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“This is a meticulous and finely written account of Dina Gold’s struggle to seek belated justice for her mother, with all the twists and turns one would expect from a fictional detective story — but it is all true.”

—E. Randol Schoenberg
Attorney (“Woman in Gold”)

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About the Book

When Dina Gold was a little girl, her grandmother told her stories about the glamorous life she had led in pre-war Berlin and how she dreamed of one day reclaiming the grand building that had housed the family business.

Dina’s grandmother died in 1977, leaving behind no documents, not even an address, to help locate the property or prove its ownership. But when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, Dina had not forgotten her grandmother’s tales and set out to find the truth.

In 1990, Dina marched into a German government ministry at Krausenstrasse 17/18, just two blocks from Checkpoint Charlie, and declared:

“I’ve come to claim my family’s building.”

And so began her legal struggle — to reclaim the building that had belonged to her family.

The six-story office block had been the headquarters of the H. Wolff fur company, one of the most successful Jewish fashion firms in Germany. Built by Dina’s great-grandfather in 1910, it was foreclosed on by the Victoria Insurance Company in 1937. Ownership was transferred to the Deutsche Reichsbahn, Hitler’s railways, that later transported millions of Jews to death camps.

Today the Victoria is part of ERGO, a leading German insurance company. Few are aware that the Victoria was once chaired by a lawyer with connections to the top of the Nazi party. The Victoria was also part of a consortium that insured SS-owned workshops using slave labor at Auschwitz and other concentration camps.

Dina has delved deep into archives across the world and made shocking discoveries. What she found has repercussions even in today’s Germany.

In a major victory, Dina persuaded the German government to put up a plaque in July 2016 acknowledging in both German and English the history of “The Wolff Building.”

But the story is STILL not over.

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Ankerwycke Books in the News

Written by Administrator on June 3, 2015. Posted in News

Jonathan Malysiak, executive editor at the American Bar Association’s new imprint Ankerwycke, gives an insightful interview to Deborah Kalb today.

Top executives at ABA Publishing realized that, in order to expand its readership base, they needed to appeal beyond just lawyers and reach out to the general non-lawyer audience. To date, this has been an under-represented niche in the publishing world. But in the current publishing climate it is, of course, practically unheard of for a publisher to be launching a brand new imprint. But ABA is perfectly positioned to do just that.

In December 2014, the official debut of the new imprint was launched with a legal novel by David Lat entitled “Supreme Ambitions.”

As the author himself of Lead Me to Success in Publishing, Jon understands the book business from both sides – as an editor and a writer. That makes him all the more sympathetic to the stresses and strains experienced by authors. And I can personally testify to his abilities on that front!

Ankerwycke’s 2015 debut list has 10 titles ranging in subject matter from fiction, memoir, true crime, business, history, biography and sports. All very different but all with a common theme – a connection to the law. And Stolen Legacy is one of those ten new books! The 2016 Ankerwycke list is now on track to double in size. Honored to be in such good company!