Berthold Storfer

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Berthold Storfer (born December 16, 1880 in Chernivtsi , Austria-Hungary , † November 1944 in Auschwitz , German Reich ) was an Austrian commercial councilor and head of the committee for Jewish overseas transports, which promoted the emigration of Jews under the control of the National Socialist German Reich to the area of the then British Mandate Palestine .

Origin, life until 1938

Storfer was the only one of his Jewish family to be baptized Catholic and lived in Budapest . He earned his living working in forestry and forestry. From 1904 he was a member of the board of the forest industry in Dresden . He participated in the First World War as a major in the cavalry of the Austro-Hungarian Army and was decorated many times. At the end of the war he was a war economist on the staff of Army Group Leader Eduard Fischer in Vienna . After the war he worked as a banker, major shareholder and financier. Storfer owned a banking company in Vienna and a share in Continentale AG for mineral oil transports. In 1928 he was the founder of the Monos transport tricycle company . In 1933 he worked for the Austrian government as a financial specialist. From 1936 he was Vice President of the Samt- und Seidenweberei AG Rudolf Reichert & Sons in Mährisch-Trübau .

Entry into humanitarian activity

After the " Anschluss of Austria " to the German Reich on March 12, 1938 and the radicalization of the persecution of Jews in the German sphere of influence, many Jewish people tried to emigrate . Together with other prominent Jews, he founded the Aid Committee to Promote Jewish Emigration . Because of the problems associated with "emigration", the American President Franklin D. Roosevelt convened an international refugee conference on July 6, 1938 in the French town of Evian .

For the “ Jewish Community Vienna ”, Storfer was delegated to the conference in addition to the leader, the chairman of the community Josef Löwenherz , and Heinrich Neumann von Héthárs . This delegation was obliged by the Reich Governor Arthur Seyß-Inquart to buy Jews who would soon be deported to concentration camps for a ransom. The conference ended unsuccessfully.

Forced auxiliary services for the Reich Security Main Office

The illegal immigration into the Mandate area due to the British Palestine policy developed into a mass exodus. As far as National Socialist authorities were involved (until 1941 the emigration of Jews was forced by the National Socialists with simultaneous confiscation of all assets of the emigrants), it was organized for the Austrian areas by the " Central Office for Jewish Emigration in Vienna " under SS-Obersturmbannführer and SD -Fuehrer Adolf Eichmann , who as head of Department IV D 4 (later IV B 4) of the Reich Security Main Office managed the forced departure of Jewish Austrians. The emigration was later carried out by a single National Socialist organization, the Reich Central Office for Jewish Emigration . Its leader was the head of the SD and SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich , managing director from October 1939 in turn Adolf Eichmann.

The route of the Jewish refugees, especially from Austria, led down the Danube to a Black Sea port and from there to the British Mandate Palestine. Eichmann threatened Storfer: "Either you disappear across the Danube or into the Danube!"

Storfer, who was considered a Jew by the National Socialists in accordance with the Nuremberg Laws , despite his Christian baptism, took over the management of all refugee transports from the now called Ostmark Austria, the so-called Altreich and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia on the orders of the SS . The Zionist organizations Hechaluz and Betar , which were previously involved in organizing the emigration, accused Storfer of being a collaborator with the SS. Storfer's activities were honored by the Jewish organizations still present in the National Socialist sphere of influence; and Erich Frank , head of Hechaluz in Berlin , took his criticism of Storfer back later. In contrast to Hechaluz and Betar, who mainly brought young people into the country to build the coming state of Israel , Storfer organized the escape of people of all ages, including freed concentration camp prisoners and other weakened people. Storfer also ensured that wealthy refugees paid for the passage for the non-wealthy.

Despite great difficulties, Storfer managed to organize a total of four transports with the ships "Schönbrunn", "Helios", "Uranus" and "Melk", which left on September 3, 1940. In the Romanian Danube ports of Sulina and Tulcea , the refugees were embarked from October 7th to 19th, 1940 on the ocean-going ships "Atlantic", "Pacific" and "Milos", with which they took the Reached the sea ​​area off Haifa . The ships were all in barely seaworthy condition. The supply of water and coal was insufficient, so that the cabin walls, masts and beds had to be burned. Typhus broke out on the "Atlantic" and 15 people died. These ships had been given to the organizers at exorbitant prices .

Storfer helped 2042 Austrian and 7054 German and other Jews, a total of 9096 people, to flee from the so-called final solution of the Jewish question .

In October 1941, the emigration of Jews from the Nazi sphere of influence was prohibited and the targeted murder of all Jews in the German sphere of influence began.

Persecution, death

After the ban on emigration, Storfer was no longer active. In autumn 1943 the SS is said to have planned to send him to Switzerland on secret foreign exchange matters, but this project was canceled. When he announced his deportation to the Theresienstadt ghetto , Storfer went into hiding, but was arrested and taken to the Auschwitz concentration camp. According to Eichmann, Storfer met Eichmann for the last time there in autumn 1944. Eichmann presented his memory of this during his interrogations in Jerusalem as follows: “Storfer, yes, then it was a normal human meeting. He complained about his suffering. I said: Yes, my dear good Storfer, what bad luck have we had? And I also told him, look, I really can't help you, because nobody can take you out on the Reichsführer's orders. I can't take you out, Dr. Ebner cannot take it out. I heard that you did something stupid here, that you hid yourself or wanted to pile up, which you really didn't need. [What was meant was that Storfer would not have been deported as a Jewish functionary.] […] And then Storfer […] said to me that he would like to ask if he didn't need to work, it would be hard work, and then I said Höß : work does not need Storfer. "

In November 1944, Storfer was murdered in Auschwitz on a day that can no longer be determined, presumably by shooting.

reception

Arno Lustiger criticized in the FAZ that Storfer, as a native Jew, who according to rabbinical law remains without prejudice to his conversion to the Catholic faith, despite his merits, was not accepted into the Yad Vashem memorial as Righteous Among the Nations : “Should this rule be denied in the future changed, then the hero of the rescue resistance Berthold Storfer would be one of the first candidates for this honor. "

Literature and references

Further literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The persecution and murder of European Jews by National Socialist Germany 1933–1945 (collection of sources). Volume 2: German Reich 1938 – August 1939. Ed. By Susanne Heim , Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-486-58523-0 , p. 46.
  2. ↑ a b Arno Lustiger : On Holocaust Remembrance Day. The Council of Commerce chartered the rescue fleet. 'In: FAZ.net . January 27, 2011.
  3. ↑ Quoted from Hannah Arendt : Eichmann in Jerusalem. A report on the banality of evil. 14th edition. Piper, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-492-20308-6 , chap. III: Expert in the Jewish question.
personal data
SURNAME Storfer, Berthold
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Head of the Committee on Jewish Overseas Transports
DATE OF BIRTH December 16, 1880
PLACE OF BIRTH Chernivtsi , then Austria-Hungary, now Ukraine
DATE OF DEATH November 1944
Place of death Auschwitz concentration camp