Norbert Wollheim

Who was Norbert Wollheim?

Norbert Wollheim was a chartered accountant, tax advisor, previously a director of Central Council of the Jews in Germany and a functionary of Jewish organizations.

Norbert Wollheim grew up in Berlin. He studied jurisprudence and political economy, but had to cease his studies in 1933 because of his Jewish origin. He then worked as a welder for a metal export firm until the outbreak of war in 1938. During that same period he played a key role in running the Kindertransport which transported 10,000 Jewish children out of the Nazi's reach and into safety.

Wollheim engaged himself strongly in the Jewish life and became a managing director of the federation of German/Jewish youth. After the night of pogroms known as Kristallnacht in 1938, he helped to organize the child transports of the Jewish municipality to Great Britain and Sweden. Until 1941 he was responsible for the occupation-training schools realm agency of the Jews in Germany and adviser on the training relating to crafts of Jewish citizens.

From September 1941 Wollheim worked at a transportation equipment factory in Berlin Lichtenberg.