Kurt May
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Kurt May (1896–1992) was director of the
United Restitution Organization The United Restitution Organization (URO) was established in 1948 as a legal aid service to assist victims of Nazi persecution living outside Germany in making restitution and indemnification claims against Germany and Austria. The URO has served o ...
, which assisted victims of
Nazism Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was fre ...
, from its inception in 1948 to his retirement at age 91, in 1988. For more than forty years he played a leading role in efforts to obtain compensation for
Jews Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
and Roma (Gypsies) who had been persecuted, maltreated and robbed of their possessions by the
Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
. He presided over a worldwide organization with branches in 19 countries and a staff of more than 1000. In the course of its existence, the URO aided over 500,000 people. He also virtually singlehandedly convinced the postwar German government to admit that the Nazis had persecuted Roma on grounds of race and ethnicity. The decision was made in a 1956 German court ruling after a 10-year legal battle, and opened up the possibility of Roma claiming compensation for Nazi crimes.
Benjamin Ferencz Benjamin Berell Ferencz (March 11, 1920 – April 7, 2023) was an American lawyer. He was an investigator of Nazi war crimes after World War II and the chief prosecutor for the United States Army at the Einsatzgruppen trial, one of the 12 subse ...
, the Chief Prosecutor for the United States Army at the postwar
Nuremberg war crimes trials #REDIRECT Nuremberg trials #REDIRECT Nuremberg trials {{redirect category shell, {{R from other capitalisation{{R from move ...
{{redirect category shell, {{R from other capitalisation{{R from move ...
, wrote in his book ''"Less than Slaves'' (1979) that Kurt May, with whom Ferencz had worked on behalf of
Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...
victims, had also been one of the driving forces in efforts to obtain compensation for former Jewish slave laborers who had been forced to work under horrendous and often fatal conditions at I.G. Farben and other companies which collaborated closely with the Nazi SS.
I.G. Farben I. G. Farbenindustrie AG, commonly known as IG Farben, was a German chemical and pharmaceutical conglomerate. It was formed on December 2, 1925 from a merger of six chemical companies: Agfa, BASF, Bayer, Griesheim-Elektron, Hoechst, and We ...
was the privately-owned German chemicals conglomerate allied with the Nazis that manufactured the Zyklon B gas used to commit genocide against millions of European Jews in the
Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...
. Industrialists from the company were tried at the
IG Farben trial ''The United States of America vs. Carl Krauch, et al.'', also known as the IG Farben Trial, was the sixth of the twelve trials for war crimes the U.S. authorities held in their occupation zone in Germany (Nuremberg) after the end of World War I ...
.


Early life

Kurt May was born into a prosperous and assimilated
German-Jewish The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321 CE, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (c. 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish commu ...
family in the German town of
Meiningen Meiningen () is a town in the southern part of the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in the region of Franconia and has a population of around 26,000 (2024).
on August 15, 1896. He fought on behalf of Germany in the First World War, serving in the Ardennes and at the Russian front, and was decorated for his bravery. He was also an outstanding tennis player and played in various international tournaments as a young man. After the war and his successful law degree he built up a thriving legal practice in
Jena Jena (; ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 in ...
. His associate was Walter Ledermann. With the rise of Hitler and the Nazi regime's anti-Jewish legislation of April 7, 1933 - the "
Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service The Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service (, shortened to ''Berufsbeamtengesetz''), also known as Civil Service Law, Civil Service Restoration Act, and Law to Re-establish the Civil Service, was enacted by the Nazi Party, Na ...
" and the "Act of Admission to Legal Profession" Kurt May was banned from his profession. May was also singled out by the Nazis for attack after he defended a prominent Social Democrat politician who was falsely accused by the Nazis of being a communist. In consequence of the Nazi persecution of Jews, Kurt May left for Palestine in 1934.


Family

In
Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
in 1937 he married Vera Feinberg, a fellow German-Jewish refugee who later became a judge. All their relatives in Germany were murdered in the Holocaust. They had a daughter in Jerusalem,
Miriam Gross Miriam Gross, Lady Owen is a British literary editor and writer. She was the deputy literary editor of ''The Observer'' from 1969–81, the women's editor of ''The Observer'' from 1981–84, the arts editor of ''The Daily Telegraph'' from 198 ...
, who went on to become a distinguished
literary editor A literary editor is a editor responsible for refining and overseeing the quality of written content in a newspaper, magazine or other publication. Literary editor deals with aspects concerning literature and books, especially reviews. A literary ...
in London, and who married intellectual
John Gross John Gross FRSL (12 March 1935 – 10 January 2011) was an English man of letters. A leading intellectual, writer, anthologist, and critic. ''The Guardian'' (in a tribute titled "My Hero") and ''The Spectator'' were among several publication ...
. His grandson
Tom Gross Tom Gross is a British-born journalist, international affairs commentator, and human rights campaigner specializing in the Middle East. Gross was formerly a foreign correspondent for the London '' Sunday Telegraph'' and ''New York Daily News''. ...
is a journalist and international affairs commentator who has also worked for Roma and other human rights issues; his granddaughter
Susanna Gross Susanna Gross has been literary editor of ''The Mail on Sunday'' since 1999 and bridge columnist for ''The Spectator'' since 2000. She has played bridge in many national and international competitions and represented England in home internationa ...
is a bridge correspondent and literary editor of ''
The Mail on Sunday ''The Mail on Sunday'' is a British conservative newspaper, published in a tabloid format. Founded in 1982 by Lord Rothermere, it is the biggest-selling Sunday newspaper in the UK. Its sister paper, the ''Daily Mail'', was first published i ...
''.


Obituaries

May died, aged 95, in 1992. Obituaries appeared in major newspapers in Europe in 1992 but have not yet been put on line. ''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...
'' wrote in its obituary (June 1, 1992) "Kurt May was engaged in an historic act of redress and helped tens of thousands to rebuild their lives." ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' wrote in its obituary (June 3, 1992) "May was an outstanding personality. Hundreds of thousands of former Nazi victims in many different countries have good reason to be grateful to him." In its obituary, ''
The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'' (June 3, 1992) wrote: "There are literally hundreds of thousands of people who may have never heard the name of Kurt May but who are heavily in his debt. He conducted his work with a passion for justice, an unshakable belief in the right to demand the redress for wrongs and always maintained the greatest degree of dignity in the pursuit of this cause." ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
'' of London added (June 3, 1992): "As a young man Kurt May had been strikingly handsome, and he retained his looks in old age, along with an uncomplicated sense of humour and much of the stamina that had once made him an outstanding tennis player. At the age of ninety he could still set out on an Alpine walk and leave companions half his age puffing and wheezing as they tried to keep up."


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:May, Kurt 1896 births 1992 deaths German Jewish military personnel of World War I Romani advocacy People of the Holocaust Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to Mandatory Palestine