Laurence A. Steinhardt, US Ambassador to USSR 1939-1941 and Turkey 1942-45
Laurence Steinhardt was one of the very few Jewish senior members of the US State Department prior to and during World War II. In 1939, President Roosevelt appointed Laurence Steinhardt Ambassador to the Soviet Union. This was a crucial and sensitive appointment, particularly in light of the recently signed Nazi-Soviet pact.
With the outbreak of war and the Nazi invasion of Poland, Steinhardt took secret steps to help Eastern European Jews escape the Nazis. Aware, however, that the Soviets were planting agents among refugees seeking admission to the U.S., Steinhardt opposed their indiscriminate admission, urging careful screening. He was instrumental in negotiating the first lend-lease agreement with the Soviets and transferred the Embassy to Kuybyshev when Stalin moved the Soviet government thence from threatened Moscow.
Early in 1942, Steinhardt was made Ambassador to Turkey, and for the next three years played a vital part in helping to win the Turkish republic to the Allied cause. Steinhardt was further instrumental in completing lend-lease agreements with Turkey. While in Turkey, Steinhardt was responsible for helping Jews throughout Eastern Europe. He worked with Jewish rescue and relief agencies and other diplomats, including Papal representative in Ankara Cardinal Roncalli, later Pope John XXIII, in helping to save Jews. Steinhardt also worked with the newly-established War Refugee Board (WRB), founded in January 1944. He worked closely with board representative Ira Hirschmann. As a result of this successful collaboration, thousands of Jews were saved.
In 1950, Ambassador Steinhardt was killed in an airplane crash while on a mission for the State Department. He was U.S. ambassador to Canada at the time. He was the first US Ambassador to be killed in the line of duty.
Steinhardt’s papers are in the Library of Congress, the National Archives, and private family holdings.
Bauer, Yehuda. American Jewry and the Holocaust. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), pp. 395, 397, 406.
Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 945, 947, 1095, 1108, 1286 fn165, 1288 fn209.
Central Zionist Archives, Jerusalem, Israel. Minutes of the Executive of the Jewish Agency; Minutes of the Rescue Committee; and Files of the Representatives in Istanbul – L15.
Erbelding, Rebecca. Rescue Board: The Untold Story of America’s Efforts to Save the Jews of Europe. (New York: Doubleday, 2018), pp. 87, 89, 91, 93, 95-96, 99, 100-101, 131, 132, 133, 135, 136-137, 169-170, 179, 180.
Feingold, Henry. The Politics of Rescue: The Roosevelt Administration and the Holocaust, 1938-1944. (New Brunswick, NJ:(New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1970), pp. 145, 281-291.
Friedman, Saul S. No Haven for the Oppressed. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1973), pp. 120, 147.
Friling, Tuvia, translated by Ora Cummings. Arrows in the Dark: David Ben-Gurion, the Yishuv Leadership, and Rescue Attempts during the Holocaust (Vols. 1 and 2). (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2005).
Gutman, Yisrael (Ed.). Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), pp. 239, 665.
Hebblethwaite, Peter. Pope John XXIII: Shepherd of the modern world. (New York, 1985), pp. 141-143.
Hirschmann, Ira A. Life Line to a Promised Land. (New York: Vanguard Press, 1946), pp. 18, 22, 42-43, 49, 58, 61, 63-64, 71, 84-85, 105, 109, 131, 137, 153, 166-167, 168.
Hirschmann, Ira. Caution to the Winds. (New York: David McKay Co.), pp. 179-185.
Hirschmann, Ira A. The Embers Still Burn. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1949).
Lapide, Pinchas E. Three Popes and the Jews. (New York: Hawthorn Books, 1967).
Levin, Nora. The Holocaust: The Destruction of European Jewry, 1933-1945. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1968), pp. 629-630, 634.
Library of Congress, Personal Archive of US Ambassador to Turkey Laurence A. Steinhardt.
Morley, John. Vatican Diplomacy and the Jews during the Holocaust, 1939-1943. (New York: Ktav, 1980), pp. 43, 45, 61, 91-92, 94, 122-123, 161, 206.
Morse, Arthur D. While Six Million Died: A Chronicle of American Apathy. (New York: Random House, 1967), pp. 331-332, 368-369.
Ofer, D. “The Rescue Activities of the Jewish Agency Delegation in Istanbul in 1943.” In Rescue Attempts during the Holocaust. Proceedings of the Second Yad Vashem International Historical Conference, edited by Y. Gutman and E. Zuroff, pp. 435-450. (Jerusalem, 1977).
Penkower, Monty Noam. The Jews Were Expendable: Free World diplomacy and the Holocaust. (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1983), pp. 63-67, 174-175, 177-178, 250.
Franklin Roosevelt Presidential Library (FRPL), Hyde Park, NY. Records of the War Refugee Board (WRB).
