History of Sorts

It may be a naive notion, but I believe there are only two types of people in this world: good and bad.

Bad people will always do bad and evil things. They may, on occasion, be charitable and do something good, but in the end, they only serve their own interests.

On the other hand, sometimes good people can be weak when faced with danger or their mortality and, therefore, do things they usually wouldn’t do, which results in evil being permitted.

However, there are those who see evil for what it is and, regardless of the consequences for themselves, will do everything to stop it. They are the heroes we don’t always read or hear about.

İsmail Necdet Kent was such a man. He was a Turkish diplomat who risked his life to save Jews during World War II.

After he was posted as vice consul to Athens, Greece, he moved to Marseille, France, in 1941 and 1944, where he was appointed Vice Consul.

At some time in 1943, Kent rushed to the Saint Charles train station in Marseilles and boarded a train bound for the Auschwitz concentration camp after Nazi guards refused to let some 70 Jews with Turkish citizenship disembark. After more than an hour on the train, the guards let Kent and the Jews leave.

A Jewish assistant at the consulate had alerted Kent that the SS loaded about 80 Turkish Jews resident in Marseilles into cattle cars for immediate transport to certain death in Auschwitz. The Jews were crammed one on top of the other in the wagon, which was meant to transport cattle. Overcome with sorrow and anger at the sight, Kent approached the Gestapo commander at the station and demanded that the Jews, whom he said were Turkish citizens, be released.

The official refused to comply, saying that the people were nothing but Jews.

Not willing to give up, and with a surge of courage and human benevolence, Kent turned to the Jewish aide from the consulate and said, “Come on, we’re getting on this train, too.” Pushing aside the soldier who tried to stop him, he jumped into the wagon. The German officer demanded Kent to get off the train, but he refused.

The train took off, but at the next station, German officers boarded and apologized to Kent for not letting him off at Marseilles. They had a car waiting for him to take him back to his office. But Kent explained that the mistake was not that he was on the train but that 80 Turkish citizens had been loaded on it.

“As a representative of a government that rejected such treatment for religious beliefs, I could not consider leaving them there,” he said. Dumbfounded by his defiance and uncompromising stance, the Germans caved in and let everyone off the train.

Although Turkey was a neutral country at that time, the officials could have easily killed Kent for his act of defiance.

 

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necdet_Kent

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/necdet-kent

https://www.accidentaltalmudist.org/heroes/2017/12/06/the-turkish-holocaust-hero/

https://jewishcurrents.org/september-20-the-turkish-consul-who-saved-jews#:~:text=Necdet%20Kent%2C%20who%20as%20Turkish,Europe%2C%20from%201941%20to%201944.

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