Arno Lustiger
Arno Lustiger (* May 7th, 1924 in Bendzin, Poland) is a German historian und author of Jewish origin. He is father of the author Gila Lustiger. Jean-Marie Lustiger, archbishop of Paris, was his cousin.
Life
Lustiger grew up in Będzin in Upper Silesia. His father, David Lustiger, City Councillor of Bendzin, had a company making machines for the bread production. In 1939 the company was confiscated by the National Socialists. Though, David Lustiger stayed in the company as a worker. In the beginning of 1943 the Jewish population of Będzins was detained in the Będzin ghetto. The Lustiger family could hide in a cellar. In August 1943 the ghetto was closed and the population was deported to the concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. A few days later the family voluntarily went to a camp of forced workers in Annaberg, Silesia, in order to stay together as a family.
However, the family was torn apart. Lustiger was deported to to concentration camp Ottmuth and later to Blechhammer, a subcamp of Auschwitz. Starting from January 21st 1945 Lustiger had to join the death march during the freezing winter towards the Gross-Rosen concentration camp in Lower Silesia, as the Sowjet troops were approaching. Only half of the 4.000 inmates survived the death march. Later he was deported to the Buchenwald concentration camp and to the Langenstein-Zwieberge concentration camp near Halberstadt. There the expectancy of life was around three or four weeks.
In April 1945 Lustiger escaped during another death march, when the concentration camp was closed due to the approching American troops. He was rescued by American soldiers and became a uniformed and armed translator of the US Army.
after 1945
Since the end of the second world war Lustiger lives in Frankfurt and has built up a successful company for ladies' fashion. He wrote articels about the German-Jewish history, the Spanish civil war, the Jewish resistance and the persecution of Jews by Stalin. From 2004 to 2006 he was visiting professor at the Fritz-Bauer-Institute in Frankfurt. On January 27th 2005, Arno Lustiger held a speech in front of the German Bundestag together with Wolf Biermann On September 10th 2006 one of his essays was printed in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung which included comments about the latest book of Günter Grass.
awards
- 1984 - Order of Merit of the federal Republic of Germany
- 1994 - Bundesverdienstkreuz Ist class
- 1999 - Moses Mendelssohn award
- 1999 - Goethe medal of the city Frankfurt am Main
- 2000 - International Brücke award of Görlitz
- 2001 - Heinz-Galinski-price (shared with Wolf Biermann)
- 2003 - honorary doctorate of University of Potsdam
- 2007 - professor of Hessen