Norbert Wollheim (April 26, 1913 – November 1, 1998) was a chartered accountant, tax advisor, previously a board member of the

Central Council of Jews in Germany The Central Council of Jews in Germany (German name: Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland) is a federation of German Jews. It was founded on 19 July 1950, as a response to the increasing isolation of German Jews by the international Jewish communi ...

and a functionary of other Jewish organisations. Wollheim grew up in Berlin. He studied

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, or legal theory, is the theoretical study of the propriety of law. Scholars of jurisprudence seek to explain the nature of law in its most general form and they also seek to achieve a deeper understanding of legal reasoning a ...

and

political economy Political economy is the study of how Macroeconomics, economic systems (e.g. Marketplace, markets and Economy, national economies) and Politics, political systems (e.g. law, Institution, institutions, government) are linked. Widely studied ph ...

, but had to cease his studies in 1933 because of his Jewish origin. He then worked as a welder for a metal export firm until the outbreak of war in 1938. During that same period he played a key role in running the

Kindertransport The ''Kindertransport'' (German for "children's transport") was an organised rescue effort of children (but not their parents) from Nazi-controlled territory that took place during the nine months prior to the outbreak of the Second World ...

which transported 10,000 Jewish children out of the Nazi's reach and into safety. Wollheim engaged himself strongly in the Jewish life and became a managing director of the federation of . After the night of the November

Pogrom A pogrom () is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe 19th- and 20th-century attacks on Jews in the Russia ...

s known as in 1938, he helped to organise the transports of Jewish children to

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

and

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

. In 1939, he also personally accompanied Kindertransports to Sweden, but immediately returned to Berlin after leaving the children in safety. Until 1941 he was responsible for the vocational training schools of the Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland and adviser on the training relating to crafts of Jewish Germans. From September 1941 Wollheim worked at a transportation equipment factory in

Lichtenberg Lichtenberg () is the eleventh borough of Berlin, Germany. In Berlin's 2001 administrative reform it absorbed the former borough of Hohenschönhausen. Overview The district contains the Tierpark Berlin in Friedrichsfelde, the larger of Berlin's ...

, Berlin.

Auschwitz

On March 8, 1943, Wollheim with his sister Ruth Wollheim (born in 1910), his wife Rosa (née Mandelbrod, born in 1912) and their son Peter Uriel (born in 1939) were arrested by the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

and brought to the gathering point for Jews in the in Berlin, Germany. On March 12, 1943, the whole family was deported to

Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

. While Wollheim was singled out for

slave labour Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

, his sister, wife and child were gassed in the concentration camp. Wollheim was brought to Auschwitz camp III,

Monowitz Monowitz (also known as Monowitz-Buna, Buna and Auschwitz III) was a Nazi concentration camp and labor camp (''Arbeitslager'') run by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland from 1942–1945, during World War II and the Holocaust. For most of its existe ...

, where he had to work as a slave labourer for I.G. Farbenindustrie AG, helping build the new Buna-factory IV until the evacuation of Auschwitz on January 18, 1945. On one of the so-called

death march A death march is a forced march of prisoners of war or other captives or deportees in which individuals are left to die along the way. It is distinguished in this way from simple prisoner transport via foot march. Article 19 of the Geneva Convent ...

es of camp inmates being evacuated by the SS, Wollheim managed to flee.

After the war

He settled in

Lübeck Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the stat ...

British Zone of Occupation Germany was already de facto occupied by the Allies from the real fall of Nazi Germany in World War II on 8 May 1945 to the establishment of the East Germany on 7 October 1949. The Allies (United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and France ...

. He soon engaged in the Lübeck Jewish community, elected its president, and helped to rebuild Jewish life in

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

. He was elected second chairman of the ''Central Committee of Liberated Jews in the British Zone'' ("") and was cofounder of the

Jewish Trust Corporation The Jewish Trust Corporation (JTC) was established in 1950 in the former British zone of occupation in northwest Germany as a Jewish body to pursue claims for the restitution of heirless property of murdered persons and dissolved organizations that ...

in the British zone. Later he became chairman of the ''Association of Northwestern Germany's Jewish Congregations'' () and member of the board of the Central Council of Jews in Germany.

