Philipp Kozower

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Stolperstein , Oranienburger Strasse 9-10, in Berlin-Mitte

Philipp Kozower (born January 29, 1894 in Berlin ; † October 1944 in Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp ) was a German lawyer and Jewish association official who was a victim of the Holocaust .

Life

Kozower worked as a lawyer and notary in Berlin. In his hometown he held leading positions at the Zionist Association for Germany (ZVfD) and the Jewish People's Party . From 1929 to 1943 he was a member of the board of the Berlin Jewish Community , most recently as deputy chairman.

Kozower was married to Gisela, nee Herzberg . The couple had three children: Eva Rita (born May 20, 1932), Alice (born June 19, 1934) and Uri Aron (born November 13, 1942). The Kozower family had their residence at Oranienburger Strasse 9-10.

After the National Socialists came to power , he was no longer allowed to work as a lawyer. At the Reich Representation of German Jews he was a member of the Presidential Committee from 1937 and, after this organization was transformed into the Reich Association of Jews in Germany, its executive committee. At the Reichsvereinigung, his field of activity included housing issues and funeral services. At the beginning of 1939, before the Reichsvereinigung was officially installed, Kozower and Heinrich Stahl as representatives of the Jewish community in Berlin, together with Franz Meyer of the Zionist Association , were summoned by Adolf Eichmann to Vienna to inspect the Central Office for Jewish Emigration in Vienna .

Kozower, who was responsible as a liaison man to the Gestapo on the board of the Reichsvereinigung, was one of the first three Jewish people who were informed by Criminal Secretary Franz Prüfer at the beginning of October 1941 that the deportation of Berlin Jews was imminent and that the Jewish community had to cooperate. Otherwise this project would be carried out by the SA and SS . The Jewish functionaries were sworn to secrecy when threatened with death and initially left in the belief that it was only a matter of a "house evacuation" and partial evacuation.

Kozower supervised the Jewish stewards in the Levetzowstrasse synagogue, which was used as a collection point . After the arson attack on the propaganda exhibition The Soviet Paradise , Kozower was briefly taken hostage with other functionaries of the Reichsvereinigung and the Viennese and Prague religious associations.

On January 28, 1943, Kozower and his family were deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto . Within the ghetto self-administration he was a member of the council of elders. From April 15, 1943, he was in charge of the ghetto's post office. The family appears in the final scene of the Nazi propaganda film Theresienstadt. A documentary was shown from the Jewish settlement area , where she was supposed to demonstrate a carefree family life in the ghetto. The role of the grandparents had to be played by David Cohen and his wife. Shortly afterwards, the Kozower family was deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp on October 12, 1944, where they were probably murdered by gas shortly after arrival .

In October 2002, stumbling blocks were laid for him and his family in front of their former place of residence, in Berlin-Mitte , Oranienburger Strasse 9-10 .

literature

  • Otto Dov Kulka : German Judaism under National Socialism , Volume 1: Documents on the history of the legal representation of German Jews 1933-1939 , series of scientific papers by the Leo Baeck Institute 54, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 1997, ISBN 3-16-146413-3 , p 499.
  • Susanne Krejsa: Searching for clues . The Nazi lawyer and rescuer of the Jews Helmut Pfeiffer , Past Publishers , Berlin 2011, ISBN 3-864-08003-7 , pp. 110f, 148, 155, 157, 172.

Web links

Commons : Philipp Kozower  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Andreas Nachama, Elke-Vera Kotowski, Julius Hans Schoeps, Hermann Simon: Jews in Berlin: Biografien , Henschel, Berlin 2005, p. 300
  2. ↑ a b German Judaism under National Socialism , Volume 1, Tübingen 1997, p. 499
  3. ↑ Christian Dirks: "Sad experiences from the Nazi hell Germany". On the fate of the Scheurenberg family . In: Beate Meyer, Hermann Simon (ed.): Jews in Berlin 1938-1945 , accompanying volume for the exhibition of the same name in the "Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin-Centrum Judaicum", Philio Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-8257-0168-9 , P. 204
  4. ↑ a b Anna v. Arnim: Stumbling block . In: Kirchenfenster - Kirchengemeinde Sophien , Berlin, September 2010 edition, p. 14
  5. ^ Train of Remembrance - Berlin: 4393 children and young people (PDF file; 210 kB)
  6. ↑ Beate Meyer: Tödliche Gratwanderung - The Reich Association of Jews in Germany ... , Göttingen 2011, ISBN 978-3-8353-0933-3 , p. 41.
  7. ↑ Beate Meyer: Tödliche Gratwanderung - The Reich Association of Jews in Germany ... , Göttingen 2011, ISBN 978-3-8353-0933-3 , pp. 126–127.
  8. ↑ Beate Meyer: Tödliche Gratwanderung - The Reich Association of Jews in Germany ... , Göttingen 2011, ISBN 978-3-8353-0933-3 , p. 191.
  9. ^ Hans Günther Adler : Theresienstadt. The face of a forced community 1941-1945 , 1960, p. 253
  10. ^ Institute Theresienstädter Initiative: Theresienstädter Studies and Documents , 2001, p. 131
  11. ↑ Karel Margry: The concentration camp as an idyll: Theresienstadt. A documentary film from the Jewish settlement area . In: Auschwitz: History, Reception and Effect. 1996 yearbook on the history and effects of the Holocaust , Fritz Bauer Institute (ed.), Campus, Frankfurt am Main 1996, pp. 343, 349
  12. ^ Gudrun Maierhof: Self-Assertion in Chaos: Women in Jewish Self-Help 1933–1943 ; 2002; P. 293
  13. ^ University over the Abyss - List of Lecturers in Ghetto Theresienstadt
personal data
SURNAME Kozower, Philipp
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer and association official, victim of the Holocaust
DATE OF BIRTH January 29, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH October 1944
Place of death Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp