Frank Sachnowitz

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Frank Sachnowitz (born February 8, 1925 in Larvik ; † August 17 or 19, 1943 in Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp ) was a Norwegian victim of the Holocaust and one of 86 Jewish women and men who were murdered by August Hirt for the purpose of collecting skeletons .

life and death

Frank Sachnowitz was born in Larvik, Norway, to Israel and Sara Sachnowitz. His mother from Riga died on October 16, 1939. After the attack by the Wehrmacht on Norway in April 1940, the life of the Jewish family became increasingly difficult. His older brothers Martin, Elias and Samuel were arrested and only released after torture. On the night of October 26, 1942, he and his father and 4 brothers were arrested by Norwegian herdsmen on a farm that they used as a retreat . All were interned in the Berg camp near Tønsberg and eventually brought to Oslo . From there, his father, his brothers and his sister Marie were deported from Oslo on November 26 with the Danube deportation ship to Stettin and with 525 other Norwegian Jews in cattle wagons to Auschwitz . After the selection , he and his brothers were assigned to forced labor in the Buna-Monowitz concentration camp. Another 181 men from the transport were sent to the camp. Father Israel and his sister Marie, along with 344 other Jews, were immediately murdered in the gas chamber . With the second transport of the MS Gotenland from Norway, his two sisters Rita and Frida, who remained in Norway, were also deported to Auschwitz and gassed there immediately after their arrival. Because of weakness, Frank Sachnowitz was transferred from the Buna prisoner infirmary to the main camp in Auschwitz on May 6 and deported to Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp on July 30, 1943. There he was murdered in the gas chamber on August 17 or 19 by August Hirt, director of the Anatomical Institute at the Imperial University of Strasbourg , for the planned Strasbourg skull collection .

Some of the preserved body parts were found during the liberation of Alsace in the anatomy cellar of the University of Strasbourg and buried in the Jewish cemetery in Strasbourg. With the help of the prisoner numbers of the corpses recorded by anatomy assistant Henry Henrypierre and years of archive research, Holocaust researcher Hans-Joachim Lang was able to identify all 86 victims, assign the number 79238 to Frank Sachnowitz and reconstruct his biography. His brother Herman Sachnowitz was the only one in the family who survived the Holocaust and died in Oslo in 1978.

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personal data
SURNAME Sachnowitz, Frank
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Norwegian victim of the Holocaust
DATE OF BIRTH February 8, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Larvik
DATE OF DEATH August 17, 1943 or August 19, 1943
Place of death Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp