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Podcast: North Star with Ellin Bessner
Episode: The untold story of Isay Rottenberg, Nazi Germany's 'reverse Schindler'
Description: Just before Hitler rose to power, Isay Rottenberg, then living in Amsterdam, made an unusual move. Rather than flee the area, he moved to Germany, buying Europe's most modern cigar factory. In a move that branded him as a sort of reverse–Oskar Schindler, he employed 670 non-Jewish workers and grew his business profitably, refusing to move until the Nazi government forced him to sell his factory and threw him in prison.
Isay Rottenberg and his family survived the war, moving back to Amsterdam afterwards. But he never went public with his remarkable story. After he died, two of...