The Turkish Ambassador

Nazi flags were flying all over Paris, these were the darkest days in France. For thousands of Jews the only thing that differentiated life and death was a piece of paper with a Turkish stamp on it. Ambassador Behic Erkin had to make a decision, either to stay neutral a s his country was and not get involved , or to put his career and his own life at stake and issue Turkish passports to thousands of Jews destined to die in concentration camps. At the height of Nazi cruelty, he planned the unthinkable. While death wagons were carrying millions to concentration camps, he made plans to carry thousands of Jews to freedom on the opposite track through Germany and occupied Europe to Turkey. His battle in the name of humanity against the Nazis were reported in the Washington Post on June 17, 1943 under the heading “Strong Nazi Curbs on Ambassador's Activities Blamed” The Turkish Ambassador is the astonishing true story of a few Turkish diplomats in France led by an extraordinary ambassador who thwarted the Nazis’ plans to deport the Jews to the death camps and saved thousands from certain death during World War II.