Moritz Rabinowitz
Encyclopedia
Moritz Moses Rabinowitz was a Norwegian
retail merchant based in the city of Haugesund
, memorialized for his humanitarian outlook and contribution to his city.
as a son of Isaac Levi and Chaya Rosa Rabinowitz. It is also known that he had 2 sisters and a younger brother. The brother - Herman Herschel - also immigrated to Norway and settled in Bergen
. Rabinowitz wrote that he had witnessed "barbaric" murders during pogrom
s, particularly in Białystok. As long as he lived, Rabinowitz sent money to his parents in Poland.
Rabinowitz married Johanne Goldberg, the daughter of Salomon Goldberg who founded the Friedenstempel in Berlin
. They had 1 child, Edith, born in 1918. She married the Austrian refugee Hans Reichwald, and they had a son Harry, born in 1940. Johanne Rabinowitz died on 25 November 1939, after relocating to Bergen to be near her sister Rosa, who had married Moritz's brother Hermann. Rabinowitz traveled extensively along the Norwegian west coast south of Bergen and apparently spent most weekends with his family.
By 1942, the widower Moritz Rabinowitz's family in Norway consisted of his daughter Edith, son-in-law Hans, grandson Harry, and sister-in-law Rosa, who was married to his brother Hermann. None of these would survive the Holocaust.
. In 1911, he took over the lease of a small cafe in Haugesund and opened an apparel store with only two items in his inventory: one suit and one overcoat. The overcoat was stolen, and he had the suit left for sale. Over time the business grew, and he moved to a larger location in Haugesund and ultimately opened stores also in Odda
, Sauda
, Stavanger
, Egersund
, and Kristiansand
. He consistently reinvested his profits in growing the business and soon became a mainstay in the apparel retail business in southwestern Norway under the company name M. Rabinowitz. He also started an apparel manufacturing company called Condor. By 1940, Rabinowitz employed about 250 people. He also founded the Hotel Bristol
in Haugesund and built what he considered to be one of the best concert halls on the Norwegian west coast along with the Condor manufacturing plant. The Rabinowitz family also had a country home at Førdesfjorden they called Jødeland ("Jewland").
, Finland, and Austria. He made charitable donations to numerous causes, often anonymously. Among those that are known he gave gifts and financial support for Christmas celebrations in the local jail, orphanage, Blue Cross
, and seaman's church. He donated an entire section of Åkrasanden on Karmøy
to the citizens of Haugesund for their recreational purposes.
He was a lonely voice for several decades against the antisemitism he experienced firsthand in Norway. His nemesis in the op-ed pages was Eivind Saxlund
, a leading voice for the antisemitism of the time. His involvement also got national attention from a leading proponent of racist antisemitism, Jon Alfred Mjøen, who brought the issue to the pages of Aftenposten
. Rabinowitz also prevailed in a defamation lawsuit against Mikal Sylten
, editor of Nationalt Tidsskrift. Taking place in June 1927, it was the second defamation lawsuit against Nationalt Tidsskrift, after the lawsuit from Kristiansund
-based chief physician Ephraim Koritzinsky which took place in May.
Rabinowitz expressed his deep opposition to Nazism in the newspaper pages as early as in 1933, figuring that Hitler's "career was only possible in an era as desperate and confused as today's." German Nazi newspapers named him as the Jewish community's secular leader in Norway. In 1934 he wrote that "the new Germany lives in a martial psychosis, specializing in child-rearing for war, and military technique...children are taught from the cradle to hate all foreign peoples and to kill them at the order to do so." In 1934 he also predicted a devastating world war, was unimpressed by the non-aggression treaty between Germany and the Soviet Union. He sent telegrams to world leaders, including Roosevelt, Hindenburg, and Chamberlain, imploring them to intervene on behalf of German Jews. In 1939 he demanded that Norway improve its coastal defense system against a German attack and occupation.
