Hans Schaffert

Hans Schaffert (born June 22, 1918 in Bühler ; † July 24, 2003 in Kilchberg ZH ) was a Swiss Evangelical Reformed clergyman.

Life

family

Hans Schaffert was the son of the teacher Hans Otto Schaffert and his wife Helene (née Schläpfer). His first marriage to Cécile (née Banyai) since 1947 and his second marriage to Eva Berta (née Evard) since 1978.

Activities during the Second World War

During a semester abroad in Clermont-Ferrand in 1942, while studying theology, Hans Schaffert was asked to represent the French pastor of the Protestant community in the Gurs deportation camp in the Basses Pyrénées department . He stayed there for three months and witnessed the first deportations to the Auschwitz concentration camp and spontaneously helped six young men escape to Spain . After his return to Switzerland, he wrote a report on the camp and addressed it to the President of the Federation of Swiss Evangelical Churches , Alphons Koechlin (1885–1965), who passed the report on to Federal Councilor Eduard von Steiger ; he also passed the report on to Paul Vogt , his later boss in the refugee pastoral office, and to the theologian Karl Barth . The politician Arthur Frey also got the report leaked and published it anonymously . The publication led to a protest by the President of the French Evangelical Church Federation, Marc Boegner , at Marshal Philippe Pétain .

After his ordination , Hans Schaffert, together with the German pastor Kurt Lehmann (1892–1963), worked for Paul Vogt from 1943 to 1945 in the refugee pastoral office in Zurich , which is run by the Swiss Evangelical Church Federation, the Evangelical Reformed Church of the Canton of Zurich and from Swiss ecclesiastical aid committee for evangelical refugees had been set up. In 1944 they received protocols from George Mandel-Mantello from Budapest on the deportation of Jews to Auschwitz and, together with Rabbi Zwi Taubes , campaigned for the publication of these documents in July 1944.

In a nightly action from July 3rd to 4th 1944, he and Paul Vogt copied 2,000 copies of the protocol and then sent them. The publication of the so-called Auschwitz Protocol by the fled concentration camp prisoners Rudolf Vrba and Alfréd Wetzler caused a worldwide response and increased public pressure on the great powers . In 1989 Georg Mantello thanked Hans Schaffert for his commitment “as one of the main participants in the rescue of 150,000 Jews in Budapest during the Holocaust”.

Activities from 1945

From 1945 to 1953 Hans Schaffert was pastor in Lille, France . The community entrusted him with the pastoral care of over 200 prisoners of war classified as criminal; among them were about 40 women. He hesitantly accepted the mandate to preach the gospel to the tormentors of the victims of Gurs who were close to him . Even the many people sentenced to life in prison or sentenced to death, who initially rejected the "Jewish priest", were ultimately grateful for his support. Before completing his nine-year stay, he asked President René Coty for a pardon for nine convicts, who were granted it.

From 1954 to 1961 he was pastor in Leysin before he began in 1962 to set up an aid agency in the Belgian Congo and to coordinate ecumenical aid on behalf of the World Council of Churches . From 1968 until his retirement in 1984 he was the central secretary of the Aid Organization of the Evangelical Churches of Switzerland (HEKS) in Zurich.

Writing

Hans Schaffert published, among other things, a study on Johann Heinrich Heidegger (1633–1698), whose house seems to have been the headquarters for news about the persecution of Evangelicals in Hungary. For the 40th anniversary of HEKS, he wrote a brochure in 1986 under the title On the way with people who are below . In Shalom Israel , he condemned the invasion of Lebanon by the Israeli army, for which he was subsequently accused of anti-Semitism .

honors and awards

In 1967 the Yad Vashem Holocaust Foundation honored Hans Schaffert as Righteous Among the Nations .

