Julius L. Seligsohn

Dr. Julius L. Seligsohn was a German attorney, activist, and social worker. During World War I, he earned the Iron Cross First Class and was promoted to Lieutenant, both rare accomplishments for a man of Jewish heritage. After the war, Seligsohn followed his father into law practice and served as an expert in matters of patents and intellectual property. In 1933, he became a founding member of the National Council of German Jews (Reichsvertretung der Deutschen Juden). Emigration soon became the most pressing task for the organization, which helped thousands of Jews escape the country prior to the Holocaust. Seligsohn, as a confidant of Leo Baeck, played a key role in emigration and became a critical link between several important Jewish organizations. In 1940, he published a guidebook for Jewish residents of Germany hoping to emigrate to the United States. Later that year, Seligsohn participated in several actions protesting a mass deportation of Jews and was soon arrested. Following detention in Gestapo headquarters at Alexanderplatz Berlin, he was sent to the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, where in he died at the age of 51 in early 1942.