“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.”
Sarasota Herald Tribune staff writer, Elizabeth Djinis, came to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum event at Temple Beth Sholom and here’s her report.
Gold spoke as part of an event held by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., moderated by the museum’s director of visiting scholar programs, Suzanne Brown-Fleming, and featuring the museum’s chief of research and reference, Diane Afoumado.
Before the lecture, Afoumado also led private sessions with local survivors and those interested in learning their family’s history, using some of the museum’s research tools. One of those is the International Tracing Service, a paper archive formerly only accessed in Germany that can be found in digitized records at the Holocaust Museum.
The private sessions for those keen to research, as I have done, the fate of family members were of immense interest to the audience. Many were intrigued by what documents they might be able to unearth with the US Holocaust Memorial Museum’s help. This is a wonderful, free, service but, as I warned people at the event, you have to prepare yourself emotionally for what you might discover.
The Jewish Book Council today published a review by Philip K. Jason, professor emeritus of English at the United States Naval Academy.
I am grateful for the evident thought and care put into it. Professor Jason makes an interesting point about the changing nature of research in the computer age. He writes:
Ever-expanding electronic databases allow skilled investigators access to materials that would never otherwise be discovered or accessed.
The chain of discoveries seems endless; absolute closure seems an illusion. Nonetheless, this book is a grand example of dogged investigative journalism. Gold is never satisfied, and she never backs off.
Wonderful review by Jeremy Jones for AIJAC – Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council.
Dina Gold is an extremely skilled writer, a talent she puts to full use to help readers of her memoir not only come to see that her grandmother was right, but also to feel that you are actually part of her efforts to achieve justice.
He was so enamored of the story told in “Stolen Legacy” that, when he visited Berlin, he went to Krausenstrasse 17/18 – the building he had read all about. And he even sent me a photograph of himself standing outside the building’s archway. The very same one featured on the front cover of the paperback edition.
Alan Freedman, presenter of “Nothing Left” broadcasting from Melbourne, Australia interviewed me for his show. You can hear it starting at 50 minutes into the program.
Michael Burd, Alan’s co-presenter, sums up the piece by commenting:
One thing you didn’t ask her was about the movie… it’s a wonder Spielberg doesn’t get onto it… it would make a great movie.
After giving a presentation to a large crowd at the Tucson Jewish Community Center, it was then time to relax!
Here with J. Edward Wright, Professor of Hebrew Bible and Early Judaism, Director of the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Arizona.
Sarasota Herald Tribune staff writer, Elizabeth Djinis, came to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum event at Temple Beth Sholom and here’s her report.
