Title: Honoring the life and legacy of Carl Lutz.
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
This resolution honors the life and legacy of Carl Lutz, who, as a Swiss diplomat serving in Hungary, saved more than 50,000 Jews during World War II.

[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 297 Introduced in House (IH)]

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117th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 297

               Honoring the life and legacy of Carl Lutz.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 8, 2021

Mr. Luetkemeyer (for himself and Mr. McGovern) submitted the following 
   resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
               Honoring the life and legacy of Carl Lutz.

Whereas Carl Lutz was born on March 30, 1895, in Walzenhausen, Switzerland, but 
        moved to the United States as a young man;
Whereas Carl Lutz became a diplomat, eventually serving at the Swiss consulate 
        in what was then Mandatory Palestine;
Whereas, in 1942, Carl Lutz was transferred to Budapest, Hungary, where he--

    (1) served as the Swiss vice consul until the end of World War II; and

    (2) represented countries that had severed diplomatic relations with 
Hungary because of its German alliance;

Whereas Carl Lutz, upon arrival in Budapest, began to work to help Jews receive 
        Swiss diplomatic protection so they could flee Nazi persecution;
Whereas, in 1944, Carl Lutz received permission to issue protective papers to 
        save 8,000 Jews from deportation, which Lutz determined to mean 8,000 
        families, not 8,000 individuals;
Whereas Carl Lutz extended Swiss protection to 76 buildings that operated as 
        safe houses for Jewish refugees seeking protection, including a 
        department store called the Glass House, which served as a refuge for up 
        to 3,000 Jews and as a headquarters for the Zionist underground;
Whereas, in November 1944, Carl Lutz and his wife, Trudi Lutz, joined a death 
        march to various concentration camps, pulling Jews out of the line to 
        issue as many protective papers as possible;
Whereas, at the end of World War II, Carl Lutz and his coconspirators, including 
        his wife, his staff, and the Zionist underground members, saved over 
        50,000 Jews, which was half of the surviving Jewish population of 
        Budapest; and
Whereas the United States is deeply indebted to Carl Lutz, who was responsible 
        for the largest civilian rescue mission of Jews during World War II: 
        Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) honors the life and legacy of Carl Lutz;
            (2) recognizes that the heroic effort of Carl Lutz went 
        above and beyond the call of duty to save the Hungarian Jews 
        ``condemned to die'' because he believed it to be a ``matter of 
        conscience''; and
            (3) expresses deep appreciation to Carl Lutz on behalf of 
        the United States for facilitating the largest civilian rescue 
        mission of Jews during World War II, saving over 50,000 Jews 
        through the protective papers and documentation he issued.
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