Wilfrid Israel

The Jewish merchant and pacifist Wilfrid Israel was born in London on 11 July 1899. He was the owner of the Nathan Israel department store, one of the largest stores in Berlin at the time. In June 1933 he was first detained in the SA Prison Papestrasse and then interned in the Gestapo headquarters in Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse. Nevertheless, after his release in the year 1933, he continued to be actively engaged in such Jewish welfare organisations as the Central Committee for Relief and Development, the Youth Aliyah and the Relief Association of Jews in Germany. In 1939 he emigrated to London. Upon returning from a trip to Portugal and Spain in 1943 Wilfrid Israel was killed – the German Luftwaffe shot down the plane he was flying in. The „Wilfrid Israel Museum” has been located in the Hasorea Kibbutz near Haifa since 1951.