Kurt Großmann
Kurt Grossmann | |
---|---|
Born | Kurt Richard Großmann 21 May 1897 Germany |
Died | 2 March 1972 , US |
Occupation(s) | Human rights activist Journalist |
Spouse | Elsa Mecklenburg(1898-1982) |
Children | Walter Grossmann (Gilbert) |
Parent(s) | Hermann Großmann Rahel Freundlich |
Kurt Großmann (21 May 1897 – 2 March 1972) began his career as a
His experiences as a soldier during the
Biography
Provenance and early years
Kurt Richard Großmann was born in
School, apprenticeship and war
Großmann attended junior school locally and moved on to the nearby "Leibniz-Oberschule" (secondary school) in
Pacifist
In September 1919 he returned to his job with Kosterlitz. Early in 1920 he switched to the
Human rights
In 1926 Großmann was elected General Secretary of the German League for Human Rights.[2][4] Under his guidance the league campaigned against courtroom injustices.[2] One particularly high-profile case in which Großmann and the league involved themselves was that of the illiterate Polish (or Russian: sources differ) labourer, Josef Jakubowski who was found guilty of murder, sentenced and executed in 1925. The trial was widely regarded as flawed, and there was a sense that Jakubowski's status as an illiterate foreigner might have played a part in his wrongful conviction and sentencing. The campaign succeeded in obtaining a (posthumous) "partial rehabilitation" for Jakubowski after the "real murderers" had been caught and sentenced in 1929. However, the various officials responsible for the original mistrial and for the gratuitous delays in investigating it went unpunished.[5] Another case in which Großmann engaged prominently involved Walter Bullerjahn who was set-up by a commercial rival and then, in 1925, found guilty of treason and sentenced to a fifteen-year jail term.[6] Bullerjahn's release was reported in 1932.[7]
Régime change and exile
At the start of 1933 the
On 25 August 1933 the German government published a list of Germans to be deprived of their citizenship. In the end there would be 359 such lists. The first was relatively short, containing just 33 names. Almost half of those listed were of Jewish provenance. Kurt Großmann was on the list, both on account of his Jewish provenance and because the authorities had identified him (correctly) as an enemy of National Socialism.[8]
In Prague he set up the Demokratische Flüchtlingsfürsorge ('Democratic refugees welfare organisation'), which involved tapping into his skill at dealing with the authorities and a talent for finding sources of funds to provide support for many German exiles in the Czech capital.[9] He moved on to Paris in 1938. After the Munich Agreement in September of that year he made efforts, from Paris, to help extract endangered German anti-fascist exiles out of Czechoslovakia.[9]
New York
Kurt Grossmann arrived in
After 1945 Grossmann took as his principal mission the forging of German-Jewish reconciliation.[12] Already during—and in some cases before—the war he had been a frequent contributor to publications that were or had become "emigrant newspapers" such as Aufbau,[13] Neue Weltbühne, Neu Vorwärts, Pariser Tageblatt and Neue Tage-Buch.[14]
During the postwar period Grossmann was briefly employed as US correspondent for the SPD newspaper Vorwärts, and at various stages wrote for all West Germany's important left-liberal newspapers. He also worked for the (Swiss) Berner Tagwacht and the (Israeli) Jedioth Chadashoth.[3] Over more than twenty years he published thousands of articles and a large number of books. One of his best known works, appearing in 1957, was Die unbesungenen Helden: Menschen in Deutschlands dunklen Tagen (The Unsung Heroes: People in Germany's Dark Days) which describes individual acts of resistance in opposition to National Socialist persecution.[15] This book provided the impetus for a 1960 initiative by the Berlin Senator Joachim Lipschitz to commemorate, for the first time, the "antifascist" activities undertaken by a wide number of citizens never individually identified.[16]
In 1972 Kurt Grossmann was nominated as a candidate for receipt of the Carl von Ossietzky Medal to be awarded by the Berlin branch of the International League for Human Rights. Unfortunately he died unexpectedly before the award could be bestowed.
Selected works
- Ossietzky: Ein deutscher Patriot. Kindler, München 1963. Mit einer Bibliographie C. v. Ossietzkys
- Die Emigration – Die Geschichte der Hitlerflüchtlinge 1933-1945. 408 S., EVA, Frankfurt am Main 1969
- Die Ehrenschuld. Kurzgeschichte d. Wiedergutmachung. Ullstein, Frankfurt 1967
- Die unbesungenen Helden; Menschen in Deutschlands dunklen Tagen. 388 S., Arani Verlag, Berlin 1957
- The Jewish refugee. Zusammen mit Arieh Tartakower. Institute of Jewish Affairs of the American Jewish Congress and World Jewish Congress, New York 1944
- Peace and the German problem. New Europe, New York 1943. Gesamttitel: World reconstruction pamphlet series; 3
- Fünf Jahre!: Flucht, Not u. Rettung. produced by the Demokratischen Flüchtlingsfürsorge. Verlag Demokrat. Flüchtlingsfürsorge, Prag 1938. published anonymously
- Carl von Ossietzky (under the pseudonym „Felix Burger“ with Kurt Singer). 143 S., Europa Verlag, Zürich 1937
- Menschen auf der Flucht: drei Jahre Fürsorgearbeit für die deutschen Flüchtlinge. Hrsg. von d. Demokratischen Flüchtlingsfürsorge. Verlag der Demokratischen Flüchtlingsfürsorge, Prag 1936. Anonym erschienen
- Der gelbe Fleck: ein Bericht vom Frühjahr 1933. Unter dem Pseudonym Hermann Walter. Verlag Tschechische Liga Gegen d. Antisemitismus, Prag, 1933
- Juden in brauner Hölle: Augenzeugen berichten aus SA-Kasernen u. Konzentrationslagern. under the pseudonym Felix Burger, Umschlagbild von John Heartfield. Verlag Die Abwehr, Prag 1933
- 13 Jahre „republikanische“ Justiz. Voco-Verlag, Berlin 1932. Gesamttitel: Republikanische Bibliothek; vol. 1
References
- New York Times. 4 March 1972. Retrieved 4 April 2019.
- ^ a b c d e f "Guide to the Kurt Grossmann Collection, 1933–1972 .... Biographical note". AR 25032 / MF 478 .... Processed by LBI Staff. Leo Back Institute (Center for Jewish History). 6 November 2014. Retrieved 4 April 2019.
- ^ )
- )
- ^ István Deák (1968). For a humane society: The reform of justice. University of California Press. pp. 121–129, 125. GGKEY:B6ZRU3DDZYZ.
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- ^ a b Hans-Albert Walter (18 September 1970). "Kurt R. Grossmanns Buch über die Hitler-Flüchtlinge". Wirre Emigrations-Geschichte. Die Zeit. Retrieved 5 April 2019.
- ^ "A counterclaim by Joan Deman". Holocaust survivors and remembrance project. NatureQuest Publications, Inc., Cambridge MA. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
- ^ "The Kurt Grossmann Archives: Documentation regarding Kurt Grossman's activities as an advisor to the Jewish Agency and documentation regarding reparations". EHRI. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
- )
- ISBN 978-3-8353-2847-1.
- ISBN 978-3-476-03094-8.
- ^ Kobi (Yaakov) Kabalek (June 2013). "Collecting "Unsung Heroes"" (PDF). The Rescue of Jews and the Memory of Nazism in Germany, from the Third Reich to the Present. Corcoran Department of History, University of Virginia. pp. 236–248. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
- ^ "kurtgrossmanncol16gros (file identifier)". Kurt Grossmann Collection 1933-1972. Leo Back Institute (Center for Jewish History). Retrieved 6 April 2019.