Carl Lutz Memorial Walk

2020 marks the 125th anniversary of the birth of Carl Lutz and also the 45th anniversary of his death. On this occasion, Carl Lutz Memorial Walks have been launched in Budapest to remember the Swiss diplomat to whom tens of thousands of Hungarians owe their lives.

The Swiss Embassy in Budapest originally planned this commemoration to be held in March this year but the COVID-19 situation caused it to be postponed. This Thursday, the event was opened by the Swiss Ambassador Peter Burkhard who talked about the career of Carl Lutz, the vice consul at the Swiss Embassy between 1942 and 1945. He stayed in Budapest throughout the period of the Hungarian Holocaust, and from the autumn of 1944, he granted Swiss asylum to thousands of persecuted people by means of a certificate that officially recognized the holder as a Swiss citizen.

The Ambassador spoke in front of the statue of Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg who also saved thousands of Hungarian Jews from deportation to concentration camps. He was followed by Dávid Merker, co-founder and managing director of ‘Hosszúlépés. Járunk?’ that organizes informative walks in the Hungarian capital.

The event ended with a walk guided by historian Laura Csonka to venues that can be tied to the activities of Carl Lutz over seven decades ago.