Pscheidt Johann

Pscheidt, Johann Johann Pscheidt was born in the city of Radauti near Czernowitz, in an area that was in Romania at the time and later became part of the Ukraine. Pscheidt was a Volksdeutsche, or ethnic German. At the beginning of the 1930s, Pscheidt worked as a building contractor in Czernowitz. Without revealing his identity, he helped poor Jews in the city with food and money. He also gave the Jewish workers that he employed money over and above their salaries, and provided the money for two of these workers to immigrate to Israel. In 1940 Czernowitz was annexed to the Soviet Union. As part of the arrangement with Germany the Volksdeutsche of the area were forced to move to areas belonging to Germany. In 1941 Pscheidt moved to Zagłębie province in the western part of Poland (annexed to the Reich in 1939). The German authorities appointed him a trustee, assigning him a number of factories previously owned by Jews. In Będzin, Pscheidt made contact with the Zionist underground. In the beginning of 1943, when the Jews of the area were concentrated into ghettos, Pscheidt arranged with the underground that the shoe polish factory he managed, which was situated only a few meters away from the Będzin ghetto, would serve as a center for rescue operations. Members of the underground turned the attic of this factory into a hiding place, and Pscheidt’s private office became a workshop for the production of forged documents and stamps. At the end of July 1943, the Germans surrounded the ghetto with the goal of destroying it. Some of the members of the underground managed to escape, and Pscheidt hid them in the attic. Some 50 people hid in the attic for a period of four months. During this entire period, Pscheidt supplied them all with food, which he bought on the black market. The fugitives came out of hiding gradually as alternate hiding places were found for them. Pscheidt sent each one of them off with gifts of money, gold objects, food and clothing. Pscheidtoperated in a similar fashion in his other factories in the Zagłębie province. In early August 1943, when the Sosnowiec ghetto was liquidated, Pscheidt hid Jews who escaped from the ghetto in his factory. He used his contacts to find these Jews alternate hiding places, and gave everyone who left money, food and clothing. In his factory in Zawiercie, Pscheidt hid Jews from every Aktion. During the final destruction of the Zawiercie ghetto, Fela Trajman, a member of the underground, escaped to Pscheidt’s factory, arriving during work hours. Pscheidt took her in, despite threats from some of his workers that they would report him to the authorities. He denied that Trajman was Jewish, and continued to hide her and other Jews. When the hiding place in the factory became too crowded, Pscheidt found work for Trajman alongside his secretary in his factory in Będzin. Before she left for Będzin, Pscheidt gave her food and money, as well as a gold ring and chain that he took off. Pscheidt gave members of the underground the address of his sister, who lived in Vienna. Some of them arrived in the city, and her house became a refuge. He himself visited there occasionally and brought the Jewish fugitives clothing and money. After the war, Pscheidt and his family continued to help in the struggle against the Nazis. As part of the effort to locate Adolf Eichmann, his niece was sent to the home of Mrs. Eichmann disguised as a maid in order to gather information. Johann Pscheidt risked his life many times, both by cooperating with the Jewish underground, and by hiding fugitive Jews. If he had been caught, he would have been put to death. He received no compensation for his actions, and spent a great deal of his own money to help the Jews he hid. On October 22, 1963, Yad Vashem recognized Johann Pscheidt as Righteous Among the Nations.