Raymond H. Geist

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Raymond H. Geist
Born
Raymond Herman Geist

1885
Cleveland, Ohio, United States
Died1955
NationalityAmerican
Alma materHarvard University
Occupation(s)American Counsel and First Secretary of the United States embassy in Berlin

Raymond Herman Geist (1885-1955) was the American Counsel and First Secretary of the United States embassy in Berlin from 1929 to 1939.[1][2] Geist has been recognized as Diplomat Savior by the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, which advocates for the recognition of Holocaust rescuers.[3] In Genius, the 2017 National Geographic series on Einstein's life, Geist is noted for "having issued over 50,000 US visas during his tenure to Jews escaping Nazi persecution in Germany".[4] However, academic research has concluded that Geist has largely acted to block the granting of visas to Jewish immigrants between 1933-1939, in line with the policy adopted by U.S. Foreign Service Officers in Germany at the time.[5][6][7]

Life

Geist was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1885. He was student at Oberlin College from 1906 to 1909, and received a bachelor's degree from Western Reserve university in 1910.[8] He received a master's degree in 1916 and a Ph.D. degree in 1918, both from Harvard University.[8][9] Geist died in Los Angeles on February 28, 1955.[10][11]

Diplomatic career

In 1921 he entered the United States Foreign Service, serving first in Buenos Aires, and then in Montevideo and Alexandria before being posted to Berlin in 1928.[8][12]

Midway through his career at the Berlin consulate, Geist was directed to refuse a visa for Albert Einstein, based on allegations of Einstein being an active communist.[13][14] The refusal caused an outcry in the United States and was later rescinded.[15][9]

While in Berlin, Geist cultivated a number of high-level contacts within the Nazi party, including personal contacts with Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich.[16][17][1] Geist notified his superiors on several occasions of the conditions for Jews in Germany.[18] Following Kristallnacht, he warned the Assistant Secretary of State George S. Messersmith in a private letter in late 1938 that Jews in Germany were being "condemned to death".[19][20] The next year, in May of 1939, he repeated his warning, saying that the Jews of Germany would be doomed if aggressive action was not taken to rescue them.[20]

Geist has been credited with helping Jews and anti-Nazis to emigrate from Germany during 1938-1939, including Jews and others who were under imminent threat of deportation to the concentration camps.[21] However, between 1933-1939 the four U.S. Foreign Service Officers in Germany, including Geist, denied 75% of visa requests by German Jews and filled only 40% of immigration quotas from Germany, in a concerted effort to limit Jewish immigration.[22] As late as April 1939, Geist wrote in a letter to a colleague that the consulate should continue limiting the issuance of visas to German Jewish applicants.[23]

Geist returned to the United States on October 9, 1939, several weeks after the outbreak of World War II.[24] Following the war, Geist testified and provided an affidavit at Nuremberg on his knowledge of Nazi operations.[25][26]

Awards

Geist received the Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit from the German Federal Republic in 1954.[10][12]

References

  1. ^ a b United States. Office of Chief of Counsel for the Prosecution of Axis Criminality (1946). Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression. U.S. Government Printing Office.
  2. ^ Helmut Genschel (1966). Göttinger Bausteine zur Geschichtswissenschaft. Musterschmidt-Verlag.
  3. ^ conVistaAlMar.com.ar. "Dr. Raymond Herman Geist". The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation. Retrieved 2017-08-23.
  4. ^ "The 10 Best Scenes from National Geographic's Genius".
  5. ^ Bailin, Barbara L., "The Influence of Anti-Semitism on United States Immigration Policy With respect to German Jews During 1933-1939" (2011). CUNY Academic Works.http://academicworks.cuny.edu/cc_etds_theses/262
  6. ^ Zucker, Bat-Ami. In Search of Refuge: Jews and US Consuls in Nazi Germany, 1933-1941. London; Portland, OR: Vallentine Mitchell, 2001.
  7. ^ "Einstein TV series distorts Jewish refugee issue". {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  8. ^ a b c The Department Of State. Register of the department of state. pp. 132–. ISBN 978-5-88042-309-5.
  9. ^ a b J. Robert Moskin (19 November 2013). American Statecraft: The Story of the U.S. Foreign Service. St. Martin's Press. pp. 419–. ISBN 978-1-250-03746-6.
  10. ^ a b "Portrait of Dr. Raymond Herman Geist. - Collections Search - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum". collections.ushmm.org.
  11. ^ "Full text of "Oberlin Alumni Magazine"". archive.org.
  12. ^ a b Richard Breitman; Alan M. Kraut (1987). American Refugee Policy and European Jewry, 1933-1945. Indiana University Press. pp. 45–. ISBN 978-0-253-30415-5.
  13. ^ Fred Jerome (17 June 2003). The Einstein File: J. Edgar Hoover's Secret War Against the World's Most Famous Scientist. Macmillan. pp. 10–. ISBN 978-1-4299-7588-9.
  14. ^ Denis Brian (24 June 2005). The Unexpected Einstein: The Real Man Behind the Icon. Wiley. ISBN 978-0-471-71840-6.
  15. ^ James G. McDonald (25 April 2007). Advocate for the Doomed: The Diaries and Papers of James G. McDonald, 1932-1935. Indiana University Press. pp. 35–. ISBN 978-0-253-02797-9.
  16. ^ Rochelle L. Millen (September 1996). New Perspectives on the Holocaust: A Guide for Teachers and Scholars. NYU Press. pp. 73–. ISBN 978-0-8147-5540-2.
  17. ^ Kenneth Weisbrode (2 November 2009). The Atlantic Century: Four Generations of Extraordinary Diplomats Who Forged America's Vital Alliance with Europe. Da Capo Press. pp. 19–. ISBN 0-7867-4630-0.
  18. ^ United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (2002). The Holocaust and History: The Known, the Unknown, the Disputed, and the Reexamined. Indiana University Press. pp. 180–. ISBN 0-253-21529-3.
  19. ^ Gulie Ne'eman Arad (2000). America, Its Jews, and the Rise of Nazism. Indiana University Press. pp. 202–. ISBN 0-253-33809-3.
  20. ^ a b Baumel Judith Tydor Laqueur Walter; Walter Laqueur; Judith Tydor Baumel (2001). The Holocaust Encyclopedia. Yale University Press. pp. 10–. ISBN 0-300-13811-3.
  21. ^ http://www.raoulwallenberg.net/saviors/diplomats/list/dr-raymond-herman-geist-790/. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help); Missing or empty |title= (help)
  22. ^ Bailin, Barbara L., "The Influence of Anti-Semitism on United States Immigration Policy With respect to German Jews During 1933-1939" (2011), p.4. CUNY Academic Works.
  23. ^ Bailin, Barbara L., "The Influence of Anti-Semitism on United States Immigration Policy With respect to German Jews During 1933-1939" (2011), p. 59. CUNY Academic Works.
  24. ^ "U.S. Consul General in Berlin reports to President Roosevelt. Washington, D.C., Dec. 1. Raymond H. Geist, U.S. Consul General in Berlin, leaving the White House".
  25. ^ Hermann Göring; International Military Tribunal (1948). Trial of the Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, 14 November 1945-1 October 1946: Proceedings. The Tribunal.
  26. ^ Towiah Friedman (1997). The First 3 Days of the Trial Against the Major German War Criminals in Nuremberg, November 1945: 20th November, 1945 to 1st December, 1945. Institute of Documentation in Israel for the Investigation of Nazi Wars Crimes.
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