TURKEY AND THE HOLOCAUST Turkey and the Holocaust Turkey's Role in Rescuing Turkish and European Jewry from Nazi Persecution, 1933-1945 Stanford J. Shaw e StanfordJ. Shaw1993 Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover 1st edition 1993 All rights reserved.No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. * No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted savewith written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright. Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road. London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designsand Patents Act 1988. Published by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke,Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue,New York,N. Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin's Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-13043-6 ISBN 978-1-349-13041-2 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-13041-2 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Contents List ofPlates vii Photographs ofDocuments viii Preface and Acknowledgments ix 1. Turkey and the Jews, 1933-1945 1 Turkey shelters professionals dismissedby the Nazis 4 Suppression of Nazi-inspired anti-Semitic movements in Turkey during the 1930s 14 Turkish Jewry during World War II 33 The Varllk Vergisi disaster 38 2. Turkey's Role in Rescuing Jews from the Nazis during the Holocaust 46 Jewish Turks in France at the start of the German Occupation 46 Persecution of Jews in France during the Occupation 48 Issuance of Turkish passports and certificates of Turkish citizenship to Jewish Turks who had lost their citizenship 60 Turkish diplomatic intervention to prevent application of anti-Jewish laws to Jewish Turks in France 67 Turkish intervention to secure the unsealing of the Paris apartments of Jewish Turks 99 Turkish intervention against sequestration of the businesses of Jewish Turks in France 112 Turkish intervention to protect Jews from deportation to the East 123 Repatriation of Jewish Turks to Turkey 135 Turkish Assistance to the Jews of Greece under Nazi Occupation 250 3. Istanbul Activities in Rescuing European Jews from the Nazis 255 v vi Contents Conclusion 305 Bibliography 306 Archives,Newspapers and Interviews 328 Appendix 1. Turkish Diplomatic and Consular Personnel in France and Greece during World War II 331 Appendix2. Ambassador liter Tiirkmen reports on research into Paris Embassy archives on Jewish Turks in France during World War II 334 Appendix3. Testimony of Retired Ambassador Namtk Kemal Yolga about helping Jewish Turks in France during World War II 336 Appendix4. Testimony of Retired Ambassador Necdet Kent about his rescue of Jewish Turks at Marseilles during World War II 341 Appendix5. Businesses and Properties belonging to Jewish Turks in Paris administered by Turkish agents under the Direction of the Turkish Consulate-General 345 Appendix6. Sums deposited with Turkish Consulate-General (Paris) by Jewish Turks being repatriated to Turkey up to April 1944 348 Appendix7. Nationality of Deportees from Drancy Camp 351 Appendix8. Short Biographies of leading Refugee Scholars, Professors and Scientists brought to Turkey in 1930s 353 Appendix9. American Diplomatic Report on Nazi Activities and Influence in Turkey before World War II 370 Appendix10. American Reports on the Situation of Jews in Turkey before World War II 374 Appendix11. Chronology, 1931-1945 377 Appendix12. Principal Members of the Turkish Governments, 1923-1945 424 List ofPlates 1. The Staff of the Turkish Consulate-General in Paris at the celebration of Turkish Republic Holiday in 1943. L.-R: Germaine Guicheteau, Local Clerk Refik Ileri, Consul-General Fikret Ozdoganci's daughter Mina (later Mina Tiirkmen); Consul-General Fikret Ozdoganc, his wife Niizhet Hamm, Vice Consul Nannk Kemal Volga, Tcherna Frisch, Local Clerk Nerman Ozdoganci, niece of the Consul-General, Recep Zerman and Janine Bousquet. (Photo courtesy of Namik Kemal Volga) 2. The Staff of the Turkish Consulate-General in Paris on the occasion of the celebration of Turkish Republic Holiday (Cumhuriyer BayrwnI) in 1941. L.