His involvement prompted one reporter to write in Egersundsposten
, on 30 January 1940, that: "There may be no other Norwegian who has traveled more extensively in Europe than as Rabinowitz, and he knows the flashpoint Poland inside and out... Rabinowitz is the kind of Jew who shouts from the rooftops that he is a Jew... some may find this irritating... but in truth Rabinowitz is more Norwegian than most of us".
Rabinowitz fully expected that the war would come to Norway. On 8 April, the day before the surprise attack
came, he submitted his last op-ed article to Haugesunds Avis
in which he asked readers to give the Norwegian soldier respect and support. The Germany army landed in Norway on April 9 and Haugesund on April 10. The Gestapo
made capturing Rabinowitz its highest priority in the little coastal town. Rabinowitz had prepared several places along the coast as hiding places and moved from one to the other with Gestapo on his tracks. Following the war there was some debate as to why Rabinowitz did not avail himself of four known opportunities to flee the country by sea to England
. Among the townspeople of Haugesund, it was rumored that he was too invested in his company and his money. This view, reinforced by stereotypes was rejected in the local papers, when Rabinowitz's (non-Jewish) business manager and several employees emphatically stated that such motivations would be uncharacteristic of him. Subsequent research has shown that he declined passage on two occasions for reasons entirely unrelated to his business affairs
They finally caught up with him in Skånevik
, probably by shadowing employees who were conveying business decisions between Rabinowitz and his businesses. By then his daughter, son-in-law, and grandson had joined him.
Rabinowitz was first detained in the regional jail at Lagård in Stavanger, was then sent to Møllergata 19
jail in Oslo
on 26 February 1941, and then to Åneby on March 22, until he was sent back to Møllergata on 25 April, where has kept until his deportation on the SS Monte Rosa 22 May 1941. The Monte Rosa landed in Stettin, where he wrote his will. Rabinowitz ended up in Sachsenhausen, where he was placed in the barracks for Jews, though he was officially categorized as a political prisoner. He died on 27 February 1942. The death certificate lists pneumonia as the cause of death, but according to fellow prisoner, Rabinowitz was kicked and stomped to death outside Barrack 38 in Sachsenhausen.
Rabinowitz's brother, daughter, grandson, and son-in-law were all later deported and murdered in Auschwitz.
As it happened, Rabinowitz managed to convey his last greetings via a German inmate and another inmate from Haugesund to the people of Haugesund. These were reproduced in the obituary that was published on 20 June 1945. On 6 May 1986, the people of Haugesund erected a memorial stone for Rabinowitz.
Rabinowitz also dictated and signed his last will and testament to a fellow inmate, Carl Mentz Rynning-Tønnesen, where he left all his earthly belongings to his daughter Edith, also expressing a wish that his businesses continue as going concerns. Since Edith and her entire family also were murdered, what was left of Rabinowitz's estate went into probate after the war. After the occupying powers had confiscated his businesses, and at least NOK 300 000 in cash and securities, his estate was valued at NOK 986 000 at the end of the war. The Norwegian government imposed fees and taxes of NOK 450 000 in the course of the next ten years. Among other things, the authorities assumed that Rabinowitz's heirs had died in the sequence that maximized tax liability (and thereby tax revenue) .
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
retail merchant based in the city of Haugesund
Haugesund
is a town and municipality in the county of Rogaland, Norway.-Location:Haugesund was separated from Torvastad as a town and municipality of its own in 1855. The rural municipality of Skåre was merged with Haugesund on January 1, 1958. Haugesund is a small municipality, only 73 km²...
, memorialized for his humanitarian outlook and contribution to his city.
Family
Rabinowitz was born in RajgródRajgród
Rajgród is a town in Grajewo County, Podlaskie Voivodeship, Poland, with 1,680 inhabitants ....
as a son of Isaac Levi and Chaya Rosa Rabinowitz. It is also known that he had 2 sisters and a younger brother. The brother - Herman Herschel - also immigrated to Norway and settled in Bergen
Bergen
Bergen is the second largest city in Norway with a population of as of , . Bergen is the administrative centre of Hordaland county. Greater Bergen or Bergen Metropolitan Area as defined by Statistics Norway, has a population of as of , ....
