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Walter Frankenstein, who survived the Holocaust by hiding in Berlin, dies at 100

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Walter Frankenstein, who survived the Holocaust by hiding in Berlin, dies at 100
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News

Walter Frankenstein, who survived the Holocaust by hiding in Berlin, dies at 100

2025-04-22 21:40 Last Updated At:21:51

BERLIN (AP) — Walter Frankenstein, who survived the Holocaust by hiding in Berlin with his wife and infant children and spent his later years educating young people to keep the events alive in memory, has died. He was 100.

Klaus Hillenbrand, a close friend who wrote a book about Frankenstein, confirmed the death on Tuesday. He said Frankenstein died on Monday. The foundation that oversees Berlin's Holocaust memorial also confirmed that he died Monday in Stockholm.

Frankenstein was born in 1924 in Flatow in what is now Poland but was then part of Germany. Three years after the Nazis came to power, in 1936, he was no longer allowed to attend the town’s public school because he was Jewish.

With the help of an uncle, his mother sent him to Berlin where he could continue his school education, and he later trained as a bricklayer at the Jewish community’s vocational school. He stayed at the Jewish Auerbach’sche Orphanage where he met Leonie Rosner, who would later become his wife.

In an interview with The Associated Press in 2018, Frankenstein described how he witnessed Kristallnacht — the “Night of Broken Glass” on November 9, 1938, when Nazis, among them many ordinary Germans, terrorized Jews throughout Germany and Austria. They killed at least 91 people and vandalized 7,500 Jewish businesses. They also burned more than 1,400 synagogues, according to Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial. Up to 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and taken to concentration camps.

Frankenstein, who was then 14, climbed on the roof of the orphanage and saw fire lighting up the city.

“Then we knew: the synagogues were burning,” he said. “The next morning, when I had to go to school, there was sparkling, broken glass everywhere on the streets.”

Starting in 1941, Frankenstein had to do forced labor in Berlin, repeatedly threatened by the danger of being deported by the Nazis.

In 1943, five weeks after their son Peter-Uri was born, he went into hiding with his wife, Leonie, as the Nazis were deporting thousands of Jews from Berlin to Auschwitz.

“We had promised ourselves not to do what Hitler wanted,” Frankenstein told the AP. “So we went into hiding.”

Together with their baby, the couple spent 25 months in hiding in Berlin. A second son, Michael, was born in 1944, during their time on the run. They stayed with friends or in bombed-out buildings.

Up to 7,000 Berlin Jews had gone into hiding, but only 1,700 of them were able to survive. The others were either arrested, died of illness or perished in air raids.

In 1945, when Berlin was liberated by the Soviet Red Army, Frankenstein’s children were among the youngest of a total of only 25 Jewish children who had survived in Berlin.

Before the Holocaust, Berlin had the biggest Jewish community in Germany. In 1933, the year the Nazis came to power, around 160,500 Jews lived in Berlin. By the end of World War II in 1945 their numbers had diminished to about 7,000 through emigration and extermination.

All in all, some 6 million European Jews were murdered in the Holocaust.

After the collapse of the Nazis’ Third Reich, the Frankensteins immigrated to what was then Palestine and later became Israel. Eleven years later, in 1956, they moved to Sweden, where they settled for good.

Later in life, Walter Frankenstein returned to Germany several times a year. He often talked to schoolchildren about his life and in 2014, he received Germany’s highest honor, the Order of Merit.

He was also an ardent fan of the Hertha Berlin soccer club. As a teenager he went to its games, and when Jews were no longer allowed to visit the stadium he would listen to reports of matches on the radio. In 2018, Frankenstein became an honorary member of the club with the membership number 1924, his year of birth.

Every time Frankenstein traveled to Berlin in his later years, he brought along the small blue case containing the Order of Merit. Inside the case’s lid, he had attached the first “mark” he got from the Germans: the yellow badge, or Jewish star, that he had to wear during the Nazi reign to identify him as a Jew.

“The first one marked me, the second one honored me,” he said.

