Selahattin Ülkümen
Encyclopedia
Selahattin Ülkümen was a Turkish
diplomat
and consul
in Rhodes
during the Second World War, who assisted many local Jews
to escape the Holocaust. In 1989 Israel recognized him as among the Righteous Among the Nations
and listed his name at Yad Vashem
.
Turkish and Greek Jews alike were deported to the death camps from the island of Corfu
. But on the island of Rhodes, Turkey
’s Consul, Selahattin Ülkümen, saved the lives of close to 50 people, among a Jewish community of some 2000 after the Germans
took over the island. The German occupation followed Italy
's removal of Benito Mussolini
from power and its armistice
with the Allies
.
rule until 1917, and under the succeeding Italian
occupation until 1943, when the Germans took over. By the 1940s, the ethnic Jewish community numbered about 2000, made up of people from Turkey, Greece, Italy and other Mediterranean countries, as well as those native to the island.
ordered all of the island’s Jewish population to gather at its headquarters: ostensibly they were to register for "temporary transportation to a small island nearby", but in reality they were gathered for transport to Auschwitz and its gas chamber
s. Ülkümen went to the German commanding officer, General Kleeman, to remind him that Turkey was neutral
in the war
. He asked for release of the Jews, including not only Turkish citizens but also their spouses and relatives, even though many of the latter were Italian and Greek citizens. At first the commander refused, stating that under Nazi
law, all Jews were Jews and had to go to the concentration camps. Ülkümen responded with "under Turkish law all citizens were equal. We didn’t differentiate between citizens who were Jewish, Christian or Muslim."
Ülkümen told Kleeman that "I would advise my Government if he didn’t release the Jewish Turks it would cause an international incident. Then he agreed." The Jews protected by Ülkümen were released, though not until they were subjected to considerable additional harassment by the Nazi authorities. Ülkümen continued to provide protection and moral support to those whom he had rescued and other Jews who remained on the island. They feared suffering deportation, as they were required to report to the Gestapo daily and never knew whether or not they would be able to return home.
Soon after Ülkümen's gaining release of Turkish Jews, the Germans rounded up the Greek Jews on Rhodes, numbering 1673 in all, and deported them to Greece
. From there, the Germans had them transported to extermination
camps; only 151 of the group survived the war.
on mainland Greece and confined him there for the remainder of the war.
During the next six months, Jewish Turks remaining on Rhodes were subjected to almost constant harassment by the Gestapo, which often detained them for long periods of time. It did not deport them to concentration camps as earlier planned, presumably because of the disorder and other requirements for transport in the Third Reich during the last days of the war.
Finally, early in January 1945, the German commander Kleeman learned that representatives of the International Red Cross were to visit Rhodes to look into the situation of its population. He ordered the remaining Jews on the island to go to Turkey, which they did the next day, traveling in small boats across a stormy sea to safety at the port of Marmaris
.
He died in his sleep on July 7, 2003 in Istanbul
, Turkey at the age of 89.
Turkish people
Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...
diplomat
Diplomat
A diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and...
and consul
Consul
Consul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Empire. The title was also used in other city states and also revived in modern states, notably in the First French Republic...
in Rhodes
Rhodes
Rhodes is an island in Greece, located in the eastern Aegean Sea. It is the largest of the Dodecanese islands in terms of both land area and population, with a population of 117,007, and also the island group's historical capital. Administratively the island forms a separate municipality within...
during the Second World War, who assisted many local Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
to escape the Holocaust. In 1989 Israel recognized him as among the Righteous Among the Nations
Righteous Among the Nations
Righteous among the Nations of the world's nations"), also translated as Righteous Gentiles is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis....
and listed his name at Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem is Israel's official memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, established in 1953 through the Yad Vashem Law passed by the Knesset, Israel's parliament....
.
Turkish and Greek Jews alike were deported to the death camps from the island of Corfu
Corfu
Corfu is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea. It is the second largest of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the edge of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The island is part of the Corfu regional unit, and is administered as a single municipality. The...
. But on the island of Rhodes, Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
’s Consul, Selahattin Ülkümen, saved the lives of close to 50 people, among a Jewish community of some 2000 after the Germans
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
took over the island. The German occupation followed Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
's removal of Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
from power and its armistice
Armistice
An armistice is a situation in a war where the warring parties agree to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, but may be just a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace...
with the Allies
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
.
Background
Jews had prospered on Rhodes during 390 years of OttomanOttoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
rule until 1917, and under the succeeding Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
occupation until 1943, when the Germans took over. By the 1940s, the ethnic Jewish community numbered about 2000, made up of people from Turkey, Greece, Italy and other Mediterranean countries, as well as those native to the island.