-R: Chancellor Namik Kemal Volga, Consul-General Diilger, and local clerks Guicheteau, Frisch, and Zerman. (Photo courtesy of Namik Kemal Volga) 3. Jewish Turks standing in front of the Turkish Consulate-General in Paris in 1943 waiting to get passports and visas to enable them to return to Turkey. (Photo courtesy of Nannk Kemal Volga) 4. Jewish Turks standing in front of the Turkish Consulate-General in Paris in 1944 waiting to get passports and visas to enable them to return to Turkey. (Photo courtesy of Namik Kemal Volga) 5. The Sirkeci Terminal railroad tracks of the Orient Express, where Jewish refugees coming from Europe arrived in Istanbul. (Photo by Stanford J. Shaw) 6. The Sirkeci Terminal building in Istanbul. (Photo by Sebah) 7. The Sirkeci Synagogue. (Photo by Stanford J. Shaw) 8. Istanbul University main gate. (Photo by Stanford J. Shaw) 9. The Haydarpasa railroad station, terminus of the Anatolian and Syrian railway system used by Jews going by land to Palestine. 10. The Haydarpasa synagogue. (Photo by Stanford J. Shaw) 11. Exterior of the Chief Rabbinate in Istanbul. (Photo by Stanford J. Shaw) 12. The Tokatlian Hotel (Istanbul). (Photo by Abdullah Freres) 13. The Pera Palas Hotel (Istanbul), center of Jewish Agency operations to rescue East European Jews during World War II. (Photo by Stanford J. Shaw) 14. Bebek on the Bosporus where many Jewish refugees in Turkey lived during World War II. (Photo by Stanford J. Shaw) vii Photographs of Documents 1. Albert Gattegno asks Turkish Consulate-General (Paris) to get him out of Draney Concentration Camp 71 2. Turkey protests against anti-Jewish measures applied to Turkish Jews 81 3. France insists that foreign citizens in residence accept French laws, including anti-Jewish laws, and that Jewish Turks be treated equally with other Jews 82 4. Turkey protests application of anti-Jewish laws to Jewish Turks since its Constitution makes no distinction among citizens of different religions 88 5. Germany will release Jewish Turks from Concentration Camps in France if they are immediately repatriated to Turkey 100 6. France proposes that Turkish administrators of sequestered properties of Jewish Turks act only as observers of acts of French administrators 118 7. Turkish Certificate of Citizenship 130 8. Turkish Consulate-General (Paris) to send two final caravans of Jewish Turks to Turkey, after which those remaining will be subject to anti-Jewish laws in France 208 viii Preface and Acknowledgments I rust became aware of Turkey's role in rescuing thousands of Jews from the Holocaust during my research for TheJews ofthe Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic (Macmillan, London, and New York UniversityPress, New York, 1991). Most of the extant documentation on these tragic but moving events became available to me only after the manuscript of that book had gone to press, however. Starting with a visit to the offices of Jak V. Kamhi, head of the Quincentennial Foundation and President of the Promo Corporation of Istanbul, retired ambassadors Tevfik Saracoglu and Behcet Tiiremen, historian Nairn Giileryiiz, and the Foundation's Administrative Director Nedim Yahya, who showed me copies of a number of letters exchanged between Jewish Turks resident in wartime France, the Turkish Consulate in Paris, and German diplomats, Gestapo officers, and concentration camp commanders as well as French officials involved in the persecution of Jews at that time, I began a search for more comprehensive documentary evidence. I found such evidence in the archives of the Turkish Foreign Ministry in Ankara, the Turkish Embassy and Consulate-General in Paris, and the Archives of the United States Department of State in Washington, D.C. and of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as in numerous published and unpublished studies and memoirs by, and personal interviews with, people who were involved. Obviously more study is needed in the German archives as well as in the local and Turkish diplomatic archives surviving from Nazi-occupied countries other than France, such as Belgium and Holland. In addition, the author would appreciate it if readers with personal knowledge of the events described in this book would share their experiences with him so that subsequent editions may be enriched and added to in the light of their contributions. For their assistance in obtaining access to archival collections, I would like to thank H.E. Kurtcebe Alptemocin, Foreign Minister of Turkey at the time I made use of the Ministry's archives in Ankara; Director of its Research Department Cenk Duatepe and his predecessor, now Ambassador to the Philippines, Erhan Yigitbasioglu; Turkish Ambassador to France Tan~u~ Bieda; Turkish Consul-General in Paris Argun