page_title: Norbert Wollheim
section_title: Auschwitz
hierarchical_section_title: Norbert Wollheim / Auschwitz
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. 08 Übersicht Buna + Montan Information added by Wikimedia users.Français&#160;: 1941, usine de Buna et Montan de IG Farben, près d'Auschwitz"&#160;; Source&#160;: Archives fédérales allemandes English: 1941, IG Farben's plant of Buna + Montan, near Auschwitz"&#160;; Overview&#160;; Source&#160;: German Federal Archive
context_page_description: Norbert Wollheim was a chartered accountant, tax advisor, previously a board member of the Central Council of Jews in Germany and a functionary of other Jewish organisations.
  Wollheim grew up in Berlin. He studied jurisprudence and political economy, but had to cease his studies in 1933 because of his Jewish origin. He then worked as a welder for a metal export firm until the outbreak of war in 1938. During that same period he played a key role in running the Kindertransport which transported 10,000 Jewish children out of the Nazi's reach and into safety.
  Wollheim engaged himself strongly in the Jewish life and became a managing director of the federation of German-Jewish Werkleute youth. After the night of the November Pogroms known as Kristallnacht in 1938, he helped to organise the transports of Jewish children to Great Britain and Sweden. In 1939, he also personally accompanied Kindertransports to Sweden, but immediately returned to Berlin after leaving the children in safety. Until 1941 he was responsible for the vocational training schools of the Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland and adviser on the training relating to crafts of Jewish Germans.
context_section_description: On March 8, 1943 Wollheim with his sister Ruth Wollheim (born in 1910), his wife Rosa (née Mandelbrod, born in 1912) and their son Peter Uriel (born in 1939) were arrested by the Gestapo and brought to the gathering point for Jews in the Große Hamburger Straße in Berlin, Germany. On March 12, 1943 the whole family was deported to Auschwitz. While Wollheim was singled out for slave labour, his sister, wife and child were gassed in the concentration camp.
  Wollheim was brought to Auschwitz camp III, Monowitz, where he had to work as slave labourer for I.G. Farbenindustrie AG, helping build the new Buna-factory IV until the evacuation of Auschwitz on January 18, 1945. On one of the so-called death marches of camp inmates being evacuated by the SS, Wollheim managed to flee. After the war he settled in Lübeck, British Zone of Occupation. He soon engaged in the Lübeck Jewish community, elected its president, and helped to rebuild Jewish life in West Germany. He was elected second chairman of the Central Committee of Liberated Jews in the British Zone ("Zentralkomitee der befreiten Juden in der britischen Zone") and was cofounder of the Jewish Trust Corporation in the British zone. Later he became chairman of the Association of Northwestern Germany's Jewish Congregations (German: Verband der Jüdischen Gemeinden Nordwestdeutschlands) and member of the board of the Central Council of Jews in Germany.
caption: IG Farben factory in Monowitz (near Auschwitz) 1941
  50°02′10″N 19°16′32″E﻿ / ﻿50.036094°N 19.275534°E﻿ / 50.036094; 19.275534﻿ (Site of Buna Werke plant approximately 10km or 6.2 miles from Auschwitz)Coordinates: 50°02′10″N 19°16′32″E﻿ / ﻿50.036094°N 19.275534°E﻿ / 50.036094; 19.275534﻿ (Site of Buna Werke plant approximately 10km or 6.2 miles from Auschwitz)
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