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<ref>[http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/09/30/1033283437468.html "True courage of one who had to act: Necdet Kent, Turkish diplomat 1911-2002"], ''The Daily Telegraph'', London; reprinted on ''Sydney Morning Herald''.com, 1 Oct 2002, accessed on September 25, 2008</ref>
<ref>[http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/09/30/1033283437468.html "True courage of one who had to act: Necdet Kent, Turkish diplomat 1911-2002"], ''The Daily Telegraph'', London; reprinted on ''Sydney Morning Herald''.com, 1 Oct 2002, accessed on September 25, 2008</ref>


Kent's boss, Abassador Behic Erkin encouraged all members of the Turkish legation to do all that was possible to save Jews having some familial connection with Turkey or the Ottoman Empire. They worked night and day risking their careers as this was not sanctioned by their governement in Ankara. At times they even risked their lives. In ''Ambassador and a Mentsch: The story of a Turkish Diplomat in Vichy France,'' Arnold Reisman estimates that over 3000 were thus saved. <references/> See [[Reisman Arnold]] ''Ambassador and a Mentsch: The story of a Turkish Diplomat in Vichy France'' (Charleston SC: CreateSpace, Forthcoming June 2010)<references/>
Kent's boss, Abassador Behic Erkin encouraged all members of the Turkish legation to do all that was possible to save Jews having some familial connection with Turkey or the Ottoman Empire. They worked night and day risking their careers as this was not sanctioned by their governement in Ankara. At times they even risked their lives. In ''Ambassador and a Mentsch: The story of a Turkish Diplomat in Vichy France,'' Arnold Reisman estimates that over 3000 were thus saved.<ref>[[Reisman Arnold]] ''Ambassador and a Mentsch: The story of a Turkish Diplomat in Vichy France'' (Charleston SC: CreateSpace, Forthcoming June 2010)</ref>


Revision as of 22:31, 18 May 2010

İsmail Necdet Kent
Born(1911-01-01)January 1, 1911
DiedSeptember 20, 2002(2002-09-20) (aged 91)
NationalityTurkish
Alma materNew York University
OccupationDiplomat
Known forsaving lifes of Jews during World War II
ChildrenMuhtar Kent
AwardsTurkey's Supreme Service Medal

İsmail Necdet Kent (1911 – September 20, 2002) was a Turkish diplomat who risked his life to save Jews during World War II. While consul general in Marseilles, France between 1941 and 1944, he gave Turkish citizenship to dozens of Turkish Jews living in France who did not have proper identity papers, to save them from deportation to the Nazi gas chambers.

Biography

Early life and education

Necdet Kent was born in Turkey and got his secondary education from Galatasaray Lycee, as did some of his colleagues in the foreign ministry. He travelled to the United States for his university studies, earning a degree in public law from New York University.

Career

Returning to Turkey, Kent entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1937. He was first posted as vice-consul-general to Athens, Greece. In 1941, he was appointed to the post of consul-general at Marseilles, France, a post which he held until 1944. Many refugees gathered in southern France during the war, and Marseilles was a major port of embarkation.

At some time in 1943, an assistant at the Turkish consulate told Kent that the Germans had just loaded 80 Turkish Jews living in Marseilles into cattle cars for immediate transport to probable death in Germany. Kent later recalled, "To this day, I remember the inscription on the wagon: 'This wagon may be loaded with 20 head of cattle and 500 kilograms of grass'."[1] [2] Kent approached the Gestapo commander at the station, and demanded that the Jews be released, as they were Turkish citizens and Turkey was neutral. The official refused to do so, saying that the people were nothing but Jews.[3]

Kent and his assistant quickly got on the train, too. The German official asked him to get off, but Kent refused. At the next station, German officers boarded and apologized to Kent for not letting him off at Marseilles; they had a car waiting outside to return him to his office. Kent explained that the mistake was that 80 Turkish citizens had been loaded on the train. "As a representative of a government that rejected such treatment for religious beliefs, I could not consider leaving them there," he said. Surprised at his uncompromising stance, the Germans ultimately let everyone off the train.[4]

"I would never forget," Kent later said, "those embraces around our necks and hands ... the expressions of gratitude in the eyes of the people we rescued ... the inner peace I felt when I reached my bed towards morning."[5]

