“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.”
It was a wonderful trip with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to three different cities in southern Florida – Sarasota, North Miami Beach and Boca Raton.
Two USHMM experts – Suzanne Brown-Fleming and Diane Afoumado – were with me speaking about the archives held at both the Museum in Washington DC and the International Tracing Service at Bad Arolson.
There was intense interest in the subject, with audiences keen to learn how to research their own family histories and seek information which might help them register claims on their own families’ Nazi stolen property across eastern Europe.
NPR recorded an interview with Diane Afoumado, Chief of Research and Reference at the Museum about resources available to help. There is still so much work to be done – about 80% of Jewish assets stolen by the Nazis and their collaborators during WWII have not been recovered.
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.
Atlanta, GA. Speaking this evening on a panel at the launch of the Georgia Commission on the Holocaust’s traveling exhibit “Fashioning a Nation: German Identity and Industry, 1914-1945.” This new exhibition explores the powerful history of German fashion from its international impact to its destruction by the Nazi regime. It honors the legacy of the Jewish Germans who contributed to its rise and commemorates the great cultural and economic loss resulting from its demise. The exhibition will be on display at the Goethe-Centrum, Plaza Level of Colony Square Mall, Atlanta from January 9 – 23, 2017 and then moves on to the Georgia Commission on the Holocaust’s permanent exhibit Anne Frank in the World: 1929-1945in Sandy Springs.
SECRETS UNEARTHED IN NEW PAPERBACK EDITION OF STOLEN LEGACY: NAZI THEFT AND THE QUEST FOR JUSTICE AT KRAUSENSTRASSE 17/18, BERLIN
“An exceptional adventure in Holocaust literature. Dina Gold combines investigative journalism with a keen sense of history to uncover a story everyone should read.” — Marvin Kalb, Harvard professor emeritus, senior adviser to Pulitzer Center, former CBS network correspondent
Washington, DC, Nov. 28, 2016 — In 1990, shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Dina Gold marched into a German government ministry at Krausenstrasse 17/18 and declared, “I’ve come to
claim my family’s building.” And so began Gold’s legal struggle as recounted in STOLEN LEGACY: Nazi Theft and The Quest for Justice at Krausenstrasse 17/18, Berlin, the first book about the successful claim of a building seized by the Nazis.
Next stop – tonight at San Francisco’s beautiful Jewish Museum.
The event had been so widely advertised that the hall was jam packed. A queue formed for late-comers wanting to be squeezed in. Again there were plenty of questions from the most attentive audience. So much so that we overran our allotted one hour time slot – and then conversations continued during the reception held in the foyer.
People really appreciate the information given about how they can use the US Holocaust Memorial Museum’s resources to find out about their own family history.
It was a wonderful trip with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to three different cities in southern Florida – Sarasota, North Miami Beach and Boca Raton.
Next stop – tonight at San Francisco’s beautiful Jewish Museum.
