Leo Baeck
1873–1956
Leo Baeck was born in 1873 in Lissa (Leszno) in the Prussian province of Posen, the son of a rabbi. He studied in Breslau and at the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums in Berlin, served as a rabbi in Oppeln and later in Düsseldorf, and from 1912 worked in Berlin as a rabbi and teacher, becoming a leading figure of liberal Judaism. From 1933 he presided over the Reichsvertretung, the national representative body of German Jews, and he turned down repeated chances to leave Germany. He was arrested on 27 January 1943 and deported to Theresienstadt with a transport of about 100 people; his Stolperstein biography dates the deportation to 28 January, while the Leo Baeck Institute and other accounts give 27 January. In the ghetto he served on the Council of Elders, and he survived until its liberation in May 1945. He then joined his daughter in England and died in London on 2 November 1956.
Survived.
Sources
- Stolpersteine in Berlin – Leo Baeck (biography by Dietlinde Peters) Birth, studies, rabbinates, address Am Park 15 (today Fritz-Elsas-Str. 15), Reichsvertretung presidency, arrest 27 Jan 1943, deportation 28 Jan 1943 with an Alterstransport of 100 from Anhalter Bahnhof, Council of Elders, survival, death London 2 Nov 1956
- Leo Baeck Institute – Edythe Griffinger Portal, Leo Baeck Gives 27 January 1943 as the deportation date (date conflict noted in the biography)
- Wikipedia (en) – Leo Baeck Deportation to Theresienstadt (dated 27 Jan 1943); death in London 2 Nov 1956
- holocaust.cz – Transport I/87 (Berlin → Terezín) Transport I/87 dated 28 Jan 1943, 100 deportees (basis for the inferred transport assignment)
- Bundesarchiv – Deportationschronologie (German Reich) Berlin → Theresienstadt transport of 100 on 28 Jan 1943
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