The archives of the Brandenburg Museum contain a copy of a letter from Gerhard Conitzer to John Henry Richter from 1955, which also includes a brief description of Gerhard Conitzer’s life in Germany, before he fled to Bolivia.
According to his own account, Gerhard Conitzer managed to gain weight in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. “A unique case.” He is the son of Alfred Conitzer, former owner of several department stores. Gerhard Conitzer first studied law in Bonn, Freiburg, and Berlin. He worked as a trainee lawyer in Kiel, but was expelled while working on his doctoral thesis and had to abandon his training. From 1933 to 1938, he worked in his father’s department stores in Schwerin, Stendal, and Brandenburg, and as an authorized signatory under Richard Moses at the M. Conitzer & Söhne department store in Rathenow.
On the 9. Nov. 1938 more know as the “Kristallnacht”, he was arrested and imprisoned for five weeks in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. His parents bought his freedom for 100,000 Reichsmarks on the condition that he leave Germany. He went into exile. Bolivia was the country that gave him refuge, while other countries closed their borders to jews.
Guert, how people used to call him, ended up loving the country that gave him shelter. He used to say, it wa not a coincidence that his birthday was the 6th of august, the day of the nation.
Here you can find the transcript text of the letter as PDF written in german.
