Biographical/Historical Information
The sociologist and German-Jewish community leader Paul Eppstein (1901–1944) was born in Mannheim, Germany. After studies in Heidelberg he was appointed lecturer (‘Privatdozent’) in sociology at the university of Mannheim (then ‘Handelshochschule’) from 1926 until 1933. After the Kristallnacht pogrom of November 1938, he was invited to England as a sociology lecturer but refused to go. As a prominent Jewish youth leader, organizer, and speaker he was one of the founders of the Reichsvertretung der deutschen Juden; he was the head of its welfare department, retaining the position when it became the Nazi-imposed Reichsvereinigung, until his deportation to Theresienstadt in January 1943. Upon his arrival he was nominated "Judenaeltester" ("Jewish Elder") in place of Jacob Edelstein. On September 27, 1944, he was arrested by the Gestapo and immediately shot.
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Citation
Paul Eppstein : Reichsvertretung der Juden in Deutschland, Leo Baeck Institute, F 39694.