Seligmann Kurt

Seligmann, Kurt Kurt Seligmann's father was of Jewish origin, but had converted to Christianity and married a non-Jewish German. Seligmann was thus considered by the Nazis to be of mixed race, but because he was married to a Catholic German and his children were raised as Christians, he was protected from persecution. One of Seligmann's business associates was his Jewish friend, Hermann Schipper. When the persecution of the Jews began, Seligmann tried to help Schipper as best as he could, until Schipper was deported to Auschwitz with his daughter Paula and many of the remaining Jews of Berlin in February 1943. At this point, Schipper's wife Rachela and her 19-year-old daughter Jenni turned to Seligmann for help. Unable to hide them in his Berlin apartment, Seligmann arranged an alternative hiding place for them. Like many other Jews who had gone underground, it was vital that the women changed hiding places from time to time. Whenever they needed shelter, they turned to Seligmann for help, and he would let them stay overnight, despite the great danger this entailed. During the entire war period, Seligmann also helped them with food and money. At one point, Rachela asked Seligmann to sell her jewelry to pay for the food he was giving them. After the war he returned the jewelry to her – he had, in fact, continued to buy the food with his own money. After the war, Rachela and Jenni Schipper immigrated to the US, but they continued to maintain contact with their rescuer. In 1990, Jenni-Jan Schipper-Levin sent a recording to Seligmann's grandchildren, telling them about their grandfather. She ended by saying: "So now you know I how feel about the Seligmanns. I want you to know and never forget that in the worst time of our lives, when we met and suffered the worst inhumanities, we were also lucky to meet the best of humanity." On June 8, 2006, Yad Vashem recognized Kurt Seligmann as Righteous Among the Nations.