Kurt Baschwitz

Siegfried Kurt Baschwitz (February 2, 1886, Offenburg – January 6, 1968 Amsterdam), was a journalist and researcher for newspapers.

Baschwitz, who, as customary in German middle class, was not called by his first name but always his second name Kurt, was a German Jew and a friend of Otto Frank, the father of Anne Frank. Baschwitz also was the second expert witness to review the Diary of Anne Frank.^[1]

In 1933 he emigrated from Nazi-Germany to the Netherlands. Even though he rarely left his house after the German occupation of the Netherlands in 1940, he got arrested by German police during a street razzia and was brought to Westerbork concentration camp near Amsterdam. Only five days later, his daughter Isa Teske-Baschwitz achieved his release by using forged documents as well as real documents.^[2]

After the war, he stayed in the Netherlands and worked as a professor for press, propaganda and public opinion research at Amsterdam University (1946–1947). He founded the institute for the science of the press at Amsterdam University in July 1948 and was its first director.

Literary works

• Der Massenwahn, seine Wirkung und seine Beherrschung, 1923
• De strijd met den duivel. De heksenprocessen in het licht der massapsychologie, 1948
• De krant door alle tijden, 1938
• Du und die Masse, ²1951

See also

• Rita Kohnstamm (nl)

See also: Baschwitz

1. ^ ANNE FRANK - Was schrieb das Kind?, DER SPIEGEL 14/1959, 01.04.1959 http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-42624942.html
2. ^ © ING - Het Instituut voor Nederlandse Geschiedenis (Institute for history of the Netherlands) Den Haag. Bronvermelding: J.M.H.J. Hemels, 'Baschwitz, Siegfried Kurt (1886-1968)', in Biografisch Woordenboek van Nederland. Available online 7. February 2010 http://www.inghist.nl/Onderzoek/Projecten/BWN/lemmata/bwn4/baschwi

Persondata
Name	Baschwitz, Kurt
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	February 2, 1886
Place of birth
Date of death	January 6, 1968
Place of death