Preamble to Friedländer, Kapauner-Freymann & Goldenberg
Another blog in my series focused on the black market passport
business run by Jürgen Ziebell in Berlin during the Second World War. I highly recommended that you read my earlier blog for an overview of the sale of black market passports to Berlin Jews, as related by Josef Jakobs and Frau Lily Knips. Another key blog reviews the characters
involved in the business which had several strands including Finnish
and Irish passports. I am currently writing a blog series about the Jews
who purchased forged Finnish passports via the Finnish smuggler, Algoth
Niska. It was only in late September 1938 that Niska apparently made a
deal whereby Ziebell purchased a batch of forged Finnish passports for
his Jewish clients. As it turns out, Niska was selling forged passports
to unsuspecting Jews all through July and August 1938 telling them that
he was an official of the Finnish government or a Finnish policeman
or... He was none of those things and you can read more about Niska in an earlier blog.
A
key source for these stories is the 2009 Finnish thesis by Jussi Samuli
Laitinen which I roughly translated with the help of Google Translate.
It provides names and birth dates of Niska's clients which has been
invaluable in tracing these individuals with certainty. Another key
document was the MI6 report on Niska's activities, contained within one
of the Security Service files on Josef Jakobs. These documents and a
variety of genealogical sites form the backbone of the stories...
Individuals with a birth date are generally traceable, but not always.
Part of the problem lies in the limits of genealogical resources which
are rich for the UK, USA and, to some extent, Germany and Austria, but
less so for other countries. For example, there isn't much online
genealogical information for France, Switzerland, Palestine, Cuba, the
Balkans or the Nordic countries. If Jewish refugees took any of these
paths to freedom... they don't leave much of a trace. In many instances,
no news is actually good news.
I am going to begin each individual story with the
information from the Laitinen thesis and the MI6 report, as these
provide a factual leaping off point.
Introduction
Today,
we are looking at three young Berlin Jews who acquired forged Finnish passports from Algoth Niska: Hans Heinrich Friedländer, Hella Kapauner-Freymann and Sidonie Goldenberg. Only one would escape the Nazi horrors.
Three Young Jews: Hans Heinrich Friedländer, Hella Kapauner-Freymann and Sidonie Goldenberg
Laitinen Thesis: Hans Heinrich Friedländer was born on 2 July 1900 in Berlin and owned a small wine shop in the city. He and two other women, girlfriend Hella Kapauner-Freymann (born 19 April 1909), and their friend Sidonie Goldenberg (born 5 September 1913), sought to escape Nazi Germany by getting forged Finnish passports from Niska. It was Hella who first approached Niska looking for three passports so the trio could escape to Holland where they had relatives and friends.
In this case, no price for the passports has been found and it may be that Niska simply gave the trio the passports. The three would travel to Holland in the autumn of 1938 where they would assist Niska with passport sales. In February 1939, they made their way to Paris and ultimately to Nice in the south of France. It wouldn’t be enough to save Friedländer. He was sent to the Drancy transfer camp and deported to Auschwitz on 14 August 1942. Goldenberg too apparently ended up in Auschwitz. The Laitinen thesis has no information on the fate of Hella Kapauner-Freymann.
It should be noted that Niska, in his book Over Green Borders, tells some quite fantastic tales about helping Hella get Hans out of trouble. Apparently Hans had been arrested by the Gestapo in Berlin for espionage (serving foreign customers at his wine shop) but Niska managed to get him out. Later, Hans was arrested again in Holland by the police but again, Niska, managed to break him out of a camp/prison. How much of this is truth vs poetic license will likely never be known.
MI6 report: Lists the names and birth dates for all three but states that Sidonie
was thought to be in hiding with Niska in England. While birth locations
are not noted in the Laitinen thesis, the MI6 document says that Hella Kapauner was born in Finland on 19 March or 19 May 1909.
Sidonie Goldenberg
It doesn’t take much research to confirm that both Friedländer and Goldenberg ended up in Auschwitz
According to information on the Yad Vashem site, Sidonie was born 5 September 1913 in Berlin-Charlottenburg to parents Adele (Lipovetski) and Arnold Goldenberg. She resided in Amsterdam briefly before perishing in a concentration camp. The Caserne Dossin site (former Mechelen transit camp near Brussels), notes that Sidonie was a secretary who was deported aboard Transport XI on 18 September 1942 to Auschwitz-Birkenau. She was 29 years old.
Hans Heinrich Friedländer
Hans Friedländer’s story is a bit more complicated. He was indeed born 2 July 1900 in Berlin to parents Oskar Friedländer, a confectioner (Konditor) and Laya (Helene) Abraham.
On 16 June 1932, Hans married Edith Dorothea Karliner (born 16 August 1910) in Beuthen (now part of Poland). A marginal note on Hans’s birth registration states that this was his second marriage. What became of his first wife… or of Edith Dorothea… is a mystery. According to a marginal note on their marriage registration, Dorothea was assigned the forename Sara on 7 January 1939 by the Standesbeamte in Beuthen, suggesting that she was still in Germany at that time. Clearly she did not escape with Hans.
Laitinen does say that Hella Kapauner-Freymann was Hans’s “lover” but makes no mention of a previous marriage. According to the Yad Vashem site, Hans had been married to Edith, lived in Marseille and was deported aboard Transport 19, Train 901-14 from Drancy Camp, France to Auschiwtz-Birkenau on 14 August 1942. A 1992 marginal note on his birth registration states that he died on 25 September 1942.
Hans's wife, Edith Dorothea Karliner, apparently managed to escape to Palestine. On 8 April 1952, Edith married Emil van Huiden (born 24 May 1902 in Holland) in Tel Aviv. Edith passed away in 2002 in Israel.
Hella Kapauner-Freymann
As for Hella Kapauner-Freymann, she too escaped the Shoah. There isn’t a lot of information about her prior to the end of the war but a few key documents provide some concrete information.
Hella was born in Leipzig (not Finland) on 19 April 1909, the child of Richard Freymann and Nellie May. I haven't been able to find any information about Hella's marriage to a Kapauner.
On 8 April 1946, Hella arrived in New York aboard the SS Drottningholm which had departed Gothenburg, Sweden on 26 March 1946. The passenger manifest of this vessel gives us a wealth of information on Hella.
Her nationality was “stateless”, not an uncommon status for Jewish refugees. Her full name was Hella Henrietta Freymann and she was divorced. Hella could speak both German and English and gave her occupation as secretary. She had been issued with a US Visa on 28 February 1946 in Zurich, Switzerland which was also her last place of permanent residence. We begin to see the trace of the route that would have carried Hella to safety. The person/relative/friend she knew in Sweden was Dr. Micheulis of the World Jewish Congress. Hella was traveling to join her cousin, Eric Hoffman in Dearborn, Michigan, who had also paid for her passage. Many of the other stateless passengers on that boat had similar information - a Jewish Congress contact in Sweden or Switzerland and a relative in the US who had paid for passage.
In 1952, Hella was on another ship, this one departed Montreal for Le Havre France on 19 June 1952. Three months later, Hella made the reverse journey, sailing from Le Havre, France on 4 September 1952 and arriving in New York on 13 September 1952.
In 1957, Hella was naturalised in the United States. She was residing at 231 East 68th Street, New York and her birth date was 19 April 1909. As part of her naturalisation, she underwent a name change from Hella Henrietta Freymann to Helene Henriette Freymann. Hella/Helene traveled quite a bit. On 24 August 1958 she boarded a ship in Southampton bound for New York. She was no longer stateless, but a citizen of the United States and a professor, a rather surprising occupation.
After a bit of digging, I came across a list of “American Doctoral Degrees Granted in the Field of Modern Languages in 1955-56”. Hella-Henriette Freymann was awarded a doctorate at Columbia in 1955-56, the topic of her dissertation being: “Aspects littéraires des tendances platoniciennes dans la France du XIXe siècle” (Literary Aspects of Platonic Tendencies in 19th century France). In 1961 and 1962, Hella/Helene made two trips to France aboard Air France but I have yet to discover where she taught as a professor.
We then lose her trace but pick her up again on 26 January 1995 when she passed away in Oceanside, California. Her death was registered under Hella Freymann, Helene H. Freymann and Helene Witmer. Based on the SSN notes, she had married Dr. Samuel Grenewald Witmer (1912-1983), likely in late 1976. Samuel had been born in the United States and was a dentist. He served in the US military from 1943-1946, entering as a First Lieutenant.
Conclusion
Whether Algoth Niska charged these three people a fee for the forged Finnish passports or not... it would seem pretty clear that the documents he provided did not save them from the Shoah. Sidonie Goldenberg and Hans Heinrich Friedländer both perished in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Hella Kapauner-Freymann did manage to escape but likely with the assistance of Jewish rescue organisations.
Sources
Jussi Samuli Laitinen; Huijari vai pyhimys? Algoth Niskan osallisuus juutalaisten salakuljettamiseen Keski-Euroopassa vuoden 1938 aikana; Joensuun yliopisto; 2009 [Jussi Samuli Laitinen; Crook or saint? Participation of Algoth Niska in smuggling Jews in Central Europe during 1938; University of Joensuu; 2009]
Algoth Niska & J. Jerry Danielsson - Over Green Borders (1995) - English translation of Yli vihreän rajan published in 1953.
National Archives, Kew - Security Service files on Josef Jakobs - KV 2/24, 2/25, 2/26, 2/27
Ancestry - genealogical information
Geni.com - genealogical information
Yad Vashem - Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names
American Doctoral Degrees granted in the field of Modern Languages - pdf for Hella Freymann
Dutch Ancestry Trees of Jewish Families - has an entry for Dorothea Edith Karliner
13 September 2019
09 September 2019
Black Market Passport Business - Berlin Clients - Gerhard Neumann
Preamble to Gerhard Neumann
Another blog in my series focused on the black market passport business run by Jürgen Ziebell in Berlin during the Second World War. I highly recommended that you read my earlier blog for an overview of the sale of black market passports to Berlin Jews, as related by Josef Jakobs and Frau Lily Knips. Another key blog reviews the characters involved in the business which had several strands including Finnish and Irish passports. I am currently writing a blog series about the Jews who purchased forged Finnish passports via the Finnish smuggler, Algoth Niska. It was only in late September 1938 that Niska apparently made a deal whereby Ziebell purchased a batch of forged Finnish passports for his Jewish clients. As it turns out, Niska was selling forged passports to unsuspecting Jews all through July and August 1938 telling them that he was an official of the Finnish government or a Finnish policeman or... He was none of those things and you can read more about Niska in an earlier blog.
A key source for these stories is the 2009 Finnish thesis by Jussi Samuli Laitinen which I roughly translated with the help of Google Translate. It provides names and birth dates of Niska's clients which has been invaluable in tracing these individuals with certainty. Another key document was the MI6 report on Niska's activities, contained within one of the Security Service files on Josef Jakobs. These documents and a variety of genealogical sites form the backbone of the stories...
Individuals with a birth date are generally traceable, but not always. Part of the problem lies in the limits of genealogical resources which are rich for the UK, USA and, to some extent, Germany and Austria, but less so for other countries. For example, there isn't much online genealogical information for France, Switzerland, Palestine, Cuba, the Balkans or the Nordic countries. If Jewish refugees took any of these paths to freedom... they don't leave much of a trace. In many instances, no news is actually good news.
I am going to begin each individual story with the information from the Laitinen thesis and the MI6 report, as these provide a factual leaping off point.
Introduction
Today, we are looking at Gerhard Neumann who, in late August 1938, purchased a double passport from Niska in Berlin. Gerhard would pay one of the highest amounts for a forged document.
Gerhard Neumann
Laitinen thesis: Gerhard Neumann was born 12 June 1903 in Berlin. He bought a forged Finnish passport from Niska at the end of August 1938, paying the princely sum of 20,000 German Marks for it. The passport was different in that it was a double passport, allowing a husband and wife to travel on the same document. Neumann apparently believed Niska’s story that he was a Finnish policeman and that the passport was legitimate. Neumann traveled to southern Holland in October 1938 and onwards to Amsterdam later in the year. By then, the Dutch police were aware of the need to pay attention to German-speaking foreigners who presented Finnish passports when they registered with the authorities. In early 1939, the Amsterdam police became aware of Neumann’s arrival in southern Holland the previous fall and he was arrested and prosecuted for using a false passport. Neumann was imprisoned as an undesirable alien. Laitinen has nothing on the fate of Neumann.
MI6 report: Simply notes that Gerhard Neumann was born 12 June 1903 in Berlin and that he had been detained in Holland.
Gerhard Benjamin Neumann was born 12 June 1903 in Berlin to manufacturer Berthold Benny Neumann (1868-1934) and Ella Margarete Friedländer (1880-1976). Normally, it would be extremely difficult to determine what sort of a manufacturing business but... Gerhard's son has posted some amazing photos on Flickr. Berthold's father, Julius (Jedhuda) Neumann founded a cigar firm in 1850: J. Neumann Cigarren and Aktiengeselllschaft (AG). There is a photograph of Berthold (all rights reserved) on Flickr. Berthold passed away of a heart attack in 1934 and Gerhard took over the directorship of the company.
Gerhard had a younger sister, Eva Neumann who married surgeon Dr. Carl Felix List in Berlin in 1931. By 1934, Eva and Carl had departed Germany for the United States, settling in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It would appear that Eva was later able to help her mother escape to America, for in 1940 and thereafter, Ella was a resident of the United States, passing away in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1976.
Gerhard also had an older brother, Julius Neumann who married in 1930 in Riga, Latvia and ended up in Sweden.
As for Gerhard… he married a fellow Jewish refugee from Berlin, Inge Erna Heidemann. Inge had been born 4 January 1911 in Berlin-Charlottenburg to Siegfried Heidemann and Martha Fischbein (married 1907). The couple had two other daughters: Herta (nee Heidemann) Steinert and Marie Louise (nee Heidemann) Rose.
The Heidemann family lived in a villa at Griegstrasse 5/7 in Berlin- Dahlem and Siegfried was a retired textile manufacturer, the owner of S. Wolle GmbH, located at Bischofstrasse 19/21 in Berlin-Mitte, and which had factories in Saxony. In 1935, Siegfried had to give up the business and the villa under Nazis persecution. The family then moved to a rented flat in Clauswitzstrasse 9.
A few years earlier, in 1933, two of the daughters, Marie Louise and Inge, had immigrated to Holland, while the other, Herta, had immigrated to the UK at an unknown date with her husband (Heinz Steinert) and their daughter Renate.
As the Nazi persecution worsened, in April 1937, Siegfried and his wife moved to a rental flat at Beethovenstraat 132/III in Amsterdam. That fall, Siegfried went to Zurich, Switzerland and deposited money that hadn't already been stolen in the hope that it would strengthen the case to allow Swiss immigration.
It was around this time that Inge and Gerhard were married but the exact date and location of their marriage is uncertain. A Dutch newspaper index has two entries related to the marriage of Inge and Gerhard: 24 March 1937 and 7 January 1938. Information on the MyHeritage site indicates that the couple were married in Berlin on 19 January 1938. And... information on the Flickr site of Gerhard's son indicates that his parents were married after January 1937. A picture of Gerhard, taken in preparation for his wedding, is available on the Flickr site (all rights reserved).
According to Gerhard's son, the J. Neumann cigar firm underwent a forced sale at the end of January 1938 to Martin Brinkmann KG, part of the Aryanisation of Jewish businesses. Over the next few months, the firm's shareholders and directors such as Gerhard and his mother, along with others, fled to England and Holland with what little they had left. Some were arrested and perished in concentration camps such as Sobibor in Poland. In 1941, J. Neumann Cigarren AG was renamed Gildemann Cigarren Fabriken AG.
By 21 November 1939, both Inge and Gerhard were living in the UK as aliens, both exempt from internment. Gerhard gave his former occupation as manager, quite a step down from his present occupation as trainee at the Sterling Cable Works in Enfield on the outskirts of London. According to Gerhard's son, it was quite remarkable that a German-Jewish refugee should be involved in the manufacture of degaussing wire used by ships to detonate mines before the ships encountered them.
Even more interesting given that Gerhard's in-laws, Herta (Heidemann) Steinert and her husband Heinz Steinert had been rousted out of their home at 10 Lancaster Lodge, Lancaster Road, and interned on the Isle of Man from the end of 1939 until early 1941 as Category B aliens. Heinz had apparently applied to the Auxilliary Military Pioneer Corps but been rejected on medical grounds.
Gerhard and Inge were living at 20 Lancaster Lodge, Lancaster Road in Notting Hill, London. Unlike some Jewish refugees, Including Herta & Heinz Steinert, there is no evidence that either Gerhard or Inge tried to become naturalised citizens of the UK. Around that same time (the last quarter of 1939), the couple had a son, David Berthold Benjamin Neumann.
On 24 May 1945, Gerhard, Inge, and their son David arrived in the United States from Liverpool, having sailed on the 13 May. All three were stateless but had US immigration visas issued in London on 25 April 1945. Gerhard gave his occupation as testing engineer and all three had been living in Cuffley, north of London. Their nearest relation in England was Gerhard’s brother-in-law, Heinz Steiner[t] living at Lancaster Lodge, Lancaster Road in Notting Hill. Their nearest relation in the United States was Gerhard’s mother, Ella Neumann living in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Gerhard and his family would not reside in Michigan, however, eventually settling in New York.
On 18 December 1950, Gerhard and Inge became naturalised citizens of the United States giving their address as 120 Haven Avenue, New York. Inge would later go on to become a fashion designer. Their son David became a physical chemist, married Ruth in 1967, earned a PhD in 1968 and had two sons and a daughter in the early 1970s. Gerhard and Inge lived to see some of their grandchildren, with Gerhard passing away in New York in March 1972 while Inge passed away in 1977.
As for Inge's parents, their story is a sad one. Although all three of their daughters managed to escape Nazi-occupied Europe, Siegfried and Martha would not be so fortunate. From the Find-a-Grave entry on Siegfried:
In the case of Gerhard and Inge, forged Finnish passports did not save them. Family connections, particularly Herta's immigration to the UK, and their cousin Fritz Oppenheimer, likely tipped the balance in their favour.
Sources
Jussi Samuli Laitinen; Huijari vai pyhimys? Algoth Niskan osallisuus juutalaisten salakuljettamiseen Keski-Euroopassa vuoden 1938 aikana; Joensuun yliopisto; 2009 [Jussi Samuli Laitinen; Crook or saint? Participation of Algoth Niska in smuggling Jews in Central Europe during 1938; University of Joensuu; 2009]
Algoth Niska & J. Jerry Danielsson - Over Green Borders (1995) - English translation of Yli vihreän rajan published in 1953.
National Archives, Kew - Security Service files on Josef Jakobs - KV 2/24, 2/25, 2/26, 2/27
Ancestry - genealogical information
Geni.com - genealogical information
GenTeam.at - Austrian genealogical information
Yad Vashem - Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names
Jewish Businesses in Berlin 1930-1945 - Database
Find-a-Grave - entry for Siegfried Heidemann
Claims Resolution Tribunal - for estate of Siegfried Heidemann
Berlin Baudenkmal - Heidemann villa in Grunewald
Flickr - David Neumann's photo stream of his family's Berlin Company - J. Neumann Cigarren AG
Wikiwand - Neumann Family
Imperial War Museum - Liberation of Bergen-Belsen
Another blog in my series focused on the black market passport business run by Jürgen Ziebell in Berlin during the Second World War. I highly recommended that you read my earlier blog for an overview of the sale of black market passports to Berlin Jews, as related by Josef Jakobs and Frau Lily Knips. Another key blog reviews the characters involved in the business which had several strands including Finnish and Irish passports. I am currently writing a blog series about the Jews who purchased forged Finnish passports via the Finnish smuggler, Algoth Niska. It was only in late September 1938 that Niska apparently made a deal whereby Ziebell purchased a batch of forged Finnish passports for his Jewish clients. As it turns out, Niska was selling forged passports to unsuspecting Jews all through July and August 1938 telling them that he was an official of the Finnish government or a Finnish policeman or... He was none of those things and you can read more about Niska in an earlier blog.
A key source for these stories is the 2009 Finnish thesis by Jussi Samuli Laitinen which I roughly translated with the help of Google Translate. It provides names and birth dates of Niska's clients which has been invaluable in tracing these individuals with certainty. Another key document was the MI6 report on Niska's activities, contained within one of the Security Service files on Josef Jakobs. These documents and a variety of genealogical sites form the backbone of the stories...