FILE - In this Nov. 5, 2018 photo Walter Frankenstein poses for a photo at the orphanage memorial site for an interview with the Associated Press in Berlin. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)

FILE - In this Nov. 5, 2018 photo Walter Frankenstein poses for a photo at the orphanage memorial site for an interview with the Associated Press in Berlin. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)

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Bobby Witt Jr. homers as Royals earn 3-game sweep with 8-2 win over Rays

2025-05-02 06:09 Last Updated At:06:12

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Bobby Witt Jr. homered to extend his hitting streak to 22 games and had three RBIs, Seth Lugo pitched solid six innings and the Kansas City Royals earned a three-game sweep of the Tampa Bay Rays with an 8-2 victory on Thursday.

Vinnie Pasquantino had a single, a double and two RBIs for the Royals, who have won nine of their past 10.

The crowd of 8,794 was the first non-sellout in 22 games this season for the Rays at Steinbrenner Field.

Mikael Garcia hit a line-drive double to center field for the Royals, stole third base and then scored on a sacrifice fly by Michael Massey to tie it 1-1 in the fourth.

Lugo (3-3) gave up two runs and five hits with five strikeouts. Daniel Lynch IV, Angel Zerpa and Chris Stratton each threw a scoreless inning of relief for the Royals.

Shane Baz (3-1) gave up seven runs and nine hits with three walks over 5 2/3 innings and had his ERA increase from 2.45 to 3.86.

Yandy Díaz hit a solo homer in the first for the Rays. Jonathan Aranda added an RBI single in the sixth.

Salvador Perez (hip soreness) left the game in the seventh inning. The 34-year-old catcher was in the lineup at designated hitter, replaced behind the plate by Freddie Fermin. Perez hit an RBI double in the fifth and Fermin had a double, a single and scored twice.

Witt hit a two-out, two-run homer down the line in right field to spark a three-run fifth that gave the Royals a 4-1 lead.

Witt has a hit in 22 consecutive games, tied with Brian McRae (in 1991) for the sixth-longest hitting streak in Royals history.

Right-hander Michael Wacha (1-3, 3.38 ERA) is scheduled to take the mound on Friday in the first of a three-game series in Baltimore. RHP Dean Kremer (1-3, 7.04 ERA) is expected to pitch for the Orioles.

Rays RHP Ryan Pepiot (2-3, 4.24 ERA) is set to face left-hander Max Fried (5-0, 1.19 ERA) on Friday to start a three-game series against the Yankees in New York.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB

Kansas City Royals first base Vinnie Pasquantino gets Tampa Bay Rays' Chandler Simpson (14) out on a close play during the first inning of a baseball game Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Kansas City Royals first base Vinnie Pasquantino gets Tampa Bay Rays' Chandler Simpson (14) out on a close play during the first inning of a baseball game Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Tampa Bay Rays' Yandy Díaz jokes with third base coach Brady Williams (4) after Diaz hit a solo home run off Kansas City Royals pitcher Seth Lugo during the first inning of a baseball game Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Tampa Bay Rays' Yandy Díaz jokes with third base coach Brady Williams (4) after Diaz hit a solo home run off Kansas City Royals pitcher Seth Lugo during the first inning of a baseball game Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Tampa Bay Rays third base Junior Caminero catches a pop fly by Kansas City Royals' Michael Massey during the second inning of a baseball game Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Tampa Bay Rays third base Junior Caminero catches a pop fly by Kansas City Royals' Michael Massey during the second inning of a baseball game Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Tampa Bay Rays' Shane Baz pitches to the Kansas City Royals during the second inning of a baseball game Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Tampa Bay Rays' Shane Baz pitches to the Kansas City Royals during the second inning of a baseball game Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Kansas City Royals' Seth Lugo pitches to the Tampa Bay Rays during the second inning of a baseball game Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Kansas City Royals' Seth Lugo pitches to the Tampa Bay Rays during the second inning of a baseball game Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Kansas City Royals' Maikel Garcia steals third base under Tampa Bay Rays' Junior Caminero (13) during the second inning of a baseball game Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Kansas City Royals' Maikel Garcia steals third base under Tampa Bay Rays' Junior Caminero (13) during the second inning of a baseball game Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Kansas City Royals pitcher Seth Lugo (67) delivers to the Tampa Bay Rays during the first inning of a baseball game Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Kansas City Royals pitcher Seth Lugo (67) delivers to the Tampa Bay Rays during the first inning of a baseball game Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Kansas City Royals' Bobby Witt Jr. watches his two-run home run off Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Shane Baz during the fifth inning of a baseball game Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Kansas City Royals' Bobby Witt Jr. watches his two-run home run off Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Shane Baz during the fifth inning of a baseball game Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

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