Page 56 of The Righteous
IT WAS A few days later when Carl summoned his staff to the conference room.
The staff numbered thirteen, including Julia and Theresa, of course.
Raoul was present as well. “I have some disturbing news today,” Carl said.
“The Germans have discharged Miklós Horthy and removed him from his position as regent. He has been stripped of all his powers. In his place, the Germans have appointed the Hungarian Arrow Cross Party to run the country. Identifying itself as the Hungarian National Socialist Party, it is in fact a far-right Fascist party beholden to Eichmann and Hitler. It sides with the Germans in all things and is extremely antisemitic. Ferenc Szálasi is to be the prime minister. It didn’t take but a few hours for him to issue an order to begin rounding up Jews and holding them in close quarters until he can arrange to ship them north.
I’m afraid that things are going from bad to worse. ”
“I thought the Hungarians were the only ones capable of operating the transit system to Auschwitz,” said Julia. “That’s what we were told. That is why it was so effective for Horthy to order a stoppage.”
“Horthy is gone,” Carl said, “but the Arrow Cross Party is made up of Hungarians. I don’t know how many trainloads they are planning, but I saw them leading groups of captives in single file out of town. They were heading west, toward Austria.”
“So it is more important than ever to pass out the passports, the citizenship papers, and protection letters,” Raoul said.
“The letters and passports are wonderful, and so far, they’re working,” said Julia.
“When people get stopped and they produce a letter, they are detained for a moment and then released. Until the next time. But that’s not the solution.
Getting these people out of the country and away from the Nazi murderers is the only guarantee of safety.
Ira Hirschmann took eight thousand people south through Romania to the sea, through Turkey, and then to Palestine.
Now they can lead a life without fear. Ira was the WRB’s representative to Romania at one time.
That’s why he didn’t have a problem. Don’t we have a contact in Romania now who could arrange for us to take refugees through? ”
“If you are talking about the Romanian diplomat Florian Manoliu, he lives here in Budapest, and he is a friend,” Carl said.
“Couldn’t he arrange for us to lead groups through Romania? Especially if the group had Swedish or Salvadoran IDs?”
Carl nodded. “I don’t know why not. You would still need someone to assemble and manage the group and a staff to lead them on that pilgrimage.
I’ll talk to Florian. But you are a hundred percent right when you said that the Germans, with the help of the Arrow Cross Party, want to eliminate all the Jews.
The writing is on the wall. The only answer is to get them all valid IDs or, better yet, lead them out of the country.
And time is not on our side. We must move quickly.
” He looked at Julia and Theresa. “I need you two to work on passes this afternoon. There are a number of blank Swiss letters of protection. They may not be genuine, but they are dead look-alikes. And they bear the numbers one to eight thousand, just like the originals. When viewed in the field, one at a time, who can tell the difference? They must be made to appear authentic with signatures and stamps. The markers and tools for making the letters are in the drawers.”
“Yes, sir,” they said.
LATER THAT AFTERNOON, while Julia and Theresa were working on the letters, Martin and Carl came into the office.
“Give us all of the letters and passports you can right now,” Carl said.
“Give the Swiss letters to me and the Salvadoran letters to Martin. There is a line of Jewish prisoners being marched on foot toward Austria by Hungarian soldiers with rifles. It’s an Arrow Cross death march.
They are no doubt on their way to trucks or trains that will take them to the Mauthausen concentration camp. ”
Julia and Theresa packaged the letters and certificates and handed them to Carl, Martin, Paul, and another staff member. “Where are you taking these letters?” Theresa asked.
“We are going to drive out to where they are marching and pass them out to the prisoners. Paul, Martin, and I are taking our cars.” He looked at Theresa. “Do you want to come? We could use the help. You can ride with us.”
Theresa was shocked. “You are going to hand out letters to prisoners on a death march, even though the letters are fake and don’t come from Switzerland?”
“Yes. Do you want to come? If you do, hop in the car.”
The group drove out toward the west sections of Hungary.
The cars had insignias plastered on the doors that identified them as owned and operated by Switzerland, and each of the staff members wore a red vest with a Swiss insignia in the middle.
After forty minutes, they saw the end of the line on the trail.
There were men, women, and even children being forced to walk thirty miles or more.
If they fell or could not walk any farther, they were shot.
When they reached the line, they parked the cars on the side of the road in the grass, and the staff members, including Julia and Theresa, quickly exited and walked directly toward the line.
They saw the guards, but ignored them as they were told to do.
The guards shouted at them to leave, that they had no business interfering with Hungary’s right to manage their prisoners.
