The Riegner Telegram was a message sent in August 1942 by Gerhart M Riegner

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...

, then representative of the World Jewish Congress

World Jewish Congress

The World Jewish Congress was founded in Geneva, Switzerland, in August 1936 as an international federation of Jewish communities and organizations...

 in Geneva

Geneva

Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...

, informing the Allies about the so-called "Final Solution

Final Solution

The Final Solution was Nazi Germany's plan and execution of the systematic genocide of European Jews during World War II, resulting in the most deadly phase of the Holocaust...

 of the Jewish question

Jewish Question

The Jewish question encompasses the issues and resolutions surrounding the historically unequal civil, legal and national statuses between minority Ashkenazi Jews and non-Jews, particularly in Europe. The first issues discussed and debated by societies, politicians and writers in western and...

", the German plan to exterminate the European Jews

The Holocaust

The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...

, for the first time.

Riegner was office manager of the WJC in Geneva. He was informed about the German plans for the "final solution" by German industrialist Eduard Schulte

Eduard Schulte

Eduard Schulte was a prominent German industrialist. He was one of the first to warn the Allies and tell the world of the Holocaust and systematic exterminations of Jews in Nazi Germany occupied Europe....

. Through his British and American diplomatic channels, Rabbi Stephen Samuel Wise

Stephen Samuel Wise

Stephen Samuel Wise was an Austro-Hungarian-born American Reform rabbi and Zionist leader.-Early life:...

 of the American Jewish Congress

American Jewish Congress

The American Jewish Congress describes itself as an association of Jewish Americans organized to defend Jewish interests at home and abroad through public policy advocacy, using diplomacy, legislation, and the courts....

 in New York and Samuel Silverman

Samuel Silverman

Samuel Joshua Silverman was a two-time New York State Supreme Court Justice and career litigator who was involved in several high-profile cases.-Background and early career:...

, a Jewish member of Parliament

Parliament of the United Kingdom

The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...

, Riegner sent the following message to his contacts via the British Foreign Office

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, commonly called the Foreign Office or the FCO is a British government department responsible for promoting the interests of the United Kingdom overseas, created in 1968 by merging the Foreign Office and the Commonwealth Office.The head of the FCO is the...

 and the State Department in Washington

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

:

Received alarming report about plan being discussed and considered in Führer headquarters to exterminate at one fell swoop all Jews in German-controlled countries comprising three and a half to four million after deportation and concentration in the east thus solving Jewish question once and for all stop campaign planned for autumn methods being discussed including hydrocyanic acid stop

However, in England and the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, Riegner's telegram was met with disbelief despite there already being evidence for mass executions. The US State Department

United States Department of State

The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...

 considered the telegram "a wild rumor, fueled by Jewish anxieties" while the British Foreign Office didn't forward the telegram for the time being. Only months later it found its way to the president of the World Jewish Congress, Rabbi Stephen Wise, who acted on it. Early in 1944, Treasury Secretary

United States Secretary of the Treasury

The Secretary of the Treasury of the United States is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, which is concerned with financial and monetary matters, and, until 2003, also with some issues of national security and defense. This position in the Federal Government of the United...

 Henry Morgenthau, Jr.

Henry Morgenthau, Jr.

Henry Morgenthau, Jr. was the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury during the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt. He played a major role in designing and financing the New Deal...

 stated in front of President

President of the United States

The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....

 Roosevelt

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...

that "certain officials in our State Department" had failed while it would have been commanded by duty to "prevent the extermination of the Jews in German-controlled Europe".

Sources

• Günter Schubert: Der Fleck auf Uncle Sams weißer Weste. Amerika und die jüdischen Flüchtlinge 1938-1945., Campus Verlag, Frankfurt/New York
• Heiner Lichtenstein: "Warum Auschwitz nicht bombardiert wurde", Köln 1980
• Walter Laqueur: Was niemand wissen wollte. Die Unterdrückung der Nachricht über Hitlers Endlösung", Frankfurt a. M. 1981
• Gerhard M. Riegner: "Niemals verzweifeln. Sechzig Jahre für das jüdische Volk und die Menschenrechte" Gerlingen 2001
• Portraits Parlés: Interview and portraits of Gerhard M. Riegner by Ariane Laroux, éditions of L'Age d'Homme. (2006)
• Michael Berenaum: "A Promise to Remember" Bulfinch Press 2003