2023-07-09 19:48:00
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Died at the age of 89: In 2012, Thomas Buergenthal also researched the past of his Jewish family at the International Tracing Service ITS in Bad Arolsen. Archive: Matthias Müller © Matthias Müller
The death of Thomas Buergenthal on May 29 is more than the death of a Holocaust survivor. He was a role model. And a reporter.
Göttingen – When a Jew who survived the Holocaust in concentration camps as a child later entitled his autobiography “A Child of Fortune” and thus wrote not only regarding his survival but regarding his entire life, then that is meaningful. Thomas Buergenthal did that.
He, who also left his mark on the city and region of Göttingen, died recently. The humanist and international law expert Thomas Buergenthal, who advocated reconciliation all his life, was 89 years old.
Holocaust survivor Buergenthal calls his biography “A child of fortune”
“A child of fortune,” wrote a man who – born on May 11, 1934 in Lubochna in Czechoslovakia – had to spend his childhood in Polish ghettos and in the Sachsenhausen and Auschwitz concentration camps. What’s more: Left to his own devices as a child, he fought for his life as an 11-year-old in camps and on the death march to Sachsenhausen.
Buergenthal was lucky and got help. He survived the Sachsenhausen concentration camp with the active support of fellow inmate Odd Nansen, a son of the legendary Norwegian polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen. He also had “the instinct of young people, the belief in immortality,” he later wrote.
After the war, Buergenthal was placed in a Jewish orphanage in Otwock, Poland
After the war he was placed in a Jewish orphanage in Otwock, Poland. This, he describes, was a “stopover in the transition from one life to another” for him. At that time there was no trace of the family, of father Edmund (Mundek) and mother Gerda (née Silbergleit), who was born in Göttingen.
But luck helped once more. With the help of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and the director of the orphanage, twelve-year-old Thomas came to Göttingen. His mother lived there, having returned to her hometown.
Reunited with his mother in December 1946 in Göttingen
Separated in the Auschwitz concentration camp, reunited on December 29, 1946 at the Göttingen train station. At the moment of greatest happiness, however, Thomas had to learn that his father Mundek had not survived. He died in the Ohrdruf-Nord camp in January 1945.
The mother’s unshakable belief that she would see her son Thommi once more, as well as the resulting never-ending commitment, helped: both met once more.
What is it worth, this ‘never once more’ when the world is turning a blind eye to the next genocide.”
Thomas Buergenthal, 2005
Thomas Buergenthal lived in Göttingen for five years, in an apartment belonging to the Schugl family of jewellers, learned German, caught up with his private teacher, the retired teacher Otto Biedermann, at school what he had not learned, devoured Karl May books and did a lot Sports. Biedermann also had completely new experiences. He taught a child who was scholastic at the level of a six-year-old, but led discussions with Thomas on topics that Thomas actually might not have. He had the maturity of an adult because of what he had experienced. Like so many others his age, Thomas Buergenthal had lost or skipped childhood.
Buergenthal starts school at the Felix-Klein-Gymnasium at the age of 14
At the age of 14 he started school at the Felix-Klein-Gymnasium. Thomas started in the appropriate class for his age. He was accepted as the only Jewish student. But there he also noticed that in the classroom, with the teachers, the honest handling of the Nazi past, which was so recent, was not far off.
In 1951 Thomas Buergenthal went to the USA, to West Virginia – alone, without his mother, who – remarried – moved to Italy. In high school he experienced how free thinking and one’s own opinion might be there. A formative experience.
Thomas Buergenthal is making a career in the USA as a world-renowned human rights lawyer
Thomas Buergenthal made a career and became a world-renowned lawyer in the field of human rights. He was a member of the truth commission for El Salvador and the UN human rights committee, worked from 2000 to 2010 as a judge at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, which also deals with terrible war crimes.
Despite the unspeakable torment and the injustice suffered, Thomas Buergenthal did not let hateful thoughts fill his mind, in fact hate was far from his mind. On the contrary: he dedicated himself to promoting human rights and international understanding.
