A modest and unique ceremony took place at the Consulate General of Israel here today when Eberhard Heimrich, a former major in the German occupation army in Poland, now a New York resident, was awarded the Medal for the Righteous, given to Gentiles who saved Jews during World War II. The award was presented by Michael Arnon, the Consul General.
Based on evidence gathered over several years and presented to the committee of the Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Authority in Israel, the Yad Vashem–the conclusion was reached that Mr. Heimrich worked extensively to save Jews during the occupation of Poland.
In 1941-44, he was director of the Economic Department of the Nazi occupation army in Drohobicz in Galicia, Poland. While directing agricultural work in the area, he set up a labor camp to save Jews. He also helped the Drohobicz ghetto inhabitants.
Survivors of the Nazi holocaust have testified that Mr. Heimrich supplied food to the Jewish hospital in that city during a severe food shortage. He also ordered his subordinates to behave humanely to inmates at the labor camp at Hyrawka, which was under his supervision. He gave help to individuals in many cases, transported Jewish children to hiding places in his official car and even hid them in his house.
He also saved the lives of Jewish girls by offering them jobs with his friends in Germany, where they passed as “Aryan” housemaids with forged certificates. Even during the days of the big German military victories and while the holocaust was at its peak, Mr. Heimrich displayed liking and respect toward Jews, encouraging them by word and deed, He eventually married a Jewish girl whose life he had saved.
Survivors related he always acted for reasons of humanity and not for reward. In several cases, he paid for food, clothing and transport for survivors he managed to smuggle to safe hiding places. It was established that he carried out these activities at great personal danger. Had they been known to the Gestapo his fate would have been set.
The committee citing the Righteous, headed by Supreme Court Justice Moshe Landau–who presided at the Eichmann trial–has decided to award to Mr. Helmrich, in the light of the above, a Medal struck by Nathan Karp, an Israel artist. The Medal’s design illustrates the Talmudic teaching: “He who saves a single soul, it is as though he had saved the entire world.”
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.
