Walter Süskind
Walter Suskind (* 29. October 1906 in Lüdenscheid ; † 28. February 1945 , possibly in the Auschwitz concentration camp ) was a German businessman who during the Second World War some 1,000 Jews from being murdered in the extermination camps of National Socialism preserved and 1944 even deported was. In Dutch literature he is often described as the Oskar Schindler of the Netherlands .
Life
Süskind grew up in Giessen . He married in 1930, but as a Jew was forced to flee Germany as a result of the National Socialist race laws . Due to Dutch ancestry and a Dutch passport , he was able to emigrate to Amsterdam in 1938 , where he worked as a manager at the food company Unilever .
In 1941, the Joodsche Raad was formed in Amsterdam by German authorities, which from 1942 onwards organized the deportation of Jews from the city to the German extermination camps . Süskind worked for the Jewish Council and was commissioned by the Nazi command office to coordinate the deportations. Most of the Jews in the city were locked up in the Dutch theater, the Schouwburg , in the Jewish quarter and spent the time there until they were "transported away". Some victims spent several days, others weeks on the armchairs of the former theater.
As part of this activity, Süskind tried to help other Jews by forging papers, “miscounting” himself when setting the quota and obtaining yellow armbands for Jews, which at least delayed their deportation as supposed members of the Jewish Council. He tried to save toddlers by tucking them away with backpacks, laundry baskets and shopping bags and hiding them through an underground organization. For roll call he gave his parents straw dolls that were secretly made. Around 1,000 small children are said to have been saved in this way.
Walter Süskind was deported with his wife and daughter on September 4, 1944 via the Nazi camp Theresienstadt as a stopover to the Auschwitz concentration camp . His wife and daughter were murdered in the gas chambers shortly after arriving there . The circumstances of Walter Süskind's death are unclear - he died in Auschwitz concentration camp or on a death march ; according to the memories of Henriette Brandel, he died shortly after the liberation in Bergen-Belsen .
Web links
- Secret Courage - The Walter Suskind Story , documentary film
- The Story of Walter Suskind
- Walter Süskind's biography (in Dutch)
Individual evidence
- ↑ The silent hero in the Holocaust . In: FAZ , No. 23 of January 27, 2012, page 36. (Paid article)
- ↑ Memory of Henriette Brandel, Lochamei Haghettaot, 328
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Süskind, Walter |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German businessman |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 29, 1906 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Ludenscheid |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 28, 1945 |
| Place of death | Auschwitz concentration camp |