After the prohibition of Jews from attending state schools, he moved to Berlin in 1936 in the Auerbach orphanage. Since this year – since 1936 – Walter has been a fan of the football club Hertha BSC and was a loyal guest at their games in the former stadium at the Gesundbrunnen, the “Plumpe” until the ban.
In 1941 he met Leonie Rosner, whom he married the following year. Together with his wife and their first-born, six-week-old son, Walter Frankenstein went into hiding in Berlin, where his second son was born in 1944. The family emigrated to Palestine in 1946/47 and to Sweden in 1956.
It was not until 2018 that he attended a game of his favourite club for the first time since the Nazi persecution and the Second World War – in an honorary lodge in the Olympic Stadium. The association awarded him honorary membership with the number 1924, his year of birth.
In recent years, Walter Frankenstein has reported on his own fate in schools, at numerous interviews with contemporary witnesses and commemorative events at home and abroad, in order to send a signal against racism and anti-Semitism.
In addition, he worked with great passion for the creation of a worthy memorial site for the pupils and caretakers of the Auerbach orphanagewho were deported and murdered during National Socialism, initiated a memorial plaque at the former location of the Reichenheim orphanage and helped to initiate the implementation of the information board for the Jewish Building School. On 1 October 2017, Walter Frankenstein was awarded the Order of Merit of the State of Berlin for his commitment.
We wish Walter Frankenstein all the best!