I.G. Farben claim

In 1950 Norbert Wollheim sued ''I.G. Farbenindustrie AG in liquidation'' for his salary as a forced labourer and compensation for damages. His lawsuit was the first test case of a former forced labourer against a company in Germany. In 1953, Frankfurt's ''

Landgericht ''Landgericht'' may refer to: * Landgericht (Germany), a mid-level court in the present-day judicial system of Germany *: For example, ** Landgericht Berlin ** Landgericht Bremen * Landgericht (medieval) The ''Landgericht'' (plural: ''Landgerichte ...

'' convicted ''IG Farben i.L.'' and ordered them to pay, at the first hearing, DM 10,000 in

punitive damages Punitive damages, or exemplary damages, are damages assessed in order to punish the defendant for outrageous conduct and/or to reform or deter the defendant and others from engaging in conduct similar to that which formed the basis of the lawsuit. ...

to Wollheim. At the second hearing, Frankfurt's ''

Oberlandesgericht An ''Oberlandesgericht'' (plural – ''Oberlandesgerichte''; OLG, en, Higher Regional Court, or in Berlin ''Kammergericht'': KG) is a higher court in Germany. There are 24 OLGs in Germany and they deal with civil and criminal matters. They ar ...

'' settled the lawsuit with a global settlement awarding several thousand of the former slave labourers of ''I.G. Farben'' DM 30 million. The settlement apart from the parties of the lawsuit involved the

Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, or Claims Conference, represents the world's Jews in negotiating for compensation and restitution for victims of Nazi persecution and their heirs. According to Section 2(1)(3) of the Proper ...

. The settlement was accompanied by a law (german: link=no, Aufrufgesetz) in 1957 passed by the West German

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Commons ...

. Wollheim emigrated to the U.S. in September 1951 and settled in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, where he studied to become an accountant. He exercised his profession until the mid-1980s. Wollheim provided his services on a

pro bono ( en, 'for the public good'), usually shortened to , is a Latin phrase for professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment. In the United States, the term typically refers to provision of legal services by legal professionals for pe ...

basis to organisations like the US Holocaust Council and the World Federation of

Bergen-Belsen Bergen-Belsen , or Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp in what is today Lower Saxony in northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle. Originally established as a prisoner of war camp, in 1943, parts of it became a concentrati ...

Survivors.

References

* Wollheim, Norbert: "Belsen’s Place in the Process of „Death-and-Rebirth“ of the Jewish People", in: ''Irgun She'erit Hapleita Me'ha'ezor Habriti'', Belsen: London: The Narod Press, 1957, pp. 52–66. * Norbert Wollheim Memorial

* Rudberg, Pontus, ''The Swedish Jews and the Holocaust'', Abingdon & New York, 2017, pp. 136–137 * Wollheim, Norbert, "Wir haben Stellung bezogen", in: Richard Chaim Schneider, ''Wir sind da! Die Geschichte der Juden in Deutschland von 1945 bis heute'', Berlin: Ullstein, 2000, pp. 108–120 * Wollheim, Norbert, "Jüdische Selbstverwaltung in der britischen Zone", in: Michael Brenner, ''Nach dem Holocaust: Juden in Deutschland 1945-1950'', Munich: Beck, 1995, pp. 141–147 * Benz, Wolfgang, ''Wiedergutmachung in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland'', Munich: R. Oldenbourg, 1989, (=Schriftenreihe der Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte Sondernummer), pp. 303–326

External links

Norbert Wollheim papers and Benjamin B. Ferencz collection on the trial against I.G. Farbenindustrie AG i.L. Henry Ormond papers on the trial against I.G. Farbenindustrie AG i.L. Norbert Wollheim Memorial Website

Link to information about the Academy Award-winning documentary in which Norbert Wollheim is featured, "Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport" (2000)

Link to free downloadable companion study guide for "Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport" (2000)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wollheim, Norbert 1913 births 1998 deaths 20th-century German Jews German emigrants to the United States Auschwitz concentration camp survivors German accountants People from Berlin People from the Kingdom of Prussia