GABOR SZTEHLO (1909 – 1974)
GABOR SZTEHLO was a Hungarian Lutheran pastor, is known as the “Rescuer of Jewish children during WWII”, and was the first Hungarian who was awarded with a medallion by the Yad Vashem Institute, naming him a Righteous Gentile in 1973. The next year he was even nominated by the Swiss authorities for the Nobel Prize for Peace.
He was born in Budapest, on September 25, 1909, and has studied theology in Sopron and in Finland with scholarship.
Starting his educational work in the 1930s, he established and run a Lutheran high school college in Nagytarcsa – based on a Finnish model -, for village youth, who had only 8 years of schooling.
In 1944, after the German Nazis arrival to Hungary, he was appointed by Bishop Sándor Raffay to represent the Lutheran church in a Calvinist-led Protestant organization (Good Shepherd), which was responsible for providing food and clothing to Jews doing forced labor. His main task was to organize the salvation of Jewish children, establishing and running homes for them. Just after a few months, in Budapest he managed to set up 32 homes with the help of the International Red Cross and the Swiss Red Cross. These He could also provide documents to prove all those children were Christians.
According to the official data, in these homes he saved the lives of 1600 Jewish children, and 400 adults.
After the war he even cared about those who had their families perished and had nowhere to go. He not only established regular school and facilities for learning trades for these children, but even a “Children state”, known as “Gaudiopolis”. This home was nationalized in 1951 by the communist regime.
Gábor Sztehlo didn’t give up, he organized church homes for disabled children and for the elderly too. After the 1956 revolution, his wife and children left Hungary for Switzerland, but Sztehlo stayed here until 1961, when he could finally go and visit them. During his visit he suffered a heart attack, and the doctors urged him to stay in Switzerland. After his recovery he served as a pastor in a small Swiss village.
He died of a second heart attack on May 28, 1974 in Interlaken, Switzerland.
In 1991, a veteran team of his former saved students, protégés and coworkers established the Gábor Sztehlo Foundation for the Help of Children and Adolescents. For more information, check their website: http://www.sztehlo-gabor-alapitvany.hu
GABOR SZTEHLO was a Hungarian Lutheran pastor, is known as the “Rescuer of Jewish children during WWII”, and was the first Hungarian who was awarded with a medallion by the Yad Vashem Institute, naming him a Righteous Gentile in 1973. The next year he was even nominated by the Swiss authorities for the Nobel Prize for Peace.
He was born in Budapest, on September 25, 1909, and has studied theology in Sopron and in Finland with scholarship.
Starting his educational work in the 1930s, he established and run a Lutheran high school college in Nagytarcsa – based on a Finnish model -, for village youth, who had only 8 years of schooling.
In 1944, after the German Nazis arrival to Hungary, he was appointed by Bishop Sándor Raffay to represent the Lutheran church in a Calvinist-led Protestant organization (Good Shepherd), which was responsible for providing food and clothing to Jews doing forced labor. His main task was to organize the salvation of Jewish children, establishing and running homes for them. Just after a few months, in Budapest he managed to set up 32 homes with the help of the International Red Cross and the Swiss Red Cross. These He could also provide documents to prove all those children were Christians.
According to the official data, in these homes he saved the lives of 1600 Jewish children, and 400 adults.
After the war he even cared about those who had their families perished and had nowhere to go. He not only established regular school and facilities for learning trades for these children, but even a “Children state”, known as “Gaudiopolis”. This home was nationalized in 1951 by the communist regime.
Gábor Sztehlo didn’t give up, he organized church homes for disabled children and for the elderly too. After the 1956 revolution, his wife and children left Hungary for Switzerland, but Sztehlo stayed here until 1961, when he could finally go and visit them. During his visit he suffered a heart attack, and the doctors urged him to stay in Switzerland. After his recovery he served as a pastor in a small Swiss village.
He died of a second heart attack on May 28, 1974 in Interlaken, Switzerland.
In 1991, a veteran team of his former saved students, protégés and coworkers established the Gábor Sztehlo Foundation for the Help of Children and Adolescents. For more information, check their website: http://www.sztehlo-gabor-alapitvany.hu