Adolph Althoff

Who was Adolph Althoff?

Adolph Althoff was a German circus owner, animal tamer and performer who saved several people from the Holocaust by having them work and travel in his circus. A member of a 300-year-old circus family, Althoff and his story are featured in a book about Germans who saved Jews from the Holocaust. The events of his rescue during World War II are also dramatized in a 1998 Showtime TV-movie entitled Rescuers: Stories of Courage: Two Families.

Althoff warned the people he rescued with the code Go Fishing. In 1995 he was named one of The Righteous among the Nations, an Israeli honor.

He was born into the family in Sonsbeck, Germany. At age 17 he became publicity director for his families of the circus. In his twenties Althoff and his sister formed their own circus, of which he was the ringmaster for 30 years. In 1940, Althoff began five years work in concealing four members of the Bento performing family in his circus. Althoff provided the Bentos with false identity papers and had the family working under pseudonyms.