Individuals with a birth date are generally traceable, but not always. Part of the problem lies in the limits of genealogical resources which are rich for the UK, USA and, to some extent, Germany and Austria, but less so for other countries. For example, there isn't much online genealogical information for France, Switzerland, Palestine, Cuba, the Balkans or the Nordic countries. If Jewish refugees took any of these paths to freedom... they don't leave much of a trace. In many instances, no news is actually good news.
I am going to begin each individual story with the information from the Laitinen thesis and the MI6 report, as these provide a factual leaping off point.
Introduction
Today, we are looking at Gerhard Neumann who, in late August 1938, purchased a double passport from Niska in Berlin. Gerhard would pay one of the highest amounts for a forged document.
Gerhard Neumann
Laitinen thesis: Gerhard Neumann was born 12 June 1903 in Berlin. He bought a forged Finnish passport from Niska at the end of August 1938, paying the princely sum of 20,000 German Marks for it. The passport was different in that it was a double passport, allowing a husband and wife to travel on the same document. Neumann apparently believed Niska’s story that he was a Finnish policeman and that the passport was legitimate. Neumann traveled to southern Holland in October 1938 and onwards to Amsterdam later in the year. By then, the Dutch police were aware of the need to pay attention to German-speaking foreigners who presented Finnish passports when they registered with the authorities. In early 1939, the Amsterdam police became aware of Neumann’s arrival in southern Holland the previous fall and he was arrested and prosecuted for using a false passport. Neumann was imprisoned as an undesirable alien. Laitinen has nothing on the fate of Neumann.
MI6 report: Simply notes that Gerhard Neumann was born 12 June 1903 in Berlin and that he had been detained in Holland.
Gerhard Benjamin Neumann was born 12 June 1903 in Berlin to manufacturer Berthold Benny Neumann (1868-1934) and Ella Margarete Friedländer (1880-1976). Normally, it would be extremely difficult to determine what sort of a manufacturing business but... Gerhard's son has posted some amazing photos on Flickr. Berthold's father, Julius (Jedhuda) Neumann founded a cigar firm in 1850: J. Neumann Cigarren and Aktiengeselllschaft (AG). There is a photograph of Berthold (all rights reserved) on Flickr. Berthold passed away of a heart attack in 1934 and Gerhard took over the directorship of the company.
 |
| J. Neumann Cigarren AG - with a Nazi boycott sign displayed in the window (from USHMM site - picture #07425) |
Gerhard also had an older brother, Julius Neumann who married in 1930 in Riga, Latvia and ended up in Sweden.
As for Gerhard… he married a fellow Jewish refugee from Berlin, Inge Erna Heidemann. Inge had been born 4 January 1911 in Berlin-Charlottenburg to Siegfried Heidemann and Martha Fischbein (married 1907). The couple had two other daughters: Herta (nee Heidemann) Steinert and Marie Louise (nee Heidemann) Rose.
 |
| Heidemann Villa - Griegstrasse 5/7 - Grunewald - Berlin (from Landesdenkmalamt Berlin site) |
A few years earlier, in 1933, two of the daughters, Marie Louise and Inge, had immigrated to Holland, while the other, Herta, had immigrated to the UK at an unknown date with her husband (Heinz Steinert) and their daughter Renate.
As the Nazi persecution worsened, in April 1937, Siegfried and his wife moved to a rental flat at Beethovenstraat 132/III in Amsterdam. That fall, Siegfried went to Zurich, Switzerland and deposited money that hadn't already been stolen in the hope that it would strengthen the case to allow Swiss immigration.
It was around this time that Inge and Gerhard were married but the exact date and location of their marriage is uncertain. A Dutch newspaper index has two entries related to the marriage of Inge and Gerhard: 24 March 1937 and 7 January 1938. Information on the MyHeritage site indicates that the couple were married in Berlin on 19 January 1938. And... information on the Flickr site of Gerhard's son indicates that his parents were married after January 1937. A picture of Gerhard, taken in preparation for his wedding, is available on the Flickr site (all rights reserved).
 |
| J. Neumann AG share certificate with the name replaced by Gildemann Cigarren Fabriken AG |
After escaping to Amsterdam in 1938 [Gerhard] was arrested by the Dutch for a problem with his passport. [Interestingly, Gerhard's son has a picture of the Finnish embassy on his Flickr account, but no caption with it. Did he know about the Finnish passport?] [Gerhard] remained in jail in Amsterdam for several months, but with the help of Hadassah [Women's Zionist Organization of America] he was not sent back to Germany and set free. With the help of family, in England, including his cousin Fritz Oppenheimer, he obtained a visa and moved to England in early 1939. (David Neumann's Flickr stream - caption for his father's picture)
 |
| Sterling Cable Co. (from Britain from Above site) |
Even more interesting given that Gerhard's in-laws, Herta (Heidemann) Steinert and her husband Heinz Steinert had been rousted out of their home at 10 Lancaster Lodge, Lancaster Road, and interned on the Isle of Man from the end of 1939 until early 1941 as Category B aliens. Heinz had apparently applied to the Auxilliary Military Pioneer Corps but been rejected on medical grounds.
Gerhard and Inge were living at 20 Lancaster Lodge, Lancaster Road in Notting Hill, London. Unlike some Jewish refugees, Including Herta & Heinz Steinert, there is no evidence that either Gerhard or Inge tried to become naturalised citizens of the UK. Around that same time (the last quarter of 1939), the couple had a son, David Berthold Benjamin Neumann.
On 24 May 1945, Gerhard, Inge, and their son David arrived in the United States from Liverpool, having sailed on the 13 May. All three were stateless but had US immigration visas issued in London on 25 April 1945. Gerhard gave his occupation as testing engineer and all three had been living in Cuffley, north of London. Their nearest relation in England was Gerhard’s brother-in-law, Heinz Steiner[t] living at Lancaster Lodge, Lancaster Road in Notting Hill. Their nearest relation in the United States was Gerhard’s mother, Ella Neumann living in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Gerhard and his family would not reside in Michigan, however, eventually settling in New York.
On 18 December 1950, Gerhard and Inge became naturalised citizens of the United States giving their address as 120 Haven Avenue, New York. Inge would later go on to become a fashion designer. Their son David became a physical chemist, married Ruth in 1967, earned a PhD in 1968 and had two sons and a daughter in the early 1970s. Gerhard and Inge lived to see some of their grandchildren, with Gerhard passing away in New York in March 1972 while Inge passed away in 1977.
As for Inge's parents, their story is a sad one. Although all three of their daughters managed to escape Nazi-occupied Europe, Siegfried and Martha would not be so fortunate. From the Find-a-Grave entry on Siegfried:
Siegfried and Martha were forced to sell off furnishings to survive. They were forced to wear the Yellow Star and on January 27th, 1943, arrested and taken to Westerbork Camp. They were able to delay deportation by paying bribes, but on February 1st, 1944, they both were sent to Bergen-Belsen.Siegfried died in Bergen-Belsen on 1 April 1945 while Martha died on 10 April 1945. In a cruel twist, British forces liberated Bergen-Belsen five days later on 15 April.
In the case of Gerhard and Inge, forged Finnish passports did not save them. Family connections, particularly Herta's immigration to the UK, and their cousin Fritz Oppenheimer, likely tipped the balance in their favour.
Sources
Jussi Samuli Laitinen; Huijari vai pyhimys? Algoth Niskan osallisuus juutalaisten salakuljettamiseen Keski-Euroopassa vuoden 1938 aikana; Joensuun yliopisto; 2009 [Jussi Samuli Laitinen; Crook or saint? Participation of Algoth Niska in smuggling Jews in Central Europe during 1938; University of Joensuu; 2009]
Algoth Niska & J. Jerry Danielsson - Over Green Borders (1995) - English translation of Yli vihreän rajan published in 1953.
National Archives, Kew - Security Service files on Josef Jakobs - KV 2/24, 2/25, 2/26, 2/27
Ancestry - genealogical information
Geni.com - genealogical information
GenTeam.at - Austrian genealogical information
Yad Vashem - Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names
Jewish Businesses in Berlin 1930-1945 - Database
Find-a-Grave - entry for Siegfried Heidemann
Claims Resolution Tribunal - for estate of Siegfried Heidemann
Berlin Baudenkmal - Heidemann villa in Grunewald
Flickr - David Neumann's photo stream of his family's Berlin Company - J. Neumann Cigarren AG
Wikiwand - Neumann Family
Imperial War Museum - Liberation of Bergen-Belsen
04 September 2019
Black Market Passport Business - Berlin Clients - Fritz Lasch & Family
Preamble to Fritz Lasch & Family
Another blog in my series focused on the black market passport business run by Jürgen Ziebell in Berlin. I highly recommended that you read my earlier blog for an overview of the sale of black market passports to Berlin Jews, as related by Josef Jakobs and Frau Lily Knips. Another key blog reviews the characters involved in the business which had several strands including Finnish and Irish passports. I am currently writing a blog series about the Jews who purchased forged Finnish passports via the Finnish smuggler, Algoth Niska. It was only in late September 1938 that Niska apparently made a deal whereby Ziebell purchased a batch of forged Finnish passports for his Jewish clients. As it turns out, Niska was selling forged passports to unsuspecting Jews all through July and August 1938 telling them that he was an official of the Finnish government or a Finnish policeman or... He was none of those things and you can read more about Niska in an earlier blog.
A key source for these stories is the 2009 Finnish thesis by Jussi Samuli Laitinen which I roughly translated with the help of Google Translate. It provides names and birth dates of Niska's clients which has been invaluable in tracing these individuals with certainty. Another key document was the MI6 report on Niska's activities, contained within one of the Security Service files on Josef Jakobs. These documents and a variety of genealogical sites form the backbone of the stories...
Individuals with a birth date are generally traceable, but not always. Part of the problem lies in the limits of genealogical resources which are rich for the UK, USA and, to some extent, Germany and Austria, but less so for other countries. For example, there isn't much online genealogical information for France, Switzerland, Palestine, Cuba, the Balkans or the Nordic countries. If Jewish refugees took any of these paths to freedom... they don't leave much of a trace. In many instances, no news is not actually good news.
I am going to begin each individual story with the information from the Laitinen thesis and the MI6 report, as these provide a factual leaping off point.
Introduction
In August 1938, Niska returned to Berlin from Prague and met Fritz Lasch who wished to purchase three passports from himself and his family. The Lasch family story deserves its own blog post as it is quite involved.
Fritz Lasch & Family
Laitinen thesis: Fritz J. Lasch was born on 4 August 1892 in Berlin. He was the former owner of J. Lasch & Sons Ltd, a glove factory. Lasch bought three passports from Niska in August 1938, paying 6000 German Marks for the forged documents. Lasch apparently believed Niska’s story that the passports were genuine. That autumn, the Lasch family, Fritz, his wife Basjo Beila (Sudarsky) (born 25 April 1897 in Lithuania) and their son Heinz (born 5 May 1924), departed for Amsterdam and then on to Paris. The Lasch family tried to live an unobtrusive existence in Paris, staying under the radar of the authorities who, in September 1938, had become aware of the forged Finnish passports circulating through Europe (thanks to Alfred Schapiro's sale of one of them). In mid-April 1939, Fritz Lasch was called to the Finnish embassy in Paris to verify his identity. The Finns quickly discovered that his passport was forged. Laitinen ends his brief paragraphs on the Lasch family by stating that Fritz Lasch boarded a transport on 22 November 1942 bound for Auschwitz and then on to Riga.
MI6 report: Simply notes “Fritz Lasch, particulars unknown”.
The Laitinen thesis had no information on Fritz's wife or son. It is a rather sad story but there is some good news: Basjo Beila Lasch and her son Heinz did escape the horrors of the Shoah. Why Fritz perished in the Shoah is unknown.
Fritz was born on 4 August 1892 to factory owner Emil Lasch and his wife Hertha Behrendt. He and Bassia Beila Sudarski were married on 17 December 1920 in Berlin. Beila had been born on 25 April 1897 in Wirballen, Lithuania (now Virbalis). Normally the marriage registrations list the names of the parents of the bride and groom but that is not the case on this registration. Although one Emil Lasch, age 59 (born 1861), was a witness to the marriage and is likely Fritz’s father.
There was also a glove manufacturer in Berlin called J. Lasch & Sohn at Oranienstrasse 70. The business was founded in 1903, transferred in 1934 (likely to Aryan ownership) and liquidated in 1941. This is likely the same company as mentioned in the Laitinen thesis.
Fritz and Bassia's marriage registration also had a marginal note which stated that the groom (Fritz) Lasch was declared deceased on 25 January 1980 and that the date of death was declared as 31 December 1945. This would seem to be one of the post-Shoah death declarations which are all too common in German vital records.
Fritz Lasch appears in the Yad Vashem database as a victim of the Shoah. According to their records, Fritz was deported on Transport 45, Train Da.901/38 from Drancy Camp France to Auschwitz on 11/11/1942. He was then sent on to Riga.
The Yad Vashem records include two pages of testimony for Fritz, one from 1977 and one from 1995, both from Fritz’s son, Henry I. Lasch of California. Knowing that Heinz/Heinrich/Henry Lasch ended up in the United States makes his trail relatively easy.
Heinrich Isaac Lasch was born 5 May 1924 in Berlin to Fritz Lasch and Bassia Beila Sudarsky. We know that he was naturalised in the United Kingdom on 24 July 1948. How he came to the UK is partially explained by a London Gazette notice of 17 August 1948 which published his naturalisation. According to the Gazette, Heinz Isaac Lasch was a student, formerly of Palestine, living at 85 Priory Road in London. Once Heinz was naturalised in the UK, he didn’t linger long, making the leap across the Atlantic to North America on 25 September 1948. He sailed from Liverpool aboard the SS Ascania, destination Montreal, Canada. This was not his final destination, however, as he arrived at St. Alban, Vermont border crossing by train on 4 October 1948.
Heinz/Henry was a strapping young man, standing just under 6 feet tall and weighing 189 pounds with blue eyes and brown hair. On 21 December 1953, he married divorcee Jindra Hanna (nee Bakrlikova) Cermak (or Cermakova), born 4 October 1919 (or 1909) in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Jindra’s parents were Jindrich Bakrlik and Anna Poesler, both of Czechoslovakia. Jindra had arrived in the US via New York on 22 February 1948 aboard the SS Hastings. There is an intriguing letter that Jindra wrote to the US Consulate in 1957 seeking assistance regarding her family’s villa in Czechoslovakia. The villa had been confiscated by the authorities and Jindra was seeking the assistance of the US authorities. The letter also noted that:
Jindra passed away on 5 January 2006 in San Diego, California at the age of 86. Heinz/Henry passed away ten days later on 15 January 2006 in San Diego at the age of 85. Was it an accident? Or an illness? Or perhaps Henry couldn’t carry on without his beloved wife.
This, at least, answers the question surrounding Fritz Lasch’s son. What, however, became of his wife: Bassia/Bassjo Beila (Sudarski) Lasch? The answer lies in that Gazette notice of Heinz Lasch stating that he had come to the UK via Palestine.
After a few dead ends which suggested that Bassia had died in the United States as Beatrice Sudarsky… I found an entry on the Geni website which seems more of a match.
The Geni site notes that Batja (Bassja) Lasch (Sudarsky) was born 1895 in Vershkolov, Lithuania. This is likely supposed to be Verzhbolovo - the Russian name for Wirballen (or Virbalis) according to the JewishGen website. [Thank you to Traugott Vitz for directing me to this site!]
The date of birth isn’t that far off and errors like around birth dates can be quite common when relatives/friends are giving an individual’s information at their death. The Geni site says she was born in 1895 while her marriage registration states she was born in 1897.
The Geni information notes that Batja/Bassja was the daughter of Itzchak (Itzale) Sudarsky and Hinde Sudarsky. She had several siblings: Chaje-Sara (Chajsara), Zelig, Mendel (Dr.), Eliezer, Efraim, Braina, Chaim-Leib, Libbie, Nissan and Jakob. A rather large family!
According to the Geni info, Batja/Bassja was the wife of Fritz Lasch and the mother of Heinz Lasch and Ernst Lasch. Batja/Bassja passed away in September 1980 in Tel Aviv at the age of 85. The note about Ernst Lasch, another possible son, is intriguing. I have come across no other information to confirm this and it is possible that: (a) Ernst was older than Heinz and had already left Germany by 1938 or (b) Ernst had passed away prior to 1938.
The Geni information was posted online by one Nadav Gruengard. I did notice that a “Faivel” Grüngard had been a witness at Fritz and Batja/Bassia’s wedding in 1920. Some searching and it turns out that Nadav’s father was Jehuda Isaac Gruengard, born 1912 in Virbalis (Wirballen) Lithuania. And that Jehuda’s father was Feivel Gruengard. Perhaps the Gruengards and Sudarskys are distantly related.
We now know what happened to the rest of Fritz Lasch’s family. Somehow Bassia and her son, Heinz, escaped France and made their way to Palestine. Why they escaped and Fritz did not is a mystery. From Palestine, Heinz then made his way to the UK and ultimately the United States. It would seem pretty clear at this point, that their forged Finnish passports did not provide them with a ticket to safety and freedom, as evidenced by Fritz’s own death in the Shoah.
Sources
Jussi Samuli Laitinen; Huijari vai pyhimys? Algoth Niskan osallisuus juutalaisten salakuljettamiseen Keski-Euroopassa vuoden 1938 aikana; Joensuun yliopisto; 2009 [Jussi Samuli Laitinen; Crook or saint? Participation of Algoth Niska in smuggling Jews in Central Europe during 1938; University of Joensuu; 2009]
Algoth Niska & J. Jerry Danielsson - Over Green Borders (1995) - English translation of Yli vihreän rajan published in 1953.
National Archives, Kew - Security Service files on Josef Jakobs - KV 2/24, 2/25, 2/26, 2/27
Ancestry - genealogical information
Geni.com - genealogical information
GenTeam.at - Austrian genealogical information
Yad Vashem - Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names
Another blog in my series focused on the black market passport business run by Jürgen Ziebell in Berlin. I highly recommended that you read my earlier blog for an overview of the sale of black market passports to Berlin Jews, as related by Josef Jakobs and Frau Lily Knips. Another key blog reviews the characters involved in the business which had several strands including Finnish and Irish passports. I am currently writing a blog series about the Jews who purchased forged Finnish passports via the Finnish smuggler, Algoth Niska. It was only in late September 1938 that Niska apparently made a deal whereby Ziebell purchased a batch of forged Finnish passports for his Jewish clients. As it turns out, Niska was selling forged passports to unsuspecting Jews all through July and August 1938 telling them that he was an official of the Finnish government or a Finnish policeman or... He was none of those things and you can read more about Niska in an earlier blog.
A key source for these stories is the 2009 Finnish thesis by Jussi Samuli Laitinen which I roughly translated with the help of Google Translate. It provides names and birth dates of Niska's clients which has been invaluable in tracing these individuals with certainty. Another key document was the MI6 report on Niska's activities, contained within one of the Security Service files on Josef Jakobs. These documents and a variety of genealogical sites form the backbone of the stories...
Individuals with a birth date are generally traceable, but not always. Part of the problem lies in the limits of genealogical resources which are rich for the UK, USA and, to some extent, Germany and Austria, but less so for other countries. For example, there isn't much online genealogical information for France, Switzerland, Palestine, Cuba, the Balkans or the Nordic countries. If Jewish refugees took any of these paths to freedom... they don't leave much of a trace. In many instances, no news is not actually good news.
I am going to begin each individual story with the information from the Laitinen thesis and the MI6 report, as these provide a factual leaping off point.
Introduction
In August 1938, Niska returned to Berlin from Prague and met Fritz Lasch who wished to purchase three passports from himself and his family. The Lasch family story deserves its own blog post as it is quite involved.
Fritz Lasch & Family
Laitinen thesis: Fritz J. Lasch was born on 4 August 1892 in Berlin. He was the former owner of J. Lasch & Sons Ltd, a glove factory. Lasch bought three passports from Niska in August 1938, paying 6000 German Marks for the forged documents. Lasch apparently believed Niska’s story that the passports were genuine. That autumn, the Lasch family, Fritz, his wife Basjo Beila (Sudarsky) (born 25 April 1897 in Lithuania) and their son Heinz (born 5 May 1924), departed for Amsterdam and then on to Paris. The Lasch family tried to live an unobtrusive existence in Paris, staying under the radar of the authorities who, in September 1938, had become aware of the forged Finnish passports circulating through Europe (thanks to Alfred Schapiro's sale of one of them). In mid-April 1939, Fritz Lasch was called to the Finnish embassy in Paris to verify his identity. The Finns quickly discovered that his passport was forged. Laitinen ends his brief paragraphs on the Lasch family by stating that Fritz Lasch boarded a transport on 22 November 1942 bound for Auschwitz and then on to Riga.
