Gerhart Moritz Riegner (September 12, 1911 in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

– December 3, 2001 in

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

) was a German

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

, and the secretary-general of the

World Jewish Congress The World Jewish Congress (WJC) is an international federation of Jewish communities and organizations, founded in Geneva, Switzerland, in August 1936. According to its mission statement, the World Jewish Congress's main purpose is to act as ...

from 1965 to 1983. He studied law in Heidelberg, Paris and at the

Geneva Graduate Institute The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (, abbreviated IHEID), commonly referred to as Geneva Graduate Institute, is a graduate-level research university in Geneva, Switzerland dedicated to international relations, dev ...

Life

On August 8, 1942, he sent the famous Riegner Telegram through diplomatic channels to

Stephen Samuel Wise Stephen Samuel Wise (March 17, 1874 – April 19, 1949) was an early 20th-century American Reform rabbi and Zionist leader in the Progressive Era. Born in Budapest, he was an infant when his family immigrated to New York. He followed his father ...

, president of the

. (However, Wise did not receive it until the end of the month. The source of the information was

Eduard Schulte Eduard Reinhold Karl Schulte (4 January 1891 in Düsseldorf – 6 January 1966 in Zürich) was a prominent German industrialist. He was one of the first to warn the Allies and tell the world of the Holocaust and systematic exterminations of Jews i ...

, the anti-Nazi chief executive officer of the prominent German company

Giesche Giesche Corp. (Giesche Spolka Akcyjna) was, during the interwar period, part of and owned by the German firm of Bergwerksgesellschaft Georg von Giesche's Erben (commonly called Giesche's Erben) and represented those holdings of Giesche's Erben, ...

(part of

Silesian-American Corporation Silesian-American Corporation (SACO) was registered as a corporation in Delaware in 1926 to assume ownership of the Giesche Spolka Akcyjna ( Giesche) that was registered as a corporation in Katowice, Poland earlier during the interwar period. SACO g ...

) that employed high-level Nazi officials. His telegram was the first official communication about the planned

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

. It read in part:

"Have received through foreign office following message from Riegner Geneva STOP Received alarming report that in Führers headquarters plan discussed and under consideration all Jews in countries occupied or controlled Germany number 3½ to 4 million should after deportation and concentration in East at one blow exterminated to resolve once and for all Jewish question in Europe. Never did I feel so strongly the sense of abandonment, powerlessness and loneliness as when I sent messages of disaster and horror to the free world and no one believed me."

Awards and honors

In 1994 he received the Four Freedoms Award for the Freedom of Worship In 2001 Riegner received an Honorary Doctorate from the

University of Lucerne The University of Lucerne (UNILU; German: ''Universität Luzern'') is a public university with a campus in Lucerne, Switzerland. 1,460 undergraduates and 1,258 postgraduate students attend the university, which makes it Switzerland's smallest un ...

References

External links

Article on Eduard Schulte in the Holocaust Encyclopedia with an image of the cable originating from Gerhart RiegnerA Final Hitler Decision for the "Final Solution"? The Riegner Telegram Reconsidered by Christopher R. Browning
1911 births 2001 deaths Activists from Berlin Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies alumni 20th-century German Jews The Holocaust and the United States {{Germany-activist-stub