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Obituary: Hans Frankenthal, Holocaust survivor led effort against German firms
Friday, December 31, 1999 By Sally Kalson, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Hans Frankenthal, a Holocaust survivor who returned to Germany after the war and later emerged as a leader of the effort to force German companies to compensate former slave laborers and victims of medical experiments, was memorialized Wednesday in his home city of Dortmund, Germany. He died Dec. 22 after a short, unspecified illness.
Mr. Frankenthal, 73, visited Pittsburgh in November to speak about his efforts to get Bayer AG, a forerunner and descendent of the German conglomerate I.G. Farben, to recognize the claims of aging slave laborers by paying into a joint compensation fund with other German companies that used them under the Nazis.
A former slave laborer at I.G. Farben and a victim of medical experimentation at Auschwitz, Mr. Frankenthal accused German companies of dragging their feet in hopes that the remaining survivors would die off, providing a "biological solution" to their dilemma.
Mr. Frankenthal lived long enough to see a $5.1 billion compensation fund agreed upon in principle, but died too soon to collect a penny.
Born in 1926 in a small town where his family was in the cattle business, Mr. Frankenthal and his brother, Ernst, survived nearly two years as slave laborers.
Many Jews who survived the war wanted nothing more to do with Germany, but Mr. Frankenthal took the unusual step of returning to pick up the pieces. He retired from the cattle and butchery business and took up the cause of the former laborers, both Jewish and non-Jewish. In 1996, he tried to make his case at Bayer AG's annual stockholders meeting but was turned away.
Just a few months ago, he published his memoirs in German, and spoke about them in November at Barnes and Noble in Squirrel Hill.
Mr. Frankenthal was a member of the steering committee of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, as well as a board member of the Auschwitz Committee of the Federal Republic, the International Auschwitz Committee and the National Federation for Information and Assistance to Nazi Persecutees.
Pittsburghers who met Mr. Frankenthal during his visit are planning a memorial event, to be announced.
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