MI6 report: Simply notes “Fritz Lasch, particulars unknown”.
The Laitinen thesis had no information on Fritz's wife or son. It is a rather sad story but there is some good news: Basjo Beila Lasch and her son Heinz did escape the horrors of the Shoah. Why Fritz perished in the Shoah is unknown.
Fritz was born on 4 August 1892 to factory owner Emil Lasch and his wife Hertha Behrendt. He and Bassia Beila Sudarski were married on 17 December 1920 in Berlin. Beila had been born on 25 April 1897 in Wirballen, Lithuania (now Virbalis). Normally the marriage registrations list the names of the parents of the bride and groom but that is not the case on this registration. Although one Emil Lasch, age 59 (born 1861), was a witness to the marriage and is likely Fritz’s father.
There was also a glove manufacturer in Berlin called J. Lasch & Sohn at Oranienstrasse 70. The business was founded in 1903, transferred in 1934 (likely to Aryan ownership) and liquidated in 1941. This is likely the same company as mentioned in the Laitinen thesis.
Fritz and Bassia's marriage registration also had a marginal note which stated that the groom (Fritz) Lasch was declared deceased on 25 January 1980 and that the date of death was declared as 31 December 1945. This would seem to be one of the post-Shoah death declarations which are all too common in German vital records.
Fritz Lasch appears in the Yad Vashem database as a victim of the Shoah. According to their records, Fritz was deported on Transport 45, Train Da.901/38 from Drancy Camp France to Auschwitz on 11/11/1942. He was then sent on to Riga.
The Yad Vashem records include two pages of testimony for Fritz, one from 1977 and one from 1995, both from Fritz’s son, Henry I. Lasch of California. Knowing that Heinz/Heinrich/Henry Lasch ended up in the United States makes his trail relatively easy.
Heinrich Isaac Lasch was born 5 May 1924 in Berlin to Fritz Lasch and Bassia Beila Sudarsky. We know that he was naturalised in the United Kingdom on 24 July 1948. How he came to the UK is partially explained by a London Gazette notice of 17 August 1948 which published his naturalisation. According to the Gazette, Heinz Isaac Lasch was a student, formerly of Palestine, living at 85 Priory Road in London. Once Heinz was naturalised in the UK, he didn’t linger long, making the leap across the Atlantic to North America on 25 September 1948. He sailed from Liverpool aboard the SS Ascania, destination Montreal, Canada. This was not his final destination, however, as he arrived at St. Alban, Vermont border crossing by train on 4 October 1948.
Heinz/Henry was a strapping young man, standing just under 6 feet tall and weighing 189 pounds with blue eyes and brown hair. On 21 December 1953, he married divorcee Jindra Hanna (nee Bakrlikova) Cermak (or Cermakova), born 4 October 1919 (or 1909) in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Jindra’s parents were Jindrich Bakrlik and Anna Poesler, both of Czechoslovakia. Jindra had arrived in the US via New York on 22 February 1948 aboard the SS Hastings. There is an intriguing letter that Jindra wrote to the US Consulate in 1957 seeking assistance regarding her family’s villa in Czechoslovakia. The villa had been confiscated by the authorities and Jindra was seeking the assistance of the US authorities. The letter also noted that:
“After the World War II, I worked for about 3 years for the U.S. Government, first in Czechoslovakia, then in Germany. (Sudeten German expulsion and later tracing children, kidnapped by the Nazis, in Germany). Due to this job my life was endangered and I was granted a special visa to enter this country in 1948.”Jindra was naturalised on 26 June 1953. Heinz/Henry applied for naturalisation in 1954 while living in Los Angeles, California. He gave his occupation as “Manufacturer’s Representative”.
Jindra passed away on 5 January 2006 in San Diego, California at the age of 86. Heinz/Henry passed away ten days later on 15 January 2006 in San Diego at the age of 85. Was it an accident? Or an illness? Or perhaps Henry couldn’t carry on without his beloved wife.
This, at least, answers the question surrounding Fritz Lasch’s son. What, however, became of his wife: Bassia/Bassjo Beila (Sudarski) Lasch? The answer lies in that Gazette notice of Heinz Lasch stating that he had come to the UK via Palestine.
After a few dead ends which suggested that Bassia had died in the United States as Beatrice Sudarsky… I found an entry on the Geni website which seems more of a match.
 |
| Wirballen, Lithuania postcard from Wikipedia |
The date of birth isn’t that far off and errors like around birth dates can be quite common when relatives/friends are giving an individual’s information at their death. The Geni site says she was born in 1895 while her marriage registration states she was born in 1897.
The Geni information notes that Batja/Bassja was the daughter of Itzchak (Itzale) Sudarsky and Hinde Sudarsky. She had several siblings: Chaje-Sara (Chajsara), Zelig, Mendel (Dr.), Eliezer, Efraim, Braina, Chaim-Leib, Libbie, Nissan and Jakob. A rather large family!
According to the Geni info, Batja/Bassja was the wife of Fritz Lasch and the mother of Heinz Lasch and Ernst Lasch. Batja/Bassja passed away in September 1980 in Tel Aviv at the age of 85. The note about Ernst Lasch, another possible son, is intriguing. I have come across no other information to confirm this and it is possible that: (a) Ernst was older than Heinz and had already left Germany by 1938 or (b) Ernst had passed away prior to 1938.
The Geni information was posted online by one Nadav Gruengard. I did notice that a “Faivel” Grüngard had been a witness at Fritz and Batja/Bassia’s wedding in 1920. Some searching and it turns out that Nadav’s father was Jehuda Isaac Gruengard, born 1912 in Virbalis (Wirballen) Lithuania. And that Jehuda’s father was Feivel Gruengard. Perhaps the Gruengards and Sudarskys are distantly related.
We now know what happened to the rest of Fritz Lasch’s family. Somehow Bassia and her son, Heinz, escaped France and made their way to Palestine. Why they escaped and Fritz did not is a mystery. From Palestine, Heinz then made his way to the UK and ultimately the United States. It would seem pretty clear at this point, that their forged Finnish passports did not provide them with a ticket to safety and freedom, as evidenced by Fritz’s own death in the Shoah.
Sources
Jussi Samuli Laitinen; Huijari vai pyhimys? Algoth Niskan osallisuus juutalaisten salakuljettamiseen Keski-Euroopassa vuoden 1938 aikana; Joensuun yliopisto; 2009 [Jussi Samuli Laitinen; Crook or saint? Participation of Algoth Niska in smuggling Jews in Central Europe during 1938; University of Joensuu; 2009]
Algoth Niska & J. Jerry Danielsson - Over Green Borders (1995) - English translation of Yli vihreän rajan published in 1953.
National Archives, Kew - Security Service files on Josef Jakobs - KV 2/24, 2/25, 2/26, 2/27
Ancestry - genealogical information
Geni.com - genealogical information
GenTeam.at - Austrian genealogical information
Yad Vashem - Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names
30 August 2019
Black Market Passport Business - Passports in Prague
Preamble
Another blog in my series focused on the black market passport business run by Jürgen Ziebell in Berlin. I highly recommended that you read my earlier blog for an overview of the sale of black market passports to Berlin Jews, as related by Josef Jakobs and Frau Lily Knips. Another key blog reviews the characters involved in the business which had several strands including Finnish and Irish passports. I am currently writing a blog series about the Jews who purchased forged Finnish passports via the Finnish smuggler, Algoth Niska. It was only in late September 1938 that Niska apparently made a deal whereby Ziebell purchased a batch of forged Finnish passports for his Jewish clients. As it turns out, Niska was selling forged passports to unsuspecting Jews all through July and August 1938 telling them that he was an official of the Finnish government or a Finnish policeman or... He was none of those things and you can read more about Niska in an earlier blog.
A key source for these stories is the 2009 Finnish thesis by Jussi Samuli Laitinen which I roughly translated with the help of Google Translate. It provides names and birth dates of Niska's clients which has been invaluable in tracing these individuals with certainty. Another key document was the MI6 report on Niska's activities, contained within one of the Security Service files on Josef Jakobs. These documents and a variety of genealogical sites form the backbone of the stories...
Individuals with a birth date are generally traceable, but not always. Part of the problem lies in the limits of genealogical resources which are rich for the UK, USA and, to some extent, Germany and Austria, but less so for other countries. For example, there isn't much online genealogical information for France, Switzerland, Palestine, Cuba, the Balkans or the Nordic countries. If Jewish refugees took any of these paths to freedom... they don't leave much of a trace. In many instances, no news is not actually good news.
I am going to begin each individual story with the information from the Laitinen thesis and the MI6 report, as these provide a factual leaping off point.
Introduction
In mid July and early August 1938, Algot Niska made two trips to Prague. The first was to hand over three passports to the Amtmann family. Niska met Albert Amtmann at the Palace Hotel in Prague where he was introduced to Alfred Abraham Schapiro. It isn't clear how, or if, Alfred is related to the Amtmanns. It also isn't clear if Alfred received his passports in mid-July or in early August.
In early August, Niska again traveled to Prague, likely with a fresh batch of passports and met Albert Amtmann and Alfred Schapiro at the Hotel Alcron. He was also introduced to Leo Wiesen, a Berlin businessman who wanted to purchase a passport. A few days later, Niska met Richard Neumann who also wanted to purchase a passport, believing it was a legitimate Finnish document. Later, Neumann also requested two passports for Arthur and Hedvig Stern who purchased the passports without ever meeting Niska.
What became of these three individuals?
Alfred Abraham Schapiro
Laitinen thesis: Alfred Abraham Schapiro was born 22 March 1894 in Novogrudok, Lithuania and owned a trade in Berlin. He was quite wealthy but had left his business behind when he traveled to Prague. He bought three passports from Niska in Prague in July/August 1938. Schapiro later sold one of the passports. On 31 August 1938, Schapiro flew to Strasbourg and from there to Paris where he settled in the Hotel Scribe. In mid-September, a Jewish woman named Betty Kohn approached the Finnish Embassy in Prague and told them that Schapiro had sold her a passport and that he was living in Paris. This was apparently the first indication the Finns received that forged Finnish passports were being circulated through Europe. Schapiro was requested to report to the Finnish Embassy in Paris where his passport was found to be forged. He was arrested in the autumn of 1938 and held for a trial date in November 1938.
MI6 report: Confirmed the name, birth date and birth location of Schapiro. It also noted that he was a businessman and that he had been arrested in Paris.
In searching through Ancestry, I found an Alfred Schapiro living in Berlin from 1934 to 1938, the owner of a textile company (coats). The Jewish Businesses in Berlin (1930-1945) website lists an Alfred Schapiro who founded a textile and clothing business (coats and skirts) in 1933. The business was located at Kronenstrasse 23 (Berlin Mitte) and was transferred in 1935 (likely to Aryan ownership) and liquidated in 1938. This doesn’t quite match the Berlin address books which have the business located at Jerusalemer Straße 17 while Alfred Schapiro was resident at Budapester Straße 7.
Beyond that, I haven’t been able to find anything further on Alfred Schapiro. There was an Abraham Alfred Schapiro who emigrated to the United States, but he was born 21 October 1898 in Kovno, Russia. Similarly, I have not found a concrete match for Alfred in the records of the Yad Vashem database of those who perished in the Shoah. The fate of Alfred remains a mystery.
Leo Wiesen
Laitinen thesis: Leo Wiesen was a Jewish businessman who owned a well-known Berlin clothing store. He met Niska in Prague in early August 1938 at the Hotel Alcron and paid 7000 German Marks for a passport. According to Laitinen, Leo Wiesen may have ended up in London by 14 October 1938.
MI6 report - Leo does not appear.
The Berlin address books have a Leo Wiesen, Kaufmann (businessman) living at Platanenalle 39 in Berlin-Charlottenburg from 1929 to 1934. Beyond that, we have nothing.
I haven’t found a business associated with that name in the database of Jewish Businesses in Berlin (1930-1945).
I also haven’t found any evidence of Leo Wiesen in England, although he may have anglicized his last name, which would make it difficult to trace him. The lack of a birth date also makes the search challenging.
Richard Neumann
Laitinen thesis: Richard Neumann was born 2 June 1893 in Vienna. He was a commercial agent and purchased a passport from Niska at the Hotel Alcron in Prague in early August 1938. Laitinen notes that Neumann probably ended up in London in the autumn of 1938.
MI6 report: Richard Neumann was an agent born in Vienna on 2 June 1893.
Austrian genealogical records confirm that Richard Neumann was born on 2 June 1893 in Vienna. His parents were Julius Neumann and Helene Bosel who had married the previous year. The couple have several other children: Friedrich (born 1895), Margarethe (born 15 May 1900) and Hans (1903). We then have nothing on Richard, beyond what we are told from Laitinen's thesis until... 1939.
Richard Neumann (later changed his name to Newmann) and his wife Irma Neumann were listed on the 1939 National Registration for Paddington, London. According to the document, Richard was born 2 June 1893 and his wife Irma was born 25 September 1892. A marginal note suggests that Irma’s birth name was Ilse Wertheim, although it is interesting to note that the next flat (Flat 11) has a Hans & Ilse Wertheim in residence. Hans was born 1904 in Vienna. Could they be relatives?
Richard gave his occupation as Managing Director whereas Irma was Private Means. There is a closed record below Richard and Irma, which could be a child. The closed record is followed by a Margarete Dux, a widow, born on 15 May 1900. Her name is followed by another closed record, possibly her child. Margarete is likely Richard's sister who was also born on 15 May 1900. There was also a Margarete Dux from Czechoslovakia who was naturalised in the UK in 1948. More research would be required to see if this is the same lady. Richard and his family were living in Flat 10 at Streatham House.
Irma was deemed exempt from internment on 8 January 1940 as a Category C alien. Her nationality was Austrian and her place of birth (spelled very clearly on two forms) was KOMATAU or KOMATOW, a location I have yet to find anywhere in Austria (or the surrounding countries). The closest seems to be KOMAROW in former Galicia, Austria.
On 5 November 1940, Richard was deemed exempt from internment as a Category C alien. His regular occupation was export manager and his present occupation was belt manufacturer. He was living at 2 Streatham Place in London. Richard was naturalised as a British citizen in February 1948.
Arthur and Hedvig Stern
Laitinen thesis: Arthur and Hedvig Stern were Germans who had come to Prague in February 1937. Arthur worked as a Deputy Director at the Anglo-Continental Buying Agency Ltd. He and his wife were friends of Richard Neumann and, through him, bought two passports from Niska (without ever meeting him). Despite the fact that they had Finnish passports, they did not try to leave Czechoslovakia. Arthur was arrested on 13 February 1939.
MI6 report: Simply notes that Arthur and his wife Hedvig Stern had been arrested in Prague.
Without birth dates, these two individuals are very hard to trace. There are an awful lot of Arthur and Hedvig/Hedwig Sterns out there.
Sources
Jussi Samuli Laitinen; Huijari vai pyhimys? Algoth Niskan osallisuus juutalaisten salakuljettamiseen Keski-Euroopassa vuoden 1938 aikana; Joensuun yliopisto; 2009 [Jussi Samuli Laitinen; Crook or saint? Participation of Algoth Niska in smuggling Jews in Central Europe during 1938; University of Joensuu; 2009]
Algoth Niska & J. Jerry Danielsson - Over Green Borders (1995) - English translation of Yli vihreän rajan published in 1953.
National Archives, Kew - Security Service files on Josef Jakobs - KV 2/24, 2/25, 2/26, 2/27
Ancestry - genealogical information
Geni.com - genealogical information
GenTeam.at - Austrian genealogical information
Yad Vashem - Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names
Another blog in my series focused on the black market passport business run by Jürgen Ziebell in Berlin. I highly recommended that you read my earlier blog for an overview of the sale of black market passports to Berlin Jews, as related by Josef Jakobs and Frau Lily Knips. Another key blog reviews the characters involved in the business which had several strands including Finnish and Irish passports. I am currently writing a blog series about the Jews who purchased forged Finnish passports via the Finnish smuggler, Algoth Niska. It was only in late September 1938 that Niska apparently made a deal whereby Ziebell purchased a batch of forged Finnish passports for his Jewish clients. As it turns out, Niska was selling forged passports to unsuspecting Jews all through July and August 1938 telling them that he was an official of the Finnish government or a Finnish policeman or... He was none of those things and you can read more about Niska in an earlier blog.
A key source for these stories is the 2009 Finnish thesis by Jussi Samuli Laitinen which I roughly translated with the help of Google Translate. It provides names and birth dates of Niska's clients which has been invaluable in tracing these individuals with certainty. Another key document was the MI6 report on Niska's activities, contained within one of the Security Service files on Josef Jakobs. These documents and a variety of genealogical sites form the backbone of the stories...
Individuals with a birth date are generally traceable, but not always. Part of the problem lies in the limits of genealogical resources which are rich for the UK, USA and, to some extent, Germany and Austria, but less so for other countries. For example, there isn't much online genealogical information for France, Switzerland, Palestine, Cuba, the Balkans or the Nordic countries. If Jewish refugees took any of these paths to freedom... they don't leave much of a trace. In many instances, no news is not actually good news.
I am going to begin each individual story with the information from the Laitinen thesis and the MI6 report, as these provide a factual leaping off point.
Introduction
 |
| Palace Hotel, Prague (from Palace Hotel site) |
In early August, Niska again traveled to Prague, likely with a fresh batch of passports and met Albert Amtmann and Alfred Schapiro at the Hotel Alcron. He was also introduced to Leo Wiesen, a Berlin businessman who wanted to purchase a passport. A few days later, Niska met Richard Neumann who also wanted to purchase a passport, believing it was a legitimate Finnish document. Later, Neumann also requested two passports for Arthur and Hedvig Stern who purchased the passports without ever meeting Niska.
What became of these three individuals?
Alfred Abraham Schapiro
Laitinen thesis: Alfred Abraham Schapiro was born 22 March 1894 in Novogrudok, Lithuania and owned a trade in Berlin. He was quite wealthy but had left his business behind when he traveled to Prague. He bought three passports from Niska in Prague in July/August 1938. Schapiro later sold one of the passports. On 31 August 1938, Schapiro flew to Strasbourg and from there to Paris where he settled in the Hotel Scribe. In mid-September, a Jewish woman named Betty Kohn approached the Finnish Embassy in Prague and told them that Schapiro had sold her a passport and that he was living in Paris. This was apparently the first indication the Finns received that forged Finnish passports were being circulated through Europe. Schapiro was requested to report to the Finnish Embassy in Paris where his passport was found to be forged. He was arrested in the autumn of 1938 and held for a trial date in November 1938.
MI6 report: Confirmed the name, birth date and birth location of Schapiro. It also noted that he was a businessman and that he had been arrested in Paris.
In searching through Ancestry, I found an Alfred Schapiro living in Berlin from 1934 to 1938, the owner of a textile company (coats). The Jewish Businesses in Berlin (1930-1945) website lists an Alfred Schapiro who founded a textile and clothing business (coats and skirts) in 1933. The business was located at Kronenstrasse 23 (Berlin Mitte) and was transferred in 1935 (likely to Aryan ownership) and liquidated in 1938. This doesn’t quite match the Berlin address books which have the business located at Jerusalemer Straße 17 while Alfred Schapiro was resident at Budapester Straße 7.
Beyond that, I haven’t been able to find anything further on Alfred Schapiro. There was an Abraham Alfred Schapiro who emigrated to the United States, but he was born 21 October 1898 in Kovno, Russia. Similarly, I have not found a concrete match for Alfred in the records of the Yad Vashem database of those who perished in the Shoah. The fate of Alfred remains a mystery.
Leo Wiesen
 |
| Hotel Alcron - Prague (from TripAdvisor) |
MI6 report - Leo does not appear.
The Berlin address books have a Leo Wiesen, Kaufmann (businessman) living at Platanenalle 39 in Berlin-Charlottenburg from 1929 to 1934. Beyond that, we have nothing.
I haven’t found a business associated with that name in the database of Jewish Businesses in Berlin (1930-1945).
I also haven’t found any evidence of Leo Wiesen in England, although he may have anglicized his last name, which would make it difficult to trace him. The lack of a birth date also makes the search challenging.
Richard Neumann
Laitinen thesis: Richard Neumann was born 2 June 1893 in Vienna. He was a commercial agent and purchased a passport from Niska at the Hotel Alcron in Prague in early August 1938. Laitinen notes that Neumann probably ended up in London in the autumn of 1938.
MI6 report: Richard Neumann was an agent born in Vienna on 2 June 1893.
Austrian genealogical records confirm that Richard Neumann was born on 2 June 1893 in Vienna. His parents were Julius Neumann and Helene Bosel who had married the previous year. The couple have several other children: Friedrich (born 1895), Margarethe (born 15 May 1900) and Hans (1903). We then have nothing on Richard, beyond what we are told from Laitinen's thesis until... 1939.
