A non-Jewish, former Prussian nobleman, who said in his will he had been helped by Jewish friends, has left a bequest, estimated at $250,000, to United Hias Service, the 82-year-old Jewish migration agency, His total estates, estimated at a value of $500,000, was ordered divided equally between United Hias and Francis Cardinal Spellman for use of Catholic charities.
The bequests were made public here yesterday when the will was filed for probate in Surrogate’s Court. The donor was Wolfram von Pannwitz, who died January 28 at the age of 76, Childless, he lived alone in a hotel in this city, His only living relative is a sister who resides in Wiesbaden, Germany. The will stated specifically that “all my blood relatives, near and remote, shall be excluded from my inheritance, there being special reasons for this, my direction.”
The United Hias bequest was left “for the purpose of assisting needy and deserving Jewish immigrants to the United States. ” The donor explained in his last testament that, three times, Jewish friends in Europe and in the United States had helped him ” to make a decent living” and stated: “This (the United Hias bequest) is the only way I can show my gratitude.”
Mr. von Pannwitz, a Lutheran, and a scion of German nobility, was in business in Berlin prior to World War II, and left the German capital when Hitler assumed power. Later, in Paris, he helped plot the abortive scheme to assassinate Hitler; In World War I, he was in the German Air Corps as a captain, and was wounded in France. He came to the United States in 1947, and became an American citizen in 1952.
James P. Rice, executive director of United Hias, acknowledged gratefully today the notice of the bequest, saying that “coincidentally, $250,000 is the exact size of our current deficit, ” He noted, however, that due to technicalities in settling the estate, it may be some time “before we actually get this windfall.”
Mr. Rice announced that, a check of his agency’s records today, showed that Mr. von Pannwitz was brought to the United States in 1947 with the cooperation of two of the United Hias predecessor organizations, the Joint Distribution Committee’s immigration department and the United Service for New Americans, Both of these groups, along with the old Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, merged to form the present United Hias Service in 1954.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
