Harald Feller (diplomat)

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Harald Feller (born January 14, 1913 in Bern , † December 28, 2003 ) was a Swiss diplomat who saved Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust .

Life

Harald Feller was the son of the Swiss historian Richard Feller . During his student days he joined the Swiss Zofingerverein .

From the end of 1944 he represented Maximilian Jaeger , the Swiss envoy in Budapest , Hungary, as chargé d'affaires . He supported Carl Lutz in the rescue of Jews under Swiss protection. Feller worked closely with the other neutral embassies to bring about an end to the persecution and deportation of the Jews with constant pressure on the Horthy and Sztójay governments . Feller protected members of the Swedish legation who were the target group of the Arrow Cross by providing them with fake Swiss passports and accommodation. Towards the end of the war, Feller hid dozens of Jews in the basement of his consular residence in Budapest. In February 1945 the Soviets arrested Feller and another employee of the Swiss legation and sent them to Moscow , along with other Swiss nationals . Both were brought back in February 1946 in exchange for two pilots who crashed in Switzerland.

He received the Righteous Among the Nations award from Yad Vashem in 1999 .

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Success with late revenge. In: The Bund . January 14, 2003.
  2. ↑ He was an original. In: The Bund . December 30, 2003.
  3. ↑ Schweizerischer Zofingerverein, Schweizerischer Altzofingerverein (Ed.): List of Members 1997. Zofingen 1997, p. 31. (Available in the Swiss National Library , call number SWR 1338.)
  4. ↑ Harald Feller on the website of Yad Vashem (English)
personal data
SURNAME Feller, Harald
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH January 14, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Bern
DATE OF DEATH December 28, 2003