Richard Neumann (later changed his name to Newmann) and his wife Irma Neumann were listed on the 1939 National Registration for Paddington, London. According to the document, Richard was born 2 June 1893 and his wife Irma was born 25 September 1892. A marginal note suggests that Irma’s birth name was Ilse Wertheim, although it is interesting to note that the next flat (Flat 11) has a Hans & Ilse Wertheim in residence. Hans was born 1904 in Vienna. Could they be relatives?
Richard gave his occupation as Managing Director whereas Irma was Private Means. There is a closed record below Richard and Irma, which could be a child. The closed record is followed by a Margarete Dux, a widow, born on 15 May 1900. Her name is followed by another closed record, possibly her child. Margarete is likely Richard's sister who was also born on 15 May 1900. There was also a Margarete Dux from Czechoslovakia who was naturalised in the UK in 1948. More research would be required to see if this is the same lady. Richard and his family were living in Flat 10 at Streatham House.
Irma was deemed exempt from internment on 8 January 1940 as a Category C alien. Her nationality was Austrian and her place of birth (spelled very clearly on two forms) was KOMATAU or KOMATOW, a location I have yet to find anywhere in Austria (or the surrounding countries). The closest seems to be KOMAROW in former Galicia, Austria.
On 5 November 1940, Richard was deemed exempt from internment as a Category C alien. His regular occupation was export manager and his present occupation was belt manufacturer. He was living at 2 Streatham Place in London. Richard was naturalised as a British citizen in February 1948.
Arthur and Hedvig Stern
Laitinen thesis: Arthur and Hedvig Stern were Germans who had come to Prague in February 1937. Arthur worked as a Deputy Director at the Anglo-Continental Buying Agency Ltd. He and his wife were friends of Richard Neumann and, through him, bought two passports from Niska (without ever meeting him). Despite the fact that they had Finnish passports, they did not try to leave Czechoslovakia. Arthur was arrested on 13 February 1939.
MI6 report: Simply notes that Arthur and his wife Hedvig Stern had been arrested in Prague.
Without birth dates, these two individuals are very hard to trace. There are an awful lot of Arthur and Hedvig/Hedwig Sterns out there.
Sources
Jussi Samuli Laitinen; Huijari vai pyhimys? Algoth Niskan osallisuus juutalaisten salakuljettamiseen Keski-Euroopassa vuoden 1938 aikana; Joensuun yliopisto; 2009 [Jussi Samuli Laitinen; Crook or saint? Participation of Algoth Niska in smuggling Jews in Central Europe during 1938; University of Joensuu; 2009]
Algoth Niska & J. Jerry Danielsson - Over Green Borders (1995) - English translation of Yli vihreän rajan published in 1953.
National Archives, Kew - Security Service files on Josef Jakobs - KV 2/24, 2/25, 2/26, 2/27
Ancestry - genealogical information
Geni.com - genealogical information
GenTeam.at - Austrian genealogical information
Yad Vashem - Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names
26 August 2019
Black Market Passport Business - The Initial Plea for Help
Preamble
Another blog in my series focused on the black market passport business run by Jürgen Ziebell in Berlin. I highly recommended that you read my earlier blog for an overview of the sale of black market passports to Berlin Jews, as related by Josef Jakobs and Frau Lily Knips. Another key blog reviews the characters involved in the business which had several strands including Finnish and Irish passports. I am currently writing a blog series about the Jews who purchased forged Finnish passports via the Finnish smuggler, Algoth Niska. It was only in late September 1938 that Niska apparently made a deal whereby Ziebell purchased a batch of forged Finnish passports for his Jewish clients. As it turns out, Niska was selling forged passports to unsuspecting Jews all through July and August 1938 telling them that he was an official of the Finnish government or a Finnish policeman or... He was none of those things and you can read more about Niska in an earlier blog.
A key source for these stories is the 2009 Finnish thesis by Jussi Samuli Laitinen which I roughly translated with the help of Google Translate. It provides names and birth dates of Niska's clients which has been invaluable in tracing these individuals with certainty. Another key document was the MI6 report on Niska's activities, contained within one of the Security Service files on Josef Jakobs. These documents and a variety of genealogical sites form the backbone of the stories...
Individuals with a birth date are generally traceable, but not always. Part of the problem lies in the limits of genealogical resources which are rich for the UK, USA and, to some extent, Germany and Austria, but less so for other countries. For example, there isn't much online genealogical information for France, Switzerland, Palestine, Cuba, the Balkans or the Nordic countries. If Jewish refugees took any of these paths to freedom... they don't leave much of a trace. In many instances, no news is not actually good news.
I am going to begin each individual story with the information from the Laitinen thesis and the MI6 report, as these provide a factual leaping off point.
Introduction
Niska couldn't have sold his Finnish passports without someone to open doors within the Jewish community in Germany. There were the two Jewish men who visited Helsinki in May 1938 and told him about the plight of the Jews: Albert Amtmann and Emmanuel Gartenberg.
What became of these men? Did they actually manage to escape the horrors of the Shoah?
Albert Amtmann
Laitinen: Albert Amtmann was born 13 July 1896 in Vienna. His wife, Maria (nee Küpperer [actually Kipperer]) was born 13 September 1899. Albert and his wife lived at Düssseldorferstraße 51 in Berlin-Wilmersdorf. Albert had awoken Niska to the plight of the Jews during a trip to Helsinki in May 1938. When Niska first arrived in Berlin in July 1938, he met a group of Jews at the Amtmann residence.
MI6: Simply notes their names and Albert’s birth date. The one thing of note is that the MI6 report lists the surname as “Altmann” and this is the same surname that Niska used in his book. The discrepancy is hard to explain although Niska did use cover names for many of his clients in his book.
Albert Amtmann was born 13 July 1896 in Vienna to Josef Amtmann (1858-1938) and Josefine Bringer (1866-1940). Albert's parents had been married in 1895 in Vienna and his father, Josef, was an "agent" who had been born in Jassy (now Iași), Romania. Albert's mother, Josefine had been born in Lemberg (now Lviv), Galicia (a contested piece of territory at the intersection of modern-day Poland, Slovakia and Ukraine). Josef and Josefine had had several older children, all born illegitimate but legitimised after Josef and Josefine married in 1895: Irene, Isabella, Karoline, Paul Siegfried.
Albert's wife, Maria Kipperer, was born 13 September 1899 in Graz, Austria to Alois Kipperer and Aloisia Leitgeb. Albert and Maria were married on 16 August 1921 in Vienna. At some point, the couple moved to Berlin where they lived at Düsseldorferstraße 51 in Berlin-Wilmersdorf.
On 20 September 1941, Albert and his wife Maria (Mary) sailed from Lisbon, Portugal for New York aboard the SS Excambion. Albert was a merchant and he and his wife were stateless having an “undefined” nationality. They were not traveling with forged Finnish passports. Their race was given as Hebrew. Albert had been born in Vienna while Maria had been born in Graz. Their US immigration visas had been issued on 3 June 1941 in Marseille, France, which was also their last place of permanent residence. From this, we can deduce that the Amtmann’s managed to escape to France, from whence they successfully applied for a US visa. They were two of the fortunate ones. It may be that family connections facilitated their visa application since they were planning on joining Albert’s uncle, David Amtmann, who lived on Morris Avenue in the Bronx.
The Amtmann’s arrived in New York on 29 September 1941 and likely heaved a sigh of relief. They were safe. The following year, on 7 April 1942, Albert and his wife applied for US naturalisation. According to the form, the couple resided at 101 West 80th Street, New York, just across the street from the American Museum of Natural History. Albert was an antique dealer which aligns with his 1938 trips to Helsinki in which he was selling carpets. Albert was a rather portly man weighing 170 lbs but only reaching 5’3” tall. The couple had no children. That same year, Albert would register with the US Draft. Albert was naturalised on 23 January 1947 and Maria was naturalised on 12 May 1947.
The couple traveled extensively from 1948 to 1958, shuttling between the United States and Europe. They would often spend months in Germany as part of their trips and it would appear that at some point, Albert and his wife moved back to Germany.
Albert Amtmann died on 10 July 1969 at the age of 72 years in the Hospital zum Heiligen Geist (Holy Spirit Hospital) in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. He had a stroke which resulted in brain infarction (death of brain tissue due to reduced blood supply). He was cremated and his wife received his effects and a report of his death on 7 August 1969 at her address in Frankfurt, Rossertstrasse 6. From 1973 onward, Maria is listed in the Frankfurt telephone books. On 18 February 1991, Maria passed away in Frankfurt
The Laitinen thesis stated that Amtmann had reserved three of the first batch of forged Finnish passports for his family back in Vienna, some of whom had gone to Prague. Albert had four siblings and two parents - what became of them?
Emmanuel Gartenberg
Laitinen: Emmanuel Gartenberg was an Austrian who had been born on 14 April 1888.
MI6: No mention of Gartenberg.
There isn't a lot of information to go on and I've not found much on Emmanuel. In 1935, there was an Emanuel Gartenberg living in Vienna at Schönbrunnerstraße 143. There is no further information on this individual.
There is also an Emmanuel/Manuel Gartenberg living in New York according to the 1920, 1930 and 1940 US census. This individual married Hattie Streifer in 1924 and, according to the 1930 census, they had two children. This Emmanuel Gartenberg was born in Galicia, Austria on 2 January 1893. It would seem unlikely that this individual is our Emmanuel as the birth dates are quite different.
I have also not found Emmanuel Gartenberg in the Yad Vashem database of individuals who perished in the Shoah.
Sources
Jussi Samuli Laitinen; Huijari vai pyhimys? Algoth Niskan osallisuus juutalaisten salakuljettamiseen Keski-Euroopassa vuoden 1938 aikana; Joensuun yliopisto; 2009 [Jussi Samuli Laitinen; Crook or saint? Participation of Algoth Niska in smuggling Jews in Central Europe during 1938; University of Joensuu; 2009]
Algoth Niska & J. Jerry Danielsson - Over Green Borders (1995) - English translation of Yli vihreän rajan published in 1953.
National Archives, Kew - Security Service files on Josef Jakobs - KV 2/24, 2/25, 2/26, 2/27
Ancestry - genealogical information
Geni.com - genealogical information on Amtmann family
GenTeam.at - Austrian genealogical information
Another blog in my series focused on the black market passport business run by Jürgen Ziebell in Berlin. I highly recommended that you read my earlier blog for an overview of the sale of black market passports to Berlin Jews, as related by Josef Jakobs and Frau Lily Knips. Another key blog reviews the characters involved in the business which had several strands including Finnish and Irish passports. I am currently writing a blog series about the Jews who purchased forged Finnish passports via the Finnish smuggler, Algoth Niska. It was only in late September 1938 that Niska apparently made a deal whereby Ziebell purchased a batch of forged Finnish passports for his Jewish clients. As it turns out, Niska was selling forged passports to unsuspecting Jews all through July and August 1938 telling them that he was an official of the Finnish government or a Finnish policeman or... He was none of those things and you can read more about Niska in an earlier blog.
A key source for these stories is the 2009 Finnish thesis by Jussi Samuli Laitinen which I roughly translated with the help of Google Translate. It provides names and birth dates of Niska's clients which has been invaluable in tracing these individuals with certainty. Another key document was the MI6 report on Niska's activities, contained within one of the Security Service files on Josef Jakobs. These documents and a variety of genealogical sites form the backbone of the stories...
Individuals with a birth date are generally traceable, but not always. Part of the problem lies in the limits of genealogical resources which are rich for the UK, USA and, to some extent, Germany and Austria, but less so for other countries. For example, there isn't much online genealogical information for France, Switzerland, Palestine, Cuba, the Balkans or the Nordic countries. If Jewish refugees took any of these paths to freedom... they don't leave much of a trace. In many instances, no news is not actually good news.
I am going to begin each individual story with the information from the Laitinen thesis and the MI6 report, as these provide a factual leaping off point.
Introduction
Niska couldn't have sold his Finnish passports without someone to open doors within the Jewish community in Germany. There were the two Jewish men who visited Helsinki in May 1938 and told him about the plight of the Jews: Albert Amtmann and Emmanuel Gartenberg.
What became of these men? Did they actually manage to escape the horrors of the Shoah?
Albert Amtmann
Laitinen: Albert Amtmann was born 13 July 1896 in Vienna. His wife, Maria (nee Küpperer [actually Kipperer]) was born 13 September 1899. Albert and his wife lived at Düssseldorferstraße 51 in Berlin-Wilmersdorf. Albert had awoken Niska to the plight of the Jews during a trip to Helsinki in May 1938. When Niska first arrived in Berlin in July 1938, he met a group of Jews at the Amtmann residence.
MI6: Simply notes their names and Albert’s birth date. The one thing of note is that the MI6 report lists the surname as “Altmann” and this is the same surname that Niska used in his book. The discrepancy is hard to explain although Niska did use cover names for many of his clients in his book.
Albert Amtmann was born 13 July 1896 in Vienna to Josef Amtmann (1858-1938) and Josefine Bringer (1866-1940). Albert's parents had been married in 1895 in Vienna and his father, Josef, was an "agent" who had been born in Jassy (now Iași), Romania. Albert's mother, Josefine had been born in Lemberg (now Lviv), Galicia (a contested piece of territory at the intersection of modern-day Poland, Slovakia and Ukraine). Josef and Josefine had had several older children, all born illegitimate but legitimised after Josef and Josefine married in 1895: Irene, Isabella, Karoline, Paul Siegfried.
Albert's wife, Maria Kipperer, was born 13 September 1899 in Graz, Austria to Alois Kipperer and Aloisia Leitgeb. Albert and Maria were married on 16 August 1921 in Vienna. At some point, the couple moved to Berlin where they lived at Düsseldorferstraße 51 in Berlin-Wilmersdorf.
On 20 September 1941, Albert and his wife Maria (Mary) sailed from Lisbon, Portugal for New York aboard the SS Excambion. Albert was a merchant and he and his wife were stateless having an “undefined” nationality. They were not traveling with forged Finnish passports. Their race was given as Hebrew. Albert had been born in Vienna while Maria had been born in Graz. Their US immigration visas had been issued on 3 June 1941 in Marseille, France, which was also their last place of permanent residence. From this, we can deduce that the Amtmann’s managed to escape to France, from whence they successfully applied for a US visa. They were two of the fortunate ones. It may be that family connections facilitated their visa application since they were planning on joining Albert’s uncle, David Amtmann, who lived on Morris Avenue in the Bronx.
The Amtmann’s arrived in New York on 29 September 1941 and likely heaved a sigh of relief. They were safe. The following year, on 7 April 1942, Albert and his wife applied for US naturalisation. According to the form, the couple resided at 101 West 80th Street, New York, just across the street from the American Museum of Natural History. Albert was an antique dealer which aligns with his 1938 trips to Helsinki in which he was selling carpets. Albert was a rather portly man weighing 170 lbs but only reaching 5’3” tall. The couple had no children. That same year, Albert would register with the US Draft. Albert was naturalised on 23 January 1947 and Maria was naturalised on 12 May 1947.
The couple traveled extensively from 1948 to 1958, shuttling between the United States and Europe. They would often spend months in Germany as part of their trips and it would appear that at some point, Albert and his wife moved back to Germany.
Albert Amtmann died on 10 July 1969 at the age of 72 years in the Hospital zum Heiligen Geist (Holy Spirit Hospital) in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. He had a stroke which resulted in brain infarction (death of brain tissue due to reduced blood supply). He was cremated and his wife received his effects and a report of his death on 7 August 1969 at her address in Frankfurt, Rossertstrasse 6. From 1973 onward, Maria is listed in the Frankfurt telephone books. On 18 February 1991, Maria passed away in Frankfurt
The Laitinen thesis stated that Amtmann had reserved three of the first batch of forged Finnish passports for his family back in Vienna, some of whom had gone to Prague. Albert had four siblings and two parents - what became of them?
- Isabella Bringer-Amtmann - born 15 May 1885 in Vienna - no further information although she may have passed away as a child in 1892
- Irene Bringer-Amtmann - born 6 February 1887 under the surname Bringer - married Ludwig Paul Ullmann on 9 September 1915 in Vienna. Their story is briefly told in a book about Varian Fry. Ludwig was a journalist and editor who had written against Hitler and the Nazis and was wanted by the Gestapo. He fled to Hungary on foot after the Anschluss and ended up in Paris. After the fall of France, he and Irene sought refuge in the southern unoccupied zone where, in 1940, he wrote a letter to the Emergency Rescue Committee requesting assistance for his urgent case (he was in serious danger from the Nazis). They lived in hiding for the next two years until, finally, on 22 May 1942, they were granted US visas in Marseilles. They traveled from Lisbon to the United States aboard the SS Serpa Pinto the following month. This escape route is very similar to that of Albert and his wife, who also received US visas in Marseilles, albeit a year earlier. Ludwig passed away in 1959 while Irene passed away in February 1979 in Switzerland.
- Karoline Bringer-Amtmann - born 2 December 1888 in Vienna - married a Swiss man named Guinnard who apparently passed away before 1942 - Karoline was in Switzerland in 1942 and living in Zurich in 1959.
- Paul Siegfried Amtmann - born 29 December 1893 in Vienna - Paul went to Prague in 1940 and, on 21 May 1940, applied for permission to emigrate to Shanghai. He was unsuccessful. Paul/Pavel Amtmann was deported aboard Transport E, Train Da 20 from Prague to Lodz, Ghetto, Poland on 3 November 1941. He did not survive.
- Their parents divorced on 2 May 1908. Their father, Josef Amtmann, then remarried in 1922 to Gisela Kann Rappaport. Josef and Gisela divorced in 1927. Josef died 25 November 1938 in Vienna (80 years old). Their mother, Josefine Bringer, remarried in 1908 to Edmund Blitz. Josefine passed away 2 February 1940 in Vienna (74 years old).
Emmanuel Gartenberg
Laitinen: Emmanuel Gartenberg was an Austrian who had been born on 14 April 1888.
MI6: No mention of Gartenberg.
There isn't a lot of information to go on and I've not found much on Emmanuel. In 1935, there was an Emanuel Gartenberg living in Vienna at Schönbrunnerstraße 143. There is no further information on this individual.
There is also an Emmanuel/Manuel Gartenberg living in New York according to the 1920, 1930 and 1940 US census. This individual married Hattie Streifer in 1924 and, according to the 1930 census, they had two children. This Emmanuel Gartenberg was born in Galicia, Austria on 2 January 1893. It would seem unlikely that this individual is our Emmanuel as the birth dates are quite different.
I have also not found Emmanuel Gartenberg in the Yad Vashem database of individuals who perished in the Shoah.
Sources
Jussi Samuli Laitinen; Huijari vai pyhimys? Algoth Niskan osallisuus juutalaisten salakuljettamiseen Keski-Euroopassa vuoden 1938 aikana; Joensuun yliopisto; 2009 [Jussi Samuli Laitinen; Crook or saint? Participation of Algoth Niska in smuggling Jews in Central Europe during 1938; University of Joensuu; 2009]
Algoth Niska & J. Jerry Danielsson - Over Green Borders (1995) - English translation of Yli vihreän rajan published in 1953.
National Archives, Kew - Security Service files on Josef Jakobs - KV 2/24, 2/25, 2/26, 2/27
Ancestry - genealogical information
Geni.com - genealogical information on Amtmann family
GenTeam.at - Austrian genealogical information
21 August 2019
Black Market Passport Business - Algoth Niska
N.B. Algoth Niska's name is commonly spelled Algot in English, I have held to the more Finnish spelling - Algoth.
We now come to another key individual involved in the sale of black market passports to Berlin Jews: the Finn named Algoth Johannes Niska. During his interrogation by MI5, Josef gave an overview of the passport/naturalisation business run by Ziebell, and admitted that some Jews were able to get Finnish passports through the services of a Finn named Niska. Josef never met Niska and didn’t know a lot about him but he had this to say…
What Josef Said
According to Josef, he met Martin Israel Goldstein through Jewish lawyer, Dr. Schwarz. Josef introduced Ziebell to Goldstein for Goldstein knew of a possibility for Finnish naturalisations. Goldstein worked with a man named Emil Dochnal, who worked with a Jew called Rosenberg. With the help of these three (Goldstein, Dochnal and Rosenberg), it was possible to carry out successful naturalisations in Finland.
