Carl Jacob Burckhardt (Swiss diplomat and historian) Add a review

Carl Jacob Burckhardt (September 10, 1891 – March 3, 1974) was a Swiss diplomat and historian. His career alternated between periods of academic historical research and diplomatic postings; the most prominent of the latter were League of Nations High Commissioner for the Free City of Danzig (1937–39) and President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (1945–48).

While serving as High Commissioner for Danzig, Burckhardt sought to avoid escalation of tensions between Nazi Germany and Poland into open military conflict. Unlike his predecessor, who had been removed as High Commissioner at Germany's insistence because he sought to protect Danzig's Jewish community, Burckhardt tried to cultivate relations with the "moderate" Nazi leaders of Danzig while blaming the Polish government for taking too uncompromising a stand against German demands that Danzig be returned to Germany. Those efforts, which had reflected the attitudes of the League, the United Kingdom and France, failed with Germany's invasion of Poland and seizure of Danzig on 1 September 1939. Burckhardt fled Danzig after being told by the Nazi Gauleiter for Danzig that he would be executed if he did not.

Burckhardt was a Germanophile with a visceral hatred of Bolshevism. Under his leadership following World War II the ICRC provided documents that helped many high-level Nazis, including Adolf Eichmann and Josef Mengele, escape Europe and evade justice for their war crimes.