Carl walked forward, sticking out his chest. “You are the ones who have no right!” he yelled.
“They are diplomatically immune. They are Swiss citizens. You are violating international law, and we will report you immediately to your leader, Heinrich Himmler, Reichsführer of the Schutzstaffel, commander of the SS! It is you who will be arrested and thrown into prison if you interfere with our right to protect our Swiss citizens.”
One of the guards countered with, “How are we supposed to know? They’re wearing their yellow stars.”
Julia, Theresa, and Carl’s staff members were quickly handing out letters of protection to people in the line, to fathers and mothers, saying, “You are a Swiss citizen, and this letter proves it. It applies to your entire family. The Germans cannot order you around. Neither can the Arrow Cross. Take off that star; they must let you go free. Come with us.” They passed them out until there were no letters left, gesturing for the captives to follow and walk in the opposite direction.
“If the guards come over here to challenge you, wave that letter at them. The guards will know you are protected.”
“You know, that doesn’t always work,” Martin whispered to Theresa.
“The other day, Nathan Ashburg was stopped by the Arrow Cross. He pulled out his Swiss letter of protection and showed it to them. One of the Arrow Cross grabbed it and tore it into pieces, saying, ‘What letter?’ Then they arrested Nathan and took him away. No one has seen him since. They don’t know where he is.
” Martin grimaced with tight lips. “I’m just saying that the letters work with the SS, but when it comes to the Arrow Cross, you can’t count on them. They don’t give a damn.”
Some of the guards looked at the letters, talked to one another, showed them to a superior, and handed them back. Those with letters were allowed to walk with Carl’s staff members back toward Budapest.
“I wish we had more letters,” Theresa said.
“Then let’s head back to the embassy,” Julia said.
Theresa and Julia were busy creating more Swiss letters of protection with numbers between one and eight thousand when a staff member notified Theresa that her mother was in the vestibule.
“My mother!” Theresa shrieked, jumped out of her chair, and darted to the entrance hall.
There stood Greta Weissbach, and she was upset.
“Terri, Terri, the Arrow people were just at the house! They demanded to see Apa, but he wasn’t there.
I said he was at the synagogue, but they said no.
Then he might be at the hospital, I said.
They were nasty people, Terri, and one of them grabbed my arm.
‘You come with us until we meet with Dr. Weissbach.’ He started to pull me toward the door.
Althea started barking at him, and another Arrow said, ‘Take the dog instead.’ Then he talked right into my face with his terrible breath and said, ‘You tell your husband that he can pick up the dog at the station. If he doesn’t show, we’ll come back for you.
’ They threw a rope around Althea and left. ”
“Did they say what they wanted with Apa? Did they tell you the reason?”
Greta shook her head. I heard one of them say, “He’s a leader of his people. If we take him, others will follow without question.”
That afternoon, Carl, Martin, Julia, and Theresa walked to 60 Andrássy Avenue and requested an audience with Ferenc Szálasi, the leader of the ruling Arrow Cross Party. “Well, well, Mr. Ambassador, to what do we owe the pleasure?” Szálasi said.
“Two of your militiamen appeared at a Swiss residence today and demanded to see a resident, also covered by a Swiss letter of protection. When he was not at home, they took the family’s dog.
This is a flagrant disregard of Swiss diplomatic immunity.
That immunity is guaranteed to us by Herr Hitler and Herr Himmler.
Even Herr Eichmann respects the independence of Switzerland and those under its protection.
I would hate to tell them it is being disregarded. I am due to meet with them next week.”
“Oh, most honorable Swiss ambassador, I wouldn’t dream of violating our sacred treaties.
My men and I both understood that Dr. Weissbach has a Jude shield on his front door and he wears a Jewish star on his clothes.
We saw no Swiss shields, and there is no Swiss marking on his person.
You can’t be both, can you?” Szálasi wrinkled his forehead to convey his state of confusion.
“You’ll forgive us for concluding that he is merely a Jew. ”
“What do you want of the doctor?” Carl asked.
“That is the private business of the Hungarian government,” Szálasi said with a smile on his face.
Then he sat back and tapped his chin with his index finger.
“Even if he were to have Swiss identification, of which I am not convinced, there is no breach of our mutual diplomacy in asking Dr. Weissbach a few questions here at the station.”
“In fact, there is,” Carl said. “He is diplomatically immune from the Hungarian legal process. We insist that you leave Dr. Weissbach and his family alone.”
“We’ll take that under consideration, Ambassador Lutz, and you may leave now. Oh, by the way, convey my condolences to the Weissbachs. The dog died.”