Carl Katz

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Carl Katz (also Karl Katz ; born September 14, 1899 in Osterholz-Scharmbeck ; † February 12, 1972 in Bremen ) was a German entrepreneur and chairman of the Jewish community in Bremen .

biography

Katz settled in Bremen in the early 1920s. He ran a wholesaler of raw materials, first on Neuenstrasse, then on Brückenstrasse and finally on Isarstrasse. He was allowed to run his business until the end of November 1938, then he was forced by the National Socialists to sell the business. Then he was a commercial clerk. His house at Isarstrasse 33, in which he continued to live, was declared a " Jewish house " by the Nazis . He then moved to Parkstrasse and lived with seven other Jewish families.

Until the " seizure of power " in 1933, the Israelite community had 1,314 members. 440 Jews Bremen were in November 1941 in the Minsk ghetto and Riga ghetto deported . Thereafter, Carl Katz and Max Jonas became the chairmen of the Jewish community and heads of the Bremen branch of the Reich Association of Jews in Germany . In this office he was the liaison between the Jewish community and the Gestapo and was involved in the selection of the death row inmates. In 1942 another 114 Jews from Bremen were taken to the Auschwitz concentration camp and the Theresienstadt ghetto and murdered. On July 24, 1942, Katz and his family were also deported to Theresienstadt along with the inmates of the Jewish old people's home in Gröpelingen . Karl Bruck was his successor as chairman of the Jewish community.

On the transport to Theresienstadt, Katz already received privileges due to his earlier collaboration with the Gestapo. In Theresienstadt itself he soon became block and building elder in the ghetto and also worked in this function with the Nazi camp administration. According to his great-granddaughter's report, he had hoped for personal benefits from taking on the function in terms of accommodation and food rations. Due to his position, he was able to achieve that his wife was struck off the death list of the deportation to Auschwitz and replaced by another woman.

After the liberation from National Socialism , Katz returned to Bremen in 1945 with his wife and daughter. He took up the product trade again. His building burned down in a major fire and was rebuilt.

Katz became chairman of the Israelite community in Bremen in August 1945 . The files of the Central Council of Jews in Germany on the discussion about Carl Katz, which are stored in the Bremen State Archives, show that the Chairman of the Central Council, Heinz Galinski, had received letters from Bremen since 1957 "with violent attacks against Mr. Katz". After a controversial discussion, the board of directors of the Central Council, in which Carl Katz was also represented, passed a majority declaration on February 25, 1964, according to the Jews who had worked with the National Socialists after 1939 with or without coercion in the contemporary Jewish community should no longer hold executive positions. But the Central Council had no means of enforcing its position in Bremen. Katz remained chairman of the Jewish community until his death. His successor was Siegfried Stoppelmann in 1972. In 1996 the community was renamed the Jewish Community in the State of Bremen .

Katz set up a synagogue in Bremen , which was inaugurated in 1961 on Schwachhauser Heerstrasse for 150 members. He held various offices in several organizations.

Honors

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Jewish secretary of the Gestapo, Bruno Nette, later explained to his grandson: “I gave Katz a letter of recommendation when he had to go to Theresienstadt. To the commandant there. When I was responsible for the Jews at the Gestapo, Katz was my best colleague. ”Quoted from: Nette, don't forget Nette! ... p. 124
  2. ↑ In 1949 Hugo Singer reported to the criminal police how his sister was put on the death list in the Jewish community: “On the day my sister was sent, I was in the community office of the Jewish community on Kohlhökerstraße. Several Jews were present here. Karl Katz, the head of the Jewish community and the Jews' liaison to the Gestapo, was sitting at a table and had a list in front of him containing the names of Jews who were to be deported to Minsk. Karl Katz said to the Jews present - he hadn't even noticed me yet - that a woman Uchakovsky, who also belonged to the category of mixed marriages (...), could not be found or was ill. Ms. Uchakovsky was to be deported to Minsk and was included on the list. After a moment's thought, said Karl Katz, then we'll take the Hasselhorst ice cream. When I heard this, I immediately left the church office and went to my sister and conveyed what Katz had said. My sister was very worried about this and cried bitterly. She was no longer able to say a word and in this condition went to the assembly camp from where she was transported to Minsk. I have not heard from my sister again and have not received any letters from her. ”(Statement from Hugo Singer on November 10, 1949. SAB, 4, 89-7, file“ Katz, Karl ”of the Chief Public Prosecutor at the Bremen Regional Court.) Author Bernhard Nette about the Gestapo Jewish clerk, his grandfather Bruno Nette: "Obviously, my grandfather gave his Jewish liaison officer Carl Katz leeway when asked which of the widowed and thus again exposed Jewish women he wanted to suggest to the Gestapo for deportation." after: Nice, don't forget Nice! ... p. 179/180.
  3. ↑ Garibaldi: Rosen ... p. 77
  4. ↑ Garibaldi: Rosen ... p. 74, p. 102
  5. ↑ Garibaldi: Rosen ... p. 122ff.
  6. ↑ Bremen State Archives, 4. 89 / 3-751, 4, 89 / 3-1118: 4, 89 / 3-1119, public prosecutor at the Bremen Regional Court, file "Katz / Plaut".

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Katz, Carl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Katz, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German entrepreneur, chairman of the Bremen Jewish community
DATE OF BIRTH September 14, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Osterholz-Scharmbeck
DATE OF DEATH February 12, 1972
Place of death Bremen