“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 very nice article in today’s Chicago Tribune entitled “ABA’s new publishing line promises compelling legal tales.” The recently launched trade imprint, Ankerwycke, … hopes to rule the legal-niche corner of publishing. My editor, Jon Malysiak, director of Ankerwycke, explains that all the books …feature a legal tie, whether it’s fiction or whether it’s nonfiction.
Stolen Legacy fits well into this niche market. And here’s why:
The imprint also allows authors to dig into the complexity of the law, where other publishers might encourage writers to soft-pedal the legal details.
Without a doubt, I think if I’d gone anywhere else they would have said, ‘Oh, we want a lot of gushing and emotion, said Dina Gold, author of “Stolen Legacy: Nazi Theft and the Quest for Justice at Krausenstrasse 17/18, Berlin.”
And as the Chicago Tribune rightly reports: Instead, she was able to include family history while also delving into the German legal system in her book, which recounts efforts to reclaim her family’s building in Berlin, lost when they were forced to flee during World War II.
The Washington Jewish Week has a feature about “Stolen Legacy” this week entitled “Reclaiming Krausenstrasse 17/18.” It is an adaptation of sections of the book.
She goes on to say “… what makes this book unique is what else Gold uncovered. For the family was robbed of the building by one of Germany’s top insurance companies, the Victoria, which transferred its ownership to the Nazi railway system that transported millions of Jews – including Gold’s relatives – to death camps. And she unearthed other evidence to suggest that, even today, Germany has failed to expunge certain links to its terrible history.”
Today, and over the weekend, CBS News Weekend Roundup program is broadcasting an interview with me conducted by National Correspondent Dan Raviv. He asks why I pursued a claim on Krausenstrasse 17/18, the hurdles I encountered, what I discovered along the way and what it all meant to my mother.
And here is the interview – for anyone who wants to listen!
Read this excerpt from the list of recommended books for Summer 2015.
I am delighted to be included in the books to read over the coming months:
A hammock, a tall glass of something cold, and a book. That sounds like pretty much the perfect summer day.
With so many books coming from so many local authors and publishers, you can fill your beach bag with a summer-full of reading material (from your local bookstore, of course) and #ReadLocal all season long.
Here at Chicago Book Review, we once again asked area publishers to share information about some of their hottest upcoming titles. The result is CBR’sSummer 2015 Preview, a month-by-month listing of some of the most exciting books coming out from local authors and local publishers between now and Labor Day. In the list below, you’ll find information about books covering an interesting array of subject matter, fiction and nonfiction, for adults, young adults, and children alike. CBR’s Summer 2015 Preview promises something for every reader—books from local authors and publishers that are sure to please, whether you’re at the beach, at the cottage, or hanging out on the back porch or at the pool.
