Necdet Kent

Early life and education Necdet Kent was born in 1911 in Istanbul in the Ottoman Empire and got his secondary education from Lycée de Galatasaray, as did some of his colleagues in the foreign ministry. He travelled to the United States for his university studies, earning a degree in public law from New York University. He was also briefly a professional footballer for Hull FC. Career Returning to Turkey, Kent entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1937. He was first posted as vice consul to Athens, Greece. In 1941, he was appointed to the post of vice consul at Marseille, France, a post which he held until 1944. Many refugees gathered in southern France during the war, and Marseille was a major port of embarkation. After World War II, Kent continued his career in the Turkish foreign service. He served as Consul General at the Turkish Consulate General in New York City. He also was at different times the Turkish ambassador to Thailand, India, Sweden, and Poland. Necdet Kent married and had children. One son, Muhtar Kent, was the chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company from July 2008 till May 2017. ==Claims of Holocaust rescue==

In an annex to Stanford J. Shaw's book Turkey and the Holocaust (1993), Kent's claims of rescuing Jews during the Holocaust were first published. Kent said that, at some time in 1943, an assistant at the Turkish consulate told Kent that the Germans had just loaded 80 Turkish Jews living in Marseille into cattle cars for immediate transport to probable death in Germany. Kent later recalled, "To this day, I remember the inscription on the wagon: 'This wagon may be loaded with 20 heads of cattle and 500 kilograms of grass'." Kent also claimed that he reached out to the Jewish community, issuing Turkish identity documents to scores of Turkish Jews living in southern France, or those who had fled there and did not hold valid Turkish passports. The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation researched the role of Turkish diplomats during the Holocaust, reporting: Kent has not been recognized as Righteous Among the Nations. ==Legacy and honors==

In 2001, Kent, Namık Kemal Yolga and Selahattin Ülkümen, also Turkish diplomats who had worked in Europe and saved Jews during World War II, were honoured with the Distinguished Service Award of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. ==See also==