. Rabinowitz wrote that he had witnessed "barbaric" murders during pogrom
Pogrom
A pogrom is a form of violent riot, a mob attack directed against a minority group, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes and properties, businesses, and religious centres...
s, particularly in Białystok. As long as he lived, Rabinowitz sent money to his parents in Poland.
Rabinowitz married Johanne Goldberg, the daughter of Salomon Goldberg who founded the Friedenstempel in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. They had 1 child, Edith, born in 1918. She married the Austrian refugee Hans Reichwald, and they had a son Harry, born in 1940. Johanne Rabinowitz died on 25 November 1939, after relocating to Bergen to be near her sister Rosa, who had married Moritz's brother Hermann. Rabinowitz traveled extensively along the Norwegian west coast south of Bergen and apparently spent most weekends with his family.
By 1942, the widower Moritz Rabinowitz's family in Norway consisted of his daughter Edith, son-in-law Hans, grandson Harry, and sister-in-law Rosa, who was married to his brother Hermann. None of these would survive the Holocaust.
Biography
Rabinowitz immigrated to Norway in 1909, at first finding work as a retail clerk in Bergen, then as a peddlerPeddler
A peddler, in British English pedlar, also known as a canvasser, cheapjack, monger, or solicitor , is a travelling vendor of goods. In England, the term was mostly used for travellers hawking goods in the countryside to small towns and villages; they might also be called tinkers or gypsies...
. In 1911, he took over the lease of a small cafe in Haugesund and opened an apparel store with only two items in his inventory: one suit and one overcoat. The overcoat was stolen, and he had the suit left for sale. Over time the business grew, and he moved to a larger location in Haugesund and ultimately opened stores also in Odda
Odda
is a municipality and town in the county of Hordaland, Norway. Odda was separated from Ullensvang on 1 July 1913 and on 1 January 1964 Røldal was merged with Odda. The town of Odda is the centre of the landscape of Hardanger, located at the end of the Hardangerfjord.In 1927, Erling Johnson,...
, Sauda
Sauda
is a municipality and industrial town in Rogaland county, Norway. It is part of the region of Ryfylke. Sauda was separated from Suldal in 1842...
, Stavanger
Stavanger
Stavanger is a city and municipality in the county of Rogaland, Norway.Stavanger municipality has a population of 126,469. There are 197,852 people living in the Stavanger conurbation, making Stavanger the fourth largest city, but the third largest urban area, in Norway...
, Egersund
Egersund
The town of Egersund was established as a municipality January 1, 1838 . It was merged with the surrounding municipality of Eigersund January 1, 1965....
, and Kristiansand
Kristiansand
-History:As indicated by archeological findings in the city, the Kristiansand area has been settled at least since 400 AD. A royal farm is known to have been situated on Oddernes as early as 800, and the first church was built around 1040...
. He consistently reinvested his profits in growing the business and soon became a mainstay in the apparel retail business in southwestern Norway under the company name M. Rabinowitz. He also started an apparel manufacturing company called Condor. By 1940, Rabinowitz employed about 250 people. He also founded the Hotel Bristol
Hotel Bristol
There are more than 200 hotels around the world called Bristol. Italy has the most, with more than 50, France has around 30. They range from the grand European hotels, such as Hôtel Le Bristol Paris and the Bristol in Vienna to budget hotels, such as the SRO Bristol in San Francisco...
in Haugesund and built what he considered to be one of the best concert halls on the Norwegian west coast along with the Condor manufacturing plant. The Rabinowitz family also had a country home at Førdesfjorden they called Jødeland ("Jewland").
