“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.”
Today Kirkus posted this great review of “Stolen Legacy.”
The piece concludes:
… an engaging, well-written depiction of how the Holocaust destroyed individual lives as well as families and community relationships. Although the story centers on a valuable piece of property, Gold’s measured, compassionate prose makes it clear that it’s not a tale of financial gain, but one of justice and the survival of a persecuted people.
A highly readable account of one family’s fight for personal and financial vindication.
In the Winter 2015 issue of JW Magazine, published by Jewish Women International, “Stolen Legacy” was recommended as a Book for Giving, under Memoirs of Interesting Lives (next to Donna Karan!).
The Jüdische Allgemeine newspaper reports the story that ERGO insurance group and Mannheim University to decide on the future of the foundation named for Dr. Kurt Hamann, the villain in Stolen Legacy who insured Auschwitz. (Article is in German.)
In Washington Independent Review of Books‘ popular feature “Bedtime Stories” I share what books are queued up and ready to read on my nightstand. Curious? Read it here.
Today Kirkus posted this great review of “Stolen Legacy.”