Shaw, Stanford J. Turkey and the Holocaust: Turkey’s Role in Rescuing Turkish and European Jewry from Nazi Persecution, 1933-1945. (New York: New York University Press, 1993), pp. 124-126, 128, 291-295, 300-301.
Steinhardt family archives. Personal papers of Ambassador Laurence A. Steinhardt.
Wyman, David S. The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust, 1941-1945. (New York: Pantheon, 1984), pp. 216-217, 219, 239-240, 244.
Publications:
Legal Status of the Trade Union, June 1915
Medical Jurisprudence: The Rules of Law Governing the Liability of Physicians and Surgeons for Malpractice, Journal of the American Medical Association, March 2, 1918, vol. 70, pp. 585-587.
Medical Jurisprudence: The General Rules of Law Governing the Compensation of Physician and Surgeons, July 9, 1921, vol. 77, pp. 98-100.
The Regulation and Control of Physicians and Surgeons by Public Authority, Journal of the American Medical Association, June 4, 1927, vol, 88, pp. 1833-1835.
The truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth, 1931
Directorships:
Fruit & Produce Acceptance Corp., Lessing’s Inc., Louis Phillipe Inc., Leopold Stern and Sons Inc., Affiliated Products Inc., United Steel and Tube Inc., Neet Inc., G.R. Kinney & Co., Jean Patou Inc., Immac Inc., Encyclopedia Britannica Inc.
Member of numerous organizations:
American Bar Association/ Atlantic Beach Club/ Bankers Club of New York/ Bar Association of the City of New York/ Columbia University Club/ Columbia Varsity Club/ Democratic National Finance Committee/ Executive Finance Committee of the Democratic National Campaign Committee/ Federation of American Zionists and the American Zion Commonwealth/ National Democratic club/ Member, President Roosevelt’s pre-convention campaign committee/ Pi Lambda Phi
Wikipedia entry (downloaded 7/1/2021):
“Laurence Adolph Steinhardt (October 6, 1892 – March 28, 1950), American economist, lawyer, and senior United States Department of State diplomat, U.S. Ambassador to six countries. He served as U.S. First Minister to Sweden (1933-1937), U.S. Ambassador to Peru (1937-1939), U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union (1939-1941), U.S. Ambassador to Turkey (1942-1945), U.S. Ambassador to Czechoslovakia (1945-1948) and United States Ambassador to Canada (1948-1950). He was killed in a U.S. embassy plane crash on March 28, 1950, in Ramsayville, Ontario, Canada, while serving as U.S. Ambassador to Canada. He was the first United States Ambassador to be killed in the line of duty.
“Laurence A. Steinhardt was born October 6, 1892 at his family home (23 East 92nd Street) in New York City. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
“In 1932, in active support of Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt’s pre-convention presidential campaign, he joined the inner campaign circle committee, composed of political notables Louis Howe, Jimmy Farley, Frank Walker, and Ed Flynn. Specifically, with his economic background on FDR’s finance committee, he wrote campaign speeches on the economics of the time for FDR.
“He entered the U.S diplomatic service at ambassadorial rank in 1933 at the behest of President Franklin D. Roosevelt as First Minister to Sweden (1933-1937), U.S. Ambassador to Peru (1937-1939), U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union (1939-1941), U.S. Ambassador to Turkey (1942-1945), U.S. Ambassador to Czechoslovakia (1945-1948), United States Ambassador to Canada (1948-1950).
“Awarded the Order of the Polar Star in 1936 by King Gustav V of Sweden. Inscribed in The Golden Book, Jewish National Fund, Jewish Agency for Palestine, 1944. Awarded the United States Typhus Commission Medal in 1945 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Awarded the Medal for Merit in 1946 by President Harry S. Truman. Awarded posthumously the Honorary Doctor of Laws, Hamilton College, 1950.
