Else Beitz, wife of the late German businessman Berthold Beitz with whom she saved many Jews from the Nazi death camps during World War II, has died at the age of 94.
In July 1941, Berthold and Else Beitz, came to the city of Boryslav, in what is today Ukraine, to work as the manager of an oil refinery. There, Beitz witnessed at close hand the ongoing destruction of the Jews. Unhesitatingly, he opposed the Nazis’ plan of extermination and succeeded in rescuing several hundred Jews from the death trains bound for the Bełżec extermination camp. He did this by requesting from the SS that the Jews be handed over to him as indispensable skilled workers and issued false work certificates.
At a great personal risk, Berthold and Else Beitz secretly provided the Jews with food and hid others in their own home.
In 1973, in recognition of his courageous stance, Berthold Beitz was honored as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem. Else Beitz was given the same honor in 2006. In 1999, the Central Council of Jews in Germany awarded the couple the Leo Baeck Prize.
Berthold Beitz was one of post-war Germany’s outstanding industrialists who until his death last year at the age of 99 served as an influential member of the Supervisory Board of the Thyssen-Krupp Group.
Else Beitz was already in her sixties when she graduated in pedagogics from Essen University in 1985. In 1993, aged 73, she completed her doctorate and became the university's oldest Ph.D. graduate ever.
Else Beitz passed away on 14 September 2014.