In 1975 the University of Debrecen appointed him Dr. theol. hc

Fonts (selection)

with Oscar Cullmann : The first Christian creeds. Evangelischer Verlag, Zollikon-Zurich 1949.
You are my witnesses. Zurich 1969.
... to the end of the earth. 1970.
God has no other hands than yours. Zurich 1971.
Knowing your destination means looking for ways. Zurich 1972.
I you we. Zurich 1974.
Gospel - the end of the world: word - answer - contradiction. Zurich 1974.
Johann Heinrich Heidegger: July 1, 1633-18. January 1698: Professor of theology, protector of the Hungarian preachers: an ecumenical figure in Zurich. Zurich 1975.
Bricks carry stones on the scaffolding. Aid Organization of the Evangelical Churches in Switzerland, Zurich 1976.
I plant it anyway, today. Aid Organization of the Evangelical Churches in Switzerland, Zurich 1976.
What we give, we have received. Aid organization of the Evangelical Churches in Switzerland, Zurich 1977.
Recognizing, recognizing, crossing borders ... Aid Organization of the Evangelical Churches of Switzerland, Zurich 1979.
Five loaves of bread, two fish. Aid Organization of the Evangelical Churches in Switzerland, Zurich 1980.
Of bridges and barricades. Aid Organization of the Evangelical Churches in Switzerland, Zurich 1981.
Shalom Israel. In: HEKS Nachrichten. July / August 1982.
... And yet she is moving. Aid Organization of the Evangelical Churches in Switzerland, Zurich 1982.
40 years of HEKS: 1946–1986 - 40 stories. Aid Organization of the Evangelical Churches in Switzerland, Zurich 1986.

Web links

Martin Sallmann : Hans Schaffert. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .

Individual evidence

↑ In the service of persecuted and needy people. Neue Zürcher Zeitung , accessed on May 20, 2020 .
^ Hermann Kocher: Koechlin, Alphons. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
^ Michael Beintker , Christian Link, Michael Trowitzsch : Karl Barth in contemporary European events (1935-1950): Resistance - Probation - Orientation. Contributions to the International Symposium from May 1st to 4th, 2008 in the Johannes a Lasco Library Emden . Theological Verlag Zurich, 2010, ISBN 978-3-290-17531-3 ( google.de [accessed on May 20, 2020]).
↑ Heinrich Rusterholz : “… as if our neighbour's house wasn't on fire”: long subtitle . Theological Verlag Zürich, 2015, ISBN 978-3-290-17712-6 ( google.de [accessed on May 20, 2020]).
↑ Albrecht Ernst, Thomas K. Kuhn , Udo Wennemuth: Yearbook for Baden Church and Religious History 2 . W. Kohlhammer Verlag, 2007, ISBN 978-3-17-020573-4 ( google.de [accessed on May 20, 2020]).
↑ Michael Baumann: Petrus Martyr Vermigli in Zurich (1556–1562): This little Kylchen in the holy gschrifft professor and läser . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2016, ISBN 978-3-647-55099-2 ( google.de [accessed on May 20, 2020]).

personal data
SURNAME	Schaffert, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Swiss Protestant clergyman
DATE OF BIRTH	June 22, 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH	Buhler
DATE OF DEATH	July 24, 2003
Place of death	Kilchberg , Canton of Zurich

[1] In the service of persecuted and needy people. Neue Zürcher Zeitung , accessed on May 20, 2020 .

[2] Hermann Kocher: Koechlin, Alphons. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .

[3] Michael Beintker , Christian Link, Michael Trowitzsch : Karl Barth in contemporary European events (1935-1950): Resistance - Probation - Orientation. Contributions to the International Symposium from May 1st to 4th, 2008 in the Johannes a Lasco Library Emden . Theological Verlag Zurich, 2010, ISBN 978-3-290-17531-3 ( google.de [accessed on May 20, 2020]).

[4] Heinrich Rusterholz : “… as if our neighbour's house wasn't on fire”: long subtitle . Theological Verlag Zürich, 2015, ISBN 978-3-290-17712-6 ( google.de [accessed on May 20, 2020]).

[5] Albrecht Ernst, Thomas K. Kuhn , Udo Wennemuth: Yearbook for Baden Church and Religious History 2 . W. Kohlhammer Verlag, 2007, ISBN 978-3-17-020573-4 ( google.de [accessed on May 20, 2020]).

[6] Michael Baumann: Petrus Martyr Vermigli in Zurich (1556–1562): This little Kylchen in the holy gschrifft professor and läser . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2016, ISBN 978-3-647-55099-2 ( google.de [accessed on May 20, 2020]).