Ülkümen's interventions
On 19 July 1944, the GestapoGestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
ordered all of the island’s Jewish population to gather at its headquarters: ostensibly they were to register for "temporary transportation to a small island nearby", but in reality they were gathered for transport to Auschwitz and its gas chamber
Gas chamber
A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing humans or animals with gas, consisting of a sealed chamber into which a poisonous or asphyxiant gas is introduced. The most commonly used poisonous agent is hydrogen cyanide; carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide have also been used...
s. Ülkümen went to the German commanding officer, General Kleeman, to remind him that Turkey was neutral
Neutral country
A neutral power in a particular war is a sovereign state which declares itself to be neutral towards the belligerents. A non-belligerent state does not need to be neutral. The rights and duties of a neutral power are defined in Sections 5 and 13 of the Hague Convention of 1907...
in the war
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. He asked for release of the Jews, including not only Turkish citizens but also their spouses and relatives, even though many of the latter were Italian and Greek citizens. At first the commander refused, stating that under Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
law, all Jews were Jews and had to go to the concentration camps. Ülkümen responded with "under Turkish law all citizens were equal. We didn’t differentiate between citizens who were Jewish, Christian or Muslim."
Ülkümen told Kleeman that "I would advise my Government if he didn’t release the Jewish Turks it would cause an international incident. Then he agreed." The Jews protected by Ülkümen were released, though not until they were subjected to considerable additional harassment by the Nazi authorities. Ülkümen continued to provide protection and moral support to those whom he had rescued and other Jews who remained on the island. They feared suffering deportation, as they were required to report to the Gestapo daily and never knew whether or not they would be able to return home.
Soon after Ülkümen's gaining release of Turkish Jews, the Germans rounded up the Greek Jews on Rhodes, numbering 1673 in all, and deported them to Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
. From there, the Germans had them transported to extermination
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
camps; only 151 of the group survived the war.
Nazi retaliation
In retaliation German planes bombed the Turkish consulate on Rhodes. Killed in the bombing were Ülkümen’s pregnant wife Mihrinissa Ülkümen, as well as two consular employees. The Germans quickly detained and deported Ülkümen to PiraeusPiraeus
Piraeus is a city in the region of Attica, Greece. Piraeus is located within the Athens Urban Area, 12 km southwest from its city center , and lies along the east coast of the Saronic Gulf....
on mainland Greece and confined him there for the remainder of the war.
During the next six months, Jewish Turks remaining on Rhodes were subjected to almost constant harassment by the Gestapo, which often detained them for long periods of time. It did not deport them to concentration camps as earlier planned, presumably because of the disorder and other requirements for transport in the Third Reich during the last days of the war.
Finally, early in January 1945, the German commander Kleeman learned that representatives of the International Red Cross were to visit Rhodes to look into the situation of its population. He ordered the remaining Jews on the island to go to Turkey, which they did the next day, traveling in small boats across a stormy sea to safety at the port of Marmaris
Marmaris
Marmaris is a port city and a tourist resort on the Mediterranean coast, located in southwest Turkey, in Muğla Province.Marmaris' main source of income is tourism. Little is left of the sleepy fishing village that Marmaris was just a few decades ago after a construction boom in the 1980s...
.
After the war
Released at the end of the war, Ülkümen returned to Turkey.He died in his sleep on July 7, 2003 in Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
, Turkey at the age of 89.
Legacy and honors
Maurice Sauriano, the head of the 35-person Jewish community who remained in Rhodes after the war, recently stated, "I am indebted to the Turkish consul who made extraordinary efforts to save my life and those of my fellow countrymen.".- Quincentennial Foundation Vice President, historian Naim Guleryuz, collected testimony from living survivors and applied to Israel for recognition of Ülkümen’s actions during the war. On 13 December 1989, the Yad VashemYad VashemYad Vashem is Israel's official memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, established in 1953 through the Yad Vashem Law passed by the Knesset, Israel's parliament....
Foundation of Israel declared Ülkümen one of the Righteous Among the NationsRighteous Among the NationsRighteous among the Nations of the world's nations"), also translated as Righteous Gentiles is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis....
. His name was inscribed at the memorial and a tree planted in his honor at the "Path of the Righteous."
- In 1990 Israel issued a postage stamp in Ülkümen's honor.
See also
- History of the Jews in TurkeyHistory of the Jews in TurkeyTurkish Jews The history of the Jews in the Ottoman Empire and Turkey covers the 2,400 years that Jews have lived in what is now Turkey. There have been Jewish communities in Asia Minor since at least the 5th century BCE and many Spanish and Portuguese Jews expelled from Spain were welcomed to the...
- Necdet KentNecdet Kentİsmail Necdet Kent was a Turkish diplomat who risked his life to save Jews during World War II. While vice consul-general in Marseilles, France between 1941 and 1944, he gave Turkish citizenship to dozens of Turkish Jews living in France who did not have proper identity papers, to save them from...
- Behiç ErkinBehiç ErkinBehiç Erkin was a career Army officer; first director of the Turkish State Railways, nationalized under his auspices; and statesman with the Turkish government who helped save almost 20,000 of ethnic Turkish Jews in France during World War II...
- Namık Kemal YolgaNamik Kemal YolgaNamık Kemal Yolga was a Turkish diplomat and statesman, known as the Turkish Schindler. During World War II, Yolga was the Vice-Consul at the Turkish Embassy in Paris, France...
- List of Turkish diplomats
Further reading
- Stanford J. Shaw, The Jews of the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic, New York: New York University Press