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

Copyright Holder: Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich. Archiv für Zeitgeschichte - Archivleitung 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. Private papers of Veit Wyler (August 28, 1908 - October 18, 2002), attorney, Swiss refugee aid worker, Jewish community official, and Zionist delegate. The collection consists of photographs, certificates from schools, doctoral studies, military service records, records of his early activities as a lawyer, files of the federal prosecutor, documentation of his commitment to Jewish refugees and of the David Frankfurter trial, autobiographical writings and reports, private and business correspondence, honors, press articles, obituaries, a diary, poems, records of his family history, edited newspaper "Das Neue Israel" (The New Israel), interviews, publications and manuscripts, and personal dossiers of Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Ernst Erdös, Benjamin Sagalowitz, and Samuel Scheps. Records relate to Wyler's private and professional life, his activities as a lawyer, Zionist activist, a president of the Swiss Keren Hayesod (United Israel Appeal), and activist in the World Zionist Organization (WZO), the Mekhon Ṿaitsman le-mada (Weizmann Institute of Science), Ḳeren ḳayemet le-Yiśraʼel (Jewish National Fund), the Israelitische Cultusgemeinde Zürich (ICZ), the Schweizerischer Israelitischer Gemeindebund (Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities [SIG] ), the International Center for Peace in the Middle East, Shomer ha-tsa'ir (Hashomer Hazair), and other.