17 Facts About Benjamin Murmelstein

Benjamin Israel Murmelstein was an Austrian rabbi.

Benjamin Murmelstein was one of 17 community rabbis in Vienna in 1938 and the only one remaining in Vienna by late 1939.

Benjamin Murmelstein was the only "Judenaltester" to survive the Holocaust.

Benjamin Murmelstein helped thousands of Jews in emigrating and is accused of being a Nazi collaborator.

Benjamin Murmelstein was interviewed by Claude Lanzmann in 1975 and was the subject of a posthumous 2013 documentary, The Last of the Unjust, based on the interviews.

Benjamin Murmelstein died in obscurity, but since the release of the documentary he and his role in the Holocaust have become the subject of increased media and scholarly attention.

Benjamin Murmelstein became deputy chairman of the Jewish Council of Elders in Vienna, a group created by the Nazis, and for years was involved in Eichmann's work to remove Jews from Austria, witnessing the Nazi policies firsthand.

Benjamin Murmelstein worked with the IKG to help over 125,000 Jews leave the country by 1941, but in that year the Germans began closing the borders as their emigration policies were evolving towards those of internment and extermination.

In 1943, Benjamin Murmelstein was himself interned in the camp of Theresienstadt, or Terezin, in a former Czechoslovakian fortress.

The Judenrat of Theresienstadt was, at the time of Benjamin Murmelstein's arrival, led by Jakob Edelstein.

Benjamin Murmelstein developed a reputation for ruthless implementation of Nazi policy, for instance driving his fellow prisoners to work in spite of their starvation for 70 hours a week to meet Nazi quotas.

Benjamin Murmelstein purportedly refused to grant exemptions for deportations to Auschwitz unless a substitution was offered, and he was alleged to accept bribes to keep people from being added to those doomed to that fate.

However, the Czechoslovak government was unable to build a case, and at the end of 1946 Benjamin Murmelstein was released to emigrate with his family to Rome.

Benjamin Murmelstein's son was denied the right to recite the Kaddish over his grave.

Benjamin Murmelstein volunteered to stand as a witness to Eichmann's war crimes at Eichmann's trial before the Jerusalem District Court, but was not called.

Benjamin Murmelstein has been compared to Josephus Flavius, a classical Roman-Jewish historian widely regarded as a Jewish traitor whose work Benjamin Murmelstein himself anthologized in 1938, the same year he began working with the IKG.

Benjamin Murmelstein characterized his own behavior during the war and in Theresienstadt as doing the best he could in a bad situation.