Veit Wyler papers Nachlass Dr. iur. Veit Wyler (1908-2002)

Veit Wyler (1908-2002), son of a merchant, was a Swiss lawyer and Zionist politician in Switzerland. He grew up in part with his grandfather, Leo Liepmann Kahn, a Wiesbaden rabbi, who had been "teacher of three generations, a leader of the legal Jewry" for 60 years. He studied at the universities of Zurich, Vienna, Hamburg and Leipzig from 1926-1930, from where he graduated in 1930. In 1935, he opened a law firm in Zurich. That year, he represented the Communist Heinz Neumann, who had been expelled by the Nazis and was illegally staying in Switzerland. In 1936, together with Eugen Curti, he took over the defense of David Frankfurter, who assassinated the head of the Foreign Service of the Nazi party in Switzerland, Wilhelm Gustloff. Wyler did not accept any cases from Germans in order "not to unknowingly be in a position to represent a Nazi." As a "Linkszionist" (Leftzionist), he engaged in Swiss Jewish public and Zionist life, and from 1941 to 1951, was president of the Swiss Zionist Association. Wyler was married to the actress and translator Anna Katharina Salten (Rehmann) (1904-1977). In 1939, her father Felix Salten, whose works had been since 1935 on the Nazi lists of harmful and undesirable literature, and who escaped with his wife from Vienna to Zurich. Wyler assisted in the reception of refugees in Switzerland and in their departure to Palestine or South America. He was also involved in Freikaufaktionen (ransoms) for Dutch Jews. After 1950, Wyler was active in the World Jewish Congress, was a President of the Swiss Keren Hayesod (United Israel Appeal) from 1960-1970, and was a member of the Commission for Structural Change of the Zionist World Organization and a member of the Executive Council and Board of Governors of the Weizmann Institute of Science, from where he received an honorary doctorate. He was a friend of David Farbstein, and Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Jewish members of the Swiss National Council.

Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich. Archiv für Zeitgeschichte - Archivleitung

Source of acquisition is the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich. Archiv für Zeitgeschichte (AfZ), Switzerland; Archival signature: NL Veit Wyle. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives received the collection via the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s International Archives Project in March 2017.