Heinz Jakob (Henry) Bamberger
Vita
(RS) Arrival 23 Jul 1941 Gloucester City, New Jersey, USA, von Lissabon
NaturalizationDeclaration 22 Jan 1942 Los Angeles, California, USA
Heirat 2 Apr 1946 California, USA: Margot Storch (1922–2016)
Burial Culver City, Los Angeles, California, USA
(HGA) Heinz war 1938 in einem Schweizer Internat und kehrte auf den Rat des alten Leopold Oppenheimer hin nicht nach Deutschland zurück, sondern blieb zunächst in der Schweiz, ging dann nach Frankreich, beantragte dort 1938 ein Einwanderungsvisum in die USA, das er auf die normale Quota 1941 erhalten hatte, während Ophüls mit einem Visitor's Visa einreiste. Heinz Bamberger war wie die Ophülsens mit dem letzten Geld von Frankreich über Spanien nach Lissabon geflüchtet und per Schiff nach New York gefahren. Nun wollte er zu seinem Onkel Fritz (Fred) Bamberger, dem die Flucht aus Nazi-Deutschland gelungen war, der seit 1940 in Los Angeles lebte und dort ein Einzelhandelsgeschäft für Sportwarenbekleidung eröffnet hatte. Fred Bamberger hatte seinem Neffen geraten, nach der Westküste zu kommen, und so fuhr er mit seinem Onkel Max Ophüls und dessen Familie. Heinz Bamberger sprach erheblich besser englisch als alle Ophülsens und betätigte sich während der Reise als Dolmetscher. Er hat sicher auch den Brief aus Oklahoma an Kohner geschrieben, der in wesentlich besserem Englisch verfaßt
ist als Ophüls' eigene, noch sehr unbeholfene erste Schreibversuche in dieser Sprache. Nach dem Krieg an dem Henry Bamberger von 1943-1946 als Solder teilnahm baute er sich in Los Angeles eine Existenz als business manager auf und wurde auch Ophüls' Geschäfts- und Steuerberater. (S. 452)
(obit) BAMBERGER, Henry J. A onetime refugee who became one of the most respected and trusted members of the Los Angeles business community, died Sept. 12, 2012 at UCLA Medical Center. Henry, who was boundlessly committed to both his business and his family, worked until the day before the stroke that ended his life. Henry created Bamberger Business Management, which served some of the best-known names in Hollywood-a fact that is all the more impressive given his humble beginnings. Born Heinz Bamberger on Sept. 8, 1920 in Leipzig, Germany, and educated at a boarding school near Lausanne, Switzerland, Henry came to the United States fleeing the Nazis. He arrived nearly penniless at the age of 19, and while he never attended college, he put his talent for math to work, starting as a bookkeeper in a hardware store. In a city that trades in overhyped claims, dropped names and flamboyant style, Henry earned his clients through his iconoclastic modesty, sober judgment, dependability and unassailable integrity in a career that lasted 60 years. (Such was his modesty that he would not want the boldface names among his clients listed even here.) His diligence was his trademark, even when he first met the girl who would become his wife as a young teenager in Germany. "I heard about him," Margot remembers saying as a girl of perhaps 12. "He's the one who makes copies of every note he ever writes," a reference to his habit of making-and filing-carbon copies of his correspondence even in high school. Eccentricity became charm by the time they met again as adults in the United States, and soon relatives were advising her to marry him. Before that could happen, war intervened; Henry was drafted in 1944, and served not in Europe, where his trilingualism in English, French and German would have served him well, but in the South Pacific. The war over, Henry returned to the United States, married his sweetheart, and built the family and the business that stand as the enduring testaments to his legacy. Yet it was only in his later years that Henry laid claim to what might have been his most improbable achievement. The same diligence that led Henry to carbon-copy his letters as a teenager also allowed him to archive the property documents to the building that the Bamberger family owned in his hometown of Leipzig, which was appropriated by the Nazis in the nationwide anti-Jewish riot known as Kristallnacht. In the 1990s, after East and West Germany reunified, and after 14 visits and a lengthy battle in the courts and the press, Henry won the return of the building to the family. In keeping with his modesty, the Holocaust Museum's account does not record Henry's name, rather, the names of those of his father and three uncles. Today, the many who loved and admired Henry mourn the loss of a man of profound humility and goodness. Henry is survived by his wife Margot, sons John and Mark (married to Polly), sister Steffi, grandchildren Jacklyn, Matthew, and Caroline, and his black Labrador Duchess III. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the charity of your choice . As guidance, his passions were in music, the arts as well as Jewish causes (including the American Jewish Committee), as well as Vista Del Mar. A memorial celebration of his life will be held at 5PM on Saturday, September 15, at the Beverly Hills Tennis Club, 340 North Maple Drive, Beverly Hills CA 90210 (310) 273-4130. Hillside Mortuary 800-576-1994 Published in the Los Angeles Times on Sept. 15, 2012
Q: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/latimes/obituary.aspx?pid=159887865
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