Namık Kemal Yolga

Namık Kemal Yolga (1914 – 2001) was a Turkish diplomat and statesman. During World War II, Yolga was the Vice-Consul at the Turkish Embassy in Paris, France. His efforts to save the lives of Turkish Jews from the Nazis earned him recognition from the Turkish and Israeli governments in the late 20th century.

Career
Namık Kemal Yolga was posted to the Turkish Embassy in Paris in 1940 as the Vice-Consul, his first diplomatic post in a foreign country. Two months later the Nazis invaded and occupied France.  They forced the roundup of Jews, sending those from the Paris area to the Drancy deportation camp.  From there they were to be sent east to concentration camps.

Young Yolga saved Turkish Jews one by one from the Nazi authorities, by picking them up from Drancy, driving them in his own car and hiding them in safe places.  
In his autobiography, Yolga described his efforts as: 

In fact, according to Serge Klarsfeld's "Mémorial de la Déportation des Juifs de France", 1300 Turkish Jews, among which 939 officially recognized as Turkish by the Nazis, were deported.

Their fate depended entirely of the versatile decision of the Turkish bureau staff. According to the laws enacted by Turkey during the 1930s, all emigrated citizens who did not register at the Consulates, or did not fulfill their military duty, lost their Turkish nationality, and this was the situation for the majority of the Jews.

Thanks to the efforts of the well known Auschwitz survivor Haim Vidal Sephiha, a Turkish Jew deported from Belgium, monuments, plaques and listings of Turkish Jews names are now present on the main extermination sites.

See also Benjamin Schatzma's "Journal d'un interné, Volume II", the works of historian and university scholar Esther Benbassa, and the article by Claude Wainstain on Necdet Kent, another "Turkish Schindler", whose biography seems also legendary.

Namık Kemal Yolga later served as an Ambassador in Rome, Paris, Caracas, Tehran and Moscow.  In addition he served as General Secretary in the Turkish Foreign Ministry.

Legacy and honors
 Yolga was honored by the "500. Yıl Vakfı" (Quincentennial Foundation) in 1998.
 Yolga, Selahattin Ülkümen and Necdet Kent were honored with Turkey's Supreme Service Medal  for rescuing Jews during the Holocaust.
 Israel gave Yolga a special medal to recognize his work to save Jews during World War II.

See also
 List of Turkish diplomats
 History of the Jews in Turkey
 Necdet Kent
 Behiç Erkin
 Selahattin Ülkümen

References

Further reading
 Stanford J. Shaw, Turkey and the Holocaust: Turkey's Role in Rescuing Turkish and European Jewry from Nazi Persecution, 1933-1945, New York: New York University Press; London, MacMillan Press, 1993
 Stanford J. Shaw, The Jews of the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic, New York: New York University Press

External links
Jewish Virtual Library article

Category:1914 births
Category:2001 deaths
Category:Turkish diplomats
Category:Turkish humanitarians
Category:Turkish Righteous Among the Nations
Category:Ambassadors of Turkey to Russia
Category:Ambassadors of Turkey to Italy
Category:Ambassadors of Turkey to Iran
Category:Ambassadors of Turkey to Venezuela
Category:Ambassadors of Turkey to France
Category:Muslim Righteous Among the Nations
Category:Date of birth missing