Arnold Bernhard

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Arnold Bernhard (born October 20, 1886 in Dargun ; † 1944 in Auschwitz concentration camp ) was a German manufacturer and chairman of the Jewish community in Rostock .

Life

Stumbling stone at Schnickmannstrasse 9 in Rostock
Siegmund Bernhard's gravestone with memorial entry for Arnold Bernhard in the Jewish cemetery in Rostock

Arnold Bernhard was born in Dargun as the youngest of three sons of the factory owner and businessman Siegmund Bernhard and his wife Helene, née Löwenberg. His father ran a small brush and brushwood factory there and was the head of the local Jewish community. When the family moved to Rostock in May 1890, the father built a new factory in Schnickmannstrasse on the Warnowufer.

Arnold Bernhard took part in the First World War from September 13, 1915 to December 1918 as a medical officer on the Western Front. For his work he was awarded several medals, such as the Iron Cross, 2nd class .

On June 20, 1920 Arnold Bernhard married Emma Hess, with whom he had two daughters and a son. Since 1924 he was a member of the board of directors of the Israelite Community of Rostock , the Jewish community in the Hanseatic city. In this function he provided valuable help to persecuted Jews after the Nazis " seizure of power " in 1933. From 1935 he kept an office in his apartment for this purpose. By 1938 he probably had plans to go into exile himself because he was learning English and Spanish. When the chairman of the Israelite Congregation, Max Samuel , followed his son and son-in-law into exile in England in the spring of that year, Arnold Bernhard took over this function. He became the last head of the Rostock community.

When thousands of Polish Jews living in Germany were deported to the German-Polish border area on October 28, 1938, during the so-called Poland Action , he accompanied this transport to Neu Bentschen . During the November pogroms in 1938 his apartment was devastated and his company “Aryanized” . He himself was arrested and imprisoned in the Neustrelitz-Strelitz state institution . During the November pogroms in 1938 , Jewish residents were taken into protective custody here. Arnold Bernhard was also later released. He and his wife managed to place their two children, Ursula (1921–2004), Jürgen (born 1923) and Johanna (1925–2016) abroad. The youngest went to Vesterby in Sweden in 1937 and from there later on to Kabri in Israel. The older two came to Britain in 1939 with Kindertransporte . The oldest returned to Germany in 1947. On July 10, 1942, he was able to accompany the first deportation of Mecklenburg Jews to German-occupied Poland to Ludwigslust .

Arnold Bernhard was deported together with his wife, mother and a foster daughter Hanna Levy on June 23, 1943 to the Theresienstadt ghetto , where his mother died of malnutrition. He himself was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in autumn 1944 and murdered.

Honors

A street in Rostock has been named after him since 2001.

literature

  • Frank Schröder u. a .: 100 Jewish personalities from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania , ed. from the Foundation Meeting Center for Jewish History and Culture in Rostock, Rostock 2003.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Designation s. Chronicle of JA Neustrelitz . In: Official website of JA Neustrelitz (March 30, 2011).
  2. ^ Chronicle of JA Neustrelitz . In: Official website of JA Neustrelitz (March 30, 2011).
  3. ↑ Ingrid Ehlers and Frank Schröder, Between Emancipation and Destruction: on the history of the Jews in Rostock , Rostock: Stadtarchiv, 1988, (= series of publications of the Rostock City Archives; issue 9), p. 62. No ISBN.
  4. ^ Ingrid Ehlers and Frank Schröder, Between Emancipation and Destruction: on the history of the Jews in Rostock , Rostock: Stadtarchiv, 1988, (= series of publications of the Rostock City Archives; Issue 9), p. 70. No ISBN.
  5. ↑ Dörte Bluhm on behalf of the 'Rostock Society for Urban Renewal' (RGS), 25 years of Rostock urban renewal from 1990 to 2015 , Hanseatic City of Rostock / Lord Mayor / Press and Information Office (publisher), Rostock: Ostsee-Druck Rostock, 2015, p 16.
personal data
SURNAME Bernhard, Arnold
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German manufacturer and chairman of the Jewish community in Rostock
DATE OF BIRTH October 20, 1886
PLACE OF BIRTH Dargun
DATE OF DEATH 1944
Place of death Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp