Gerhard Kurzbach

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Gerhard Kurzbach (* 1915 in Posen ; lost August 1944 in Romania) was a chief sergeant in the German Wehrmacht during World War II . For his services in saving Jewish life during the National Socialist tyranny, he was honored as Righteous Among the Nations in Yad Vashem on November 28, 2012 .

Yad Vashem Memorial, Israel - Wall of Honor in the Garden of the Righteous Among the Nations. Excerpt from the record of the year 2011 with the honorees from Germany, including Gerhard Kurzbach

Life

After Poznan ceded to Poland, Kurzbach and his family moved to Bunzlau in 1918 . He learned the trade of a mechanic and worked in his father's workshop. In August 1939 he was drafted into the Wehrmacht, where he served in the artillery . In 1941 he took over the command of an army vehicle park near Bochnia . Numerous Jewish forced laborers were also employed in this repair shop for motor vehicles . In 1942 he rescued 200 of them from deportation to extermination camps under the pretext that he urgently needed them for an important war mission. In 1943 he was transferred; the last message from him to his family came from Romania in August 1944. The date and circumstances of his death are unknown. Presumably, however, he died in Soviet captivity.

literature

  • Peter Münch: Sun over Haifa. A sergeant major in the Wehrmacht saved the lives of Israel Frommer and other Jews. About a moving encounter - between the survivor and the nephew of the rescuer . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , June 19, 2013, p. 3.
  • Davide Napolitano: Un nemico di parole July 12, 2018

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Davide Napolitano: Un nemico di parole: Basato sulla storia vera di Gerhard Kurzbach . ( amazon.it [accessed April 23, 2019]).
personal data
SURNAME Kurzbach, Gerhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer, Righteous Among the Nations
DATE OF BIRTH 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Poses
DATE OF DEATH after August 1944
Place of death Romania