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J E W I S H F O R U M
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"DET UFORSONLIGE FINNES"
When the persecution of the Jews began, Huttner wanted to help. He reduced his business, spending his time and energy to help organize the Jewish community’s aid efforts.
“I had no idea what a gigantic task I undertook when I began helping refugees in 1933,” Mr. Hüttner said in 1951 New York Times interview.
In the 1930s, Mr. Hüttner was named the General Consul of Costa Rica, and it was in this position that he was able to obtain passports and visas for a number of refugees from Germany early in the war. He also distributed money coming from the Joint Distribution Committee in London intended for refugees living under harsh conditions in the Swedish countryside.
“The first refugees arrived in Sweden in the early 1930s,” Mr. Hüttner said in a 1965 interview published in Unzer Wort. “Most of those were German Jews. Later came a stream of non-Jewish refugees. I made no distinction between Jews and Gentiles. I provided so that they could get a roof over their head, finding homes for them, in Gothenburg and the vicinity, finding employment. The biggest problem was getting jobs for 40,000 people.”
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ARTICLES
SWEDEN
Refugees Honor U.S Consul in Sweden, May 9, 1941
STOCKHOLM (Apr. 10)
American Consul Julius Hüttner in Gothenborg has been honored by Jewish refugees on his 60th birthday by presentation of hand-lettered parchment address."
JTA
JULIUS HÜTTNER
Julius Hüttner. Photo: Courtesy Peter Hüttner
Julius Hüttner. Photo: Courtesy Peter Hüttner
ROSA HEINE KATZ
DAVID KATZ
(1884 - 1953)
SWEDEN
Photo courtesy:
Handschriftenabteilung der niedersächsischen
Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen
David Katz studied with Georg Elias Müller, a significant early German experimental psychologist at University of Göttingen, where he graduated in 1906.
That same year, David Katz became a Professor of psychology at the University of Göttingen.
David Katz worked in the field of perception and gestalt psychology, together with Eric Jaensch, another doctoral student of Müller's, were at that time the most quoted authors in the journal of psychology.
Article pending!
Endast 17-årig kom Katz från sin födelsestad Kassel till Göttingens universität. Han upplevde sin studietid som präglad av hård disciplin och militarism. När han senare lärde känna även engelska och sv förhållanden, framstod det tyska undervisningsväsendet som livsfientligt och farligt
Katz studerade först matematik och naturvetenskap men kom efter hand mer och mer in på psykologin. Hans lärare blev den högt beundrade Georg Elias Müller, Tysklands vid denna tid jämte Wundt ledande psykolog.
Katz fängslades starkt av honom och fick senare svårt att frigöra sig från hans auktoritativa inflytande. Mullers produktion låg främst inom psykofysiken och sinnespsykologin; hans inriktning var strikt experimentell med ett naturvetenskapligt färgat vetenskapsideal.
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Photo courtesy:
Handschriftenabteilung der niedersächsischen
Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen
Rosa Heine Katz (1885 - 1976) Photo courtesy:
Handschriftenabteilung der niedersächsischen
Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen
Rosa Katz (b. Rosa Heine) was born in Odessa and died in Stockholm 1976. She went to high school in Egypt, and continued her studies in Odessa.
In 1907 she started studies in psychology at the University of Göttingen, with the acclaimed Georg Elias Müller, a German experimental psychologist.
Her mentor was David Katz, an Assistant of Müller, who was to become her future husband. They married in 1919.
She obtained a doctorate in psychology in 1913 on memory-psychological work (recognition and retroactive inhibition). Other areas of interest were art history and philosophy.
In 1937, Rosa Katz followed her husband to Stockholm, where she led research on psychology of children at the psychological Institute of the University of Stockholm.
Article pending!
TAMAR GOLDBERGER
When Jewish refugees arrived in Sweden in 1945 Inga Gottfarb (1913 – 2005), a social worker, stood at the harbor in Helsingborg to offer help. With goodwill and great intensity, she helped the suffering refugee women who arrived in Sweden on Count Bernadotte's White Buses. In her book The Perilous Oblivion, she wrote about her personal experiences interviewing survivors who had been liberated from concentration camps.
"I remembered the arrival of the first Jewish refugees in Sweden in 1933. At that time, the refugees had no right to work and had to live on a small grant from the Jewish community and its members.
There were about 150 rescue centers in Sweden. Over 100 physicians were given the task to offer immediate care to the survivors. The refugees responded to the help and goodwill they were offered with gratitude. Women in particular, were very depressed, despondent, and felt degraded.
Among the refugees was Elisabeth Goldberger (1927-2017) or Tamar as she woujld later be called. Elisabeth was born in Hungary and spoke German fluently because she had studied German in school. After her survival from Auschwitz, with no surviving family, she was offered to stay with the German speaking Rosa and David Katz family in Stockholm. The Swedish authority however, required that Elisabeth pass a formal "German Culture Exam" in order to qualify for a family placement. The Katz family took her immediately and with that started a long process of recovery, and a return to normalcy. Her weight was only 27 kg upon arrival and had to struggle with various infections.
The time that followed was one of healing, growth, adjustment to normal life. Elisabeth detailed later several memorable events at the Katz' home, such as her birthday party with family friends, their two sons Gregory (b 1922) and Theodor (1920 – 1997) and traveling with them to Copenhagen. She was considered a permanent guest and lived with them from 1945-1947. She studied at a school nearby the home, and later found a job in the area. Elisabeth later recalled their kindness and the love that the family had given her. When the idea of adoption was suggested by the Katz family, she objected to it because of her sincere longing to immigrate to Israel. This path was, as it turned out, was not seen positively by her host family.
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