Paul Vogt

Paul Vogt (May 23, 1900 – March 12, 1984) was a Swiss Protestant pastor and theologian. He founded Freiplatzaktion, an organization providing assistance to refugees and migrants, and was instrumental in first releasing news about the Holocaust to the public, including in the United States, during the Second World War. Early life Vogt was born in Stafa to Johannes Daniel Paul Vogt, a minister who had migrated from Silesia. He was educated at the Evangelical College in Schiers, graduating in 1922; he was subsequently, till 1926, a post-graduate student of theology in Basel, Zürich and Tübingen. He served first at the Neumünster in Zurich, and then as parish priest in Ellikon an der Thur (where he married Sophie Brenner in 1927), before moving in 1929 to Walzenhausen. He showed an early interest in the creation of social institutions, founding a relief organisation for the unemployed in the canton of Appenzell and building a social centre and residence for the homeless in Walzenhausen called 'Sonneblick' that exists to this day. In 1936, Vogt left Walzenhausen for a pastorate in Zurich-Seebach, and was appointed leader of the Swiss Protestant Relief Organization for the Confessional Church in Germany (SEHBKD). At the same time, he also co-founded the Swiss Central Office for Refugee Aid (SZF). Between 1933 and 1947, various relief organizations associated with SZF paid out about 70 million Swiss francs to support refugees from the Nazis, especially Jews.