Benjamin Sagalowitz papers Nachlass Dr. iur. Benjamin Sagalowitz (1901-1970)

Copyright Holder: Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich. Archiv für Zeitgeschichte - Archivleitung Benjamin Sagalowitz (1901-1970) was a journalist and historian, born in Vitebsk, Russia, graduated in law in Zurich, Switzerland. He wrote for Jewish and non-Jewish papers and from 1938 to 1964 was in charge of the Juedische Nachrichtenagentur (JUNA), the news agency of the representative body of the Jewish communities, the Schweizerischer Israelitischer Gemeindebund (SIG). In July 1942, a German industrialist, Edward Schulte, approached Sagalowitz about the Nazi plan to exterminate European Jewry. Sagalowitz transmitted this information to Gerhard Riegner, the representative of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) in Geneva, who informed the free world. However, the United States delayed the official publication for months. After 1945 he was a correspondent for the influential paper the Neue Zuercher Zeitung and reported from the Nuremberg Trials and later Nazi trials, and also from the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem. This collection relates to Benjamin Sagalowitz’s activities as a journalist and includes records on several trials relevant to World War II and the Holocaust that took place over a period of three decades, including the trial of David Frankfurter, the Nuremberg Trials, the Eichmann Trial, and the Auschwitz Trial in Frankfurt. Includes also family photographs, correspondence with numerous individuals (including Robert M. W. Kempner, Erwin Lagus, Prof. Dr. Carl Ludwig, Jacob Zucker et al.) and Jewish as well as Zionist organizations, a letter (together with archival documentation) from Sagalowitz’s niece Nina Zafran-Sagalowitz, dated February 3, 1994, to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (see file: NL Sagalowitz / 9).