Rolf Kralovitz

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Martin-Rolf Kralovitz (born June 15, 1925 in Böhlitz-Ehrenberg ; † June 21, 2015 in Cologne ) was a German actor, author and cabaret artist. Kralovitz was a Holocaust survivor and a prisoner in Buchenwald concentration camp . His stage name was Rolf Carlo .

Life

Rolf Kralovitz was the son of the Hungarian businessman Max Kralovitz and therefore initially had Hungarian citizenship. The von Kralovitz family moved to Leipzig's Waldstraßenviertel in the late 1920s , where he spent his childhood and youth. At the time of National Socialism , Kralovitz had to transfer to the Higher Israelite School directed by Ephraim Carlebach in 1935 due to his Jewish descent . His father returned to Hungary in 1935 and built a new life there, but his family was unable to make up. In 1939 Kralovitz was committed to forced labor as a gravedigger in the municipal cemetery in Leipzig. The family had to move into the Judenhaus at Nordstrasse 11 in Leipzig . On October 11, 1943, Kralovitz, his mother and his sister Annemarie were arrested by members of the Gestapo . Kralovitz was then sent to Buchenwald Concentration Camp with prisoner number 10.090, where he was assigned to Barrack 22. Kralovitz was assigned to forced labor in Gustloff-Werk II , where he was employed in arms production. At times he worked as a prisoner hairdresser. After the Buchenwald concentration camp was liberated, Kralovitz returned home to Leipzig in May 1945 as the only survivor of his family. His aunt, the pedagogue Hedwig Burgheim , was also a victim of the Holocaust.

After the end of the war

In Leipzig Kralovitz was finally able to find employment as an actor and appeared in the Palast Theater (Leipzig Zoo) and in the Casino Belge . Because of his refusal to join the SED , Kralovitz lost his recognition as a " victim of first-class fascism ". In the autumn of 1946 Kralovitz moved to Munich , where he got an engagement with the Simpl cabaret and took on his first roles as an actor in the film. Kralovitz emigrated to an aunt in the USA in 1949 . In New York , he met Brigitte Meckauer, a Jewish exile, daughter of the writer Walter Meckauer and his wife Lotte , and married her. After his wife had accompanied him on a book tour to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1953 , the couple moved to Munich and later to Cologne. In Germany, Kralovitz continued his acting career in film and television. From 1960 he was TV production manager at WDR , but was given early retirement in 1975 due to blindness. Since then, he has written books and documentation on coming to terms with the Nazi era and educated school classes about the persecution of Jews in Leipzig. He was supported in his work by his wife. In particular, Kralovitz became known through his publication ZehnNullNeunzig in Buchenwald - A Jewish Prisoner Narrated . Kralovitz dedicated a memorial stone to his murdered family in the old Israelite cemetery in Leipzig.

After the Ephraim Carlebach Foundation was established in 1992, he was initially Vice-President and then President of this institution; In 2010 he was appointed Honorary President of the Ephraim Carlebach Foundation. The special library of the Foundation for Leipzig and Jewish History in the Rolf Kralovitz Library was named after Kralovitz .

In 1997 Kralovitz was interviewed by Michael Kühntopf for the Shoah Foundation ; the interview was filmed and is part of the global archive of the Visual History Archive .

Kralovitz died in 2015 a few days after his 90th birthday. He was buried in the family grave of his wife Brigitte, who died a year earlier, in the Munich North Cemetery.

Actor in films

Fonts (selection)

As editor

  • with Heike Kirchhof and Brigitte Kralowitz: Jewish life in Leipzig: yesterday - today - tomorrow; a bibliography and inventory of the Rolf Kralovitz Library of the Ephraim Carlebach Foundation Leipzig , Passage-Verlag, Leipzig 2006, ISBN 3-938543-29-9 .
  • with Brigitte Kralovitz: The Hedwig Burgheim memorial plaque in the Aliceschule Giessen , Walter-Meckauer-Kreis, Cologne 1997, ISBN 3-923622-11-2 .

As an author

  • TenNullNeunzig in Buchenwald: a Jewish prisoner tells , Walter-Meckauer-Kreis, Cologne 1996, ISBN 3-923622-10-4 (several editions and translations)
  • After reading: Rolf Kralovitz answers questions about "ZehnNullNeunzig" , Walter-Meckauer-Kreis, Cologne 1997, ISBN 3-923622-12-0 .
  • The yellow star in Leipzig , Walter-Meckauer-Kreis, Cologne 1992, ISBN 3-923622-09-0 .
  • with Brigitte Kralovitz: I shouldn't even think about a separation: The story of an expulsion , Walter-Meckauer-Kreis, Cologne 1987, ISBN 3-923622-05-8 .
  • The Hedwig-Burgheim-Haus in Darmstadt: Documentation of a naming , Walter-Meckauer-Kreis, Cologne 1986, ISBN 3-923622-04-X .
  • Afterwards there was nothing left: A documentary report, Brühlscher Verlag, Giessen 1983, ISBN 3-922300-18-9 .

Honors

literature

  • Harry Stein, Buchenwald Memorial (ed.): Buchenwald Concentration Camp 1937–1945 , volume accompanying the permanent historical exhibition. Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 1999, ISBN 978-3-89244-222-6 .
  • Barbara Kowalzik: We were your neighbors. The Jews in Leipzig's Waldstrasse district , Leipzig 1996, ISBN 3-9805368-1-5

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Obituary . Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation.
  2. ↑ Barbara Kowalzik: We were your neighbors , Leipzig 1996, p. 241 and other mentions there.
  3. ↑ a b Martha, Max and Annemarie Kralovitz at www.stolpersteine-leipzig.de
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g Steffen Held: Nobody was waiting for him when he returned. Rolf Kralovitz has told and written a lot about his fate as a Jew / Today he is 85 years old  ( page can no longer be accessed , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 309 kB). In: Leipziger Volkszeitung , issue of June 15, 2010, category: Leipziger Geschichte (n), p. 19.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / annafunck.de  
  5. ↑ a b c d e f Harry Stein, Buchenwald Memorial (ed.): Buchenwald Concentration Camp 1937–1945 , volume accompanying the permanent historical exhibition, Göttingen 1999, p. 300
  6. ↑ a b c My story: Rolf Kralovitz ( Memento from April 12, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) on www.mdr.de
  7. ↑ Heidrun Helwig: “We said goodbye on the day of the arrest”. In Gartenstrasse, the educationalist Hedwig Burgheim is remembered - forced retirement as head of the Froebel seminar in 1933 - research by the nephew (PDF; 114 kB). In: Gießener Anzeiger , issue of October 23, 2009, p. 15
  8. ↑ a b laudation for Rolf and Brigitte Kralovitz on February 19, 2005 at www.schulmuseum-leipzig.de
  9. ↑ Rolf Kralovitz at www.schulmuseum-leipzig.de
  10. ↑ Transcription : USC Shoah Foundation Interview 29877 (PDF) , Visual History Archive, Transcript Freie Universität Berlin 2012 ( http://www.vha.fu-berlin.de , registration required); accessed November 3, 2019.
  11. ^ Tomb in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved July 1, 2020.
  12. ↑ Winners of the Medal of Honor of the City of Leipzig  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 219 kB)@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.leipzig.de  
  13. ↑ Office of the Federal President
personal data
SURNAME Kralovitz, Rolf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kralovitz, Martin-Rolf (full name); Carlo, Rolf (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German actor, author, cabaret artist and survivor of the Holocaust
DATE OF BIRTH June 15, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Böhlitz-Ehrenberg
DATE OF DEATH June 21, 2015
Place of death Cologne