Juliusz Kühl

Juliusz Kühl also known as Julius or Yehiel Kühl (June 24, 1913 – February 13, 1985) was a Polish diplomat, Holocaust rescuer and – after World War II – Canadian construction businessman. Kühl was a member of the Ładoś Group also known as the Bernese Group and he is particularly known for his role in the production of false Latin American passports by the Polish Legation in Bern, Switzerland, thanks to which between several hundred and several thousand Jews in German-occupied Poland and the Netherlands survived the Holocaust.

Early life Juliusz Kühl was born shortly before the World War I in Sanok, southern Poland, which at that time was a part of Austro-Hungarian province of Galicia, into an orthodox Jewish family. When he was five years old Sanok became part of the Second Polish Republic and he himself – its citizen.

According to Mark MacKinnon he was sent at the age of nine to live with his uncle in Zürich because his father had died when he was young, and his mother wanted him to get a good education. Polish scholar Agnieszka Haska quotes Kühl's unpublished autobiographical note and claims he entered the University of Zurich to study economics, the subject he obtained a PhD in 1939.

In 1943 he married Yvonne Weill. The couple had two daughters and two sons. His oldest daughter, Janine, married Israel Weinstock, a businessman from Colombia S.A., and the younger daughter married Israel Singer, who, between 1986 and 2001 served as Secretary General of the World Jewish Congress.

Holocaust rescue operation and "passport" affair

In March 1940 Kühl was employed in the Legation of Poland to Switzerland and Liechtenstein as an auxiliary employee. After the German and Soviet invasion of Poland and their subsequent occupation, the Legation remained loyal to the Polish government-in-exile headed by general Władysław Sikorski which pledged to continue the struggle against the Axis powers.

Soon Kühl's superior, minister Tytus Komarnicki, was replaced by Aleksander Ładoś, former member of the Polish government in exile, who would later on become Kühl's protector and top collaborator and – after the war – personal friend and business partner. Kühl was tasked with working with Polish refugees coming in massive numbers from occupied France, Belgium and the Netherlands, vast majority of whom were Jews and Poles of Jewish descent escaping from Nazi persecution.

Starting in 1941 Kühl and his superiors Stefan Ryniewicz and Konstanty Rokicki supervised the illegal market of Latin American passports bought by Jewish organizations for Jews in occupied Poland. The documents were bought from the consuls and honorary consuls of, among others, Honduras, Haiti and Bolivia or received gratis from the consulate of El Salvador.

A particular case was the honorary consul of Paraguay, the Bernese notary Rudolf Hügli, who did not produce passports himself, but rather sold blank passes to the Legation of Poland.

Consul Konstanty Rokicki would enter by hand the names and personal details of their beneficiaries – Polish and Dutch Jews who could thus claim they were citizens of neutral countries and were largely considered exempt from deportations to German Nazi-concentration camps. Particular help was provided to people inside the Warsaw Ghetto.

Probably by December 1942, the Gestapo was aware that most Latin American passports were part of a larger conspiracy and may have been falsified.

The Swiss police identified Kühl and Rokicki as top perpetrators. A report signed by Federal Councillor Edmund von Steiger on 21 July 1943 stated the following:

In January 1943, while being interrogated by the police, Kühl admitted his part in the production of false passports and claimed that Paraguayan passports had been already in use in 1939, during which time they served to enable influential Polish Jews to leave the Soviet occupation zone.

Let me start by saying that I was not involved in this matter of my own volition, but by order of my superior, Consul Rokicki, and Legation Councillor Ryniewicz. The question, how we could obtain foreign passports for Polish citizens arose for the first time after Poland had come under German and Russian occupation, in late 1939 and early 1940. Primarily, the issue at hand was to evacuate from the Russia-occupied part of Poland certain persons about whom we were concerned. We were able to do this through Consul Hügli, who provided us with Paraguayan passports for such persons. The passport forms would on each occasion be collected from Mr Hügli and then filled out by Consul Rokicki, and subsequently returned to Consul Hügli for signature. The latter was carried out by myself on most occasions. For the issuance of the passports, we would pay Mr Hügli the amounts between 500 and 2,000 francs, depending on the case and the number of persons. Neither the Diplomatic Mission nor the Consulate nor myself have benefited from this activity in any way. After the passport operation ended, the Polish government in exile granted Kühl in January 1944 full diplomatic status and the minor rank of attaché.

According to Michal Potocki and Zbigniew Parafianowicz, the whole Polish Legation including Kühl contributed to issuing 4000 passports and saved the lives of 400 people. Agudat Yisrael estimated the number of rescued people at 'many hundred'.

Controversies The role of Kühl in filling out the passports is uncertain. MacKinnon claims he participated in the procedure along Rokicki,

Dr. Kühl is however widely recognized as one of the heroes of the Jewish resistance to the Holocaust. His name appeared together with the ones of Ładoś, Rokicki and Ryniewicz in a thank you letter sent by Agudath Yisrael World Organization to the Polish government-in-exile.