Dr. Gerhart Moritz Riegner was born in 1911 in Berlin, Germany. He studied law in Berlin, Freiburg and Heidelberg. Due to the growing hatred of Jews in Germany, he completed his studies in Paris. From 1939, the Jewish Dr. Riegner served as director of the World Jewish Congress in Geneva, Switzerland. On Aug. 8, 1942, the famous ‘Riegner Telegram’ was sent. This was the first alarming warning in Jewish circles about the Holocaust that was coming. Dr. Riegner informed the president that a “solution” for the Jews of Europe had been seriously discussed at Hitler's headquarters. He had heard this news from a reliable source. ‘All Jews in countries occupied or controlled by the Germans, after deportation and concentration in the East, will be exterminated without fail.’

The telegram was read only after a month. No one believed Dr. Riegner. Yet he managed to attract the attention of people of great influence. On Nov. 28, President Roosevelt became involved. Roosevelt exchanged information with Britain's Winston Churchill so that measures could be taken. Through the Red Cross, among others, a number of deportations were prevented.

After World War II, Dr. Riegner became secretary general at the World Jewish Congress Geneva. He defended the rights of Jewish citizens and actively engaged in the conversation between Jews and Christians. Dr. Riegner died in 2001 in Geneva, Switzerland.