Eduard Schulte

Eduard Reinhold Karl Schulte (4 January 1891 in Düsseldorf – 6 January 1966 in Zürich) 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, corroborating the Grojanowski Report.

Whereas the Account of a Forced Gravedigger transmitted in the earliest testimony of mass-execution by gassing in the extermination center Chelmno, the leak by Schulte known as the Riegner Telegram confirmed that plans were being discussed in Fuhrer headquarters to apply this form of murder to all transports and deportations of Jews from Europe.

During World War I, Schulte led the department for soap production within the War Ministry. Due to his career as a manager in the 1920s to 1940s, he had frequent contact with high German government and military officials, as well as other industrialists who had access to important information. Giesche's Erben had created Giesche Spolka Akcyjna (Giesche) in order to consolidate Giesche's Erben Polish property and have it registered in Katowice as a Polish business. Giesche was entirely owned by Giesche's Erben. Managing the Polish company became too difficult in part from a high tax being levied by the Polish government that made it very difficult to use German money to pay the expense. So in 1926 a majority share (51%) was sold to the US interests of Anaconda Copper Mining Co. and W. Averell Harriman who had registered the Silesian-American Corporation (SACO) and Silesian Holding Company in Delaware, US. Schulte replaced Carl Besser as the general director of Giesche's Erben. Schulte's efforts to regain “eastern estates” collapsed.

The Final Solution

Schulte had opportunities to travel often between Breslau in Silesia and Zürich in Switzerland, where he had contacts with Allen W. Dulles, with the dissident German consul Hans Bernd Gisevius, and Polish and French intelligence contacts, according to various sources.

In 1942, Schulte learned about the Final Solution concept, and in July 1942 he told Isidor Koppelman who relayed the information to Gerhart M. Riegner, the Swiss representative of World Jewish Congress. In August 1942, the Riegner Telegram notified the Allies, but they largely ignored the information which stated the estimated number of 3.5 to 4 million Jews, and the planned use of hydrogen cyanide.

In 1943, the Gestapo noticed his activities, and Schulte had to flee permanently to Switzerland with his wife, while his two sons had to remain under German control to fight in the Wehrmacht. One son was killed in the war.

After the war, Schulte remained silent. Riegner always refused to acknowledge who had supplied him with the information as this was "the one request he ever made of me".