Eventually, Lutz was harshly criticized by his superiors and colleagues, who contended that he was “not authorized” to oversee his complex system of rescue. Switzerland refused to acknowledge his rescue efforts officially and nationally until 1995, twenty years after his death. He did receive international praise, however. He was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize three times, never winning. In 1963, Lutz was named “Righteous Among the Nations” by Yad Vashem. Trudi Lutz received the same honor in 1976.
In a 1949 report, Lutz summarized his motivations behind his rescue efforts, writing that he did not consider himself a “Christian in name only” and therefore found it a “matter of conscience” to rescue the Hungarian Jews “condemned to die.” The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum estimates that Lutz saved approximately 62,000 souls, likely making him responsible for the largest civilian rescue mission of the entire Holocaust. Yet, it is a rescue operation that cannot be considered merely considering the events of 1944 and 1945. Lutz’s heroic actions had roots in both the rural United States and in the far corners of the British Empire.
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Amy Lutz is a historian and graduate student from St. Louis, Missouri in the United States. She graduated from St. Louis University in 2013 with honors and a Bachelor's Degree in History. She is currently finishing a Master's Degree in History at the University of Missouri, St. Louis. Amy is also a docent at the St. Louis Holocaust Museum & Learning Center. She first learned about Carl Lutz as a child, when she saw a photo of him in a school textbook. Although she is not a direct relative of Carl Lutz, she was intrigued by the heroic story of someone with whom she shared a surname. For the last fifteen years, Amy has continued to conduct research into Carl Lutz and his story remains her primary area of focus during her graduate education.
Carl Lutz. 1944. FORTEPAN / Archiv für Zeitgeschichte ETH Zürich / Agnes Hirschi