An Internationally Honest Turk

An Internationally Honest Turk: Selahattin Ülkümen[1]

Jews lived in prosperity in Rhodes during the 390 years of Ottoman rule (which ended in 1912 with the Italian occupation of Rhodes and the other Dodecanese Islands). The Germans took over in September 1943 after Italy withdrew from the war. By the 1940s, the ethnic Jewish community numbered approximately 2,000 people, consisting of people from Türkiye, Greece, Italy and other Mediterranean countries, as well as natives of the island.

At that time, Selahattin Ülkümen was working at the embassy in Rhodes as Türkiye's consul general. In late July 1944, the Germans initiated the deportation of the island's 1,700 Jews. Ülkümen managed to save approximately 50 Jews, 13 of whom were Turkish citizens. He clearly acted on his own initiative in protecting non-Turkish citizens. In this case, while the surviving Albert Franko was being transferred from Piraeus to Auschwitz, he was removed from the train while it was still on Greek territory, with the intervention of Ülkümen, who was informed that Franko's wife was a Turkish citizen. Another survivor was Matilda Toriel, who married a Turkish citizen and an Italian citizen living in Rhodes. On July 18, 1944, all Jews were told to appear at Gestapo headquarters the next day. While she was preparing to enter the building, Ülkümen approached Matilda and told her not to enter. Ülkümen wanted the Germans to release only Turkish citizens and their families, who were marked with number 15 in their files at that time. However, Ülkümen added 25-30 more people to the list of real Turkish citizens. The Gestapo was suspicious of Ülkümen and wanted to see the Turkish documents belonging to the Jews. Ülkümen also demanded that the spouses and families of Turkish citizens be released, in accordance with Turkish law. He returned to the Gestapo building and insisted that the other Jews on his list be returned to him. 

Matilda Toriel later explained that in fact there was no such law in Türkiye and that Ülkümen had simply made this up at that time to save the Jews. In the end, everyone on Ülkümen's list was released. The rest of the island's Jews, approximately 1,700 people, were deported to Auschwitz, but everyone on Ülkümen's list was released. Ülkümen never left their side, providing moral support until they were completely rescued from the clutches of the Nazis. The remaining Jews on the list were afraid that the Nazis would destroy them with a sudden attack.

The Germans deported the remaining Jews from this list to Auschwitz and murdered them in the gas chambers. At the end of the war, only 151 people from Rhodes were left alive.

 

Revenge of the germans

Realizing that Ülkümen's maneuvers were fake, the Nazis launched a retaliatory operation. One day, German planes bombed the Turkish Consulate in Rhodes from close range. His wife, Mihrinisa Ülkümen, who lived in their own flat at the consulate and had just given birth in those weeks, and two consulate officials lost their lives as a result of the bombardment. Their newborn baby, Mehmet, suffered a lifelong disability. Selahattin Ülkümen was arrested as a prisoner of war and sent to Piraeus, where he was arrested and imprisoned. He was held there as a prisoner until the war ended.

For the next six months, Turkish Jews in Rhodes continued their lives on the island under the under very harsh conditions of the Nazi supervision. They were occasionally arrested and released again. Since the Third Reich administration in Germany decided not to send Jews to death camps after that date, these Jews were able to survive on the island.

As a result, German commander Kleeman, who learned that representatives of the International Red Cross Organization would visit Rhodes in January 1945, ordered all the remaining Jews to be sent to Türkiye in order not to be found guilty by the Red Cross. The next day, they put all the Jews on small boats and abandoned them in the stormy Mediterranean. The Jews, struggling with the stormy seas in boats, were saved by setting foot on Turkish lands in Marmaris, right across from Rhodes.

After the war completely ended, Selahattin Ülkümen was sent back to Türkiye from Greece, where he was held as a prisoner of war. She never married again and devoted his life to his then sick child. He passed away in his sleep at the age of 89 in Balat Jewish Hospital Or-Ahayim, where he was hospitalized by the Turkish Jewish Community, on April 7, 2003.

 

Testimonials and honors

Maurice Soriano, a close witness of Selahattin Ülkümen's efforts to save the Jews in Rhodes, describes him as follows: “I was one of the 35 Jews who stayed alive in Rhodes, thanks to Ülkümen. I cannot express my gratitude to the Turkish Consul in words. He ensured our survival through his extraordinary efforts. “Everyone around me shared the same feelings.”

Vice President of the Quincentennial Foundation and historian Naim Güleryüz brought together the interviews he had with all the surviving Rhodes Jews and delivered these documents to the Yad Vashem Museum in Israel. Thanks to these testimonies, Selahattin Ülkümen's actions would become concrete and Yad Vashem would recognize him as a savior. In December 1998, Yad Vashem Museum honored Selahattin Ülkümen with the title of “Righteous Among the Nations” and a tree sapling was planted in his name on the “The Avenue of the Righteous Among the Nations” and a plaque with his name was placed. For this ceremony, Ülkümen personally went to Israel and was hosted there.

In 1998, a stamp was printed by the Israel Post in Ülkümen's honor.

 

 

Commemoration of our former Consul General of Rhodes, Selahattin Ülkümen[2]
 

Mr. Selahattin Ülkümen, one of the diplomats who helped Jews during the Second World War and who was declared a "Righteous Gentile" by Yad Vashem (Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Memorial Administration) in Jerusalem, was commemorated with a ceremony held on 26 October 2004 at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.

In addition to Mr. Selahattin Ülkümen's son, Mr. Mehmet Ülkümen, and his grandson, Mr. Altuğ Ülkümen, Bernard Turiel, one of those who were personally rescued by Mr. Selahattin Ülkümen, was present at the ceremony.

Holocaust Museum Director Sarah Bloomfield emphasized in her opening speech at the ceremony that those who set an example for humanity and stepped forward to help others at the expense of endangering their own lives in the most difficult times deserve to be remembered as true heroes in the annals of history, and said that being able to organize a ceremony in memory of Mr. Ülkümen is a great honor for their Museum.

The museum's historian, Severin Hochberg, presented the historical framework of Mr. Ülkümen's actions, and the relevant sections of the documentary on the subject, Desperate Hours, were briefly shown at the ceremony.

On June 5, 2012, a school named after Selahattin Ülkümen was opened in the city of Van. This school was built with the joint financial support of the Turkish Jewish Community and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and was gifted to Van.