Louis Haefliger papers Teilnachlass Louis Haefliger (1904-1993)

Louis Haefliger (1904-1993) was a Swiss of bank employee. In April 1945, Haefliger volunteers as an ICRC delegate to accompany a transport of food provisions to the Mauthausen concentration camp. From an SS officer he learns that the retreating SS intends to blow up the concentration camp together with all of its 60,000 inmates. Without asking for permission from the ICRC, Haefliger alerts nearby American troops who liberate the camp on May 6, 1945. Haefliger is reprimanded by the ICRC for his independent actions and he loses his job with the Bank Leu. In 1946, Haefliger emigrates to Vienna where he lives on public assistance. In 1955, Haefliger receives the Austrian citizenship. He is honored in Israel and Austria as the “savior of Mauthausen” and is recommended for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950 and again in 1988. Finally, in 1990 ICRC President Cornelio Sommaruga rehabilitates Haefliger. Louis Haefliger dies in 1993 in Podbrezova, Slovakia.

Source of acquisition is the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich. Archiv für Zeitgeschichte (AfZ), Switzerland; the signature: NL Louis Haefliger. The AfZ acquired the collection in 1996 and 1998. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives received the collection via the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s International Archives Project in Nov. 2011.