Gerhart Moritz Riegner (Berlin, September 12, 1911 – Geneva, December 3, 2001) was a German activist and the secretary-general of the World Jewish Congress from 1965 to 1983. On August 8, 1942, he dispatched through diplomatic channels the famous Riegner Telegram to Stephen Samuel Wise, president of the World Jewish Congress. The source of the information was Eduard Schulte, the anti-Nazi chief executive officer of the prominent German company Giesche (part of Silesian-American Corporation) that employed high-level Nazi officials.
The Reigner Telegram was the first official communication notifying the Holocaust. It is cited in the novel The Wallenberg Dossier.
The National Archives UK – Riegner Telegram Uploaded by oaktree_bDescription: This telegram from Gerhart Riegner, Secretary of the World Jewish Congress in Geneva, was received by the Foreign Office in August 1942. The telegram was among the first pieces of unambiguous evidence received by the Allies that the Nazi Government planned a ‘final solution’ to the “Jewish question”. Some comments within the file show officials suggested the telegram be used to influence the Vatican to condemn German atrocities more strenuously. Another civil servant dismisses Riegner’s report as a “rather wild story”. Samuel Sydney Silverman, the telegram’s intended recipient, was the Labour MP for the Lancashire constituency of Nelson and Colne. Silverman was a campaigner for Jewish rights, amongst other causes including opposition to capital punishment. Date: August 10th 1942 Our Catalogue Reference:FO 371/30917 This image is from the collections of The National Archives. Feel free to share it within the spirit of the Commons. For high quality reproductions of any item from our collection please contact our image library. Permission details The National Archives UK @ Flickr Commons
