FEBRUAR 2016
Artifact of the month for February 2016
Fine for offending the Nazi-party
Fine for offending the Nazi-party
Kai Feinberg (1921 – 1995)
Kai Feinberg was born in Oslo on the 23rd of December 1921 as one of two children to Clara (b. Oster 1885 in Lithuania) and Elias Feinberg (b. 1894 in Oslo). His father Elias was one of the leading figures in the Jewish community in Oslo, and worked as Chairman of the Jewish Relief Society until his arrest on the 25th of November 1942.
The Feinberg family, who lived at Majorstua in Oslo, had by this time also taken in a young Jewish refugee from Austria, Johan Reiss (b. 1929). Kai Feinberg was arrested by Norwegian state police on the 26th of October 1942. One month later, Kai, along with 531 other Jewish prisoners, including his mother, father, sister and care brother were deported with the prison ship Donau to Stettin and from there to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Upon arrival Kais mother Clara, his sister Rachel and nursing brother Hansi were sent straight to the gas chamber.
Kai Feinberg survived over two and a half years in a camp where the average life of Jewish prisoners was under three months. Because of this Feinberg was summoned as one of the prosecution witnesses at the Nuremberg process, the trial of Nazi leaders after the war. He was the only survivor of his family. Kai Feinberg later became a driving force in the Mosaic congregations youth work and social work. From 1976 until his death he was the congregations’ leader.
The fine from 1941 is signed by State police inspector Knut Rød (1900-1986). It was Rød who in the autumn of 1942 organized the arrest of the Jews in Oslo. He was acquitted after the war and was reinstated as a police inspector.
Kai Feinberg (to the left) and his friend Kjell Dobkes (1923-1943) ca. 1940
The fine from 1941 is signed by State police inspector Knut Rød (1900-1986). It was Rød who in the autumn of 1942 organized the arrest of the Jews in Oslo. He was acquitted after the war and was reinstated as a police inspector.