Turkish Passport Page #3

I said I didn't have much.

He handed me a third class ticket to Paris.

The Consulate knew of the raids on the Jews and

had researched the dates.

They knew Jews had been detained and

one Turkish Jew was among them.

It was me.

This Turkish Jew had to be set free.

In occupied Europe

no country could defend its citizens.

Unfortunately this was also the case for France.

Turkey was the only country that stood up

while Jews were taken to camps to be killed.

At every turn, it bravely and

forcefully tried to protect its citizens.

I had the pleasure to meet Necdet Kent who had been

Turkish Consul in Marsille

during the war and did much to save

Turkish Jews from arrest and deportation.

He told me about an incident of

Jews who had been arrested

and forced to get on a train

for deportation to the death camps.

Kent boarded that train with them

and told the Germans:

"I'm going to the camp with them.

If you won't release them

you will have a problem with Turkey."

The Germans finally release these Turkish Jews.

One such diplomat was Necdet Kent

who was the Consul in Marseille.

about to be sent to death camps.

Kent boarded the train with them because

they were Turkish citizens.

The Nazis would not accept Kents explanation because

for them, Turk or not, a Jew was a Jew

and all Jews had to he deported.

At this point Necdet Kent and

his deputy boarded the train and said:

"Then we will accompany them all the way."

To avoid a diplomatic scandal

the Germans were forced to stop

the train at the next station.

They were forced to release the two diplomats and

the Turkish Jews with them.

Kent's action saved the lives of 81 Turkish Jews.

One day, when we were living in Marseille

I was playing in the garden of

the Turkish Consulate and

noticed a woman standing at

the front door with her children

who appeared very frightened.

My mother went to speak to her

and then let them enter the consulate.

A few minutes later the German secret police came

and knocked on the door.

One of them spoke to my mother

for five to ten minutes and left.

My mother then went up to my father's office

who was the Turkish Consul in Marseille at the time

and told him the woman's husband

had just then murdered

by the Gestapo in his home and

that she had come to the Consulate looking for help.

My mother said she could not turn the woman

and her children away and

my father then started to prepare

a Turkish passport for them.

They stayed for about a month

and then one day they left.

They then had Turkish nationality papers because

they could not have left the building without them.

On the day, a bus came to Drancy to pick us up.

We didn't know if we were going

to be sent to Auschwitz or another camp.

When the bus took us to the Hotel Lutetia in Paris

we knew we were going to be free

and sent back to Turkey.

I thank my sister who visited the Turkish Consulate

whose efforts got us and many other freed.

We had two nationalities.

Our photos were added to

our parent's Turkish passports and

we became three Turkish children.

We became Turkish through our family and

we traveled as Turkish citizens.

The Turkish Consulate knew my mother since 1933

when she married my father.

Hearing that Turks from

her family could return to Turkey

she went to the consulate to register.

But since I was born in France

and had only French nationality

The Consulate would not register me.

My mother had to visit

The Turkish Consulate many times

to get them to recognized as Turkish so that

I could travel with them back to Turkey

on the train that left in March 1943.

One day my sister told me that

The Turkey Consul told her that if we do not return

to the country of our birth that we would be left

like the French, to the mercy of the Nazis.

A year later I was summoned by

the Turkish Chancellery and told me:

"You have to return to Turkey to do your military service."

I would have had to leave my family behind in France.

But if I could get released, they would not be in danger.

I owed my life to Turkey and

without thinking I said "Yes, Sir!".

Cevdet Dlger was the Turkish Consul in Paris.

Namik Kemal Yolga was his deputy.

We believe they saved between

their photos to passports of Muslim Turkish students.

It was illegal, but legal...

The Jews in France were held

in a prison at Drancy outside of Paris.

and many of our Turkish Jews

were also imprisoned there.

Someone called my father

one day and said that many

of the Turkish Jews were about

to be deported to Germany.

My father went to the

German Military Headquarters and

found out the names of Turkish Jews being held and

then drove out to Drancy in his car

with blank passports and

issue them to the Turks who

were being held there just hours

before they were to be deported to Auschwitz

Another example is Behi Erkin

Ambassador to Vichy between 1940-1943.

His interventions saved the lives of many registered

and unregistered Turkish Jews.

Three months before the liberation

my father went to to the Turkish Consulate.

The Turkish Consul told him:

"If you want, you can go on the train back to Turkey."

The Consul or Ambassador

who was my fathers friend told him:

"Issac, we are preparing to declare war on Germany.

If you don't take the train back to Turkey

that's leaving in February 1944

we will not be able to protect you any longer."

My father came home and said:

"Children, we'll all die one day.

If we must die, let's all die together on this journey.

Let's board this train."

The Turkish Consulate sent a message

to mother saying that

Turkey will soon declare war against Germany.

They also said that after the declaration

they would not be able to protect us anymore

but they were organizing a train to Turkey

for Turkish Citizens in France.

So we went to Istanbul by train from Paris.

Near the end of 1943

The Turkish Consul told us

if we didn't return to Turkey

he could no longer protect us

so we decided to leave France.

The decision to go was not easy

but it was the only solution.

The journey took place in February 1944

in the middle of winter.

The embassy sent us a letter

and that's how we found out.

We didn't have a telephone at that time.

The news traveled by word

of mouth among the Turks.

Those who were recognized as

Turk were asked to report to the Consulate.

The consul gave my relatives a ticket and told them

they must pack up and go within two days.

She didn't want to leave immediately.

It was hard to leave everything behind.

It was difficult for my parents

but at the time it was not so hard for me.

Now I understand how they felt then.

In January February 1944, how did my family

decide to board a train full of Jews and

travel across Nazi Europe?

Despite their Turkish passports and being

protected by Turkey, how did they find

the courage to make such a choice?

My brother went to the consulate

to thank them.

The Consulate told him. "It's our duty."

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