“Finnish agents also came to Berlin to visit Ziebell. Actually, they did not come into direct contact with Ziebell, but Dochnal and Rosenberg dealt with them. Dochnal was Aryan and Rosenberg was Jewish. [Josef] remembered particularly two people who used to come from Finland. They always flew to Berlin, and one of them was called Captain Niska, and [Josef] could not remember the name of the other man. These two men used to make the necessary arrangements in Finland as regards bribery.”
Josef had dealt with ten cases of naturalisation, and all of these people had become Finnish. Naturalisation in Finland was comparatively easy, as the Finnish Home Office could issue passports and give orders for naturalisation without residence in the country. Ziebell had negotiated with officials and offered bribes. All the Finnish people had been brought before the court in this connection in Finland, but they had not been punished.
During his interrogations, Josef was shown a photograph of Niska but denied that he had ever seen the man. Josef had only heard about Niska after he had been arrested by the Gestapo. Josef said that during the trial of the individuals connected with the passport business, he learned that Niska had provided forged Finnish passports for his Jewish clients. According to Josef, Niska was released two days after his arrest. Rosenberg, with whom Niska had worked, was released after four weeks of imprisonment. The fact that these two men were set at liberty, while the other individuals were sent to concentration camps, made Josef suspect that they were being used by the Gestapo.
What MI5 Learned from MI6
On 26 May 1941, MI5 received a report from MI6 regarding Algoth Niska. The report provided fresh material and some new names with which to question Josef. It also provides a nice summary of Algoth Niska and his little passport forgery ring:
This report from MI6 provides quite a bit of information on Niska and his little passport ring. Niska, as it turns out, was quite a character who ended up writing a book about his adventures and his attempt to aid Jewish refugees in leaving Nazi Germany. Written in Finnish and published in 1953, the year before his death, the book was translated into English by J. Jerry Danielsson in 1995. It is a hard book to track down but a few months ago I found a copy online and snapped it up. Niska claims to have saved over 50 Jews from the clutches of the Nazis although some have claimed that the actual number is more than 150. Niska's book must be read with a grain/pound of salt for the timeline is sketchy, the names have been modified and artistic license has been liberally used.
In addition to Niska’s book, a Finn named Jussi Samuli Laitinen wrote a Master’s Thesis about Niska in 2009 which has provided excellent information based on original documents, reports, interrogations and court documents from the Finnish State Police archives and the Finnish National Archives. Laitinen’s thesis is written in Finnish but I’ve used Google Translate to generate a passable English version. It makes fascinating reading and calls into question the assertion by some that Algot Niska should stand with Oskar Schindler, Raoul Wallenberg and Chiune Sugihara as one of the Righteous Among the Nations.
Let’s begin…
Early Years
Algoth Johannes Niska was born on 5 December 1888 in Vyborg (now part of Russia). He was the youngest child of Ivar Niska (1846-1903), a sea captain, and Hilda née Schlüter (1856-1934), a musician. After his father passed away in 1903, Hilda and her five children moved to Helsinki. Niska was drawn to adventure and danger. In 1905, he participated in student protests against the Russian Cossacks. Niska excelled as an athlete and played football (soccer). He was chosen to play on the Finnish football team at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm. While the Finns lost 4-0 to England in the semi-final, it still ranks as their highest finish at the Olympics. Along the way, Niska picked up the name “Aigsta” or “Agi”.
Niska joined his first ship in 1908. When the First World War broke out, he went to the Helsinki Maritime School and graduated the following year. He never got his captain’s ticket, only completing a mate’s examination. Later in life, he would assume the title of sea captain, but one that he was not entitled to use.
Niska joined the Helsinki National Guard, a right wing group of patriots, and took part in actions against the radical left in 1917. On 11 September 1917, Niska married Magda Johanna Aufrichtich and, a year later, the couple had a daughter, Magda Esther Cecilia Niska.
King of Smugglers
In 1919, the Finns banned all liquor with the Prohibition Act but Niska had bought a warehouse of liquor just before the Act came into force. Word got around Helsinki’s high society that Niska had liquid refreshments and his supply soon ran out. Niska then bought a boat and began to smuggle liquor from Estonian and German ships that waited outside Finnish territorial waters. He also smuggled some liquor in from Sweden.
Niska had an almost mythical reputation among his clients and other smugglers. He was brave and kind, and always a gentleman, even though he was a thief. He was handsome and athletic, always dressed well and an excellent companion. He spoke well and was regaled friends and acquaintances with stories of his adventures. Niska tended to emphasize the adventure aspect of his smuggling career and noted that even though the police often shot at Niska, he never shot back.
Despite his reputation as a gentleman smuggler, it should be noted that smuggling was a criminal activity whose primary purpose was to financially benefit the smuggler.
In 1922, Niska and his family moved to Germany. In September 1924, he was found guilty in absentia of smuggling liquor and was wanted by the authorities so that he could serve a four month prison sentence. The verdict, and his absence from home, was too much for his wife who initiated divorce proceedings which were finalized in December 1924.
Three years later, on 21 July 1927 Algot Niska married Celia Imogene Andersson (20 years old). A year later, the couple had a son, Jack Algoth Niska. This marriage too failed under the weight of Niska’s absences and his criminal career. The divorce was finalized on 29 February 1932.
Niska was arrested at various points and spent time in prison both in Finland and Sweden. He was a model prisoner and was often released early for good behaviour. In 1932, Niska was banned from Sweden and spent time in Riga (Latvia), Tallinn (Estonia) and the Free City of Danzig. He spoke several languages including Finnish, Swedish, German and English.
The end of the Prohibition Act in 1932 dealt a serious blow to Niska’s financial situation. He was apparently never much of a saver, preferring to spend his ill-gotten gains on wine, women and song. After Niska's release from prison on 24 April 1933, he made several transport trips from the Baltic to the Mediterranean. In addition to regular cargo, he also transported weapons and was arrested for arms dealing on 26 January 1935. He managed to escape with a simple warning from the Finnish State Police.
Despite having made a significant amount of money from smuggling and arms dealing, Niska’s money slipped through his fingers like water, ending up in the cash registers of countless restaurants, clubs and cafes in Helsinki.
Around the World
In 1937, Niska had a grand idea - he would sail around the world. All he needed was a ship and some money. In the summer of 1937, Niska bought a decrepit sailboat called Merihaukka [Sea-Hawk] from Sven Pehrmann for the princely sum of 17,250 Finnish Markka (FIM). Niska gave a down payment of FIM 1,000 to Pehrmann and promised to make regular payments. The sailboat, however, had suffered a fire and the hull was badly damaged. Niska hired Erik Estlander to complete a full overhaul of the ship but the projected costs were beyond the reach of Niska’s wallet.
Niska came up with the idea of recruiting crew members for the voyage by having individuals pay a pre-agreed sum to him. Thus he got both a crew and repair funds. Niska also circulated through the restaurants and cafes of Helsinki seeking backers and partners. He recruited Rafael Johannes Kajander (b. 7 June 1893) as one of his first crew. Kajander paid Niska FIM 35,000 to participate in the voyage. He also helped Niska by recruiting benefactors to sponsor the trip. Another friend of Niska’s, Axel Belewicz (b. 11 November 1899), a travel agent, was also involved in soliciting donations from potential funders. Together, the three men secured FIM 60,000 and 100,000 between the autumn of 1937 and June 1938.
Despite this influx of funds, Niska only paid another FIM 5,000 to Pehrmann. At the same time, Niska changed the boat name from Merihaukka to Fennia [Finland in Latin]. In the spring of 1938, Niska traveled to northern Finland, drumming up support and funds for his trip. He met an artist, Arvi Oskari Broms (b. 5 June 1910) who, with the assistance of his family, paid Niska FIM 10,000 to join the crew. Overall, in addition to the 60,000-100,000 Niska received in cash support, he also received FIM 58,000 in entry fees and a number of donations of physical goods. His financial situation had improved substantially but in the spring of 1938, his plans for an around the world trip were sidelined in favour of a more lucrative adventure.
A New Adventure
In May and June 1938, Niska met two Austrian Jewish businessmen in the Fazer Cafe in Helsinki: Emmanuel Gartenberg (b. 14 April 1888) and Albert Amtmann (b. 13 July 1896). Both men had traveled to Finland on business and, although originally from Vienna, were living in Berlin.
Whilst chatting in the cafes of the Finnish capital, the conversation of the three men turned to the situation of the Jews in Central Europe. With the Anschluss (annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in March 1938), Amtmann was very concerned about his father and brothers who still lived in Vienna. Amtmann was also becoming concerned about his own situation in Berlin, and that of his wife, Maria (nee Küpperer - b. 13 September 1899).
In the face of Amtmann's distress, Niska would have cut a confident figure - he spoke well, dressed well and had a knack for portraying himself as a man of influence. Niska gained Amtmann’s trust and convinced him that he could help. He told Amtmann that he was an important man in Finland and worked for the Finnish government. He suggested that he could help Amtmann and his Jewish acquaintances. Over several meetings at Niska’s apartment, Niska came up with a plan and told Amtmann that he could obtain legal Finnish citizen papers. Niska asked the men how many Jewish acquaintances would need help and if they were wealthy enough to pay Niska. The two men reassured Niska that the Berlin Jews were quite wealthy and would have no trouble paying him any fees required
At the end of May 1938, Niska took down Maria Amtmann’s contact information as Albert Amtmann had to leave Finland. With Amtmann’s departure, Niska put his plan into action. His grand scheme of sailing around the world was relegated to the back burner. He still recruited new crew members in June 1938, but his focus was on the Jews. On 21 June 1938, Niska sold Fennia to Aarne Erik Karjalainen for FIM 16,000. Niska didn’t profit from the sale since the proceeds of the sale went to pay off Niska’s original purchase price debt.
Stealing Passports
After Amtmann left, Niska recruited Axel Belewicz as an assistant in the passport scheme. The two men had known each other since childhood and Belewicz had helped Niska during Prohibition. On 12 June 1938, Niska told Belewicz that he needed some blank Finnish passports. Niska told Belewicz that he needed them for Finns who wanted to volunteer with General Franco’s forces in the Spanish Civil War. Why he came up with this cover story is unknown although it might be that Belewicz and his contact in the provincial office were more amenable to helping right-wing patriots in the fight against communist forces. Niska promised to pay Belewicz for each passport he could procure. Niska knew that Belewicz was romantically involved with a woman, Kerttu Ollikainen (b. 17 March 1889), who worked as a junior clerk in the Uusimaa provincial government office (Helsinki is located within Uusimaa province). Initially Ollikainen refused Belewicz’s request but she acquiesed after hearing the story of how the passports were required for Finnish patriots. She too was promised financial compensation for each passport she could steal. Obtaining the passports was not difficult for they were stored in an unlocked desk drawer in the governor's office. Ollikainen stole the first batch of blank passports in late June/early July 1938 and the last batch in September/October of 1938. The intervening months would be exceptionally busy, and profitable, for Niska.
Niska was aware of the situation in Europe and of border formalities and legislation. He knew that smuggling Jews across borders could result in them being deported back to Germany. His plan was to move them across borders in a transparent manner, fulfilling the external framework of legality - with forged Finnish passports. After the First World War, movement across state borders had become more difficult with visas being required. In the late 1920s, several European countries entered into a mutual agreement to waive visa requirements. For Finland, these countries included: Norway, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Italy, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Japan. France had not entered into a reciprocal visa waiver agreement with Finland even though Finland had exempted all French citizens from requiring visas. Niska then, knew where Jews with Finnish passports could easily travel.
In June/July 1938, Niska received the first batch of ten blank passports as well as county government paper seals. With the passports in hand, Niska was ready to travel to Germany to market them. In late June 1938, he also recruited two brothers, Leonard (Rafael) Joffs (b. 28 September 1887) and Fredrik (Joel) Joffs (b. 13 July 1896) to aid him. Rafael was a mechanical engineer and restaurateur who, in 1938, was working at a small factory in Helsinki. He was married to Linnea (Maria) Joffs (nee Lindkvist) and the couple had a son, Sven-Ola Joffs (b. 1921). Fredrik was also a restaurateur and divorced from his wife.
Niska wanted to leave Finland via “unofficial” means and convinced the Joffs to take a summer sailing holiday with him onboard. Niska, himself had told his world-trip supporters, Broms and Kajander, two different stories about why he was traveling abroad by such covert means, none of which was the truth. His smuggling years had taught Niska to lie with fluency, to cover his tracks so that his friends and acquaintances, should they be questioned by the authorities, couldn't give anything away. On 2 July 1938, the sail boat left port and arrived in Swinemünde, Germany, on 9 July 1938. Upon arrival in Swinemünde, Niska and Rafael Joffs traveled to Berlin by train while Fredrik and Sven-Ola stayed behind to guard the sailboat. Upon arrival in Berlin, the two men traveled to Wilmersdorf by car and stayed at the Pension Rosa Stössinger (a Jewish establishment) at Lietzenburgerstrasse 47.
Passports in Berlin
After arriving in Berlin, Niska contacted Maria Amtmann and he and Joffs went to her residence (Düsseldorferstraße 51 in Wilmersdorf) on 11 or 12 July 1938. Three of the passport forms had been reserved for the Amtmann family relations who had fled to Prague from Vienna. The remaining seven blank passport forms were quite inadequate for the dozen or so Jews who had gathered at the Amtmann residence. These Jews had come prepared with enough money to pay Niska. For Niska, the main concern was getting rid of the passports easily, and this did not seem to be a problem. Niska gathered the names and personal information of the seven lucky Jews and promised to deliver their new Finnish passports the next day. In return, the Jews paid Niska in cash or valuables, payment that varied from case to case. Some Jews paid Niska a few hundred German Marks for the passports while others, particularly in the following months would pay thousands or even tens of thousands of German Marks.
Niska and Joffs left the Amtmann apartment with Niska in a jovial mood. He was once again flush with funds, for he had previously lamented his lack of money in Berlin, to the point that he had had to borrow some money from Joffs. Niska had about 800-1000 German marks in banknotes and he would receive even more once the passports were delivered. But there was a lot to be done before he could fulfill his promise.
While Niska began to forge the Finnish passports, Rafael Joffs returned to Helsinki on 13 July, returning to Berlin on 18 July. It is possible that Joffs returned to Helsinki to acquire more blank passport forms, explaining such a quick turn around trip. The meeting at the Amtmann's had convinced Niska that there was a definite demand for Finnish passports and that he needed more of them, and quickly.
While Joffs was away, Niska met up with a young businessman who had been present at the meeting at the Amtmann’s apartment. Robert Gries (b. 9 August 1904) in Posen, south of Leipzig, was a criminal who had been convicted for fraud, theft and embezzlement. He was wanted in Berlin for passport forgery and therefore had connections in the underworld, connection that Niska badly needed. In order to enhance the credibility of his Finnish passports, Niska needed entry/exit stamps and, with Gries's assistance, he acquired these from a Polish-born forger. Niska also acquired a round seal-stamp that was used by the Uusimaa provincial office to stamp the portrait photograph once it was in the passport. Where Niska got such an important device is unknown although it may have come from the Polish forger or from another Joffs brother in Helsinki (Henrik Joffs). In return for Gries's assistance, Niska sold three of his passports to Gries, each with Gries’s picture but with different names (Robert Gries, Ragnar Grandberg, Riku Göhle). Who received the other four passports from that initial meeting at the Amtmann's is a mystery.
On 18 July, Niska and Joffs connected again in Berlin before heading in separate directions. Rafael Joffs headed back to Swinemünde and the three Joffs sailed back to Finland on 20 July. As for Niska, he traveled to Prague where he met Albert Amtmann who had arrived there earlier. The three passports reserved for the Amtmann relations seem to have been destined for Alfred Abraham Schapiro (b. 22 March 1894). Schapiro was a successful Jewish businessman who owned a shop in Vienna but who had had to flew and leave everything behind after the Anschluss.
Upon leaving Prague, Niska smuggled some valuables and currency for Schapiro into Denmark, arriving in Copenhagen on 26 or 27 July. This would become a lucrative service for Niska who received anywhere from 10-20% of the valuables/cash. While Niska swore that the Jews always received their property back, we have only his word for that.
Regroup in Helsinki
From Copenhagen, Niska flew to Helsinki on 31 July. At the time, Niska had no assistant who could travel to Helsinki on his behalf and he needed to return as his own passport was due to expire. Niska also wanted to recruit either Rafael or Fredrik Joffs to play a more active role, since they could move freely through Central Europe without arousing much suspicion.
While in Helsinki, Niska met with Broms and Kajander, two of his world trip partners. Broms in particular, was getting impatient with Niska's talk and promises that never resulted in action. Broms either wanted a world trip or he wanted his money back. Niska showed Broms and Kajander the valuables (diamond and gold rings) that he had brought back from Central Europe and the three men spent the evening celebrating Niska’s success.
On 2 August, Niska met with Rafael and Fredrik Joffs, Belewicz, Broms and Kajander and regaled them with tales of how profitable it was to sell fake passports and smuggle Jewish valuables. While Rafael Joffs wasn’t interested in being Niska’s assistant, Fredrik Joffs was willing to give it a go. At that same meeting, Belewicz provided Niska with another ten blank passport forms which Niska paid for in cash. There is also some evidence to suggest that Fredrik Joffs visited Belecwicz the next day and got another ten passport forms. Thus, Niska had at least twenty blank passport forms at his disposal in early August. He also needed more credible stamps for the passports, preferably some domestic ones, and was able to purchase some from a contact in Helsinki. This may have been Henrik Joffs, who was a metal worker. Niska needed these stamps (entry and exit) to create an imaginary travel history for the passport holders who, being "Finnish", would naturally have begun and ended trips in Finland.
Thus, in this quick trip to Finland, Niska accomplished much. He had reassured his sailing partners of his financial solvency, acquired a capable and willing assistant, renewed his own passport and bought another twenty blank passport forms. He was ready for another trip to Germany.
Second Trip to Central Europe
Niska and Fredrik Joffs left Helsinki on 4 August for Prague via Stockholm, Copenhagen and Berlin. According to Joffs, during the layover in Berlin, Niska met a woman (possibly Maria Amtmann) and handed her an envelope which may have contained forged passports. Given the number of potential customers who had been turned away empty-handed at that first meeting at the Amtmann residence, it is possible that Niska had taken their photographs and personal information. With the new passport forms from Belewicz, Niska was then able to fulfill the orders.
After their brief layover in Berlin, the two schemers continued their flight to Prague where Niska again met with Schapiro, Amtmann and a friend of theirs, Leo Wiesen. Wiesen purchased a passport for 7000 German Marks and there is some evidence that of the three passports received by Schapiro, he sold at least one, which would ultimately cause problems for Niska. Schapiro fled to Paris where his brother lived but in mid-September, a Jewish woman notified the Finnish Embassy in Prague that Schapiro had sold a Finnish passport. Schapiro was requested to visit the Finnish Embassy in Paris where, upon examination, his passport was found to be fake. Schapiro was arrested and during questioning, told the police that he had bought the passport from Niska. Schapiro was released on bond after promising to appear before the courts later that year.
In addition to Schapiro and Wiesen, Niska also met Richard Neumann (b. 2 June 1893) in Prague. Neumann bought a forged passport from Niska and also gave him currency to transport to Copenhagen. It would appear that in this instance, Fredrik Joffs worked as a courier, taking the valuables to Copenhagen while Niska remained behind in Prague. Later in August, Neumann contacted Niska and said that two of his friends, Arthur and Hedvig Stern needed passports. Niska provided the Sterns with two passports through Neumann, never actually meeting the couple face-to-face. The Sterns, however, would not escape and Arthur Stern was arrested by the Prague police on 13 February 1939.
After selling the passports to Schapiro, Wiesen, Neumann and the Sterns, Niska returned to Berlin and the Pension Rosa Stössinger. Niska met up with Robert Gries who was desperate to escape Germany as the Gestapo were hard on his heels. Niska agreed to accompany Gries across the border on 15 August 1938.
In the meantime, Niska forged fake passports for the Lasch family which included Fritz J. Lasch (b. 4.8.1892), his wife Basjo Beila Lasch (née Sudarsky - b. 25 April 1897) and their son Heinz Lasch (b. 5 May 1924). Lasch had owned a glove factory in Berlin (J. Lasch & Sons) and was very wealthy. On 10 or 11 August, Lasch met Niska and Fredrik Joffs who presented themselves as officials of the Finnish Embassy in Berlin. The two Finns told Lasch that they could arrange Finnish passports and citizenship for the whole family... as long as Fritz Lasch had enough money. The family paid at least 6000 German Marks for the passports but they, like so many others, would discover that the passports were not a ticket to salvation.
