Description

Original manuscript (handwritten) letter (ALS) signed 'Nafia Vekili Behiç' [i. e. Minister of Public Works, Behiç [Erkin]]. 23,5x14,5 cm. In Ottoman script. 1 p. Dated November 28, 1929. He wrote it when he was manager of Anatolian - Bagdad Railways. Letterhead 'Anadolu - Bagdad Demiryollari Müdür-i Umumiyesi [Anatolian - Baghdad Railways Directorate]'. Addressed to Mavridi[s] Brothers in Istanbul. Behiç Erkin was a Turkish career officer, first director (1920-1926) of the Turkish State Railways, nationalized under his auspices, statesman and diplomat of the Turkish Republic, who helped save almost 20,000 ethnic Jews in France during World War II. He was Minister of Public Works, 1926-1928, and deputy for three terms; and an ambassador. He served as Turkey's ambassador to Budapest between 1928-1939, and to Paris and Vichy between August 1939-August 1943. As Turkish ambassador in France under the German Occupation after June 1940, Erkin used the power of his office and nation's neutrality to save Jews who could document a Turkish connection, however slight, from the Holocaust. Other Turkish diplomats in France and elsewhere, were also active in this rescue effort. The consulate staff under Necdet Kent in Marseille was particularly involved.

Lingue: Turkish, Ottoman (1500-1928)