Namık Kemal Yolga (1914–2001) was a

Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...

diplomat and statesman. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Yolga was the Vice-Consul at the Turkish Embassy in Paris,

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. He claimed to have saved the lives of Turkish

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...

s from the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

but this has been challenged due to lack of evidence. In fact, evidence suggests that Yolga was actually instrumental in stripping France-born Turkish Jews of citizenship, which could have saved them from the Holocaust. He has been given a national award by the Turkish government and a Jewish foundation in Turkey.

Career

Namık Kemal Yolga was posted to the Turkish Embassy in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

in 1940 as the Vice-Consul, his first diplomatic post in a foreign country. Two months later the Nazis invaded and occupied France. They forced the roundup of Jews, sending those from the Paris area to the

Drancy deportation camp Drancy internment camp was an assembly and detention camp for confining Jews who were later deported to the extermination camps during the German occupation of France during World War II. Originally conceived and built as a modernist urban comm ...

. From there they were to be sent east to

concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...

s. Young Yolga claimed to have saved

Turkish Jews The history of the Jews in Turkey ( tr, Türkiye Yahudileri or ; he, יהודים טורקים, Yehudim Turkim; lad, Djudios Turkos) covers the 2400 years that Jews have lived in what is now Turkey. There have been Jewish communities in An ...

one by one from the Nazi authorities, by picking them up from Drancy, driving them in his own car and hiding them in safe places. In his autobiography, Yolga described his efforts as: In fact, according to Serge Klarsfeld's "Mémorial de la Déportation des Juifs de France", 1300 Turkish Jews, among which 939 officially recognized as Turkish by the Nazis, were deported. Their fate depended entirely of the versatile decision of the Turkish bureau staff. According to the laws enacted by Turkey during the 1930s, all emigrated citizens who did not register at the Consulates, or did not fulfill their military duty, lost their Turkish nationality, and this was the situation for the majority of the Jews. Thanks to the efforts of the well known Auschwitz survivor Haim Vidal Sephiha, a Turkish Jew deported from Belgium, monuments, plaques and listings of Turkish Jews names are now present on the main extermination sites. See also Benjamin Schatzma's "Journal d'un interné, Volume II", the works of historian and university scholar

Esther Benbassa Esther Benbassa (born 27 March 1950) is a French-Turkish-Israeli historian and politician. She specializes in the history of Jews and other minorities. Since 2011, Benbassa has served as a French senator, representing Paris from 2017 onwards an ...

, and the article by Claude Wainstain on Necdet Kent, another "Turkish Schindler", whose biography seems also legendary. Namık Kemal Yolga later served as an Ambassador in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

Caracas Caracas (, ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the ...

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

and

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

. In addition he served as General Secretary in the

Turkish Foreign Ministry The Ministry of Foreign Affairs ( tr, Dışişleri Bakanlığı) is a Government of Turkey, government ministry of the Republic of Turkey, responsible for the nation's Foreign relations of Turkey, foreign policy and international relations. Es ...

Legacy and honors

* Yolga was honored by the "500. Yıl Vakfı" (Quincentennial Foundation) in 1998. * Yolga,

Selahattin Ülkümen Selahattin Ülkümen (14 January 1914 – 7 June 2003) was a Turkish diplomat and consul in Rhodes during the Second World War, who assisted the Jewish community in the island with Turkish citizenship to avoid them being deported during the Holo ...

and

Necdet Kent İsmail Necdet Kent (1 January 1911 – 20 September 2002) was a Turkish diplomat, who risked his life to save Jews during World War II. While vice-consul in Marseilles, France between 1941 and 1944, he allegedly gave documents of citizenship to ...

were honored with Turkey's Supreme Service Medal for rescuing Jews during the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

References

* *

Career

Legacy and honors

See also

References

Further reading