Werner Goldberg
| Werner Goldberg | |
|---|---|
 Goldberg's image as published in the Berliner Tagesblatt | |
| Birth date | 3 October 1919 |
| Place of birth | Berlin, Province of Brandenburg, German Reich |
| Death date | 28 September 2004 (aged 84) |
| Place of death | Berlin, Germany |
| Resting place | Protestant Cemetery in Berlin-Schmargendorf |
| Allegiance |  National Socialist Germany
|
| Service/branch |  Heer
|
| Years of service | 1938–1940 |
| Rank | Gefreiter |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
| Relations | ∞ Gertrud Goldberg, 3 children |
| Other work | Textile specialist Politician |
Werner Goldberg (3 October 1919 – 28 September 2004) was a German soldier of the Wehrmacht during World War II and later, a Christian politician of post-war West Germany.
Life
Goldberg's father Albert, a proud Prussian and veteran of WWI, grew up in Königsberg as a member of the Jewish community but had himself baptized in the local Lutheran church as he wished to become assimilated and marry his Christian fiancée. Goldberg had no idea his father was of Jewish descent; he and his brother Martin (b. 1920) had been baptized in the Grünewald Lutheran Church in Berlin. The 1935 Nuremberg Laws classed persons with at least three Jewish grandparents as Jewish; those with two Jewish grandparents would be considered Jewish only if they practised the faith or had a Jewish spouse.
Goldberg left school in 1935 and became an apprentice at Schneller und Schmeider, a clothing company jointly owned by a Jew and a non-Jew, where many of his colleagues were Jews or Mischlinge. Goldberg's maternal uncle joined the NSDAP. In early 1938, Goldberg served a six-month term in the Reich Labour Service. On 1 December 1938, Goldberg joined the German Army as a Schütze (Rifleman). He took part in the Poland Campaign from 1 September 1939, serving alongside childhood friend Gerhard Wolf, whose father was now a high-ranking SS officer (not to be confused with Karl Wolff).
In 1940, following the Armistice with France, Goldberg, now a Gefreiter (Private E-2/Lance Corporal), was discharged from the military. He returned to his former workplace, which had now changed its name to Feodor Schmeider. Goldberg played an increasingly responsible role within the company, obtaining contracts for uniforms from the Heer and the Kriegsmarine. He also attended the Reich Committee for Labour Studies school (Reichsausschuß für Arbeitsstudien, RAFA), where he was one of the four out of 80 students who passed the test to become a RAFA teacher. He then became a Labour Studies Board lecturer on the clothing industry, and delivered lectures to organizations and company directors, even publishing an article in the weekly trade publication Textilwoche.
Werner Goldberg, now a family- and businessman, later joined the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) of Germany and served twenty years between 1959 and 1979 as a politician of the Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin in West Berlin. He was honored as a city elder of Berlin in 1985. Werner Goldberg's story was portrayed in the 2006 documentary Hitler's Jewish Soldiers by Larry Price in cooperation with the "Israel Broadcasting Authority".
Russian propaganda
In 2015, the well-known photograph of Goldberg was used for the monument to "Protectors of Motherland" in Tobolsk, Russia, as a surrogate for an image of a Red Army soldier, reportedly by mistake. The face stayed the same, the Stahlhelm became a Soviet helmet. The image on the monument, a great embarrassment for all, was later fixed.
Bryan Mark Rigg
- I first met Werner Goldberg on 17 November 1994 at his home in Berlin, Germany. He was a stately gentleman, well-educated, often quoting Goethe and Schiller, and full of phrases of wisdom. I found myself often having tea and coffee with him at this home while I lived in Berlin in 1994 and throughout 1995. I enjoyed learning from him. He helped me document my book “Hitler’s Jewish Soldiers” since he had for decades supported periodicals that researched the persecution of Jews and “Jewish Mischlinge” during the Third Reich. His biography, in short, is as follows. Werner Goldberg was born to a Christian mother and a Jewish father, a World War I army veteran of the Western Front. [...] In 1938, Goldberg entered the Reich’s Arbeitsdienst (Labor Service—Paramilitary, six-month civil service duties all German males had to do after graduating High School). Thereafter, he was drafted into the Wehrmacht and trained as an infantryman. He served with many of the boys he had gone to secondary school with, one of whom was Gerhard Wolf, who later became a SS-officer and quite possibly helped protect his family. They were very close friends. Goldberg fought in Poland in 1939 and in 1940. Interestingly, in 1939 a photograph of Goldberg in uniform (highlighted here), was taken and printed in the Berliner Tagesblatt with the caption “The Ideal German Soldier.” It was re-printed in a lot of military newspapers and periodicals as representing what a German warrior should look like, since Goldberg represented such an ideal “Germanic type” having white-blond hair, wolf-blue eyes and stood close to 5’11”. He was the “Aryan” ideal until the authorities found out his father was Jewish. [...] While in service, Goldberg asked for help from his superiors to protect his father, Albert. In 1940, after Goldberg had received news of the persecution his sick father was experiencing, he approached his commander. He reasoned that it was absurd that a father of a soldier and a Great War combat veteran should be humiliated in his neighborhood, given reduced food ration cards, and now threatened to report for forced labor. Goldberg’s superior, in turn, passed the matter up the chain of command. Eventually, “through a colleague who was a nephew of their general,” Goldberg was able to meet with the general of the Potsdam garrison, Count von Brockdorff-Ahlefeldt. During the meeting, Goldberg explained his situation. Afterward, the general promoted Goldberg, gave him permission to wear a pistol, and instructed him to go to the proper authorities “to arrange things as they should be for a German soldier.” Goldberg was able to convince the Berlin officials that sending a father of a soldier to forced labor was unacceptable. Without General von Brockdorff-Ahlefeldt’s help, Goldberg would have been unable to help his sick father. [...] Shockingly, especially in light of what we know about the Holocaust, through a lot of twists and turns with false documents, hiding, cheating the system, etc., Goldberg and his father survived the war. Albert Goldberg was one of the few German Jews to survive the war in Berlin. [...] In one of the many meetings I had with Werner, who became my friend, I asked “What did you learn from your experiences from the Third Reich?” He smiled at me and said, “Well, first, my dear friend. You spend way too much time interviewing men like me [I eventually did interview almost 500 German-Jewish “Mischlinge” like Werner]. You should balance that out with chasing some beautiful German girls around here, drinking beer and enjoying your youth. However, I know what you are asking. Listen to me carefully, the Third Reich taught me more than anything, NEVER, EVER, RUN after those who don’t want you. I, and many German Jews and Mischlinge, wanted to stay in Germany and live in this land we had grown to love. It was hard for us to understand that the Deutschland of Hitler had rejected us and did not want us. Most of us did not accept that. Listen to me, in your life, whether it be a girl, a friend, an organization, if they don’t want you, don’t run after them. Find those who accept you for who you are and be with those you like your company. When you ask me ‘Was ist der Sinn des Lebens (What is the essence of life or the secret of life?),’ this is it, my boy.” Goldberg’s words continue to ring in my ears and I have repeated his advice to my friends, students, and most importantly, to my three children.[1]
