Goelz Richard & Hildegard

Gölz, Richard Gölz, Hildegard Richard Gölz (b. 1887), the initiator and leader of the movement to reform the Evangelical church music and author of the “Chorgesangbuch” of 1934, functioned between 1935 and 1945 as a parish pastor in Wankheim/Württemberg. In this capacity, he extended help to persecuted Jews and he and his wife, Hildegard, offered them refuge in their house. One Jew was Max Krakauer, who stayed in the Gölzes’ house for four weeks in the autumn of 1943. Krakauer helped gather in the harvest and participated in the devotions held by Göltz. Dr. Hermann Pineas, a Jewish physician from Berlin, was another fugitive who found welcome refuge in the Göltzes house. However, his visit had tragic consequences for the rescuer. After he had left, Gölz was denounced to the Gestapo and interrogated by them. He was arrested shortly before Christmas in 1944, and sent to Welzheim, a forced-labor camp northeast of Stuttgart. After his release from Welzheim, on April 18, 1945, Gölz returned a completely altered man. He never spoke about his experiences there, but appeared mentally changed. His anguish was increased by the death of his son Gottfried in a U-boat testing accident in the last year of the war. He obtained a leave of absence from the pulpit and contemplated a radical reform of the Evangelical prayer book. When his efforts came to naught, he converted to the Russian Orthodox Church. In 1958, he emigrated to the United States as a retired Russian Orthodox priest. He died in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. On November 5, 1991, Yad Vashem recognized Richard and Hildegard Gölz as Righteous Among the Nations.