Meir Wagner

The Wagner-Kahn Family

Hoteliers since 1896

Meir Wagner

Meir Wagner - Director of The Silberhorn Hotel, Grindelwald

Wagner

Ruth Wagner - Arieh Wagner & Meir Wagner


Meir Wagner and Henry Kissinger

Meir Wagner with Henry Kissinger

Meir Wagner

"Networker par Excellence"


Meir Wagner with David Ben Gurion

Meir Wagner

With David Ben Gurion in Sde Boker


Meir Wagner with The Ponivezer Rav, in South Africa.

Meir Wagner

With The Ponivezer Rav in South Africa


Meir Wagner with The Belzer Rebbe in Grindelwald. (1973ca)

Meir Wagner

With The Belzer Rebbe at The Silberhorn Hotel in Grindelwald.


Meir Wagner with The Biala Rebbe and Moshe Nissim in Grindelwald.

Meir Wagner

With The Biala Rebbe at The Silberhorn Hotel and Minister Moshe Nissim.


Meir Wagner with The Biala Rebbe and Moshe Nissim in Grindelwald.

Meir Wagner

With The Mir Rosh Yeshiva Reb Nosson Tzvi at The Silberhorn Hotel.


Meir Wagner with The Skver Rebbe

Meir Wagner

With The Skver Rebbe visiting the Prime Minister of Cechoslovakia


Meir Wagner with The Skver Rebbe

Meir Wagner

With The Boyaner Rebbe visiting Grindelwald


Meir Wagner with The Skver Rebbe

Meir Wagner

With Reb Gamliel Rabinowitz


Meir Wagner with Her Majesty The Queen of England.

Meir Wagner

With Her Majesty The Queen on England


General Schwartzkopf

Meir Wagner

Dedication from General Schwartzkopf


Meir Wagner with hosting the conference.

Meir Wagner

Hosting Conference of European Rabbis

From Right to Left: Rabbi Piron - Zurich, Chief Rabbi Lord Jacobowitz - London & His wife Lady Emily J.


Meir Wagner with hosting the conference.

Meir Wagner

Hosting MK Rabbi Arie Derri



Book by Meir Wagner

Meir Wagners Book in English

Book

The Righteous of Switzerland: Heroes of the Holocaust

From Booknews.com:

Wagner, who promotes tourism and cultural exchange for Switzerland, suggested to members of parliament that the positive role played by Swiss citizens, diplomats, and Red Cross representatives during World War II deserved to be brought to the attention of a wider public. The result is here where he draws on testimonials by eyewitnesses and those whose lives were saved, to describe the work of 40 people or groups. 

From Publishers Weekly:

In an effort to provide a more positive picture of Switzerland during WWII, a country whose image of neutrality has been tainted by the documented cooperation between Swiss bankers and the Nazis, the author presents the heroic acts of ordinary Swiss citizens during the Holocaust. At great risk to themselves, the more than 40 men and women whose stories are described here acted bravely to save Jewish lives. In 1938 Switzerland closed its borders to Jewish refugees. However, Paul Gruninger, a police captain in St. Gallen, refused to obey orders and falsely backdated the papers of several thousand Jewish refugees so that they could remain safely in Switzerland. Although he sacrificed his career and financial security for these actions, after his death he was honored by the Israeli government, and Switzerland finally officially recognized his achievements. Pastor Daniel Curtet organized his entire town of Le Chambon to successfully hide hundreds of Jewish refugees. Sister Jeanne Berchmans, a nun at the Sacre-Coeur Convent, risked arrest to hide Jews in a "quarantine" room while German soldiers searched the building. Wagner has done history a service by sharing these carefully researched anecdotes, many already known and others told here for the first time. Wagner, who currently promotes tourism and cultural exchange for Switzerland, is not an accomplished writer, but is himself a Holocaust survivor, and these heroic accounts are informed by his personal passion. 

Link to Amazon

Meir Wagner präsentiert Buch über Holocaust und Schweiz in Wien

News.ch publiziert: Donnerstag, 10. Okt 2002 / 12:49 Uhr

Wien - Nach Washington und Berlin ist das Buch Die Gerechten der Schweiz - Helden des Holocaust von Meir Wagner auch in der Israelitischen Kultusgemeinde in Wien präsentiert worden.

Wagner beschreibt in dem vorerst erst auf auf englisch erhältlichen Werk das Leben von Schweizer Staatsbürgern, die sich während des Zweiten Weltkrieges für ihre jüdischen Mitbürger einsetzten. Ich wollte Gerechtigkeit, erklärte Wagner. Er habe den Entschluss gefasst, das Buch zu schreiben, als die Schweiz wegen ihres Verhaltens im Zweiten Weltkrieg in den Mittelpunkt der internationalen Kritik geriet. Man kann doch nicht ein ganzes Volk verurteilen, sagte Wagner. Allen 39 Schweizern, die von der israelischen Holocaust-Gedenkstätte Yad Vashem als Gerechte unter den Nationen ausgezeichnet wurden, ist ein Kapitel gewidmet. Aber auch die Taten von bisher kaum bekannten Gerechten werden in dem Buch erstmals gewürdigt. Buchautor Wagner wurde 1934 im rumänischen Czernowitz geboren. Als Siebenjähriger wurde er mit seiner Familie in ein Konzentrationslager in die Ukraine verschleppt und hat am eigenen Leib den Nationalsozialismus miterlebt. 1945 emigrierte Wagner nach Israel, wo er seine Schweizer Frau kennen lernte. 1970 ging das Ehepaar Wagner in die Schweiz, wo es das Hotel Silberhorn in Grindelwald übernahm und es in einen internationalen Treffpunkt umwandelte.


In the Press

1999 - Schweizer Hotel Revue

1999 - Schweizer Hotel Revue