The US Congressional Gold Medal was awarded to 60 diplomats who were rescuing Jews during the Second World War - Instytut Pileckiego
16.12.2024 (Mon)
The US Congressional Gold Medal was awarded to 60 diplomats who were rescuing Jews during the Second World War
President Joe Biden signed the act into law. Among the Forgotten Heroes of the Holocaust are members of the Ładoś Group.
On 11 June 2024, the US House of Representatives voted in favor of the act awarding a Congressional Gold Medal to foreign diplomats. The bill was then unanimously passed by the Senate on 27 September and signed by the president on 12 December.
The Congressional Gold Medal is the highest civilian award in the United States, alongside the Presidential Medal of Freedom, that was first awarded in 1776.
[…] These diplomats used every means at their disposal to help Jews fleeing persecution. One of the most powerful tools the diplomats had to use was the issuing of passports and travel visas contrary to the instruction of the governments of the diplomats. This process alone is responsible for saving hundreds of thousands of Jewish families in Europe, the Act reads.
The Congressional Gold Medal authorized under this Act will help remind humanity that when the diplomats were faced with terrible crises, they went beyond the fold, including risking their careers and the lives of themselves and their families, to engage in this humanitarian mission. The diplomats of today and future generations can look towards these heroes and be inspired by their lives of heroism and sacrifice.
Full text of the Act can be found at the following link:
Among the 60 diplomats honored with the Congressional Gold Medal are members of the Ładoś Group – an informal group of Polish diplomats from the Polish Legation in Bern, Switzerland and activists of Jewish organizations, who worked together to rescue European Jews from the Holocaust. The Ładoś Group comprised: Aleksander Ładoś, Poland’s de facto Ambassador to Switzerland; Stefan Ryniewicz, his deputy; and consuls Konstanty Rokicki and Juliusz Kühl.
The commemoration of several dozen diplomats who were rescuing Jews during the Second World War, including Poles from the Ładoś Group, is a well-deserved – albeit late – recognition of their commitment, sense of duty and willingness to rescue the persecuted and doomed to imminent death, says Prof. Krzysztof Ruchniewicz, Director of the Pilecki Institute. We have to realize that such acts were few and far between, that it took courage and ingenuity to conduct rescue operations, and that it would be impossible without close cooperation between the diplomats and Jewish organizations. The honored persons can be viewed as paragons of fair and honest behaviors resulting from human compassion and the rejection of evil.
The Pilecki Institute has been conducting research among others on the rescue of European Jews from the Holocaust. In 2019, a scholarly publication titled The Ładoś List (eds. Jakub Kumoch, Monika Maniewska, Jędrzej Uszyński and Bartłomiej Zygmunt) was published in cooperation with Polish and foreign partners. The English-language edition was published under the patronage of the World Jewish Congress.
Since 2021, The Ładoś List has been available online. Link:
www.paszportyzycia.pl (http://passportsforlife.pl/, http://reisepassedeslebens.pl/).
It is worth adding that in December 2024, The Ładoś List was published in the Holocaust Survivor and Victim Names database – one of the largest databases documenting the fate of victims and survivors of the Holocaust created by the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. Link:
https://www.ushmm.org/online/hsv/source_view.php?SourceId=50735
More information about in-depth research (publications) and popularization activities (exhibitions) of the Pilecki Institute concerning the rescue efforts undertaken by the Polish diplomats and their Jewish partners can be found at www.instytutpileckiego.pl
Full list of diplomats honored with the US Congressional Gold Medal:
Per Anger (Sweden), Jose Maria Barreto Bustíos (Peru), Lars Berg (Sweden), Philippe Bernardini (Vatican/Italy), Hiram (Harry) Bingham IV (United States), Friedrich Born (Switzerland), Gilberto Bosques Saldivar (Mexico), Carlos de Liz-Texeira Branquinho (Portugal), Samuel del Campo (Chile), Aracy de Carvalho Guimarães Rosa (Brazil), Jose Arturo Castellanos Contreras (El Salvador), Carl Ivan Danielsson (Sweden), Luis Martins de Souza Dantas (Brazil), Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz (Germany), Harald Feller (Switzerland), Francis (Frank) Foley (United Kingdom), Jean-Edouard Friedrich (Switzerland), Carlos Almeida Afonseca de Sampaio Garrido (Portugal), Raymond Herman Geist (United States), Feng-Shan Ho (Republic of China), Constantin Karadja (Romania), Alexander Kasser (Sandor Kasza) (Sweden), Elow Kihlgren (Sweden), Joseph Willem (Joop) Kolkman (Netherlands), Julius Kuhl (Poland), Aleksander Łados (Poland), Valdemar Langlet (Sweden), Charles (Carl) Lutz (Switzerland), George Mandel-Mantello (El Salvador), Florian Manoliu (Romania), Manuel Antonio Muñoz Borrero (Ecuador), Salomon Jacob (Sally) Noach (Netherlands), Giorgio (Jorge) Perlasca (Spain/Italy), Ernst Prodolliet (Switzerland), Eduardo Propper de Callejon (Spain), Franjo Puncuch (Yugoslavia/Slovenia), Konstanty Rokicki (Poland), Sebastian de Romero Radigales (Spain), Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli (Vatican/Italy), Angelo Rotta (Vatican/Italy), Albert Emile Routier (Turkey/France), Jose Ruiz Santaella (Spain), Stefan Ryniewicz (Poland), Angel Sanz-Briz (Spain), Abdol-Hossein Sardari (Iran), Henryk Slawik (Poland), Robert Smallbones (United Kingdom), Aristides de Sousa Mendes (Portugal), Jan Spisiak (Slovakia), Chiune (Sempo) Sugihara (Japan), Ireanaeus Typaldos (Spain), Alexander (Sandor) Ujvary (Vatican/Hungary), Selahattin Ulkumen (Turkey), Gennaro Verolino (Vatican/Italy), Vladimir Vochoc (Czech Republic), Ernst Vonrufs (Switzerland), Raoul Wallenberg (Sweden), Guelfo Zamboni (Italy), Peter Zurcher (Switzerland), and Jan Zwartendijk (Netherlands).
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