Eric F. Ross

Eric F. Ross , born Erich Rosenberg (born June 25, 1911 in Dortmund , † September 8, 2010 in Zurich ) was a German-American entrepreneur and patron.

Life

Erich Rosenberg came from a small family. He became a commercial employee and got to know Lore Blumental. Shortly before the pogrom night in November 1938 , Rosenberg emigrated to the United States , while Lore Blumental was stuck in Paris and was interned by the French in Camp de Gurs at the beginning of the war . From there she was able to flee via the Pyrenees and reached the USA via Lisbon in 1943, where they were able to get married. They had a daughter Barbara and a son Peter. Rosenberg's parents Regina and Albert Rosenberg were deported to Auschwitz concentration camp in 1942 , where they were victims of the Holocaust .

He was a soldier during World War II and changed his name to Eric F. Ross. He was one of the Ritchie Boys , the soldiers trained for special tasks at Camp Ritchie , and was used in the liberation of Germany.

After the war he succeeded in building up the chemical company "Alpha Chemical and Plastics" in Newark (New Jersey) as a self-made man. After he retired, they moved from South Orange New Jersey to Palm Beach Florida .

Ross and his wife worked as philanthropists and patrons . Out of their many donations, a $ 10 million donation to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC stands out. In their hometown of Newark they sponsored a school and the student exchange with Israel, as well as the Newark Museum . Among the various Palm Beach institutions that they supported was the Norton Museum of Art .

In Germany, in particular, the rebuilding of the Jewish Museum Berlin received significant support from Ross. In 2006 the museum named an exhibition space in the Libeskind building “Eric F. Ross Galerie”, which the honoree dedicated to the memory of his parents. In 2012, the newly built academy of the Jewish Museum was opened to the public as the "Eric F. Ross Building".

In 2009 Ross received the Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class from the hand of the Federal President.

Web links

• Obituary at palmbeachdailynews

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Obituary Lore Ross, died on February 28, 2009. In: NJ Jewish News  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as broken. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , March 5, 2009  
2. ↑ Online archive of the Federal Government: Jewish Museum opens educational academy , November 17, 2012.
3. ↑ Micha Brumlik : Noble donors. Jewish patrons have a long tradition: They are once again involved in Germany , Jüdische Allgemeine , October 8, 2009.