“In 1941, immediately prior to Germany's bombing assault on Moscow and with only six hours’ notice, Steinhardt sent his wife, daughter and her governess, each carrying only one suitcase, out to Stockholm on one of the last planes departing with families of diplomats to any safer destinations within Europe. Steinhardt then returned his attentions to the ongoing preparations to evacuate and accompany the remaining U.S. embassy staff to Kuybyshev taking seven days by train to go some 400 miles east of Moscow to this destination designated by the Kremlin for remaining diplomats. Once the staff was situated in spartan housing with the entire stock of embassy foodstuffs brought along and sufficient to feed the greater diplomatic corps in addition to the staff, he returned to the U.S. embassy residence in Moscow during the bombings to secure the embassy with a skeleton staff of six. He was known within family circles to say he took great pride in working alongside his amazing staffs in his embassy postings. In July of this period, the famed photographer, Margaret Bourke-White, managed to get into Moscow to the embassy residence so as to document the German bombings. On the nights of July 23 and July 26 she and Steinhardt lay on their backs on the roof of Spaso House while she photographed German bombs, Nazi parachute flares, tracer bullets, and anti-aircraft gunshots streaking across the nighttime sky overhead. Her portfolio assignment produced startling visual imagery to the American public in the issue of Life Magazine Vol 11, No 9., pp. 15-21. dated September 1, 1941. Kuybyshev.[1]
“On January 12, 1942, Steinhardt was appointed Ambassador to Turkey. His mission directives included buying up all the available sources of chrome the Nazis needed for the manufacture of steel for their war machine. More importantly and much more challenging was the deep rooted presence in Istanbul of the highest flange of German diplomats led by German Ambassador Franz von Papen whose objective was to bring Turkey into the German side of the war. Steinhardt's mission directive was to bring Turkey into the allied side of the war. Each was crafty, intense, and possessed with the access to vast intelligence gathering network sources. Turkey was THE battleground during this critical period of 1942-1945 as so much hung in the balance not the least of which was Turkey's important geographic location, then and now. By 1944, Turkey had turned west to the Allies, an historical orientation originally seeded by Kemal Ataturk in 1923 to turn Turkey into a modern secular nation while still keeping its foundational character.
“While Ambassador to Turkey, Steinhardt, in part due of his Jewish heritage, played a significant but not openly known role (due to his public diplomatic position) in numerous Jewish related refugee transit evacuations: the rescue of Hungarian Jews from Bergen Belsen, Jewish children from Romania, and many eminent intellectuals fleeing Europe to find refuge in Turkey, Palestine and the United States. In personal subterranean concert with the Vatican's representative to Turkey, Papal Nuncio Cardinal Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli (1881-1963), later to become His Holiness Pope Saint John XIII, they devised false visas schemes to facilitate the documents needed for transit through Turkey for fleeing refugees. Steinhardt and Ira Hirschmann of The War Refugee Board secured leaky boats wherever possible with no assurance of the safety of such vessels but the hope that anything might succeed if tried. While there were successes, sadly there were also tragedies and losses. In a personal letter dated October 27, 1944 to his brother-in-law, William Rosenblatt he wrote:
Dear Will:
This is a tragic letter. During my six years in Russia and Turkey, of the hundreds of individuals who have subjected me to the most intense pressure to locate relatives in the various war zones, none has laid down as concentrated and unceasing barrage as Mrs. S. Although I informed her again and again that I was doing everything within my power to get the four children out of Rumania, she subjected me to a barrage of letters from eight or ten different individuals, (all of which had to be answered by me personally) from New York, Washington, and even Palestine. During my last visit to New York, although I was nearly frantic in trying to accomplish a lot of things in the three or four days at my disposal, she insisted on coming to see me again. She simply would not take no for an answer, although I wrote her several letters that everything possible was being done. Of course, the campaign carried on had its effect. Such campaigns usually do.
On my return to Ankara, I took the S. case up once again not only with the War Refuge Board representatives but with the individual Jewish agencies which bring people out of the Balkans. Under the pressure to which everyone was subjected by Mrs. S, it now appears that two of the children were given the preferential treatment for which Mrs. S. had been clamoring and as ill fate would have it, they were on the S.S. Mefkua. You will recall that the S.S. Mefkura was one of the three last boats that left Constanza—and the only one of the three that was lost.
While I cannot, of course, be positive that the two children were lost when the Mefkura was sunk by a submarine, the representative of the War Refuge Board in Istanbul has today verified the fact—as best he can—that these two children were among the passengers and as he knows the names of the only five or six survivors out of about 300, it is reasonably certain—although of course not positive—that these two children were lost when the Mefkura sank.
The other two children with their aunt arrived in Istanbul two or three days ago. I understand that there will be no difficulty in arranging for their transit to Palestine. After they have reached Palestine, Mrs. S will presumably be able to make the necessary arrangements for them to proceed to the United States.
I cannot tell you how heartbroken I am about the sad loss of the other two children. Had Mrs. S not been quite so insistent and let the matter take its orderly course, all four children would doubtless have arrived in Istanbul together. She was, however, so insistent and as I have said above subjected everyone to so much pressure that the Jewish representatives in Istanbul, trying to meet her wishes, appear to have been able to get two of the children on board the Mefkura.
Of course, what I have said above is only for your private ear. You certainly will not wish to add to Mrs.S agony by telling her that had she not been so insistent two of her children would probably not have been lost. To do so would be inhumanly cruel.
With every good wish and kindest regards,
Sincerely yours,
Laurence
“1. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on May 18, 2013. Retrieved June 14, 2013.
“2. Burial Detail: Steinhardt, Laurence A (Section 30, Grave 728) – ANC Explorer
“3. Carbone, Nick (September 12, 2012). "Before Libya: US Ambassadors Who Have Died in the Line of Duty". newfeed.time.com. Time.
“Sources
· Laurence Adolph Steinhardt (1892–1950) US State Department Office of the Historian”
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