Josef Heinen (Righteous Among the Nations)

Josef Heinen (born November 18, 1898 in Ahrweiler ; † December 23, 1989 in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler ) was a German businessman and Righteous Among the Nations . During the National Socialist dictatorship he hid a Jewish family in his weekend house in Liers / Hönningen and thus saved them from being deported to an extermination camp .

Life

The art dealer Josef Heinen grew up in Ahrweiler. Professionally, his path took him to Adenau in 1928 , where he managed a furniture business until 1944.

Services

Josef Heinen had business contact with the lampshade factory Sonnenfeld in Cologne-Lindenthal through his furniture business . A friendship with the owner Gerd Sonnenfeld grew out of the business relationship. When the latter, a half-Jew in Nazi parlance , asked his parents and himself to hide with him, he agreed. During a bombing raid, Gerd Sonnenfeld took his parents out of the Judenhaus and brought them to Liers, where Josef Heinen owned a weekend house. A lady friend of the Sonnenfeld family had moved into the weekend house as a camouflage. Josef Heinen hid the Sonnenfeld family here for four years. During the whole period he provided them with food and visited them regularly on weekends. The Sonnenfeld family was not found and survived the Holocaust .

Josef Heinen saw his actions as a matter of course. He saw the citizens of Liers with the honors, who not only kept quiet, but also helped with the catering for the Sonnenfeld family.

Appreciation

On October 16, 1969, Josef Heinen received the Righteous Among the Nations award from the Israeli ambassador.
On November 24, 1970, Josef Heinen received the Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon , presented by District Administrator Heinz Korbach .

literature

Daniel Fraenkel, Jackob Borut (Hrsg.): Lexicon of the Righteous Among the Nations - Germans and Austrians . Yad Vashem, Wallstein, 2005, ISBN 978-3-89244-900-3 , pp. 142 (with an afterword by Horst Köhler).

Web links

Günther Schmitt: Josef Heinen ... a righteous among the nations . Heimatverein "Alt-Ahrweiler"

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c Ahrweiler district under the swastika . The political and economic situation before 1933. The National Socialist dictatorship 1933 to 1945. The political consequences after the collapse in 1945. In: Kreis Ahrweiler (Ed.): Studies on the past and the present . tape 2 . Warlich printing and publishing. Meckenheim, Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler 1989, p. 263 .
^ Günther Schmitt: Josef Heinen from Ahrweiler . In: Ahrweiler district (ed.): Heimatjahrbuch 2005 . Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, p. 223 ( digitized edition in the Heimatjahrbucharchiv of the Ahrweiler district [accessed on November 9, 2016]).
↑ ^a ^b Help for persecuted Jews - Koblenz area (teaching materials). (PDF) NS Documentation Center Rhineland-Palatinate, accessed on November 9, 2016 .

personal data
SURNAME	Heinen, Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German merchant and Righteous Among the Nations
DATE OF BIRTH	November 18, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH	Ahrweiler
DATE OF DEATH	December 23, 1989
Place of death	Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler

[awhk-1] Ahrweiler district under the swastika . The political and economic situation before 1933. The National Socialist dictatorship 1933 to 1945. The political consequences after the collapse in 1945. In: Kreis Ahrweiler (Ed.): Studies on the past and the present . tape 2 . Warlich printing and publishing. Meckenheim, Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler 1989, p. 263 .

[hjb05-2] Günther Schmitt: Josef Heinen from Ahrweiler . In: Ahrweiler district (ed.): Heimatjahrbuch 2005 . Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, p. 223 ( digitized edition in the Heimatjahrbucharchiv of the Ahrweiler district [accessed on November 9, 2016]).

[nsdoc-3] Help for persecuted Jews - Koblenz area (teaching materials). (PDF) NS Documentation Center Rhineland-Palatinate, accessed on November 9, 2016 .