Berthold Beitz

Berthold Beitz (; 26 September 1913 – 30 July 2013) was a German industrialist. He was the head of the Krupp steel conglomerate beginning in the 1950s. He was credited with helping to lead the re-industrialization of the Ruhr Valley and rebuilding Germany into an industrial power.

He and his wife Else Beitz gained acclaim for saving Jewish workers during World War II by declaring them to be essential workers at an oil facility. He pulled 250 people off a train headed for the Belzec extermination camp in July 1942. In 1973, for saving Jews, he received the Righteous Among the Nations title awarded by the Israeli Yad Vashem, the highest honor given to a non-Jew.

Early years Beitz was born in 1913 in Zemmin, Hither Pomerania. He began his career as a banker at the "Pommersche Bank" in Stralsund and started to work for Shell Oil Company in Hamburg in 1938.

World War II Beitz remained in the employ of Shell Oil when World War II began in 1939. Following Germany's invasion and occupation of Borysław in July 1941, Beitz was assigned to supervise the Carpathian Oil Company operating the Borysław oil fields in what is now Ukraine. Given the importance of the oil fields to the German war effort, Beitz was able to designate workers as essential to the war effort. The Borysław area had a large Jewish population, with many Jews holding positions as chemical engineers, laboratory assistants, mechanics, and laborers in the area's oil industry. Beitz recalled, "I should have employed qualified personnel. Instead, I chose tailors, hairdressers and Talmudic scholars and gave them all cards as vital 'petroleum technicians.'" He also issued and signed fake work permits to save other Jews from the death camps. In 1943, Beitz's efforts were nearly exposed after two Jewish girls were arrested on a train to Hungary with forged "Aryan" permits signed by Beitz. Beitz survived despite a Gestapo investigation into the incident, but he was drafted into the German army in March 1944.

Beitz later explained his motivation: "I saw how people were shot, how they were lined up in the night. My motives were not political; they were purely humane, moral motives."

In 2000, he received the Leo-Baeck Award, the highest honor bestowed by the Central Council of Jews in Germany.

In July 2013, Beitz died at age 99 at his holiday home on the island of Sylt off the northern coast of Germany. He was survived by his wife Else and three daughters. Honorary doctorate from the Ruhr University Bochum, because of his "ministry of science and education in the Ruhr area" (1999) Leo Baeck Prize of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, together with his wife Else Beitz (2000) Leibniz Medal of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences (2000) Honorary citizen of the city of Kiel (2003) Honorary citizen of the city of Bochum during the ceremony for the 40th birthday at the Ruhr University Bochum (2005) Honorary senator of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (since 2008, National Academy of Sciences) (2005) Honorary citizen of the city of Essen (single award since 1949) naming the new road through the former Krupp factory premises at the new ThyssenKrupp Headquarters as Berthold Beitz Boulevard (2007) Hall of Fame of German Sport (2008) The Chair for Human Rights at Harvard University on the science campus of the Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-University of Greifswald is named the Berthold Beitz place after the chairman of the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen and Halbach named Foundation, which promotes university and city for years (2008) Moses Mendelssohn Medal for the rescue of persecuted Jews (2010) Honorary senator of the College of Jewish Studies in Heidelberg (2010) State Prize of North Rhine-Westphalia with his wife Else Beitz (2011) Lew Kopelew Prize (2012) Emperor Leopold I Medal of the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina (2012) Honorary citizen of the University of Duisburg-Essen Honorary citizen of Gerlos, Tyrol