Norbert Masur

Norbert Masur (born May 13, 1901 in Friedrichstadt ; † July 10, 1971 in Stockholm ) was a negotiator for the World Jewish Congress , which negotiated with Heinrich Himmler on April 20, 1945 about the release of concentration camp prisoners.

Life

Norbert Masur was one of ten children of Leiser Masur, a businessman in Friedrichstadt, and Hannchen Masur (née Levy). After the end of World War II he lived alternately in Tel Aviv and Stockholm .

The negotiations with Heinrich Himmler

The World Jewish Council (WJC for short) was founded in 1936 in Geneva at the time of National Socialism to unite the Jews, to represent their interests and to mobilize them against the National Socialists. Via Heinrich Himmler's Swedish doctor Felix Kersten , the Swedish section of the WJC arranged a secret meeting at Kerstens Gut Hartzwalde around 70 kilometers north of Berlin. Norbert Masur was appointed as negotiator, who was assured safe conduct by Himmler. Negotiations with Masur and renegotiations with the head of the Swedish Red Cross, Folke Bernadotte , made it possible for this organization to rescue around 7,000 women from the Ravensbrück women's concentration camp , known as the White Buses' rescue , in the days that followed . Around half of these women who had been deported from over forty nations were Jewish. They were housed in reception camps in southern Sweden. Masur expressed his horror at the dramatic condition of the women after the sometimes several years in the camp. Especially for the Polish Jewish women, Norbert Masur found a return to their homeland unimaginable against the background of murdered family members, the experiences in the ghettos and the destroyed Jewish communities, so that he saw emigration to Palestine as the only way for these women to regain their dignity.

literature

• Bernd Philippsen: Norbert Masur - "one of the silent heroes of the war and a reason that I am alive". Born in Friedrichstadt with a Swedish passport, he negotiated with Himmler and participated in the White Buses mission . In: Grenzfriedenshefte, Vol. 66, 2019, Issue 2, pp. 101–124

Individual evidence

1. ^ Bulletin of the Society for Friedrichstädter Stadtgeschichte; Booklet 17; 1980; P. 224 ( Memento of the original from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 772 kB) 
2. ↑ http://www.worldjewishcongress.org/en/about About the World Jewish Congress (Engl.)
3. ↑ The publication of the Ravensbrück Memorial ( Memento of the original from October 24, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. mentioned 'approx. 7500 evacuees', but also refers to the activities of the Danish and International Red Cross 
4. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from October 24, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Ravensbrück women's concentration camp / Ravensbrück memorial site, history from 1939 to 1945. 
5. ^ Report by Norbert Masur to the WJC in Niklas Günther, Sönke Zankel (ed.): Abrahams Enkel - Jews, Christians, Muslims and the Shoah; Franz Steiner Verlag, 2006 in the Google book search
6. ^ Bulletin of the Society for Friedrichstädter Stadtgeschichte; Booklet 17; 1980; P. 226 ( Memento of the original dated September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 772 kB)