Laurence A. Steinhardt, US Ambassador to USSR 1939-1941, and  Turkey 1942-45

In 1939, President Roosevelt appointed Laurence Steinhardt Ambassador to the Soviet Union.  This was a crucial and sensitive appointment, particularly in light of the recently signed Nazi-Soviet pact.  With the outbreak of war and the Nazi invasion of Poland in September 1939, Steinhardt took secret steps to help Eastern European Jews escape the Nazis.  Aware, however, that the Soviets were planting agents among refugees seeking admission to the U.S., Steinhardt opposed their indiscriminate admission, urging careful screening.  He was instrumental in negotiating the first lend-lease agreement with the Soviets and transferred the Embassy to Kuybyshev when Stalin moved the Soviet government there from threatened Moscow. 

Early in 1942, Steinhardt was appointed Ambassador to Turkey.  For the next three years, he played a vital part in helping to win the Turkish republic to the Allied cause.  Steinhardt was further instrumental in completing lend-lease agreements with Turkey.  While in Turkey, Steinhardt was responsible for helping Jews throughout Eastern Europe.  He worked with Jewish rescue and relief agencies, including the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) and the Rescue Committee of the Jewish Agency for Palestine.  He also worked with other diplomats in Turkey, including Papal representative in Ankara Cardinal Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, later Pope John XXIII, in helping to save Jews.  After January 1944, Steinhardt worked with the newly created U.S. War Refugee Board (WRB).  He worked closely with WRB representative Ira Hirschmann.  As a result of this successful collaboration, thousands of Jews were saved. 

Laurence Steinhardt was the only Jewish senior member of the US State Department prior to and during World War II. 

In 1950, Steinhardt was killed in an airplane crash while on a mission for the State Department.