Activism
Though he belonged to a small minority in an otherwise homogeneous society with xenophobic tendencies, Rabinowitz became a public figure in Haugesund and surrounding region. He was a frequent contributor of opinion pieces to the local press, addressing issues including labor relations, relief aid to war-torn areas in SpainSpanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
, Finland, and Austria. He made charitable donations to numerous causes, often anonymously. Among those that are known he gave gifts and financial support for Christmas celebrations in the local jail, orphanage, Blue Cross
International Federation of the Blue Cross
The International Federation of the Blue Cross is a politically and denominationally independent Christian organization consisting of about 40 member organizations engaged in the prevention, treatment and after care of problems related to alcohol and other drugs.It was founded in 1877 in Geneva by...
, and seaman's church. He donated an entire section of Åkrasanden on Karmøy
Karmøy
Karmøy is a municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is located southwest of the city of Haugesund in the traditional district of Haugaland....
to the citizens of Haugesund for their recreational purposes.
He was a lonely voice for several decades against the antisemitism he experienced firsthand in Norway. His nemesis in the op-ed pages was Eivind Saxlund
Eivind Saxlund
Eivind Saxlund was a Norwegian lawyer and writer.Saxlund was a barrister by occupation, a lawyer with access to work with cases in the Supreme Court of Norway. However, he is better remembered for his anti-Semitic literature...
, a leading voice for the antisemitism of the time. His involvement also got national attention from a leading proponent of racist antisemitism, Jon Alfred Mjøen, who brought the issue to the pages of Aftenposten
Aftenposten
Aftenposten is Norway's largest newspaper. It retook this position in 2010, taking it from the tabloid Verdens Gang which had been the largest newspaper for several decades. It is based in Oslo. The morning edition, which is distributed across all of Norway, had a circulation of 250,179 in 2007...
. Rabinowitz also prevailed in a defamation lawsuit against Mikal Sylten
Mikal Sylten
Mikal Peder Olaus Sylten was a Norwegian writer.Originally a typographer, from 1916 he published a periodical, Nationalt Tidsskrift. It was staunchly anti-semitic, and Sylten took up the swastika as a symbol in 1917, three years before Adolf Hitler chose to do so...
, editor of Nationalt Tidsskrift. Taking place in June 1927, it was the second defamation lawsuit against Nationalt Tidsskrift, after the lawsuit from Kristiansund
Kristiansund
Kristiansund is a city and municipality on the western coast of Norway, in the Nordmøre district of Møre og Romsdal county. It was officially awarded township status in 1742, and it is still the major town for the region. The administrative center of the municipality is the city of Kristiansund...
-based chief physician Ephraim Koritzinsky which took place in May.
Rabinowitz expressed his deep opposition to Nazism in the newspaper pages as early as in 1933, figuring that Hitler's "career was only possible in an era as desperate and confused as today's." German Nazi newspapers named him as the Jewish community's secular leader in Norway. In 1934 he wrote that "the new Germany lives in a martial psychosis, specializing in child-rearing for war, and military technique...children are taught from the cradle to hate all foreign peoples and to kill them at the order to do so." In 1934 he also predicted a devastating world war, was unimpressed by the non-aggression treaty between Germany and the Soviet Union. He sent telegrams to world leaders, including Roosevelt, Hindenburg, and Chamberlain, imploring them to intervene on behalf of German Jews. In 1939 he demanded that Norway improve its coastal defense system against a German attack and occupation.
His involvement prompted one reporter to write in Egersundsposten
Egersundsposten
Egersundsposten was a Norwegian newspaper, published in Egersund in Rogaland county.Egersundsposten was started in 1865. It went defunct in 1940....
, on 30 January 1940, that: "There may be no other Norwegian who has traveled more extensively in Europe than as Rabinowitz, and he knows the flashpoint Poland inside and out... Rabinowitz is the kind of Jew who shouts from the rooftops that he is a Jew... some may find this irritating... but in truth Rabinowitz is more Norwegian than most of us".
