Language:
French
Year of publication:
2008
Titel der Quelle:
Les Cahiers de la Mémoire Contemporaine
Angaben zur Quelle:
8 (2008) 139-155
Keywords:
Gompertz, Erich,
;
Comité Israélite des Refugiés Victimes des Lois Raciales
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
;
Jewish refugees
;
Jews, German
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Influence
Abstract:
Traces the wartime and postwar experiences of Erich Gompertz, a German Jew born in Hannover in 1877, who founded the Comité Israélite des Refugiés Victimes des Lois Raciales (COREF) in Belgium in 1945. The wealthy Gompertz moved with his family from Germany to Belgium shortly after Hitler's rise to power, to escape political persecution as a social democrat. He received a yellow identity card, which he had to renew every two years. In 1939 he lost his German citizenship and property. When the Nazis occupied Belgium, Gompertz went into hiding for the duration of the war. After the liberation he was imprisoned in Belgium together with 50 other German Jews. In 1945 he founded the COREF to defend the interests of German and Austrian Jews in Belgium. They were viewed as "Krauts", undesired foreigners and Jews. He tried in vain to have his property in Belgium returned to him and to acquire Belgian citizenship. In 1951, when he regained possession of his confiscated German factory, he returned to Germany.
Note:
Includes illustrations (pp. 152-155).
URL:
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