The Lasch family escaped from Germany and traveled to Amsterdam and onwards to Paris in the autumn of 1938. Because of the lack of a bilateral visa exemption between Finland and France, however, Finns were required to endorse their passports with the Finnish authorities. Given the fact that the Lasch family had no trouble entering France, it is possible that Niska had forged French entry and exit stamps which would have assisted Jews in entering France. But, although they could enter France easily, problems would arise later, as we saw with Alfred Schapiro.
In April 1939, Fritz Lasch visited the Finnish Embassy in Paris where his passport was found to be fake. Lasch, like others with forged Finnish passports, may been required to attend the embassy after the residency permit expired. Such a visit increased the risk of detection significantly, especially in September and October 1938 when the Finnish authorities became aware of fake Finnish passports circulating through Europe.
As for Robert Gries, on 15 August 1938, Niska, Gries and Gries’s girlfriend, Gretchen, drove to the Czech border. Niska and Gries snuck across the border on foot while Gretchen stayed in a Pension on the German side of the border, ready to convey Niska back to Berlin. Once safely clear of the border, the two men boarded a train for Prague and were questioned by the Czech customs authorities but Niska’s gift for gab and his Finnish-ness smoothed their passage. Niska then returned to Berlin enroute to Copenhagen, where he arrived on 17 August 1938. This trip to Copenhagen may have been another smuggling run with valuables and currency.
By 20 August, Niska was back in Berlin, ready to sell the remaining passports. One his clients this time was Gerhard Neumann (b. 12 June 1903 - no relation to the Austrian Richard Neumann). Neumann believed that Niska was a Finnish police officer and paid him 20,000 German Marks for the Finnish passport. In October 1938, Neumann traveled to southern Holland and then onwards to Amsterdam in early 1939. Neumann was lulled into a false sense of security by the Finnish passport and made the mistake of staying too long in the Netherlands. The Dutch police became aware of Neumann’s Finnish passport and after checking with the Finns, arrested Neumann.
By the end of August, Niska was running out of blank passport forms and asked Belewicz to get another batch and give them to Fredrik Joffs. It was then up to Joffs to make the dangerous trip to Copenhagen on a flight with the blank passport forms. Niska was a savvy man and knew that if he made regular trips to Helsinki, the authorities might get suspicious of his activity. Far better to have Fredrik Joffs make the trip, using a false passport.
Team Troubles
One of Niska’s ongoing problems was how to keep the loyalty of his sailing partners. Many people had sunk a significant amount of money into Niska’s around-the-world sailing tour and had received only talk and promises. Broms in particular was getting tired of Niska’s promises. In mid-August, Niska invited both Broms and Kajander to travel to Copenhagen, all expenses paid. It seems that Niska tried to get both men involved in the Jewish passport business, paying for trips to Paris (Broms) and Berlin (Kajander). But neither man wanted to be involved in the venture and returned to Finland where their patience would eventually wear out.
Another of Niska’s partners, Robert Gries, would also cause trouble. After arriving in Prague on 15 August 1938, Gries traveled to Budapest and presented himself as a wealthy executive from a Finnish aircraft parts factory. He met the wife of a well-known Hungarian businessman and their relationship soon blossomed to the point where Niska had access to the woman's jewellery and cash. Gries left the country with a considerable amount of the lady's money and jewelery. The woman notified the authorities who determined that “Ragnar Grandberg” was using a forged Finnish passport. It was only a matter of time before the Finnish authorities would begin to get suspicious and realize that the problem went beyond one forged Finnish passport.
Gries made his way back to Berlin in September 1938 where he met up with Niska. The movements of the two men over the next few months would coincide as both ended up traveling to Amsterdam in October 1938. Gries no longer wanted to travel to Berlin so they set up a headquarters outside Germany where interestsed Jews could contact them by mail. On 12 November 1938, Gries traveled to Brussels and rented a postal box. Word spread quickly, and there was a steady flow of mail from Jews in Germany, France, Italy and England. Gries would regularly check the mailbox and notify Niska of interesting queries. All seemed to be going smoothly.
In early December 1938, the mailbox began to fill up with uncollected mail and the authorities got suspicious and opened some of the letters which were variously addressed to: Gries, Kapauner, Friedländer and Niska. As it turns out, on 5 December 1938, Gries departed Brussels in haste taking almost all of Niska’s money with him (this is based on Niska’s account). Niska claimed that he found Gries in Amsterdam and got his money back. How much of this is true is debatable.
Three Jewish Helpers
While still in Berlin in August 1938, Niska had met three young Jews who wanted to escape from Germany: Hans Heinrich Friedländer (b. 2 July 1900), Hella Kapauner-Freymann (b. 19 April 1909) and Sidonie Goldenberg (b. 5 September 1913). Hans and Hella were lovers and Sidonie was their good friend, who was also friendly with the Lasch family. According to Niska, Hella showed up at the door of his Pension and begged for his help. Niska said that he forged three passports for the young people without requiring any payment. All three wanted to travel to Holland where they had relatives and friends. The three settled in Amsterdam and tried to keep a low profile, and did not register as foreigners with the authorities.
When Niska and Gries came up with the idea of running the passport business out of Holland, Niska recruited Friedländer as his assistant. There is no evidence as to who may have purchased passports in Holland but the Dutch police estimated that Jews paid 3000 Dutch Guilden for a fake passport.
On 19 December 1938, Friedländer was arrested by the authorities and held at a concentration camp for Jewish refugees. According to Niska, he and an assistant drove to the camp and helped Friedländer to escape by deceiving the camp guards. Niska and the three young Jews quickly departed Holland for Brussels.
After the rift between Niska and Gries, the steady stream of letters stopped but resumed in January 1939 when Hella Kapauner-Freymann opened a post box in her name at the 1st Post Office in Brussels. The three refugees did not linger long in Brussels however, departing on 9 February for France. They narrowly escaped captured by the Belgian police who had issued a warrant for their arrest. Niska indicates that the three young Jews ended up in southern France in the late winter of 1939 (February/March).
After helping Friedländer, Kapauner-Freymann and Goldenberg escape Berlin in August 1938, Niska returned to Berlin to sell his remaining passports. Niska met Dr. Wilhelm Noher (b. 26 July 1892), who had been introduced to him by Fritz Lasch. Niska told Noher that he was an official of the Finnish Embassy who could obtain a Finnish passport for Noher, for a price. Noher seized the opportunity and paid Niska 6000 German Marks for a Finnish passport. Noher made his way to Amsterdam and then onwards to Paris in early 1939. After a few months, he decided to voluntarily register with the Finnish embassy but by then word of the forged Finnish passports had spread across Europe and Noher’s passport was confiscated.
Ditching the Passports
Niska’s movements in September 1938 were quite scattered with him traveling between Denmark, Holland and Belgium with occasional forays into Berlin. By late September, Niska sensed that the game was ending. On 27 September 1938, a group of Jews met in Berlin at the apartment of Alfred Joseph (b. 12 February 1891) and his wife Henny Joseph (née Zimmermann). While Alfred Joseph was not at home, Henny entertained Niska, Fredrik Joffs and a Jewish couple, Ernest Falkenburg and his wife Clotilde (née Jancourt). At this meeting, Niska admitted that the passports were forged but the Falkenburg's still purchased two passports. It would not benefit them. On 1 November 1938, the Gestapo searched the Falkenburg home and found the forged passports in the stove. Both Falkenburg’s were arrested and imprisoned for several months for interfering with the proceeds of crime.
Niska still had a bunch of blank passport forms and wanted to get rid of them as quickly as possible. He was no longer interested in direct sales and met two gentleman, Rabau and Rosenthal, in Berlin who promised to pass the forged passports onwards to their clients. Leitinen notes that the names Rabau and Rosenthal do not occur in any other contexts and suspects that Niska may have misspelled their names. It is also possible that these two men are identical with Dochnal and Rosenberg, the two accomplices of Ziebell, although this is only speculation.
As he was preparing to depart Berlin, Niska met a lawyer, Dr. Jürgen Ziebell who said that he knew several customers who would buy Finnish passports. Ziebell provided Niska with the photos and details of his clients and paid Niska the agreed price (6000-7000 German Marks). Niska apparently forged eight passports for Ziebell.
One of Ziebell’s clients was Dorothea Klara Schachtel (born 1 October 1905) who I blogged about earlier. The other seven passports were reserved for the following individuals: Alfred Gutmann, Erna Levi, Ernst Michel David, Clara David, Richard Eduard Wiener, Louis Hagen and Viktoria Hagen. According to Leitinen, none of those individuals escaped Germany which is not accurate, as we will learn in subsequent blog posts. Suffice to say that Finnish passports were not their ticket to freedom. In the fall of 1938, all seven passport holders were arrested one-by-one. Ziebell himself, according to Laitinen ended up in prison for an unknown amount of time, as did the people who assisted him. We've already discovered how Ziebell's career played out after his arrest...
From the Ziebell sales alone, it is estimated that Niska made 52,000 German Marks. After that, his passports ran out and he headed for safer turf - Holland and Belgium. In early October, he sent Fredrik Joffs to Helsinki to get another batch of blank passport forms.
The Game is Up
On 12 September, Albert Amtmann traveled to Helsinki from Prague on business. His arrival was noted by the State Police who had been tipped by one of Amtmann’s former business partners in Austria. This was also around the same time that the authorities began to be aware of the forged Finnish passports circulating through Europe. On 27 September, Niska asked Belewicz to meet Amtmann in Helsinki and see about securing him a residency permit. When Belewicz and Kajander (who could speak passable German while Belewicz spoke virtually none) met Amtmann in a cafe, they found an angry and nervous man. He had been questioned by the State Police the previous day and was incensed that he, an innocent man, had been involved in this passport business with Niska. Amtmann left for Prague on 7 October 1938.
Belewicz and Kajander informed Niska by telephone of the Amtmann's interrogation by the State Police but this didn’t faze Niska at all. He simply moved quickly to rid himself of the remaining passports. It therefore seems logical that the passports sold to Ziebell were in part, a reaction to the changed situation. Niska would no longer do business in Germany but Holland was still an open market.
In early October, Niska and Joffs traveled to Copenhagen at which point they split up. Joffs went back to Helsinki to pick up more blank passport forms while Niska traveled onwards to Amsterdam. On 13 October 1938, Joffs flew back to Denmark and met Niska in Copenhagen. From Copenhagen, Niska flew to Amsterdam to meet Robert Gries and Hans Friedländer. Joffs, for some reason continued on to Berlin on behalf of Niska only to phone him a few days later quite upset. The Gestapo had searched his Pension prior to his arrived and the friendly Pension owner advised Joffs that the Gestapo had asked questions regarding Joffs, Niska and passport forgery. Joffs said he was returning to Finland and Niska agreed that was probably the best course of action. It would appear that Niska knew the game was up but he still had ten blank passport forms that he was going to sell before giving up the operation.
Fredrik Joffs arrived in Helsinki on 24 October 1938 and was met by Belewicz. Their meeting was observed by Broms who had returned to Helsinki on 19 October from Paris and Copenhagen. Broms, disillusioned with Niska and his empty promises had, upon his arrival, reported to the State Police what he knew about Niska’s passport activities. After observing Belewicz and Joffs together, Broms reported to the State Police who started to hunt for Joffs. But Joffs would get word of their search and escaped to Estonia, only returning to Finland in the autumn of 1939. The Finnish authorities would not become aware of his return until October 1940.
Niska sold his last ten passports in October 1938, likely in Holland and Belgium with the assistance of Friedländer and Gries. He may have mailed some of the passports to Germany. At some point in October, Niska learned that Belewicz had been arrested in Helsinki and that the steady supply of passports had dried up.
Arrested
Broms’s information to the State Police in mid-October, allowed the Finnish authorities to identify the mastermind behind the forged Finnish passports circulating in Central Europe. The State Police and the Gestapo had already become aware of the situation in September and had agreed to cooperate, althought that cooperation never extended as far as extraditing citizens to foreign courts.
In February 1939, Belewicz, Ollikainen and Rafael Joffs were tried by the Helsinki district court. Their trial was much delayed due to additional information that kept coming to light during the proceedings and the final verdict was not announced until 23 August 1939. All three were found guilty of various offences and their punishment was:
Number of Passports
During her trial, Ollikainen claimed that she had stolen 28 Finnish passports while Belewicz said that he had handed Niska 38 forms from Ollikainen. Niska, on the other hand, said that he had obtained and forged 60 Finnish passports. Some have claimed that Niska saved up to 150 Jews with Finnish passports. The true figure is probably around 50.
Altogether, the value of Niska's passport transactions was approximately FIM 2,490,000. While Niska, and some others, have claimed that he was a helper of Jews, the fact that he derived significant financial benefit doesn't jive with pure altruism. In his book, Over Green Borders, Niska constantly emphasised his honest reputation, however, the archival Finnish documents suggest otherwise. In his book, Niska repeatedly states that he does not mean to brag, that he is not the hero and yet... that is exactly how he comes across - the heroic adventurer who selflessly puts himself in danger to save the persecuted Jews. He does admit in a few places that his motives were not entirely philanthropic but that he was also not motivated out of pure greed. Niska was ready for an adventure... one that compensated him. Niska did note on p. 143 of his book (English translation), after he had run out of passports in October 1938 - "if only I had five passports, I would very soon become a wealthy man".
From his first meeting with Amtmann and Gartenberg in May 1938, it was clear that helping the Jews would generate income for Niska. He formed a team of assistants who took most of the risks while he reaped most of the rewards. The people Niska helped included: doctor, lawyer, factory owner, business owners, wholesaler, deputy director and attorney. The German authorities estimated that Niska received an average of 6000-7000 German Marks per passport.
Amtmann and Goldenberg had told Niska that the Berlin Jews had lots of money and he focused almost exclusively on the wealthiest Jews. At the same time, the success of Niska’s “assistance” is questionable. According to Laitinen, of the 48 Jews Niska “assisted":
Winter War & Beyond
With the declaration of the Winter War, Niska enlisted and fought in Laatokka until 13 March 1940. He also served in an intelligence role during the Continuation War.
In the mid 1940s, Niska tried to fund the building of a new boat by giving interviews about his life. I did find a ship's manifest for the Swedish vessel Trykon which sailed from Aruba, arriving at Providence, Rhode Island (USA) on 8 April 1951. According to the manifest, Algoth Johannes Niska (62 years old) had shipped with the vessel on 27 January 1951 from Antwerp. He was listed as Third Officer. There is also a rumous that Niska underwent ulcer surgery in Antwerp in 1951, but did not pay the bill as he was in serious debt. At some point in 1952/53 Niska wrote and published his memoir - Over Green Borders (in Finnish - Yli vihreän rajan). In October 1953 he was diagnosed with a brain tumour and lost his speech and power of movement. Algoth Niska died on 28 May 1954 in Helsinki at the age of 65.
Niska is buried in his mother's family grave in Hietaniemi Cemetery. The English translation of Niska's book states that he was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Helsinki but this seems unlikely. At Niska's funeral, an elder from the Helsinki Jewish congregation gave an emotional thank you. This gentleman had apparently read Niska's book - Over Green Borders and been impressed. The Jewish elder's speech is presented the website of Niska's grandson (Ilkka "Danny" Lipsanen). The elder stated that he had not been sent by the local congregation and did not represent the congregation. He wanted to express deep gratitude to Niska for rescuing over 150 Jews from the Gestapo. The elder referred to Niska’s book, Over Green Borders, stating that it was a historical document that would be presereved in the records of the Jewish people. The elder said the book would be sent to Israel, to the University Library of Jerusalem, where it would find a place of honour among other similar historical works.
According to the English version of Niska's book, a street had been named after Niska in Tel Aviv. I have found no evidence to suppor this. A suggested edit on the Talk page for Niska's Wikipedia article states that Niska's name is enscribed on the same monument as that of Oskar Schindler. Again, I have found no evidence to support his. In addition, according to Danny’s site, a palm had also been planted in Jerusalem in honour of Niska. This may be a reference to the Avenue of the Righteous, where trees were planted to honor the rescuers of Jews. The Avenue of the Righteous was inaugurated on Holocaust Memorial Day in 1962. An independent public commission chaired by a Justice of Israel's Supreme Court, was established in order to define the criteria and decide who would be awarded the title of Righteous Among the Nations.
The YadVashem website documents all those who have been honoured with the title Righteous Among the Nations. A person can be considered for the title of Righteous Among the Nations when the data on hand based on survivor testimony or other documentation, clearly demonstrates that a non-Jewish person risked his or her life, freedom, and safety, in order to rescue one or several Jews from the threat of death or deportation without exacting monetary compensation or other rewards. This applies equally to rescuers who have since passed away.
It should be noted that the Yad Vashem site does not list Niska in its database of the Righteous Among the Nations. Danny’s site states that Niska was the “Schindler of Finland” but this would seem to be a bit of a stretch. I completely understand the desire to view one's grandfather through a heroic lens, for Algoth Niska and Josef Jakobs share a similar criminal history, but the truth must be faced. Algoth Niska was no Oskar Schindler, Raoul Wallenberg or Chiune Sugihara.
Niska benefited financially from the plight of desperate Jews. He misrepresented himself as being a Finnish official, claiming to provide authentic Finnish documents which, while sometimes allowing the Jews to escape Nazi-held territory, ultimately brought the Jews to the attention of foreign authorities. The Jews who were detained by these authorities either ended up being transported to their deaths in concentration camps or had to make other arrangements to escape the Nazi menace. Niska always sought to make money - whether it was smuggling liquor, promoting a round-the-world trip, giving speeches about his adventures or... writing a book about his starring role in "saving" Jewish people.
Algoth Niska does not strike me as belonging in the same class as the aforementioned men.
What of the Jews?
The real question is... what became of the Jews who bought forged Finnish passports from Algoth Niska? What became of these 27 people? I'll be updating this list with blog post links as I research them...
Sources
Jussi Samuli Laitinen; Huijari vai pyhimys? Algoth Niskan osallisuus juutalaisten salakuljettamiseen Keski-Euroopassa vuoden 1938 aikana; Joensuun yliopisto; 2009 [Jussi Samuli Laitinen; Crook or saint? Participation of Algoth Niska in smuggling Jews in Central Europe during 1938; University of Joensuu; 2009]
Algoth Niska & J. Jerry Danielsson - Over Green Borders (1995) - English translation of Yli vihreän rajan published in 1953.
National Archives, Kew - Security Service files on Josef Jakobs - KV 2/24, 2/25, 2/26, 2/27
Kustannus HD website (Finnish) - has information on Niska provided by his grandson Danny.
Danny's website (Finnish) - has information on Niska, Danny's grandfather
Päivänlehti website (Finnish) - article about Niska by Kari Kallonen
Yle website (Finnish) - has a 27 minute video on Niska... in Finnish. Video seems to focus primarily on Niska's liquor smuggling days.
Wikipedia - overview information on Niska
Ancestry - tree on Niska and Schlüter family, ship manifests
We now come to another key individual involved in the sale of black market passports to Berlin Jews: the Finn named Algoth Johannes Niska. During his interrogation by MI5, Josef gave an overview of the passport/naturalisation business run by Ziebell, and admitted that some Jews were able to get Finnish passports through the services of a Finn named Niska. Josef never met Niska and didn’t know a lot about him but he had this to say…
What Josef Said
According to Josef, he met Martin Israel Goldstein through Jewish lawyer, Dr. Schwarz. Josef introduced Ziebell to Goldstein for Goldstein knew of a possibility for Finnish naturalisations. Goldstein worked with a man named Emil Dochnal, who worked with a Jew called Rosenberg. With the help of these three (Goldstein, Dochnal and Rosenberg), it was possible to carry out successful naturalisations in Finland.
“Finnish agents also came to Berlin to visit Ziebell. Actually, they did not come into direct contact with Ziebell, but Dochnal and Rosenberg dealt with them. Dochnal was Aryan and Rosenberg was Jewish. [Josef] remembered particularly two people who used to come from Finland. They always flew to Berlin, and one of them was called Captain Niska, and [Josef] could not remember the name of the other man. These two men used to make the necessary arrangements in Finland as regards bribery.”
Josef had dealt with ten cases of naturalisation, and all of these people had become Finnish. Naturalisation in Finland was comparatively easy, as the Finnish Home Office could issue passports and give orders for naturalisation without residence in the country. Ziebell had negotiated with officials and offered bribes. All the Finnish people had been brought before the court in this connection in Finland, but they had not been punished.
During his interrogations, Josef was shown a photograph of Niska but denied that he had ever seen the man. Josef had only heard about Niska after he had been arrested by the Gestapo. Josef said that during the trial of the individuals connected with the passport business, he learned that Niska had provided forged Finnish passports for his Jewish clients. According to Josef, Niska was released two days after his arrest. Rosenberg, with whom Niska had worked, was released after four weeks of imprisonment. The fact that these two men were set at liberty, while the other individuals were sent to concentration camps, made Josef suspect that they were being used by the Gestapo.