Capture, deportation, and death
Operation Weserübung
Operation Weserübung was the code name for Germany's assault on Denmark and Norway during the Second World War and the opening operation of the Norwegian Campaign...
came, he submitted his last op-ed article to Haugesunds Avis
Haugesunds Avis
Haugesunds Avis is a daily newspaper published in Haugesund, Norway, but with branches in Bømlo, Kopervik, Odda, Sauda and Stord.Founded in 1895, it is today owned by the investment group Mecom Group, and is as such part of the media group Edda Media. In 2006, Haugesunds Avis had a circulation of...
in which he asked readers to give the Norwegian soldier respect and support. The Germany army landed in Norway on April 9 and Haugesund on April 10. The Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
made capturing Rabinowitz its highest priority in the little coastal town. Rabinowitz had prepared several places along the coast as hiding places and moved from one to the other with Gestapo on his tracks. Following the war there was some debate as to why Rabinowitz did not avail himself of four known opportunities to flee the country by sea to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Among the townspeople of Haugesund, it was rumored that he was too invested in his company and his money. This view, reinforced by stereotypes was rejected in the local papers, when Rabinowitz's (non-Jewish) business manager and several employees emphatically stated that such motivations would be uncharacteristic of him. Subsequent research has shown that he declined passage on two occasions for reasons entirely unrelated to his business affairs
They finally caught up with him in Skånevik
Skånevik
Skånevik is a former municipality in Hordaland county, Norway.The parish of Skonevik was established as a municipality January 1, 1838 ....
, probably by shadowing employees who were conveying business decisions between Rabinowitz and his businesses. By then his daughter, son-in-law, and grandson had joined him.
Rabinowitz was first detained in the regional jail at Lagård in Stavanger, was then sent to Møllergata 19
Møllergata 19
Møllergata 19 is an address in Oslo, Norway where the city's main police station and jail was located. The address gained notoriety during the German occupation from 1940 to 1945, when the Nazi security police kept its headquarters here...
jail in Oslo
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
on 26 February 1941, and then to Åneby on March 22, until he was sent back to Møllergata on 25 April, where has kept until his deportation on the SS Monte Rosa 22 May 1941. The Monte Rosa landed in Stettin, where he wrote his will. Rabinowitz ended up in Sachsenhausen, where he was placed in the barracks for Jews, though he was officially categorized as a political prisoner. He died on 27 February 1942. The death certificate lists pneumonia as the cause of death, but according to fellow prisoner, Rabinowitz was kicked and stomped to death outside Barrack 38 in Sachsenhausen.
Rabinowitz's brother, daughter, grandson, and son-in-law were all later deported and murdered in Auschwitz.
As it happened, Rabinowitz managed to convey his last greetings via a German inmate and another inmate from Haugesund to the people of Haugesund. These were reproduced in the obituary that was published on 20 June 1945. On 6 May 1986, the people of Haugesund erected a memorial stone for Rabinowitz.
Rabinowitz also dictated and signed his last will and testament to a fellow inmate, Carl Mentz Rynning-Tønnesen, where he left all his earthly belongings to his daughter Edith, also expressing a wish that his businesses continue as going concerns. Since Edith and her entire family also were murdered, what was left of Rabinowitz's estate went into probate after the war. After the occupying powers had confiscated his businesses, and at least NOK 300 000 in cash and securities, his estate was valued at NOK 986 000 at the end of the war. The Norwegian government imposed fees and taxes of NOK 450 000 in the course of the next ten years. Among other things, the authorities assumed that Rabinowitz's heirs had died in the sequence that maximized tax liability (and thereby tax revenue) .
External links
– Scholar search}}See also
- RabinowitzRabinowitzRabinowitz , is a Polish Ashkenazi Jewish surname, Slavic for "son of the rabbi". The Russian equivalents are Rabinovich or Rabinovitch.It may refer to:* Alan Rabinowitz , American zoologist...