When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked Paraguay’s government this week for moving its embassy to Jerusalem, he said that before, during and after the Holocaust, Paraguay opened its doors to Europe’s Jews – “an act of benevolence and mercy that is forever etched in our hearts.”
A main part of the rescue story to which Netanyahu was referring was carried out by Polish diplomats. As noted this week by the director of the Polish Institute of International Affairs, almost all the forged Paraguayan passports that were designed to help Jews flee Nazi-occupied Europe were prepared by Polish diplomats who were serving in the Swiss capital Bern.
designed to help Jews flee Nazi-occupied Europe were prepared by Polish diplomats who were serving in the Swiss capital Bern.
This rescue story is not known in Israel and there is almost no material about it in Hebrew. In recent months, it has been brought to light once again by the Polish Embassy in Switzerland, which posted documents and photographs discovered last year, and added new details about the story, on Twitter.
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