Behiç Erkin

According to a census French authorities conducted under German Army direction in autumn 1940, 3,381 of a total of 113,467 Jews over age 15, residing in Paris and holding French nationality, were of Turkish origin. The total number of ethnic Turkish Jews were estimated at five thousand people if those under 15 were counted. Scholars have estimated possibly ten thousand Jews of Turkish origin for the whole of France at the time.[5] Turkey's Code allowed for double nationality, but people had to update their registry at the consulate every five years to preserve a Turkish identity. Many former Turkish nationals in France had neglected this, as most had lived there for decades. Ties to their parents' country were often reduced to anecdotal level. Scholars estimate that approximately ten thousand Jews who solely held the Turkish nationality may have resided in France at the time.[6]

Erkin arrived at the Turkish Embassy in Paris only three weeks before the start of the Second World War. While the embassy was small, its staff represented Turkey's administrative and cultural elite, all graduates of Galatasaray High School. They continued as leaders of Turkey in the postwar decades. Two among the staff, Fatin Rüştü Zorlu and Melih Esenbel, were later to become foreign ministers of Turkey. (Zorlu was executed after the 1960 coup d'état. A third colleague, Beşir Balcıoğlu, was assassinated in Madrid in 1978 by ASALA, Armenian militants, along with Zeki Kuneralp.) Namık Kemal Yolga, also known for rescuing Turkish Jews in Paris, became part of the embassy when he was appointed Vice Consul starting April 1940.

After the long phase of the Phony War (Drôle de guerre) and the occupation of southern France by the German Army, the consulate located in Marseille and headed by Necdet Kent was moved to Grenoble, Switzerland, which was a neutral nation. The coordination work was carried out by Leon Mandil, a Turkish Jew appointed a decade before by Atatürk as "special attaché". He had a perfect command of the French language and culture. His family had been prominent in Turkey since the 19th century.[7] >[8]

On 9 June 1940 Sunday, the French government moved in such haste to Vichy that it failed to notify all the embassies in Paris of the change of capital. It took one month for the Turks to move their embassy, with 20 staff members or spouses, but Erkin retained five men in Paris to run the consulate. Once in Vichy, Erkin had frequent contacts with virtually all Vichy officials, including Maréchal Philippe Pétain, Pierre Laval, Paul Baudoin, François Charles-Roux, Charles Rochat and members of embassies of other countries, including the United States. Following France's surrender to Germany, William D. Leahy represented the US as ambassador in Vichy only from December 1940 to May 1942.

In the early days, the Turkish embassy tried to protect ethnic Turkish Jews by encouraging them to post notices of Turkish nationality next to the "Jewish-owned enterprise" sign required by the Germans. The embassy tried to work with the Germans to protect their nationals. A letter of 28 February 1941 from the German embassy, signed Otto Abetz, stated that they would be "disposed to evaluate specific cases concerning Turkish nationals" as communicated by the consulate. But when Xavier Vallat was appointed Head Commissioner for Jewish Affairs, he gave new impetus to Vichy France's anti-Jewish actions.[9]

Through 1941-1942, measures against Jews in France became increasingly more severe. The Nazis gathered and deported the most recent Jewish immigrants, then those who had come to France after 1933, and then collected French Jews proper, those who had lived in France for generations. Vallat's office was concerned primarily with confiscating Jewish assets; he directed a wide-scale inventory to be drawn in June–July 1941.

Throughout 1942, Erkin assigned nominal trustees to protect enterprises owned by Turkish Jews. Near the end of the year, the Germans developed a scheme to transport all Jewish nationals of neutral countries to their respective home countries. Accordingly, on 19 September 1942, Berlin directed that Turkish Jews could be evacuated until 31 January 1943, a date later extended for two months and more. A few days before the communication, Erkin had secretly met with Germany's Consul General in Vichy Krug von Nidda, Otto Abetz, Heinz Röthke and Rudolf Schleier. He was ready to arrange the first train for Turkish evacuees, which departed from Paris in November 1942 to arrive in Edirne, Turkey eleven days later. It was decorated with a crescent and star. The enterprise was tense with danger, as the consulate was worried about potential attacks on the masses of Jews who gathered at the consulate. Erkin and his staff were able to transport thousands of ethnic Turkish Jews to safety.

Aged 67 in 1943 and having had his ambassadorial term extended three times, Erkin retired in August 1943 to return to İstanbul. In 1958 he completed his memoirs (published in 2010).

Behiç Erkin died on November 11, 1961. At his wish, he was buried in a courtyard near a railway junction in the Eskişehir train station, where he had started his career four decades before.