The forgotten Swiss diplomat who rescued thousands from Holocaust [View all]

[muriel_volestrangler]

A Swiss diplomat has been credited with leading the largest civilian rescue operation of World War Two. But instead of being applauded for saving thousands of Jewish lives, he was reprimanded and - until recently - largely forgotten, as the BBC's Imogen Foulkes reports.
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But to save Budapest's Jews, Lutz needed to go further. He persuaded the Germans to let him issue diplomatic letters of protection, 8,000 of them.

He then applied the letters not to individuals, as the Germans had intended, but to entire families. And once he reached 7,999, he simply started again at number 1, hoping the Nazis would not notice the duplication.

Historians estimate the letters saved up to 62,000 people.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-42400765

And he set up 76 safe houses. What a man.