Gerhart M. Riegner

Who was Gerhart M. Riegner?

Gerhart Moritz Riegner was the secretary-general of the World Jewish Congress from 1965 to 1983. On August 8, 1942, he sent the so-called Riegner Telegram through diplomatic channels to Stephen Samuel Wise, president of the World Jewish Congress. The source of the information was Eduard Schulte, the anti-Nazi owner of a prominent German company that employed high-level Nazi officials. The telegram was the first official communication about the planned Holocaust.

The Riegner telegram read in part: Have received through foreign office following message from Riegner Geneva STOP Received alarming report that in Fuhrers 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.

Quote: "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."