Editor's Note: For the easy reference to our rebuttal each paragraph has been numbered.

June 9, 2003 Mr. Brattman Editor-in-Chief Holocaust Survivors' Network NatureQuest Publications, Inc. Harvard Square Station PO Box 381797 Cambridge, MA 02238-1797 Mr. Brattman, This letter is in response to your email inquiry of June 4, 2003. (1) I am the project director of the Visas for Life: The Righteous and Honorable Diplomats Project. The Project was founded in 1993. The purpose of the Visas for Life project is to find, document and recognize diplomats who saved Jews and other refugees from Nazi persecution and murder. The Project addresses an aspect of Holocaust history that heretofore was largely unexplored. The Visas for Life Project is an educational organization. (2) The Project documents all forms of diplomatic rescue. This includes diplomats who issued visas, passports, letters of transit, and other documents that enabled Jews escape the Nazis, like Chiune Sugihara of Japan, Dr. Feng Shan Ho of China, and Dr. Aristides de Sousa Mendes of Portugal. The Project also honors diplomats who warned the Jewish community about impending deportations or actions, men like Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz of Germany. In addition, the Project honors diplomats who warned the world about the Holocaust, like Jan Karski of Poland. Lastly, the Project honors diplomats who stood in front of Nazi deportations, maintained safe houses, liberated death marches, men like Carl Lutz of Switzerland, Raoul Wallenberg of Sweden, Giorgio Perlasca of Spain, Don Angel Sanz-Briz of Spain, Monsignor Angelo Rotta of the Vatican and Per Anger of Sweden. (3) The Visas for Life Project also honors several Jewish diplomats who were instrumental in saving thousands of Jews throughout Europe, men like Dr. Julius Kuhl of Poland, Ambassador Laurence Steinhardt of the US, and George Mandel Mantello, representing El Salvador. (4) Like the Jewish diplomats, who can never formally be honored by the State of Israel as a Righteous Person, several of the diplomats honored in the exhibit and Project are not, in fact, Righteous Persons as defined by Yad Vashem and the State of Israel. Hiram Bingham, in fact, has not received the Righteous Person award. (5) The Visas for Life Project has nominated Bingham for the Righteous award by Yad Vashem. (6) The project is called the Visas for Life: The Righteous and Honorable Diplomats Project. This term "honorable" distinguishes those diplomats who helped Jews but have not yet been, or cannot be, designated Righteous Persons. (7) In our exhibits, programs and literature, we do not refer to anyone as a Righteous Person who has not been officially so honored by Yad Vashem and the State of Israel. (8) An example of a diplomat we include who has not been designated a Righteous Person is Cardinal Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, the Vatican representative in Ankara. The Project includes Roncalli in the Visas for Life: The Righteous and Honorable Diplomats exhibit for his actions in aiding Jewish communities in Eastern Europe. He provided reports about the massacre of Jews and provided aid to the rescue of Jews. His work has been acknowledged in a number of scholarly works, and yet he is yet to be honored as a Righteous Person by Israel. You may know that Roncalli became Pope John XXIII in 1958. (9) The Project has also included diplomats who were not Righteous Persons when we first included them in the exhibit. Three years ago, the Project received an article in a San Francisco newspaper that contained an obituary of a Chinese diplomat who "helped Jews." It took three years of research to determine how he helped Jews. In fact, he saved thousands of Jews by issuing unauthorized Chinese exit visas. His name was Dr. Feng Shan Ho. Dr. Ho appeared in the Visas for Life exhibit starting in 1997. He was awarded his Righteous Person status in 2000. This was done largely through the research efforts of the Visas for Life Project. (10) In addition, the Project includes in our exhibit the stories of Italian diplomats in three zones of occupation: Yugoslavia, southern Greece and southern France. These Italian diplomats were responsible for saving tens of thousands of Jewish refugees in these areas. There are several scholarly works on Italian rescue in the Holocaust in the occupied territories. Nonetheless, not one of these diplomats has been officially honored by Yad Vashem as a Righteous Person. The Visas for Life Project has nominated these brave Italian diplomats to Yad Vashem. The Project is waiting for Yad Vashem to rule on these nominations. In the exhibit, it is noted that they have not been officially recognized by Yad Vashem. (11) The Visas for Life Project works in cooperation with and is co-sponsored by a number of international, Jewish, Holocaust, civil rights and educational institutions. (12) Our exhibit and programs have traveled to numerous countries and have been placed in more than 100 venues. The exhibit was shown at the United Nations in New York and in Geneva. It was also shown at the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust. The exhibit has been shown at the Yad Vashem Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority. (13) Yad Vashem has duplicated the Visas for Life exhibit and is touring this exhibit throughout the world. (14) We are extremely careful in our research and documentation of the diplomats and their actions as rescuers. The exhibit text and materials have been reviewed by Holocaust scholars and historians. (15) The Visas for Life Project receives much of its information about diplomatic rescue from Holocaust survivors who themselves were saved by diplomats. Often, we are the first agency to discover these new rescuers. (16) The process of researching these diplomats takes up the bulk of our time. It requires hours of research and documentation to verify stories. We require documentation from primary and secondary sources, including foreign ministries, state archives and community records. Lastly, we verify the stories with the survivors and the families of the rescuers. (17) As I stated in my previous letter, a diplomat's inclusion in the exhibit is predicated only on the facts of the case in the rescue. There are no other considerations in deciding whom to include in the exhibit. (18) We share our research and information with Holocaust museums and archives around the world. (19) The Visas for Life Project presently does not have a website, but we are presently working on one. (20) In conclusion, the mission of the Visas for Life Project is to honor diplomats who risked their careers, safety and even their lives to save Jews and other refugees. They deserve our undying gratitude. Sincerely, (21) Eric Saul Director/Curator, Visas for Life: The Righteous and Honorable Diplomats .