Curt Lowens (17 November 1925 â€" 8 May 2017) was an actor of the
stage and in feature films and television, as well as a Holocaust
survivor and a rescuer who saved about 150 Jewish children during the
Holocaust.Born Curt Löwenstein in the East Prussian town of
Allenstein (now Olsztyn, Poland), his father was a respected lawyer,
and his mother was active with several local Jewish community
organizations. His father's career declined due to loss of clients
after the Nazis' takeover of Germany, so the family moved to Berlin
hoping that the city's large Jewish community could provide more
protection. Young Curt continued to receive an education and to
prepare for his bar mitzvah under the guidance of Rabbi Manfred
Swarsensky of the Fasanenstrasse Synagogue. After the violence of
Kristallnacht (also known as the November Pogrom) in November 1938,
the Nazis closed his school. In early 1939, Lowens received his bar
mitzvah in a school auditorium with 34 other youths.Lowens' older
brother Heinz successfully emigrated to Britain a few months before
the start of World War II. Curt and his parents planned to emigrate to
the United States via the neutral Netherlands in early 1940. While
waiting to depart from Rotterdam, however, the Germans invaded the
Netherlands on the intended day of their departure. During the first
two years of the German occupation, Curt's father worked at a desk job
for the Jewish Council in Amsterdam, which initially saved the family
from deportation to Auschwitz. Nonetheless, Curt and his mother were
rounded up, unexpectedly, and deported to Westerbork in June 1943, but
they were released through his father's connections.
stage and in feature films and television, as well as a Holocaust
survivor and a rescuer who saved about 150 Jewish children during the
Holocaust.Born Curt Löwenstein in the East Prussian town of
Allenstein (now Olsztyn, Poland), his father was a respected lawyer,
and his mother was active with several local Jewish community
organizations. His father's career declined due to loss of clients
after the Nazis' takeover of Germany, so the family moved to Berlin
hoping that the city's large Jewish community could provide more
protection. Young Curt continued to receive an education and to
prepare for his bar mitzvah under the guidance of Rabbi Manfred
Swarsensky of the Fasanenstrasse Synagogue. After the violence of
Kristallnacht (also known as the November Pogrom) in November 1938,
the Nazis closed his school. In early 1939, Lowens received his bar
mitzvah in a school auditorium with 34 other youths.Lowens' older
brother Heinz successfully emigrated to Britain a few months before
the start of World War II. Curt and his parents planned to emigrate to
the United States via the neutral Netherlands in early 1940. While
waiting to depart from Rotterdam, however, the Germans invaded the
Netherlands on the intended day of their departure. During the first
two years of the German occupation, Curt's father worked at a desk job
for the Jewish Council in Amsterdam, which initially saved the family
from deportation to Auschwitz. Nonetheless, Curt and his mother were
rounded up, unexpectedly, and deported to Westerbork in June 1943, but
they were released through his father's connections.
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