987, he was as Righteous Among the Nations in the Israeli Holocaust -Gedenkstätte Yad Vashem added.

Life

Family, education and work

Friedrich Born was born on June 10, 1903 in Langenthal as the son of Johann Born. After graduating from school, he first trained as a mechanic and then did a commercial apprenticeship. He then worked in Lausanne and Antwerp as well as in a Zurich import company. In 1936 he was appointed head of a grain import business in Budapest . Until he started working for the ICRC, he was also in Budapest for the Swiss headquarters for trade promotion.

Born was married to Maria Zaugg.

Activity for the ICRC

The ICRC delegation in Budapest has been headed by Jean de Bavier since it was established in October 1943. He recognized at an early stage the dangers that the 800,000 Jews living in Hungary faced in the course of the German occupation . On February 18, 1944, he therefore sent a corresponding report to the ICRC in Geneva. The ICRC was initially of the opinion that a distinction had to be made between Jews of foreign nationality, who were to be treated as civilian internees , and Jews of Hungarian nationality, whose treatment was exclusively an internal matter for Hungary. Jean de Bavier then suggested on March 27 that ICRC President Max Huber should intervene personally with Adolf Hitler . In a reply from the ICRC on March 30th, he was informed that this proposal was being examined but that he should not take any further steps on his own initiative until further instructions were received.

Why Jean de Bavier was ultimately dismissed from his position by the ICRC has never been revealed, as has the reasons for choosing Friedrich Born as his successor. It seems likely that, in addition to the fact that Born was already there, the good contacts he had with influential families and diplomatic circles in Hungary, which resulted from his work, played just as much a role as the fact that he spoke Hungarian as well as German and French. On May 10, 1944, Friedrich Born, who was completely inexperienced in practical Red Cross work, took over the leadership of the ICRC delegation in Budapest as a delegate. Like Jean de Bavier, he repeatedly asked the ICRC to expand its own powers of action as well as for official initiatives by the committee in favor of the Jewish population in Hungary. To support the work of his delegation, he mainly employed Jews, for whom he also assured the local authorities that they did not have to wear a yellow star. He carried out his more far-reaching initiatives without the express mandate or approval of the ICRC, but informed the committee of his activities.

He set up hospitals, children's and orphanages and people's kitchens for the Hungarian Jews and placed these facilities under the protection of the Red Cross. Approx. 7000 to 8000 children could be cared for in the approx. 60 children's and orphanages alone. The ICRC also gave him the authority to issue protective papers for the people affected. He also worked with the consular missions of Latin American countries in Switzerland to enable other Hungarian Jews to be protected from reprisals and deportation by the Nazis by issuing immigration papers from these countries. After the establishment of the Budapest ghetto, he moved into his office there.

He was unable to prevent most of the deportations through his efforts. However, he managed to stop the evacuation of the last convoys, which saved the lives of around 7,500 people. Another 3,000 to 4,000 Hungarian Jews escaped being transported to the extermination camps because they worked for the ICRC delegation. The total number of Jews rescued by Friedrich Born is estimated at around 11,000 to 15,000.

Life after World War II

In January 1945, after the invasion of the Red Army , he had to leave Hungary on the orders of the Soviet military authorities. His mission for the ICRC ended on September 9, 1945. He subsequently founded his own import-export company and lived in Zollikofen near Bern.

Friedrich Born died on January 14, 1963 without ever telling his children about his activities for the Jewish population in Hungary. On June 5, 1987, he was posthumously awarded the honorary title “Righteous Among the Nations” at the Israeli Holocaust Memorial Yad Vashem.

Since 2010 part of the promenade along the Danube in Budapest has borne his name; In May 2011, two rooms were opened in the so-called rock hospital (facility inside the Buda Castle Hill), which are dedicated to him and the ICRC delegation.

literature

  • Friedrich Born: Report to the International Committee of the Red Cross by Friedrich Born, Delegate for Hungary, June 1945. In the Swiss Federal Archives, Bern.
  • Jean-Claude Favez, Genevieve Billeter (ed.): The International Red Cross and the Third Reich. Could the Holocaust be stopped? Bertelsmann Verlag, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-57-009324-7 .
  • André Durand : History of the International Committee of the Red Cross. Volume II: From Sarajevo to Hiroshima. Henry Dunant Institute, Geneva 1984, ISBN 2-88-044009-2 .
  • Arieh Ben-Tov: Facing the Holocaust in Budapest: The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Jews in Hungary, 1943–1945. Brill Academic Publishers Inc., Boston 1988, ISBN 9-02-473764-8 .
  • Caroline Moorehead : Dunant's dream: War, Switzerland and the history of the Red Cross. HarperCollins, London 1998, ISBN 0-00-255141-1 (hardcover); HarperCollins, London 1999, ISBN 0-00-638883-3 (paperback edition).
  • The Red Cross Official Who Knew No Fear. Friedrich Born. In: Meir Wagner, Moshe Meisels, Andreas C. Fischer (Ed.), Graham Buik (Ed.): The Righteous of Switzerland: Heroes of the Holocaust. Ktav Publishing House, Jersey City, NJ 2000, ISBN 0-88-125698-6 , pp. 195-204.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Friedrich Born on the website of Yad Vashem (English)
personal data
SURNAME Born, Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH June 10, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Langenthal
DATE OF DEATH January 14, 1963
Place of death Zollikofen