Abdol-Hossein Sardari
Abdol -Hossein Sardari (* 1895, † 1981 in Nottingham; persian عبدالحسین سرداری ) was an Iranian diplomat who saved the lives of many Jews during the Holocaust; He is often referred to as " Schindler of Iran ". Sardari was the uncle of Fereydoun Hoveyda.
Life
Abdol -Hossein Sardari studied in Switzerland Law and began a career in the diplomatic service of Iran. His most important station should be the Iranian Embassy in Paris.
Sardari directed the consular service of the Iranian Embassy in Paris. When the German army occupied France in 1940, the Iranian embassy was moved to Vichy to the new seat of the French government. Sardari remained in Paris and directed the newly established French consulate. In Paris there was a relatively large community of Iranian Jews. After the National Socialists believe that German as well as Iranians are Aryans, the Third Reich had agreed with Iran to keep all Iranian citizens before German attack actions. Due to this fact Sardari it was possible to protect the Iranian Jews. He argued against the Germans that the Jews were already 538 BC by Cyrus II freed from the Babylonian captivity and had to leave Iran for a long time. Today's Iranian Jews were Iranians, although known to the Mosaic doctrine, but basically were Aryans. Sardari coined for this group the term " Djuguten " as opposed to the " Jahuden ". For the German occupation administration so that Iranian Jews were all Iranian citizens and thus safe from deportation. First intervened Adolf Eichmann and called the " Djuguten " as an invention Sardaris. Sardari turned to Friedrich -Werner Graf von der Schulenburg, who he knew from his time as ambassador in Tehran. From Schulenburg confirmed that the matter raised by the Djuguten an Islamic sect with the Mosaic traditions. He recommended not to pursue the matter in order to avoid diplomatic problems with Iran.
After the Anglo -Soviet invasion of Iran in August 1941, the Iranian government has been forced to close their embassies in the countries of the Axis Powers and in occupied France. Sardari got the service manual, to return to Iran. Sardari presented at the German military administration for an exit visa in Iran, which was rejected. Although Sardari had lost his diplomatic status, he decided his consular work under the protection of the Swiss Embassy, which represented the diplomatic interests in Iran from now on to continue. Sardari was further from the left in the safe of the former Iranian embassy passes. In these passports do not specify a religious affiliation were entered, so that the passport holders were considered Iranians and thus as Aryans. Since a passport could be issued for whole families, one is now believed that Sardari thus 2000 to 3000 saved the lives of Jews.
After the end of World War II Sardari financial support was at the Iranian Embassy in Belgium. In 1952, Mohammad Mossadegh had now become Prime Minister, Sardari was recalled by Foreign Minister Fatemi in Iran, arrested and put on trial because he had issued illegally Iranian passports during the time of the German occupation of France. After the overthrow of Mossadegh Sardari was released from prison, was completely rehabilitated and resumed the diplomatic service. His last assignment abroad led him to Baghdad to the Iranian embassy in Iraq. When it came to the overthrow of the monarchy in Iraq on July 14, 1958 Sardari left Baghdad and returned to the diplomatic service of the back. Abdullah Entezam - Saltaneh, a friend from Paris days Sardaris, a director at the National Iranian Oil Company (NIO ) had become. He took Sardari in the NIOC. Sardari was sent end of 1958 as NIOC representative to London. There he remained in until his retirement.
After the Islamic revolution in 1979, Sardari threatened as early as the time of Prime Minister Mossadegh 's arrest. The new Iranian government had confiscated all his possessions in Tehran and removed his pension. For a time he lived in abject poverty in a room in the London Borough of Croydon. Later, he probably moved to Nottingham, where he died allegedly in 1981. Fariborz Mokhtari describes Sardari than the typical Iranian who makes no distinction between the religious affiliation of a person: Here you have a Muslim Iranian who goes out of his way, Risks his life, Certainly Risks his career and property and everything else, to save fellow Iranians. There is ... no distinction ' I am Muslim, he is Jew ' or whatever.
The humanitarian commitment Sardaris was honored for the first time in 2004 by the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles.