Heinz Galinski, chairman of the Central Council of Jews in Berlin since 1949, died on July 19 aged 79. He was born on November 28th 1912.

THE only member of his close family to survive the Nazi forced labour camps, Heinz Galinski was never for a moment tempted to leave Germany after the war. Instead he kept his German nationality and devoted himself to rebuilding the trust needed to reestablish a flourishing Jewish community in Berlin. Although he was a tireless campaigner against Nazi war criminals and worked hard to ensure that all their victims, regardless of race, received compensation, he believed in reconciliation between German and Jew. Always quick to draw attention to anti-Semitism and racism, he did this to rouse national consciousness to potential dangers, arguing that a silent majority should never again allow extremists to take control of the country. In constantly reminding German public opinion that the war crimes should never be forgotten, he aimed at ensuring that they would never be repeated.

Born in the West Prussian town of Marienburg today Malbork in Poland his father was a businessman who was 80 per cent disabled from  wounds  he  received fighting for Germany in the first world war. Galinski was sent to school in Berlin and later trained there as a salesman in the textile industry. Given the sacrifice of his father for Germany, he was astonished to witness the rapid rise of anti-Semitism, the Jewish boycott, the Nuremberg race laws and Kristallnacht. His father was arrested and died shortly afterwards.

His mother and young wife were also imprisoned  and failed to survive the war. He was deported to Auschwitz and later was put in the slave labour gangs working in the underground tunnels of the Buchenwald annexe at Mittelbau Dora building V2 rockets. By the end of the war he had been moved to Bergen Belsen, where he was freed by British troops in April 1945.

He returned to Berlin to find that there were only 1,400 survivors from the pre-war Jewish community of 173,000. Unlike so many of his faith, he nevertheless believed that it would be possible for Jews to live freely once more in Germany and he immediately set about rebuilding the community. The first Jewish religious service was held in Berlin on May 5th only days after the end of the war as a defiant act of faith in the kind of reconciled future Galinski was sure was possible.

He concentrated from the very beginning on seeking compensation for the victims of the Nazis and was closely involved in drawing up the laws governing this which have remained in force ever since. Although predominantly concerned with the Jews, he insisted that all other racial and political victims were also covered by the legislation.

In April 1949, he was chosen as chairman of the Berlin community and under his leadership youth and social service facilities were set up which became a model for others in post war Germany. His maxim was "full integration but rejection of assimilation" and  the Jewish community centre in Berlin, established in 1959, began to take on importance as a meeting place between German Jews and gentiles, influencing cultural and political life throughout the country.

Galinski spoke out against the idea of an amnesty for Nazis and warned against a resurgence of the far right but at the same time he attacked the extreme left Red Army Faction for its assassinations. The faction was so incensed that in 1975 he became one of it’s targets, narrowly escaping death from a bomb.

He also attacked German and European Middle East policy, which he claimed was too ready to deal with the Palestine Liberation Organisation. However in 1981 he staunchly defended Helmut Schmidt, after the then chancellor was strongly attacked by Menachem Begin.

Galinski emerged more and more as spokesman for German Jewry, criticising the media for the way it dealt with anti-Semitism, attacking the government over compensation claims and insisting on punishment for all those who publicised the "Auschwitz lie" that extermination camps did not exist.

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