User:Eli185/Hans Kroch

Hans Kroch (full name Hans Meyer Zwi Kroch) (* June 3, 1887 in Leipzig; † February 7, 1970 in Jerusalem) was a German-Jewish banker.

Life
Kroch attended the König-Albert-Gymnasium in Leipzig. In 1922 he joined Privatbank Kroch jr. KG a. A., founded by his father Martin Samuel Kroch (* November 20, 1853, † October 25, 1926) in 1877, and later became a personally liable partner. In 1923, he was a founding and supervisory board member of Leipziger Messe- und Ausstellungs-AG.

In 1928, Bankhaus Kroch moved into the Kroch high-rise building on Augustusplatz, designed by the architect German Bestelmeyer. At 43 meters high, it was Leipzig's first high-rise building. In addition, as the main shareholder of AG für Haus- und Grundbesitz, Kroch financed the construction of the Krochsiedlung in Leipzig-Gohlis in 1929-1930, which was soon popularly named after him, a residential complex of early social housing in the style of classical modernism. In the course of the "Aryanization" of German companies by the National Socialists, Kroch was arrested on November 10, 1938, after the Pogrom Night and deported to the Buchenwald concentration camp, later Sachsenhausen. Only after he had submitted a waiver of the corporate assets of Bankhaus Kroch on behalf of all family members was he released and the bank finally taken over by Industrie- und Handelsbank AG. Kroch managed to escape to Amsterdam together with his children, later he emigrated to Argentina and finally to Israel, where he built the hotel complex Eretz Hatzvi ("Hirschland", later renamed Holyland) in the Jerusalem suburb Bayit veGan. His wife Ella Kroch, née Baruch (* 16 July 1896 in Karlsruhe, d. 12 May 1942 in Ravensbrück), who initially stayed behind to conceal the escape, was however arrested during her own escape. She was deported to Ravensbrück concentration camp in 1940 and murdered there two years later.

The son Jacob fell in 1948 in the Israeli War of Independence during the battle for Kibbutz Nitzanim. In his memory, Hans Kroch donated the Holyland model to the city of Jerusalem. It has been on the campus of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem since 2006.

Literature

 * Hans-Otto Spithaler, Rolf H. Weber, Monika Zimmermann: Kroch – der Name bleibt. Das Schicksal eines jüdischen Familienunternehmens in Leipzig. Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle (Saale) 2018, ISBN 978-3-96311-007-8.
 * Horst Riedel: Stadtlexikon Leipzig von A bis Z. Pro Leipzig, Leipzig 2005, ISBN 3-936508-03-8.
 * Rainer Behrends: Bankhaus Kroch. Die Fassade des ersten Hochhauses am Augustusplatz ist saniert. Leipziger Blätter. Heft 40. Passage-Verlag, Leipzig 2002, S. 10–13 (Auszug im Web).
 * Cornelia Junge: Das Glockenspiel versöhnte. Die Geschichte des Kroch-Hauses. Universität Leipzig Journal. Heft 4/2002, S. 39–41 (PDF-Version).

Weblinks

 * Kroch, Ella In: Stolpersteine-Guide.de