Arnold Buchthal
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Arnold Buchthal (born 28 November 1900 in Dortmund, Germany; died 5 August 1965 in Pesaro, Italy) was a German lawyer, a translator at the Nuremberg trials and a State's attorney in Frankfurt.
Arnold Buchthal was the son of Rosa and Felix Buchthal. His mother was the first woman in the Dortmund city council, while his father ran a coffee import and roasting facility with some branches in the city. Arnold grew up in a home built by his parents at Bornstraße 19 which included coffee roasting facilities. He graduated from high school in 1918, having attended the Municipal Gymnasium. In 1923, as part of his law studies, he became a trainee at the Higher Regional Court in Hamm and in 1924 he moved to Dortmund district court. He spoke five languages.[1]
Career
He became a district and county magistrate with an annual salary of 7800 Reichsmark.[1] With the seizure of power by the National Socialists in January 1933, within a few months all Jewish citizens in civil servant positions were dismissed. Arnold Buchthal, son of Jewish parents, "full Jew" in Nazi jargon, was one of them. He received his dismissal from the Prussian Ministry of Justice on July 7, 1933. He and his wife Grete (Margaret)[2] could barely pay for the medical delivery costs of their second daughter (the businesswoman and philanthropist Vera “Steve” Shirley) in September 1933.
The family emigrated to Austria at the end of 1933. After the annexation of Austria by the German Reich in 1938, Jews were no longer safe there. To save the lives of their daughters Renate and Vera, the Buchthals sent them on a Kindertransport from Vienna to England in 1939. Renate (b. 1929) emigrated to Australia later in life. Vera became one of England's most successful entrepreneurs in the 1970s, having changed her name to Stephanie. She was named Dame Stephanie in 2000 and a Companion of Honour in 2018.