On August 8, 1942, he sent the famous
Riegner Telegram through diplomatic channels to
Stephen Samuel Wise, president of the
World Jewish Congress. (However, Wise did not receive it until the end of the month. The source of the information was
Eduard Schulte, the anti-Nazi chief executive officer of the prominent German company
Giesche (part of
Silesian-American Corporation) that employed high-level Nazi officials. His telegram was the first official communication about the planned
Holocaust. It read in part: ==Awards and honors==