Gerhart Riegner

A German Jew, Riegner had fled to France, then Switzerland, in 1933. In July 1942, Riegner, who manned a "listening post" in Switzerland, learned of Nazi plans for the Holocaust. On August 8, 1942, he sent a telegram through a friend at the U.S. consulate detailing Hitler's "final solution" -- a scheme to deport Jews to camps in Eastern Europe and exterminate them. The warning was ignored until January 1944, when President Roosevelt created the War Refugee Board. That was too late: an estimated six million Jews were gassed or worked to death in the concentration camps. "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," Riegner wrote in his memoirs. As a lawyer after the war, he worked to improve relations between the Vatican and Israel, and was the secretary-general of the World Jewish Congress from 1965 to 1983. He also received the Legion of Honor from France in 1987. He died December 3 in Geneva at age 90. From This is True for 2 December 2001 Suggestions for further reading: Night (Oprah's Book Club) by Elie Wiesel Amazon Price: $9.95 Customer Review: Night by Elie Whitney is surely a book that will keep you entertained. The book is about the story of the holocaust a subject the Author Elie Whitney lived first-hand showing the readers the strong feelings she felt, the dreams she longed for, and th...   The Book Thief by Markus Zusak Amazon Price: $6.99 Customer Review: Very rarely do I read a book that touches me so much. Don't get me wrong, I've read lots of great books that get 5 stars easily, but this book deserves more than that. I did not expect very much from this book. I had to find out why so many...   The Death of the Adversary: A Novel by Hans Keilson Amazon Price: $10.08 Customer Review: I've read dozens of Holocaust memoirs but I could not fathom this one. I liked Kielson's "Comedy in a Minor Key." But "Death of the Adversary" bored me. I put the book aside one third of the way through. I read a couple of paragraphs toward the end t...   Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl Amazon Price: $8.99 Customer Review: I read this book when I was in a very tough place based on the recommendations of a surgeon who unlike many surgeons was interested in my emotional well-being as well. I was hit by a semi-truck while riding my bicycle and spent months in a very diff...   Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History by Art Spiegelman Amazon Price: $9.49 Customer Review: Despite the countless books and films on the Holocaust, those of us who have thankfully never faced these horrors still struggle to understand what happened. It is easier to become numbed by it all. The brilliance of Maus is that it recasts and dis...   Newsfeed display by CaRP

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