The son of a Jewish doctor describes his father’s defiance in the face of Nazi oppression and his eventual emigration to Israel.
Ludwig Baruch was born in Hamburg in 1920, the son of Jewish parents. His father, Dr Siegfried Baruch, ran the largest insurance-based medical practice in town. Despite Nazi attempts to close it as early as 1935, he managed to keep it open until 1939. He and his wife sent their son to Palestine in 1936, following him there in 1939. Although Siegfried Baruch did try to work again as a doctor in Palestine, the family ended up running a farm instead, near Haifa in 1939. After his death in 1942, his son Ludwig took over the operation, and did not return to Hamburg until 1975. Ludwig Baruch died in 1997, shortly after visiting the newly opened exhibition, “Jews in Hamburg”.