What MI5 Learned from MI6
On 26 May 1941, MI5 received a report from MI6 regarding Algoth Niska. The report provided fresh material and some new names with which to question Josef. It also provides a nice summary of Algoth Niska and his little passport forgery ring:
The Captain Niska [as identified by Josef], who was engaged in selling Finnish passports to Jewish refugees, is undoubtedly identical with Algot Niska, who was reported in 1939 to be the head of a gang of passport forgers in Finland. The members of this gang were arrested in February 1939. The following is an extract from this report:
“The head of this gang was a man named Algot Niska, a former sea captain and a prominent figure in Finland’s bootlegging prohibition days. Niska is a Finn. Associated with Niska in his activities were Axel Stanislav Belewicz, an insurance agent, and Mrs. Kerttu Ollikainen, a clerk at the headquarters of the Governor-General of the Uusimaa region of Finland. It seems that, following enquiries in several foreign countries the Finnish police ascertained that Algot Niska, Fredrik Joffe [sic] (a restaurant proprietor), and an international swindler named Robert Gries, were the leading spirits in an organisation for the sale of faked Finnish passports. Niska and Joffe [sic], according to police evidence, had not yet been located, and were suspected of being in hiding in London.
The Finnish police received a report from the Dutch police stating that Niska, in company with an attractive Jewess, Sidonie Goldenberg, were detained at a boarding house in the Bethovenstraat, Amsterdam, on December 21st last year [1938], and were charged with failing to register as aliens, but were later released. Later evidence then came into the hands of the Dutch police, showing that Niska, and a German refugee named Friedländer, had been selling forged and faked Finnish passports to Jewish refugees who had reached Holland from Germany. The charge was 3,000 Gulden each.
In January 1939, the Helsingfors police received information of a letter having been despatched from the Finnish capital to Brussels, containing a passport blank and a passport book. Enquiries led to the detention of Rafael Joffe [sic], brother of Fredrik. During interrogation Rafael Joffe [sic] confessed to having recently received an unsigned and typewritten message presumably sent by his brother, in which it was stated that “we are now safe in London”. In Rafael Joffe’s [sic] opinion such a sentence could only mean that his brother and Algot Niska were in hiding in London.
It was further ascertained by the Finnish police, during the hearing of Belewicz and Ollikainen that a notorious international adventurer and swindler named Robert Gries (alias Reginald Grandberg) was one of the gang’s most active members. Gries is a Jew of Russian extraction. In February and March [1939] he was said to be living in Brussels and to have received many communications from towns in England, Germany, France and Italy. The letters were invariably addressed to the following names: Gries, Friedländer, Kapauner or Niska. Half the police in Europe seem to be anxious to get the cuffs on Gries.
The following people were also reported by the Finnish police to have been detained in various countries on charges in connection with traffic in illegal Finnish passports:
- Albert Amtmann, and his wife Maria Amtmann, born in Vienna on 13th July 1896.
- Arthur Braun, born at Stanislawas on 24.2.1894. Thought to have recently been selling falsified passports in Paris.
- Richard Neumann, agent, born in Vienna, 2.6.1893.
- Arthur Stern, and his wife Hedvig Stern, arrested in Prague.
- Louis Georg Hagen and his wife Victoria Gertrude Hagen.
- Alfred Schapiro, business man, born at Novgorod on 22.3.1894, arrested in Paris.
- Gerhard Neumann, born 12.6.1903, detained in Holland; born in Berlin.
- Hella Kapauner, born in Finland, 19.3 or 5.1909
- Hans Heinrich Friedländer, born in Berlin 2.7.1900.
- Sidonie Goldenberg, born in Berlin 5.9.1913, thought to be in hiding with Niska in England.
- Robert Gries, born at Posen 9.8.1904.
- Wilhelm Noher, doctor, born at Tarnowitz on 26.8.1892.
- Fritz Lasch, particulars unknown.”
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| Over Green Borders - The Memoris of Algot Niska Translated by J. Jerry Danielsson (1995) |
In addition to Niska’s book, a Finn named Jussi Samuli Laitinen wrote a Master’s Thesis about Niska in 2009 which has provided excellent information based on original documents, reports, interrogations and court documents from the Finnish State Police archives and the Finnish National Archives. Laitinen’s thesis is written in Finnish but I’ve used Google Translate to generate a passable English version. It makes fascinating reading and calls into question the assertion by some that Algot Niska should stand with Oskar Schindler, Raoul Wallenberg and Chiune Sugihara as one of the Righteous Among the Nations.
Let’s begin…
Early Years
Algoth Johannes Niska was born on 5 December 1888 in Vyborg (now part of Russia). He was the youngest child of Ivar Niska (1846-1903), a sea captain, and Hilda née Schlüter (1856-1934), a musician. After his father passed away in 1903, Hilda and her five children moved to Helsinki. Niska was drawn to adventure and danger. In 1905, he participated in student protests against the Russian Cossacks. Niska excelled as an athlete and played football (soccer). He was chosen to play on the Finnish football team at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm. While the Finns lost 4-0 to England in the semi-final, it still ranks as their highest finish at the Olympics. Along the way, Niska picked up the name “Aigsta” or “Agi”.
Niska joined his first ship in 1908. When the First World War broke out, he went to the Helsinki Maritime School and graduated the following year. He never got his captain’s ticket, only completing a mate’s examination. Later in life, he would assume the title of sea captain, but one that he was not entitled to use.
Niska joined the Helsinki National Guard, a right wing group of patriots, and took part in actions against the radical left in 1917. On 11 September 1917, Niska married Magda Johanna Aufrichtich and, a year later, the couple had a daughter, Magda Esther Cecilia Niska.
King of Smugglers
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| Algoth Johannes Niska (from Wikipedia) |
Niska had an almost mythical reputation among his clients and other smugglers. He was brave and kind, and always a gentleman, even though he was a thief. He was handsome and athletic, always dressed well and an excellent companion. He spoke well and was regaled friends and acquaintances with stories of his adventures. Niska tended to emphasize the adventure aspect of his smuggling career and noted that even though the police often shot at Niska, he never shot back.
Despite his reputation as a gentleman smuggler, it should be noted that smuggling was a criminal activity whose primary purpose was to financially benefit the smuggler.
In 1922, Niska and his family moved to Germany. In September 1924, he was found guilty in absentia of smuggling liquor and was wanted by the authorities so that he could serve a four month prison sentence. The verdict, and his absence from home, was too much for his wife who initiated divorce proceedings which were finalized in December 1924.
Three years later, on 21 July 1927 Algot Niska married Celia Imogene Andersson (20 years old). A year later, the couple had a son, Jack Algoth Niska. This marriage too failed under the weight of Niska’s absences and his criminal career. The divorce was finalized on 29 February 1932.
Niska was arrested at various points and spent time in prison both in Finland and Sweden. He was a model prisoner and was often released early for good behaviour. In 1932, Niska was banned from Sweden and spent time in Riga (Latvia), Tallinn (Estonia) and the Free City of Danzig. He spoke several languages including Finnish, Swedish, German and English.
The end of the Prohibition Act in 1932 dealt a serious blow to Niska’s financial situation. He was apparently never much of a saver, preferring to spend his ill-gotten gains on wine, women and song. After Niska's release from prison on 24 April 1933, he made several transport trips from the Baltic to the Mediterranean. In addition to regular cargo, he also transported weapons and was arrested for arms dealing on 26 January 1935. He managed to escape with a simple warning from the Finnish State Police.
Despite having made a significant amount of money from smuggling and arms dealing, Niska’s money slipped through his fingers like water, ending up in the cash registers of countless restaurants, clubs and cafes in Helsinki.
Around the World
In 1937, Niska had a grand idea - he would sail around the world. All he needed was a ship and some money. In the summer of 1937, Niska bought a decrepit sailboat called Merihaukka [Sea-Hawk] from Sven Pehrmann for the princely sum of 17,250 Finnish Markka (FIM). Niska gave a down payment of FIM 1,000 to Pehrmann and promised to make regular payments. The sailboat, however, had suffered a fire and the hull was badly damaged. Niska hired Erik Estlander to complete a full overhaul of the ship but the projected costs were beyond the reach of Niska’s wallet.
Niska came up with the idea of recruiting crew members for the voyage by having individuals pay a pre-agreed sum to him. Thus he got both a crew and repair funds. Niska also circulated through the restaurants and cafes of Helsinki seeking backers and partners. He recruited Rafael Johannes Kajander (b. 7 June 1893) as one of his first crew. Kajander paid Niska FIM 35,000 to participate in the voyage. He also helped Niska by recruiting benefactors to sponsor the trip. Another friend of Niska’s, Axel Belewicz (b. 11 November 1899), a travel agent, was also involved in soliciting donations from potential funders. Together, the three men secured FIM 60,000 and 100,000 between the autumn of 1937 and June 1938.
Despite this influx of funds, Niska only paid another FIM 5,000 to Pehrmann. At the same time, Niska changed the boat name from Merihaukka to Fennia [Finland in Latin]. In the spring of 1938, Niska traveled to northern Finland, drumming up support and funds for his trip. He met an artist, Arvi Oskari Broms (b. 5 June 1910) who, with the assistance of his family, paid Niska FIM 10,000 to join the crew. Overall, in addition to the 60,000-100,000 Niska received in cash support, he also received FIM 58,000 in entry fees and a number of donations of physical goods. His financial situation had improved substantially but in the spring of 1938, his plans for an around the world trip were sidelined in favour of a more lucrative adventure.
A New Adventure
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| Fazer Cafe - Helsinki - 1930s (from Pinterest - link leads to a 404 page on Fazer Cafe website) |
Whilst chatting in the cafes of the Finnish capital, the conversation of the three men turned to the situation of the Jews in Central Europe. With the Anschluss (annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in March 1938), Amtmann was very concerned about his father and brothers who still lived in Vienna. Amtmann was also becoming concerned about his own situation in Berlin, and that of his wife, Maria (nee Küpperer - b. 13 September 1899).
In the face of Amtmann's distress, Niska would have cut a confident figure - he spoke well, dressed well and had a knack for portraying himself as a man of influence. Niska gained Amtmann’s trust and convinced him that he could help. He told Amtmann that he was an important man in Finland and worked for the Finnish government. He suggested that he could help Amtmann and his Jewish acquaintances. Over several meetings at Niska’s apartment, Niska came up with a plan and told Amtmann that he could obtain legal Finnish citizen papers. Niska asked the men how many Jewish acquaintances would need help and if they were wealthy enough to pay Niska. The two men reassured Niska that the Berlin Jews were quite wealthy and would have no trouble paying him any fees required
At the end of May 1938, Niska took down Maria Amtmann’s contact information as Albert Amtmann had to leave Finland. With Amtmann’s departure, Niska put his plan into action. His grand scheme of sailing around the world was relegated to the back burner. He still recruited new crew members in June 1938, but his focus was on the Jews. On 21 June 1938, Niska sold Fennia to Aarne Erik Karjalainen for FIM 16,000. Niska didn’t profit from the sale since the proceeds of the sale went to pay off Niska’s original purchase price debt.
Stealing Passports
After Amtmann left, Niska recruited Axel Belewicz as an assistant in the passport scheme. The two men had known each other since childhood and Belewicz had helped Niska during Prohibition. On 12 June 1938, Niska told Belewicz that he needed some blank Finnish passports. Niska told Belewicz that he needed them for Finns who wanted to volunteer with General Franco’s forces in the Spanish Civil War. Why he came up with this cover story is unknown although it might be that Belewicz and his contact in the provincial office were more amenable to helping right-wing patriots in the fight against communist forces. Niska promised to pay Belewicz for each passport he could procure. Niska knew that Belewicz was romantically involved with a woman, Kerttu Ollikainen (b. 17 March 1889), who worked as a junior clerk in the Uusimaa provincial government office (Helsinki is located within Uusimaa province). Initially Ollikainen refused Belewicz’s request but she acquiesed after hearing the story of how the passports were required for Finnish patriots. She too was promised financial compensation for each passport she could steal. Obtaining the passports was not difficult for they were stored in an unlocked desk drawer in the governor's office. Ollikainen stole the first batch of blank passports in late June/early July 1938 and the last batch in September/October of 1938. The intervening months would be exceptionally busy, and profitable, for Niska.
Niska was aware of the situation in Europe and of border formalities and legislation. He knew that smuggling Jews across borders could result in them being deported back to Germany. His plan was to move them across borders in a transparent manner, fulfilling the external framework of legality - with forged Finnish passports. After the First World War, movement across state borders had become more difficult with visas being required. In the late 1920s, several European countries entered into a mutual agreement to waive visa requirements. For Finland, these countries included: Norway, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Italy, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Japan. France had not entered into a reciprocal visa waiver agreement with Finland even though Finland had exempted all French citizens from requiring visas. Niska then, knew where Jews with Finnish passports could easily travel.
In June/July 1938, Niska received the first batch of ten blank passports as well as county government paper seals. With the passports in hand, Niska was ready to travel to Germany to market them. In late June 1938, he also recruited two brothers, Leonard (Rafael) Joffs (b. 28 September 1887) and Fredrik (Joel) Joffs (b. 13 July 1896) to aid him. Rafael was a mechanical engineer and restaurateur who, in 1938, was working at a small factory in Helsinki. He was married to Linnea (Maria) Joffs (nee Lindkvist) and the couple had a son, Sven-Ola Joffs (b. 1921). Fredrik was also a restaurateur and divorced from his wife.
Niska wanted to leave Finland via “unofficial” means and convinced the Joffs to take a summer sailing holiday with him onboard. Niska, himself had told his world-trip supporters, Broms and Kajander, two different stories about why he was traveling abroad by such covert means, none of which was the truth. His smuggling years had taught Niska to lie with fluency, to cover his tracks so that his friends and acquaintances, should they be questioned by the authorities, couldn't give anything away. On 2 July 1938, the sail boat left port and arrived in Swinemünde, Germany, on 9 July 1938. Upon arrival in Swinemünde, Niska and Rafael Joffs traveled to Berlin by train while Fredrik and Sven-Ola stayed behind to guard the sailboat. Upon arrival in Berlin, the two men traveled to Wilmersdorf by car and stayed at the Pension Rosa Stössinger (a Jewish establishment) at Lietzenburgerstrasse 47.
Passports in Berlin
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| Postcard - Pension Rosa Stössinger - Berlin |
Niska and Joffs left the Amtmann apartment with Niska in a jovial mood. He was once again flush with funds, for he had previously lamented his lack of money in Berlin, to the point that he had had to borrow some money from Joffs. Niska had about 800-1000 German marks in banknotes and he would receive even more once the passports were delivered. But there was a lot to be done before he could fulfill his promise.
While Niska began to forge the Finnish passports, Rafael Joffs returned to Helsinki on 13 July, returning to Berlin on 18 July. It is possible that Joffs returned to Helsinki to acquire more blank passport forms, explaining such a quick turn around trip. The meeting at the Amtmann's had convinced Niska that there was a definite demand for Finnish passports and that he needed more of them, and quickly.
While Joffs was away, Niska met up with a young businessman who had been present at the meeting at the Amtmann’s apartment. Robert Gries (b. 9 August 1904) in Posen, south of Leipzig, was a criminal who had been convicted for fraud, theft and embezzlement. He was wanted in Berlin for passport forgery and therefore had connections in the underworld, connection that Niska badly needed. In order to enhance the credibility of his Finnish passports, Niska needed entry/exit stamps and, with Gries's assistance, he acquired these from a Polish-born forger. Niska also acquired a round seal-stamp that was used by the Uusimaa provincial office to stamp the portrait photograph once it was in the passport. Where Niska got such an important device is unknown although it may have come from the Polish forger or from another Joffs brother in Helsinki (Henrik Joffs). In return for Gries's assistance, Niska sold three of his passports to Gries, each with Gries’s picture but with different names (Robert Gries, Ragnar Grandberg, Riku Göhle). Who received the other four passports from that initial meeting at the Amtmann's is a mystery.
On 18 July, Niska and Joffs connected again in Berlin before heading in separate directions. Rafael Joffs headed back to Swinemünde and the three Joffs sailed back to Finland on 20 July. As for Niska, he traveled to Prague where he met Albert Amtmann who had arrived there earlier. The three passports reserved for the Amtmann relations seem to have been destined for Alfred Abraham Schapiro (b. 22 March 1894). Schapiro was a successful Jewish businessman who owned a shop in Vienna but who had had to flew and leave everything behind after the Anschluss.
Upon leaving Prague, Niska smuggled some valuables and currency for Schapiro into Denmark, arriving in Copenhagen on 26 or 27 July. This would become a lucrative service for Niska who received anywhere from 10-20% of the valuables/cash. While Niska swore that the Jews always received their property back, we have only his word for that.
Regroup in Helsinki
From Copenhagen, Niska flew to Helsinki on 31 July. At the time, Niska had no assistant who could travel to Helsinki on his behalf and he needed to return as his own passport was due to expire. Niska also wanted to recruit either Rafael or Fredrik Joffs to play a more active role, since they could move freely through Central Europe without arousing much suspicion.
While in Helsinki, Niska met with Broms and Kajander, two of his world trip partners. Broms in particular, was getting impatient with Niska's talk and promises that never resulted in action. Broms either wanted a world trip or he wanted his money back. Niska showed Broms and Kajander the valuables (diamond and gold rings) that he had brought back from Central Europe and the three men spent the evening celebrating Niska’s success.
On 2 August, Niska met with Rafael and Fredrik Joffs, Belewicz, Broms and Kajander and regaled them with tales of how profitable it was to sell fake passports and smuggle Jewish valuables. While Rafael Joffs wasn’t interested in being Niska’s assistant, Fredrik Joffs was willing to give it a go. At that same meeting, Belewicz provided Niska with another ten blank passport forms which Niska paid for in cash. There is also some evidence to suggest that Fredrik Joffs visited Belecwicz the next day and got another ten passport forms. Thus, Niska had at least twenty blank passport forms at his disposal in early August. He also needed more credible stamps for the passports, preferably some domestic ones, and was able to purchase some from a contact in Helsinki. This may have been Henrik Joffs, who was a metal worker. Niska needed these stamps (entry and exit) to create an imaginary travel history for the passport holders who, being "Finnish", would naturally have begun and ended trips in Finland.
Thus, in this quick trip to Finland, Niska accomplished much. He had reassured his sailing partners of his financial solvency, acquired a capable and willing assistant, renewed his own passport and bought another twenty blank passport forms. He was ready for another trip to Germany.
Second Trip to Central Europe
Niska and Fredrik Joffs left Helsinki on 4 August for Prague via Stockholm, Copenhagen and Berlin. According to Joffs, during the layover in Berlin, Niska met a woman (possibly Maria Amtmann) and handed her an envelope which may have contained forged passports. Given the number of potential customers who had been turned away empty-handed at that first meeting at the Amtmann residence, it is possible that Niska had taken their photographs and personal information. With the new passport forms from Belewicz, Niska was then able to fulfill the orders.
After their brief layover in Berlin, the two schemers continued their flight to Prague where Niska again met with Schapiro, Amtmann and a friend of theirs, Leo Wiesen. Wiesen purchased a passport for 7000 German Marks and there is some evidence that of the three passports received by Schapiro, he sold at least one, which would ultimately cause problems for Niska. Schapiro fled to Paris where his brother lived but in mid-September, a Jewish woman notified the Finnish Embassy in Prague that Schapiro had sold a Finnish passport. Schapiro was requested to visit the Finnish Embassy in Paris where, upon examination, his passport was found to be fake. Schapiro was arrested and during questioning, told the police that he had bought the passport from Niska. Schapiro was released on bond after promising to appear before the courts later that year.
In addition to Schapiro and Wiesen, Niska also met Richard Neumann (b. 2 June 1893) in Prague. Neumann bought a forged passport from Niska and also gave him currency to transport to Copenhagen. It would appear that in this instance, Fredrik Joffs worked as a courier, taking the valuables to Copenhagen while Niska remained behind in Prague. Later in August, Neumann contacted Niska and said that two of his friends, Arthur and Hedvig Stern needed passports. Niska provided the Sterns with two passports through Neumann, never actually meeting the couple face-to-face. The Sterns, however, would not escape and Arthur Stern was arrested by the Prague police on 13 February 1939.
After selling the passports to Schapiro, Wiesen, Neumann and the Sterns, Niska returned to Berlin and the Pension Rosa Stössinger. Niska met up with Robert Gries who was desperate to escape Germany as the Gestapo were hard on his heels. Niska agreed to accompany Gries across the border on 15 August 1938.
