Canadians want Swiss diplomat honoured for saving Hungarian Jews

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Published: 31 May 2018

Last updated: 4 March 2024

ON NEW YEAR'S Eve 1944, six-year-old Andras Spiegel watched as Nazi troops stormed the former glass factory where he, his parents and 2,000 other Jews had taken shelter in Budapest.

They were all marched outside, lined up and told to hold their hands in the air. They stayed there for three hours until a man in a foreign diplomat's car arrived. The man argued with the soldiers and soon Spiegel and the others were allowed back inside, but not before some had been killed. Spiegel, who is now known as Andrew Simon, recalled seeing three dead bodies.

Historical accounts credit Lutz with saving between 40,000 and 60,000 Jews.

FULL STORY ‘I thank him for my own life': Swiss diplomat used legal ruse to save tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews (CBC)

Photo: Carl Lutz (Archives of Contemporary History/ETH Zurich)