“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.”
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.”
A nice surprise today in the Times Book section where columnist Melanie Phillips has selected “Stolen Legacy” as one of her three favorite books of the year. It is listed alongside her other two recommended authors – the illustrious Niall Ferguson and Michel Houellebecq. To be in such company is truly flattering.
One day ahead of a meeting to decide the future of the Kurt Hamann Stiftung (Foundation) at Mannheim University, the German online newspaper, The Local, published a story on the issue. The Victoria insurance company (now part of ERGO insurance) had foreclosed in the late 1930s not only on the building once owned by my family but had also expropriated many other Jewish-owned properties and businesses. Dr. Kurt Hamann had been chairman before, during and after the war. Is this really a suitable person to be honored with a foundation in his name? I am waiting to find out.
Great to meet all the friendly members who came to hear me talk about the book. Always interesting to hear of other families’ attempts to reclaim their lost properties and the struggles they have endured.
One lady told me that, at the end of the Second World War, she had embarked on a twenty year long legal battle in West Germany to get restitution of buildings owned by her father. Someone else told me that his family had once had properties in Poland, but had long ago given up any hope of ever possessing them again.
At the Press Club’s 38th Annual Book Fair and Authors’ Night. A great turnout and wonderful to meet so many interested readers. People stopped by my table to ask lots of questions and were genuinely keen to know more about the story.
Speaking at the 64th Annual Jewish Book Fair on the anniversary of Kristallnacht.
The event was held in the Janice Charach Gallery of the magnificent building of the Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit.
Lovely to see a packed audience and to meet so many people with such amazing, and often tragic, stories to tell.
A nice surprise today in the Times Book section where columnist Melanie Phillips has selected “Stolen Legacy” as one of her three favorite books of the year. It is listed alongside her other two recommended authors – the illustrious Niall Ferguson and Michel Houellebecq. To be in such company is truly flattering.
One day ahead of a meeting to decide the future of the Kurt Hamann Stiftung (Foundation) at Mannheim University, the German online newspaper, The Local, published a story on the issue. The Victoria insurance company (now part of ERGO insurance) had foreclosed in the late 1930s not only on the building once owned by my family but had also expropriated many other Jewish-owned properties and businesses. Dr. Kurt Hamann had been chairman before, during and after the war. Is this really a suitable person to be honored with a foundation in his name? I am waiting to find out.
Great to meet all the friendly members who came to hear me talk about the book. Always interesting to hear of other families’ attempts to reclaim their lost properties and the struggles they have endured.
One lady told me that, at the end of the Second World War, she had embarked on a twenty year long legal battle in West Germany to get restitution of buildings owned by her father. Someone else told me that his family had once had properties in Poland, but had long ago given up any hope of ever possessing them again.
At the Press Club’s 38th Annual Book Fair and Authors’ Night. A great turnout and wonderful to meet so many interested readers. People stopped by my table to ask lots of questions and were genuinely keen to know more about the story.
Speaking at the 64th Annual Jewish Book Fair on the anniversary of Kristallnacht.
The event was held in the Janice Charach Gallery of the magnificent building of the Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit.
Lovely to see a packed audience and to meet so many people with such amazing, and often tragic, stories to tell.
