German Jew who helped about 600 Jewish children escape the Holocaust. He was a member of the Dutch Jewish council (Dutch: Joodsche Raad) during the Second World War.
Süskind was born the first child of Heymann Süskind (20 August 1878, Giessen – 29 Aug 1931, Giessen) and Frieda Kessler (5 June 1931, Giessen, Ger – 25 Oct 1944 Auschwitz). He had two younger brothers, Karl Marx Süskind (born 22 August 1908, Lüdenscheid) and Alfred Süskind (b. 1911). Frieda came from a liberal Jewish family of small business people; his father Heymann was orthodox. His father had dual nationality, as his grandparents Bernard Süskind (b. 3 May 1852, Denekamp) and Eva Bloemendal (b. 24 Dec 1847, 7 AM, Winschoten) were Dutch (the name was written as Sèuskind).
They first lived at Schillerstrasse 7a, later they moved to Grabenstrasse 1 (1 Grave street). In 1913 they moved to Giessen where they resided at Neuenweg 29, owned by Frieda’s father. In the University City Giessen were the parents first met, the family adopted a few months old orphan with the name Robert Salzberg (1915/6). They were looking for a girl to complete the family, but the infant was so sweet that they adopted him.
Süskind initially worked as a manager of a margarine factory in Germany. In March 1938, he fled to the Netherlands with the intention to emigrate to the United States, because of the persecution of Jews by the Nazis. From 1942 until his deportation to Westerbork, he lived at the Nieuwe Prinsengracht 51 in the center of Amsterdam with his wife Johanna Natt (11 November 1906 – 1944) and their daughter Yvonne Süskind (28 March 1939, Bergen op Zoom – 1944). During the Second World War he became involved in helping children escape the Holocaust via the nursery on the Plantage Middenlaan in Amsterdam.
Süskind worked for the Dutch Jewish council (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judenrat Judenrat). He was the manager of the Hollandsche Schouwburg (Dutch Theater), where the Jews of Amsterdam had to report themselves prior to their deportation to the Westerbork transit camp. In that position he could manipulate the personal data of children in particular. His close relationship with the German authorities helped him in his activities to help children escape. He especially tried to get close with the SS officer aus der Fünten, who was then the second man of the Central Office for Jewish Emigration in Amsterdam.
Opposite the Hollandsche Schouwburg on the Plantage Middenlaan, there was a nursery. The Nazis put the young children there instead of in the theater. The Jewish director of the nursery, Henriette Henriques Pimentel, together with Süskind and economist Felix Halverstad (who also worked at the Hollandsche Schouwburg), set up a system to rescue children via the nursery. Children were secretly brought to the Hervormde Kweekschool (Reformed Teacher Training College), two houses from the theater. They got there through the garden. They received help from the head of the school, Johan van Hulst. From there, the children went into a backpack, shopping bag or laundry basket to be transported to Limburg and Friesland by train and tram, often with help from the Utrechts Kindercomité (Utrecht Children’s Committee) of Piet Meerburg and the NV, a secret organization that managed to organize many addresses in Limburg. Süskind and Felix Halverstad ensured that these children were not registered and removed their names from the records of the theater. Thanks to this plan, about 600 children were saved.
In 1944, Süskind, his wife and his daughter were sent to the Westerbork transit camp. Due to his good relations with the SS leadership of the Dutch Theater, he could return to Amsterdam, but he eventually went back to his family in Westerbork. He tried to set up a “knokploeg” (fighting gang) to let people escape en masse from the transit camp Westerbork, but failed. On 3 September 1944, the family were sent with the last train from Westerbork to Theresienstadt concentration camp in German-occupied Czechoslovakia. The circumstances here were cruel and inhumane, but Theresienstadt was not yet a termination camp like Sobibór, Auschwitz, Majdanek and Treblinka, that were set up to kill most prisoners on arrival. Again Süskind tried to help his family and orphans. Prevention from being sent to the camps in the East was essential for survival. For this he tried to contact the head of the camp Karl Rahm with a letter of one of the Vier von Breda, Ferdinand aus der Fünten (1909-1989), pleading to him. Also deported with him was professor David Cohen, his supervisor at the Dutch Jewish council, he tried by pleading and prayer to influence the Judenälteste in Theresienstadt, rabbi Benjamin Murmelstein (9 June 1905, Lviv – 27 October 1989, Rome), to spare him, but without success.
On 25 October 1944 the Süskind family arrived by train at Auschwitz concentration camp. On arrival they were separated. His daughter, wife and mother-in-law were gassed immediately. Walter was selected for forced labour. Probably Walter died around 28 February 1945 at an unknown location in the freezing cold of central Europe during the death marches, when the Nazis fled from the Red Army. Another version is that he was killed in Auschwitz by Dutch prison-mates who did not know of his heroic deeds to rescue children and only knew him as a Nazi regime collaborator.
On 19 January 2012, the Dutch movie Süskind by Rudolf van den Berg (6 January 1949, Rotterdam, a 2nd generation child of Holocaust survivors) was released. The movie was based on the life of Walter Süskind. The budget of the film was 6 million euros (compare to List of most expensive films).
A book titled Süskind written by Dutch author Alex van Galen described Walter Süskind’s life when working for the Hollandsche Schouwburg.
Link to Wikipedia biography