President Franklin D. Roosevelt | Role Diplomat President Franklin D. Roosevelt Name Laurence Steinhardt | |
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Died March 28, 1950, Ramsayville, Ontario, Gloucester, Ontario, Canada | ||
Laurence Adolph Steinhardt (October 6, 1892 – March 28, 1950) was a United States diplomat. He served as the U.S. Minister to Sweden and U.S. Ambassador to Peru, the USSR, Turkey, Czechoslovakia, and Canada. He was the first United States Ambassador to be killed in office.
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Biography
Steinhardt was born October 6, 1892 in New York City. He served as a Sergeant in the Quartermaster Corps in the U.S. Army in World War I.
He was a member of the Federation of American Zionists and the American Zion Commonwealth. He practiced law at Guggenheimer, Untermyer and Marshall, where his uncle Samuel Untermyer was partner, from 1920 through 1933. In 1932, he worked on the presidential campaign of Franklin Roosevelt.
Steinhardt was appointed U.S. Minister to Sweden in 1933 by Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was appointed ambassador to Peru in 1937, the Soviet Union in 1939.
On 23 February 1940, writing a letter from Moscow to Loy Henderson at the US Dept of State, Steinhardt reported that after having visited Riga, Tallinn and Leningrad with John Copper Wiley that he "could find no evidence in Riga or Tallinn -- and John agrees with me -- that there is any move presently on foot by the Soviets to "take over"." Of course the take over did take place several months later in June 1940.
In 1941, he evacuated Moscow embassy to Kuybyshev.
On January 12, 1942, he was appointed ambassador to Turkey. While ambassador to Turkey, Steinhardt, particularly because he was Jewish, was involved in the rescue of Hungarian Jews from Bergen Belsen. He also played a significant role in helping many eminent intellectuals fleeing Europe to find refuge in Turkey.
In 1945, President Truman appointed Steinhardt ambassador to Czechoslovakia, and to Canada in 1948. While serving as the Ambassador to Canada, he was killed in a plane crash on March 28, 1950 near Ramsayville, Ontario, while en route to Washington, D. C.
He is buried in section 30, Arlington National Cemetery.
Family
He married the former Dulcie Yates Hofmann (1917 - 1974); they had one daughter, Dulcie Ann.