Kent's heroism was not limited to this one action. In contrast to some of other foreign representatives stationed in Marseilles, Kent reached out to the Jewish community, issuing Turkish identity documents to scores of Turkish Jews living in southern France, or those who had fled there and did not hold valid Turkish passports.[6]

Kent went to Gestapo headquarters to protest against their latest action in Marseilles: the stripping of males in the street to determine whether or not they were Jews (by circumcision). The consul-general rebuked the German commander and informed him that circumcision did not necessarily prove an individual's Jewishness. Kent said, "When I saw the emptiness in the commander's eyes, I realize that he did not understand what I am saying. And I said that I will accept to be examined by their doctors." He told the Germans that Muslim men, as he was, were also circumcised. [7]

Kent's boss, Abassador Behic Erkin encouraged all members of the Turkish legation to do all that was possible to save Jews having some familial connection with Turkey or the Ottoman Empire. They worked night and day risking their careers as this was not sanctioned by their governement in Ankara. At times they even risked their lives. In Ambassador and a Mentsch: The story of a Turkish Diplomat in Vichy France, Arnold Reisman estimates that over 3000 were thus saved.[8]


After World War II, Kent continued his career in the Turkish foreign service. He served at the Turkish consulate in New York. He also was at different times the Turkish ambassador to Thailand, India, Sweden, and Poland.[9]

Necdet Kent married and had children.[10] One son was Muhtar Kent, president of The Coca Cola Company from July 2008.

Legacy and honors

In 2001, Kent, Namık Kemal Yolga and Selahattin Ülkümen, also Turkish diplomats who had worked in Europe and saved Jews during World War II, were honoured with Turkey's Supreme Service Medal, as well as a special medal from Israel, for rescuing Jews during the Holocaust.

See also

References

  1. ^ Etgar Lefkovits, "Necdet KENT : Le Consul turc qui a stoppé le train de la mort!" (The consul who halted the death train), Bleublancture.net, 21 Sep 2000, accessed 3 Dec 2009
  2. ^ "True courage of one who had to act: Necdet Kent, Turkish diplomat 1911-2002", The Daily Telegraph, London; reprinted on Sydney Morning Herald.com, 1 Oct 2002, accessed on September 25, 2008
  3. ^ Etgar Lefkovits, "Necdet KENT : Le Consul turc qui a stoppé le train de la mort!" (The consul who halted the death train), Bleublancture.net, 21 Sep 2000, accessed 3 Dec 2009
  4. ^ "True courage of one who had to act: Necdet Kent, Turkish diplomat 1911-2002", The Daily Telegraph, London; reprinted on Sydney Morning Herald.com, 1 Oct 2002, accessed on September 25, 2008
  5. ^ "True courage of one who had to act: Necdet Kent, Turkish diplomat 1911-2002", The Daily Telegraph, London; reprinted on Sydney Morning Herald.com, 1 Oct 2002, accessed on September 25, 2008
  6. ^ "True courage of one who had to act: Necdet Kent, Turkish diplomat 1911-2002", The Daily Telegraph, London; reprinted on Sydney Morning Herald.com, 1 Oct 2002, accessed on September 25, 2008
  7. ^ "True courage of one who had to act: Necdet Kent, Turkish diplomat 1911-2002", The Daily Telegraph, London; reprinted on Sydney Morning Herald.com, 1 Oct 2002, accessed on September 25, 2008
  8. ^ Reisman Arnold Ambassador and a Mentsch: The story of a Turkish Diplomat in Vichy France (Charleston SC: CreateSpace, Forthcoming June 2010)
  9. ^ "True courage of one who had to act: Necdet Kent, Turkish diplomat 1911-2002", The Daily Telegraph, London; reprinted on Sydney Morning Herald.com, 1 Oct 2002, accessed on September 25, 2008
  10. ^ "True courage of one who had to act: Necdet Kent, Turkish diplomat 1911-2002", The Daily Telegraph, London; reprinted on Sydney Morning Herald.com, 1 Oct 2002, accessed on September 25, 2008

Further reading

  • Stanford J. Shaw, Turkey and the Holocaust: Turkey's Role in Rescuing Turkish and European Jewry from Nazi Persecution, 1933-1945, New York: New York University Press; London, MacMillan Press, 1993
  • Stanford J. Shaw, The Jews of the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic, New York: New York University Press
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