Awarded for his tireless struggle for human dignity
The Edith Stein Circle honored his tireless, dedicated fight for human dignity and human rights on all continents by awarding the Göttingen Edith Stein Prize 2019. And he had many conversations with young people, telling his life story, also in his former school in Göttingen, the Felix-Klein-Gymnasium.
In Göttingen people are reminded of Thomas Buergenthal: in 2007 the building of the city library was named following him. As a sign of reconciliation – and to commemorate the crimes that the National Socialists inflicted on the Jewish people and many individuals.
Friedjof Nansen’s son Odd titled his book regarding the concentration camp experiences “Thommy”
The city of Göttingen also urges dialogue, appreciation, tolerance and international understanding. This is what Prof. Thomas Buergenthal stood for, who unfortunately can no longer serve as a living contemporary witness and as a role model for young people. The Holocaust survivors, they gradually die. But the life’s works remain. And remarkable autobiographies, such as “A Child of Fortune” by Thomas Buergenthal. Odd Nansen, who had to leave his then 10-year-old fellow inmate Buergenthal with a heavy heart in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp when he was evacuated to Sweden in April 1945, also wrote down his experiences in the concentration camps. Title of the book: “Tommy” – a reminiscence of “Tommy” Buergenthal.
Odd Nansen and Thomas Buergenthal meet once more several times
Incidentally, Odd and Thomas met once more, as early as 1948 in Hamburg and Oslo, but also in 1951 in Frankfurt, when Nansen spoke at the awarding of the German Book Prize, and most recently probably in 1969. Nansen died in Oslo on June 27, 1973, was 71 years old. He was one of the co-founders of the children’s charity Unicef.
Appropriately enough, friends of Buergenthal who visited him in Göttingen stayed in the Fridtjof-Nansen-Haus – the later, long-standing seat of the Goethe-Institut in the university town.
Remembering his father: Buergenthal finds his concentration camp prisoner card in Bad Arolsen
Buergenthal later researched at the ITS in Bad Arolsen and also found his father’s prisoner card, which the Nazis meticulously kept. A sheet of paper tracing the life story of his father. “It is the only memorial plaque for my father,” writes Thomas Buergenthal. There is also no grave, no tombstone. But a note. For him, however, the name of the city library building and a commemorative plaque in Göttingen remain.
Göttingen Greens pay tribute to Thomas Buergenthal very aptly
The Göttingen Greens pay tribute to Buergenthal aptly: “Yes, people who survived the horrors of the Holocaust die and can no longer bear witness. But what you have experienced must be a warning and a reminder to us every day that this part of our history must never be repeated.” (Thomaskopietz)
Book: “Ein Glückskind”, Thomas Buergenthal, Fischer paperback, ext. Edition 2017.
Book regarding the children of Auschwitz
Alwin Meyer worked on Don’t Forget Your Name – The Children of Auschwitz for decades. He meticulously looked for those who were taken to the concentration camps as children or who were even born there. Meyer found them, held countless sensitive conversations and wrote down the biographies marked by suffering in all clarity. Some of them described their experiences to him for the first time, including their lives followingwards. Reading the biographies and thinking your way into them is hard, touching, rousing and valuable. Meyer has created a warning memory book. It is also a celebration of strength and resistance. Alwin Meyer, “Don’t forget your name – the children of Auschwitz”, Steidl, Göttingen, 760 pages, 38.80 euros. (Thomas Kopietz)
In “his” school: In February 2018, Thomas Buergenthal was a guest at the Felix-Klein-Gymnasium (FKG) in Göttingen, where he went to school for a few years. A student handed him a letter during the visit. Archive photo: Per Schröter © Per SchröterProf. Thomas Buergenthal, Auschwitz survivor, was 89 years old. © PrivateOn the death of Prof. Thomas Buergenthal: The cover photo of his autobiography, which was published in 2007: Thomas together with his parents Mundek and Gerda in May 1937. © Private
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