GRAEBE, HERMANN FRIEDRICH° (1900–1986), non-Jew who saved Jews during the Holocaust. A native of Solingen, Germany, Graebe worked for the construction company, Jung. At one point he joined the Nazi Party, but after speaking out against them, he was sentenced to a short term in prison. The Jung company sent Graebe to Zdolbunov, Volhynia, in October 1941. There he was to be responsible for their undertakings for the German civil administration.

The Jung company employed thousands of Jews and Graebe did his best to ensure they were treated reasonably. In November 1941 and again in July 1942, he safeguarded his Jewish workers from being sent to their death, through contacts with the SD in Rovno. Sensing that the Jews who worked in the Jung head office in Zdolbunov were in danger, Graebe provided them with papers which represented them as Aryans and transferred them to Poltava. Ostensibly they were to work for Jung there, but in fact Graebe had moved them without the company's knowledge and supported them himself. In the fall, Graebe went to Dubno, where he saved the lives of several dozen Jews during the final Aktion. He described this incident at the Nuremberg Trial. After the trial, he immigrated to the United States. In 1966 he was officially recognized by *Yad Vashem for his courageous deeds.

[Robert Rozette]

Source: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2008 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.

Hermann Friedrich Graebe