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“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.”

—E. Randol Schoenberg
Attorney (“Woman in Gold”)

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About the Book

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.”

But the story is STILL not over.

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News

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Events

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Media

Sydney Jewish Writers Festival

Written by Dina Gold on August 28, 2016. Posted in News

Julie Thomas 5 I was interviewed in the Main Hall at Waverley Library, Bondi Junction where the Sydney Jewish Writers Festival held a full day of events.

New Zealand author Julie Thomas took the chair for my session and then I answered questions from an extremely engaged audience.

Jewish Book Council

Written by Dina Gold on May 26, 2016. Posted in News

Today I was in New York, at the Jewish Book Council “Meet the Author” event. Each author who has signed up for the 2016-17 round of speaking engagements can present their book for two minutes. I was pitching the paperback edition of “Stolen Legacy” – due out in October.

Filming in Berlin

Written by Dina Gold on May 16, 2016. Posted in News

Outside my family’s former building, now a German Government Ministry, at Krausenstrasse 17/18, Berlin.

Being interviewed by a BBC reporter for a feature on the story of “Stolen Legacy.”

As soon as I know dates and times of broadcast I will post the information.

US Holocaust Memorial Museum

Written by Dina Gold on March 15, 2016. Posted in News

This evening at the USHMM speaking to a crowded theatre audience on the subject of justice for Holocaust victims, whose property was seized during the Nazi era, and their lives torn apart.

Joining me on stage were museum experts Dr. Leah Wolfson and Dr. Suzanne Brown-Fleming.

Jewish Book Week 2016

Written by Dina Gold on February 22, 2016. Posted in News

The theater at London’s JW3 in Finchley was packed for my interview today with Melanie Phillips about Stolen Legacy. Tickets had sold out days beforehand and some people had to be turned away at reception as a result. The audience loved the photos we were able to illustrate the story with and lots of people came up to me afterwards to tell me their family histories.