Norbert Wollheim
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Norbert Wollheim (born 1913 in Berlin; died 1998 in New York) was a chartered accountant, tax advisor, previously a director of Central Council of the Jews in Germany and a functionary of Jewish organizations.
Norbert Wollheim grew up in Berlin. He studied jurisprudence and political economy, 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 which transported 10,000 Jewish children out of Hitler's reach and into safety.
Wollheim engaged himself strongly in the Jewish life and became a managing director of the federation of German/Jewish youth. After Novemberpogromen 1938 he helped to organize the child transports of the Jewish municipality to Great Britain and Sweden. Until 1941 he was responsible for the occupation-training schools realm agency of the Jews in Germany and adviser on the training relating to crafts of Jewish citizen.
From September 1941 Wollheim worked at a transportation equipment factory in Berlin Lichtenberg.
On March 8, 1943 Wollheim with his wife and kid were arrested by the Gestapo and brought to the collective camp for Jews in the Grosse Hamburger street in Berlin, Germany. On March 12, 1943 the whole family was deported to Auschwitz. While Wollheim was singled out for slave labor, his wife and kid were gassed in the concentration camp.
Wollheim was brought to Auschwitz camp III, Monowitz, where he had to work as slave laborer for I.G. Farbenindustrie AG, helping build the new Buna-factory IV until the evacuation of Auschwitz January 18, 1945. On one of the so called death-marches of camp inmates being evacuated by the SS, Wollheim managed to flee. After the war he settled in Luebeck, Germany. He soon engaged in Jewish community work and helped to rebuild Jewish life in Germany. He was elected second chairman of the central committee of the freed Jews in the British sector ("Zentralkomitee der befreiten Juden in der britischen Zone") and was cofounder of the Jewish Trust Corporation in the British sector. Later he became chairman of the ("Verband der Jüdischen Gemeinden Nordwestdeutschland) and member of the board of the central consistory of Jews in Germany ("Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland").
In 1950 Norbert Wollheim sued I.G. Farbenindustrie AG for his salary as slave laborer and compensation for damages. His lawsuit was the first test case of a former slave laborer against a company in Germany. In 1953, the court of first instance, the district court of Frankfurt/Main, Germany, convicted IG Farbenindustrie AG i.L. to pay 10.000 Deutschmarks punitive damages to Wollheim. In second instance the lawsuit was settled by a global settlement awarding several thousand of the former slave laborers of I.G. Farbenindustrie AG 30 million Deutschmarks. The settlement apart from the parties of the lawsuit involved the Claims Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany. The settlement was accompanied by a law passed by German parliament that needed and received the consent of the three western Allies, the U.S., the U.K. and France.
Wollheim emigrated to the U.S. in September 1951 and settled in New York, where he studied to become an accountant. He exercised his profession till the mid-eighties.
Wollheim engaged himself pro bono in organisations like the US Holocaust Council or the World Federation of Bergen Belsen Survivors.
[edit] References
- (English) Wollheim, Norbert: Belsen’s Place in the Process of „Death-and-Rebirth“ of the Jewish People., In: Irgun Sheerit Hapleita Me'haezor Habriti: Belsen: London: The Narod Press, 1957, S. 52-66
- (German) Benz, Wolfgang: Wiedergutmachung in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. München: R. Oldenbourg (Schriftenreihe der Vierteljahreshefte für Zeitgeschichte Sondernummer), 1989, S. 303-326
- (German) Wollheim, Norbert: Wir haben Stellung bezogen., In: Schneider, Richard Chaim: Wir sind da! Die Geschichte der Juden in Deutschland von 1945 bis heute: Berlin: Ullstein, 2000, S. 108-120
- (German) Wollheim, Norbert: Jüdische Selbstverwaltung in der britischen Zone. In: Brenner, Michael: Nach dem Holocaust: Juden in Deutschland 1945-1950: München: Beck, 1995, S. 141-147