In the meantime, Niska forged fake passports for the Lasch family which included Fritz J. Lasch (b. 4.8.1892), his wife Basjo Beila Lasch (née Sudarsky - b. 25 April 1897) and their son Heinz Lasch (b. 5 May 1924). Lasch had owned a glove factory in Berlin (J. Lasch & Sons) and was very wealthy. On 10 or 11 August, Lasch met Niska and Fredrik Joffs who presented themselves as officials of the Finnish Embassy in Berlin. The two Finns told Lasch that they could arrange Finnish passports and citizenship for the whole family... as long as Fritz Lasch had enough money. The family paid at least 6000 German Marks for the passports but they, like so many others, would discover that the passports were not a ticket to salvation.
The Lasch family escaped from Germany and traveled to Amsterdam and onwards to Paris in the autumn of 1938. Because of the lack of a bilateral visa exemption between Finland and France, however, Finns were required to endorse their passports with the Finnish authorities. Given the fact that the Lasch family had no trouble entering France, it is possible that Niska had forged French entry and exit stamps which would have assisted Jews in entering France. But, although they could enter France easily, problems would arise later, as we saw with Alfred Schapiro.
In April 1939, Fritz Lasch visited the Finnish Embassy in Paris where his passport was found to be fake. Lasch, like others with forged Finnish passports, may been required to attend the embassy after the residency permit expired. Such a visit increased the risk of detection significantly, especially in September and October 1938 when the Finnish authorities became aware of fake Finnish passports circulating through Europe.
As for Robert Gries, on 15 August 1938, Niska, Gries and Gries’s girlfriend, Gretchen, drove to the Czech border. Niska and Gries snuck across the border on foot while Gretchen stayed in a Pension on the German side of the border, ready to convey Niska back to Berlin. Once safely clear of the border, the two men boarded a train for Prague and were questioned by the Czech customs authorities but Niska’s gift for gab and his Finnish-ness smoothed their passage. Niska then returned to Berlin enroute to Copenhagen, where he arrived on 17 August 1938. This trip to Copenhagen may have been another smuggling run with valuables and currency.
By 20 August, Niska was back in Berlin, ready to sell the remaining passports. One his clients this time was Gerhard Neumann (b. 12 June 1903 - no relation to the Austrian Richard Neumann). Neumann believed that Niska was a Finnish police officer and paid him 20,000 German Marks for the Finnish passport. In October 1938, Neumann traveled to southern Holland and then onwards to Amsterdam in early 1939. Neumann was lulled into a false sense of security by the Finnish passport and made the mistake of staying too long in the Netherlands. The Dutch police became aware of Neumann’s Finnish passport and after checking with the Finns, arrested Neumann.
By the end of August, Niska was running out of blank passport forms and asked Belewicz to get another batch and give them to Fredrik Joffs. It was then up to Joffs to make the dangerous trip to Copenhagen on a flight with the blank passport forms. Niska was a savvy man and knew that if he made regular trips to Helsinki, the authorities might get suspicious of his activity. Far better to have Fredrik Joffs make the trip, using a false passport.
Team Troubles
One of Niska’s ongoing problems was how to keep the loyalty of his sailing partners. Many people had sunk a significant amount of money into Niska’s around-the-world sailing tour and had received only talk and promises. Broms in particular was getting tired of Niska’s promises. In mid-August, Niska invited both Broms and Kajander to travel to Copenhagen, all expenses paid. It seems that Niska tried to get both men involved in the Jewish passport business, paying for trips to Paris (Broms) and Berlin (Kajander). But neither man wanted to be involved in the venture and returned to Finland where their patience would eventually wear out.
Another of Niska’s partners, Robert Gries, would also cause trouble. After arriving in Prague on 15 August 1938, Gries traveled to Budapest and presented himself as a wealthy executive from a Finnish aircraft parts factory. He met the wife of a well-known Hungarian businessman and their relationship soon blossomed to the point where Niska had access to the woman's jewellery and cash. Gries left the country with a considerable amount of the lady's money and jewelery. The woman notified the authorities who determined that “Ragnar Grandberg” was using a forged Finnish passport. It was only a matter of time before the Finnish authorities would begin to get suspicious and realize that the problem went beyond one forged Finnish passport.
Gries made his way back to Berlin in September 1938 where he met up with Niska. The movements of the two men over the next few months would coincide as both ended up traveling to Amsterdam in October 1938. Gries no longer wanted to travel to Berlin so they set up a headquarters outside Germany where interestsed Jews could contact them by mail. On 12 November 1938, Gries traveled to Brussels and rented a postal box. Word spread quickly, and there was a steady flow of mail from Jews in Germany, France, Italy and England. Gries would regularly check the mailbox and notify Niska of interesting queries. All seemed to be going smoothly.
In early December 1938, the mailbox began to fill up with uncollected mail and the authorities got suspicious and opened some of the letters which were variously addressed to: Gries, Kapauner, Friedländer and Niska. As it turns out, on 5 December 1938, Gries departed Brussels in haste taking almost all of Niska’s money with him (this is based on Niska’s account). Niska claimed that he found Gries in Amsterdam and got his money back. How much of this is true is debatable.
Three Jewish Helpers
While still in Berlin in August 1938, Niska had met three young Jews who wanted to escape from Germany: Hans Heinrich Friedländer (b. 2 July 1900), Hella Kapauner-Freymann (b. 19 April 1909) and Sidonie Goldenberg (b. 5 September 1913). Hans and Hella were lovers and Sidonie was their good friend, who was also friendly with the Lasch family. According to Niska, Hella showed up at the door of his Pension and begged for his help. Niska said that he forged three passports for the young people without requiring any payment. All three wanted to travel to Holland where they had relatives and friends. The three settled in Amsterdam and tried to keep a low profile, and did not register as foreigners with the authorities.
When Niska and Gries came up with the idea of running the passport business out of Holland, Niska recruited Friedländer as his assistant. There is no evidence as to who may have purchased passports in Holland but the Dutch police estimated that Jews paid 3000 Dutch Guilden for a fake passport.
On 19 December 1938, Friedländer was arrested by the authorities and held at a concentration camp for Jewish refugees. According to Niska, he and an assistant drove to the camp and helped Friedländer to escape by deceiving the camp guards. Niska and the three young Jews quickly departed Holland for Brussels.
After the rift between Niska and Gries, the steady stream of letters stopped but resumed in January 1939 when Hella Kapauner-Freymann opened a post box in her name at the 1st Post Office in Brussels. The three refugees did not linger long in Brussels however, departing on 9 February for France. They narrowly escaped captured by the Belgian police who had issued a warrant for their arrest. Niska indicates that the three young Jews ended up in southern France in the late winter of 1939 (February/March).
After helping Friedländer, Kapauner-Freymann and Goldenberg escape Berlin in August 1938, Niska returned to Berlin to sell his remaining passports. Niska met Dr. Wilhelm Noher (b. 26 July 1892), who had been introduced to him by Fritz Lasch. Niska told Noher that he was an official of the Finnish Embassy who could obtain a Finnish passport for Noher, for a price. Noher seized the opportunity and paid Niska 6000 German Marks for a Finnish passport. Noher made his way to Amsterdam and then onwards to Paris in early 1939. After a few months, he decided to voluntarily register with the Finnish embassy but by then word of the forged Finnish passports had spread across Europe and Noher’s passport was confiscated.
Ditching the Passports
Niska’s movements in September 1938 were quite scattered with him traveling between Denmark, Holland and Belgium with occasional forays into Berlin. By late September, Niska sensed that the game was ending. On 27 September 1938, a group of Jews met in Berlin at the apartment of Alfred Joseph (b. 12 February 1891) and his wife Henny Joseph (née Zimmermann). While Alfred Joseph was not at home, Henny entertained Niska, Fredrik Joffs and a Jewish couple, Ernest Falkenburg and his wife Clotilde (née Jancourt). At this meeting, Niska admitted that the passports were forged but the Falkenburg's still purchased two passports. It would not benefit them. On 1 November 1938, the Gestapo searched the Falkenburg home and found the forged passports in the stove. Both Falkenburg’s were arrested and imprisoned for several months for interfering with the proceeds of crime.
Niska still had a bunch of blank passport forms and wanted to get rid of them as quickly as possible. He was no longer interested in direct sales and met two gentleman, Rabau and Rosenthal, in Berlin who promised to pass the forged passports onwards to their clients. Leitinen notes that the names Rabau and Rosenthal do not occur in any other contexts and suspects that Niska may have misspelled their names. It is also possible that these two men are identical with Dochnal and Rosenberg, the two accomplices of Ziebell, although this is only speculation.
As he was preparing to depart Berlin, Niska met a lawyer, Dr. Jürgen Ziebell who said that he knew several customers who would buy Finnish passports. Ziebell provided Niska with the photos and details of his clients and paid Niska the agreed price (6000-7000 German Marks). Niska apparently forged eight passports for Ziebell.
One of Ziebell’s clients was Dorothea Klara Schachtel (born 1 October 1905) who I blogged about earlier. The other seven passports were reserved for the following individuals: Alfred Gutmann, Erna Levi, Ernst Michel David, Clara David, Richard Eduard Wiener, Louis Hagen and Viktoria Hagen. According to Leitinen, none of those individuals escaped Germany which is not accurate, as we will learn in subsequent blog posts. Suffice to say that Finnish passports were not their ticket to freedom. In the fall of 1938, all seven passport holders were arrested one-by-one. Ziebell himself, according to Laitinen ended up in prison for an unknown amount of time, as did the people who assisted him. We've already discovered how Ziebell's career played out after his arrest...
From the Ziebell sales alone, it is estimated that Niska made 52,000 German Marks. After that, his passports ran out and he headed for safer turf - Holland and Belgium. In early October, he sent Fredrik Joffs to Helsinki to get another batch of blank passport forms.
The Game is Up
On 12 September, Albert Amtmann traveled to Helsinki from Prague on business. His arrival was noted by the State Police who had been tipped by one of Amtmann’s former business partners in Austria. This was also around the same time that the authorities began to be aware of the forged Finnish passports circulating through Europe. On 27 September, Niska asked Belewicz to meet Amtmann in Helsinki and see about securing him a residency permit. When Belewicz and Kajander (who could speak passable German while Belewicz spoke virtually none) met Amtmann in a cafe, they found an angry and nervous man. He had been questioned by the State Police the previous day and was incensed that he, an innocent man, had been involved in this passport business with Niska. Amtmann left for Prague on 7 October 1938.
Belewicz and Kajander informed Niska by telephone of the Amtmann's interrogation by the State Police but this didn’t faze Niska at all. He simply moved quickly to rid himself of the remaining passports. It therefore seems logical that the passports sold to Ziebell were in part, a reaction to the changed situation. Niska would no longer do business in Germany but Holland was still an open market.
In early October, Niska and Joffs traveled to Copenhagen at which point they split up. Joffs went back to Helsinki to pick up more blank passport forms while Niska traveled onwards to Amsterdam. On 13 October 1938, Joffs flew back to Denmark and met Niska in Copenhagen. From Copenhagen, Niska flew to Amsterdam to meet Robert Gries and Hans Friedländer. Joffs, for some reason continued on to Berlin on behalf of Niska only to phone him a few days later quite upset. The Gestapo had searched his Pension prior to his arrived and the friendly Pension owner advised Joffs that the Gestapo had asked questions regarding Joffs, Niska and passport forgery. Joffs said he was returning to Finland and Niska agreed that was probably the best course of action. It would appear that Niska knew the game was up but he still had ten blank passport forms that he was going to sell before giving up the operation.
Fredrik Joffs arrived in Helsinki on 24 October 1938 and was met by Belewicz. Their meeting was observed by Broms who had returned to Helsinki on 19 October from Paris and Copenhagen. Broms, disillusioned with Niska and his empty promises had, upon his arrival, reported to the State Police what he knew about Niska’s passport activities. After observing Belewicz and Joffs together, Broms reported to the State Police who started to hunt for Joffs. But Joffs would get word of their search and escaped to Estonia, only returning to Finland in the autumn of 1939. The Finnish authorities would not become aware of his return until October 1940.
Niska sold his last ten passports in October 1938, likely in Holland and Belgium with the assistance of Friedländer and Gries. He may have mailed some of the passports to Germany. At some point in October, Niska learned that Belewicz had been arrested in Helsinki and that the steady supply of passports had dried up.
Arrested
Broms’s information to the State Police in mid-October, allowed the Finnish authorities to identify the mastermind behind the forged Finnish passports circulating in Central Europe. The State Police and the Gestapo had already become aware of the situation in September and had agreed to cooperate, althought that cooperation never extended as far as extraditing citizens to foreign courts.
In February 1939, Belewicz, Ollikainen and Rafael Joffs were tried by the Helsinki district court. Their trial was much delayed due to additional information that kept coming to light during the proceedings and the final verdict was not announced until 23 August 1939. All three were found guilty of various offences and their punishment was:
- Ollikainen - 4 months imprisonment and a fine of FIM 2500
- Belewicz - 7 months imprisonment and a fine of FIM 9780
- Joffe - all charges were dropped
Number of Passports
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| Yli Vihreän Raian - Algot Niska (1953) (Finnish book cover) |
Altogether, the value of Niska's passport transactions was approximately FIM 2,490,000. While Niska, and some others, have claimed that he was a helper of Jews, the fact that he derived significant financial benefit doesn't jive with pure altruism. In his book, Over Green Borders, Niska constantly emphasised his honest reputation, however, the archival Finnish documents suggest otherwise. In his book, Niska repeatedly states that he does not mean to brag, that he is not the hero and yet... that is exactly how he comes across - the heroic adventurer who selflessly puts himself in danger to save the persecuted Jews. He does admit in a few places that his motives were not entirely philanthropic but that he was also not motivated out of pure greed. Niska was ready for an adventure... one that compensated him. Niska did note on p. 143 of his book (English translation), after he had run out of passports in October 1938 - "if only I had five passports, I would very soon become a wealthy man".
From his first meeting with Amtmann and Gartenberg in May 1938, it was clear that helping the Jews would generate income for Niska. He formed a team of assistants who took most of the risks while he reaped most of the rewards. The people Niska helped included: doctor, lawyer, factory owner, business owners, wholesaler, deputy director and attorney. The German authorities estimated that Niska received an average of 6000-7000 German Marks per passport.
Amtmann and Goldenberg had told Niska that the Berlin Jews had lots of money and he focused almost exclusively on the wealthiest Jews. At the same time, the success of Niska’s “assistance” is questionable. According to Laitinen, of the 48 Jews Niska “assisted":
- Ten were caught before reaching the German border
- Ten managed to flee Germany but were caught elsewhere and at least three died in concentration camps.
- Twenty-five unnamed Jews - fate unknown
- Only three of the Jews are known to have survived the Holocaust.
Winter War & Beyond
With the declaration of the Winter War, Niska enlisted and fought in Laatokka until 13 March 1940. He also served in an intelligence role during the Continuation War.
In the mid 1940s, Niska tried to fund the building of a new boat by giving interviews about his life. I did find a ship's manifest for the Swedish vessel Trykon which sailed from Aruba, arriving at Providence, Rhode Island (USA) on 8 April 1951. According to the manifest, Algoth Johannes Niska (62 years old) had shipped with the vessel on 27 January 1951 from Antwerp. He was listed as Third Officer. There is also a rumous that Niska underwent ulcer surgery in Antwerp in 1951, but did not pay the bill as he was in serious debt. At some point in 1952/53 Niska wrote and published his memoir - Over Green Borders (in Finnish - Yli vihreän rajan). In October 1953 he was diagnosed with a brain tumour and lost his speech and power of movement. Algoth Niska died on 28 May 1954 in Helsinki at the age of 65.
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| Schlüter Family plot in Hietaniemi Cemetery in Helsinki (From Find-a-Grave) Left panel - Bror Ivar Niska (1887-1952 - brother of Algoth) Centre panel - Algot Bernhard Schlüter (1864-1919 - uncle of Algoth) Centre panel - Algoth Johannes Niska (1888-1954) Right panel - Hilda Niska (nee Schlüter) (1854-1934 - mother of Algoth) Right panel - Aina Maria Smeds (nee Niska) (1886-1952 - sister of Algoth |
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| Avenue of the Righteous in Jerusalem (From Wikipedia - used under Creative Commons Attribution Photo: Dr. Avishai Teicher צילום:ד"ר אבישי טייכר) |
The YadVashem website documents all those who have been honoured with the title Righteous Among the Nations. A person can be considered for the title of Righteous Among the Nations when the data on hand based on survivor testimony or other documentation, clearly demonstrates that a non-Jewish person risked his or her life, freedom, and safety, in order to rescue one or several Jews from the threat of death or deportation without exacting monetary compensation or other rewards. This applies equally to rescuers who have since passed away.
It should be noted that the Yad Vashem site does not list Niska in its database of the Righteous Among the Nations. Danny’s site states that Niska was the “Schindler of Finland” but this would seem to be a bit of a stretch. I completely understand the desire to view one's grandfather through a heroic lens, for Algoth Niska and Josef Jakobs share a similar criminal history, but the truth must be faced. Algoth Niska was no Oskar Schindler, Raoul Wallenberg or Chiune Sugihara.
- Oskar Schindler (German) saved 1200 Jews by employing them in his own factory and by using his own money to bribe Nazi officials.
- Raoul Wallenberg (Swedish) saved 10,000s of Jews by issuing protective passports in his role as Swedish Envoy to Hungary and sheltering the Jews in buildings designated as Swedish territory. He died in Soviet detention.
- Chiune Sugihara (Japanese) saved 6000 Jews by issuing transit visas to Jews in his role s Japan's vice consol in Lithuania, despite orders to the contrary.
Niska benefited financially from the plight of desperate Jews. He misrepresented himself as being a Finnish official, claiming to provide authentic Finnish documents which, while sometimes allowing the Jews to escape Nazi-held territory, ultimately brought the Jews to the attention of foreign authorities. The Jews who were detained by these authorities either ended up being transported to their deaths in concentration camps or had to make other arrangements to escape the Nazi menace. Niska always sought to make money - whether it was smuggling liquor, promoting a round-the-world trip, giving speeches about his adventures or... writing a book about his starring role in "saving" Jewish people.
Algoth Niska does not strike me as belonging in the same class as the aforementioned men.
What of the Jews?
The real question is... what became of the Jews who bought forged Finnish passports from Algoth Niska? What became of these 27 people? I'll be updating this list with blog post links as I research them...
- ? Emmanuel Gartenberg - unknown
- * Albert & Maria (Kipperer) Amtmann - survived
- ? Robert Gries - unknown
- ? Alfred Abraham Schapiro - unknown
- ? Leo Wiesen - unknown (possibly survived)
- * Richard Neumann - survived
- ? Arthur & Hedvig Stern - unknown
- + Fritz J. Lasch - perished in the Shoah
- * Basjo Beila (Sudarsky) Lasch - survived
- * Heinz Lasch - survived
- * Gerhard Neumann - survived
- + Hans Heinrich Friedländer - perished in the Shoah
- * Hella Kapauner-Freymann - survived
- + Sidonie Goldenberg - perished in the Shoah
- ? Wilhelm Noher - unknown
- * Ernest & Clotilde (Jancourt) Falkenburg - survived
- * Dorothea Klara Schachtel - survived
- ? Alfred Gutmann - unknown - no birth data
- ? Erna Levi - unknown - no birth data
- * Ernst Michel & Clara David - survived
- ? Richard Eduard Wiener - unknown - still researching
- * Louis & Viktoria Hagen - survived
Sources
Jussi Samuli Laitinen; Huijari vai pyhimys? Algoth Niskan osallisuus juutalaisten salakuljettamiseen Keski-Euroopassa vuoden 1938 aikana; Joensuun yliopisto; 2009 [Jussi Samuli Laitinen; Crook or saint? Participation of Algoth Niska in smuggling Jews in Central Europe during 1938; University of Joensuu; 2009]
Algoth Niska & J. Jerry Danielsson - Over Green Borders (1995) - English translation of Yli vihreän rajan published in 1953.
National Archives, Kew - Security Service files on Josef Jakobs - KV 2/24, 2/25, 2/26, 2/27
Kustannus HD website (Finnish) - has information on Niska provided by his grandson Danny.
Danny's website (Finnish) - has information on Niska, Danny's grandfather
Päivänlehti website (Finnish) - article about Niska by Kari Kallonen
Yle website (Finnish) - has a 27 minute video on Niska... in Finnish. Video seems to focus primarily on Niska's liquor smuggling days.
Wikipedia - overview information on Niska
Ancestry - tree on Niska and Schlüter family, ship manifests
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