Herbert Julius Pollak
| Born: |
04-17-1917 |
| Faculty: |
Law School |
| Category: |
Expelled student |
Herbert (Julius) POLLAK, born on April 17th, 1917 in Vienna/Austria (entitled residency ('heimatberechtigt') for Prague [Praha]/Czechoslovakia, Citizenship: Czechoslovakia), son of Dr. Fritz Pollak (authorized officer ('Prokurist'), official at the car manufacturer Škoda, born August 9, 1890 in Prague, died in 1942) and his wife Ella (née Berger, born July 23, 1893 in Prague). His parents married in March 1915 in Vienna and they all lived in Vienna 3rd district, Dapontegasse 9/1/12.
After Herbert Pollak had graduated from high school ('Akademisches Gymnasium') in Vienna 1st district in June 1935, he began to study law at the University of Vienna. He was finally enrolled in spring term 1938 at the Law School in the 3rd year of his studies, but – as a "Jew" – was not allowed to continue his studies under National Socialism.
Since July 1938 his whereabouts were unknown to the Viennese register of residence – he was officially unregistered later in January 1940.
His parents were deregistered on November 18th, 1938, leaving Vienna for Prague, where both of them were born. His father died on June 16th, 1942 at ghetto Litzmannstadt [Łódź]/Poland.
Herbert Pollak was able to emigrate to the Netherlands. He arrived in Amsterdam on October 8th, 1938, found a job as an office clerk and lived in the guesthouse Davidsohn, in Vossiusstraat 50 bovenhuis. After the German Wehrmacht occupied the Netherlands in 1940, the Nazis began to arrest Jews in Amsterdam systematically in February 1941 and deported them first to the concentration camp Buchenwald, then to the concentration camp Mauthausen. In preparation of targeted raids and arrests the German Generalkommissariat für das Sicherheitswesen (Höhere SS- und Polizeiführer Nord-West) kept lists with the names and addresses of resident Jews and political opponents – Herbert Pollak’s name appears there.
After two actions of the political resistance, the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) carried the second major raid in Amsterdam and surroundings on 11th, June 1941. Especially in the southern part of Amsterdam, where Pollak lived, they arrested Jews on the street, in their houses and in public buildings. Herbert Pollak was also arrested on June 11th, 1941 and – like the other arrested persons – brought to the headquarters of the Sicherheitsdienst at the Euterpestraat. Some of the prisoners were released because of health issues, but Herbert Pollak was deported to Kamp Schoorl, a transit camp ('Polizeiliches Durchgangslager') near Alkmaar in North Holland, together with 309 other Jews.
Together with the other prisoners, he was deported by train to the concentration camp Mauthausen on June 25th and 26th, 1941 (Prisoner’s No. 1195), where he died only a few months later on October 17th, 1941.
Lit.: Vienna University Archive: Nationale Law School 1935-1938; NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Amsterdam (archival collection 077: Generalkommissariat für das Sicherheitswesen), information from Marieke Zoodsma MA, 2015; Mauthausen Memorial Archives, database of prisoners and register of deaths (AMM/Y46, No. 4519); Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance (DÖW): Austrian Victims of the Holocaust; Database "Room of Names: The Deceased of KZ Mauthausen"; Joods Monument; Yad Vashem – The Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names, cited there: In Memoriam - Nederlandse oorlogsslachtoffers, Nederlandse Oorlogsgravenstichting (Dutch War Victims Authority), Den Haag; Archive of the Jewish Community Vienna, Auswandererkartei, information 2014; Vienna City archive, Historical Central Registration of Viennese inhabitants, information 2014; Roel HIJINK, Das Internierungs- und Durchgangslager Schoorl, in: Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel (eds.), Terror im Westen. Nationalsozialistische Lager in den Niederlanden, Belgien und Luxemburg 1940-1945, Berlin 2004, 101-113, esp. 105-107.
Katharina Kniefacz and Herbert Posch
