Richard Guggenheim

Richard Guggenheim was born on 16 May 1921 in Munich.
Richard’s parents survived the war; his mother died in London in 1947, his father died in Zurich in 1949.
Richard fled to the Netherlands in the summer of 1938 and reported to the Werkdorp in June. After the Werkdorp was evacuated on 20 March 1941, he found shelter with the Asscher family on Merwedeplein in Amsterdam.   

On 14 May 1941, a bomb attack took place on a villa on the Bernard Zweerskade, inhabited by German officers. There were no casualties. A few weeks later, the telephone exchange of the Luftwaffe at Schiphol was blown up, seriously injuring a member of the Wehrmacht. The Germans attributed these attacks to Jews. All in all, reason enough for the Germans to hold a second razzia in Amsterdam and to arrest more than 300 young Jewish men. The group was taken to the Durchgangslager Schoorl. Among them were 61 workforces.  They were selected on age (18-35), health and having four Jewish grandparents.  After two weeks Richard and 56 other workforces, in a group of 300 Jews, were taken to Mauthausen. There they were put to death by forced labour in stone quarries and/or medical experiments. Richard was murdered on 12 October 1941.