Official Reveal of Dortmund Mural Honoring 'Righteous Among the Nations' Hero Werner Krumme

On Wednesday, April 10, at 4:30 PM CEST, an official inauguration ceremony will be held in Dortmund, Germany, for a street mural honoring late “Righteous Among the Nations” hero Werner Krumme.

The mural — a joint initiative of the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) and Artists 4 Israel — was painted on the side of a youth center (Städt. Jugendfreizeitstätte Mengede — Rigwinstraße 29, 44359 Dortmund, Germany) by artist Julian Schimanski, known as “Mister Oreo 39.”

Opening remarks at Wednesday’s event will be delivered by Lord Mayor of Dortmund Thomas Westphal, who chaired the CAM-organized 2023 European Mayors Summit Against Antisemitism in Dortmund last November. CAM will be represented by Director of European Affairs Oriana Marie Krüger.

Similar “Righteous Among the Nations” murals have gone up in recent years in Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal; Patras, Greece; New York City; and Los Angeles, California.

Krumme, born in Dortmund in 1909, married a Jewish woman, Ruth Haas, shortly after the Nazis came to power in 1933, and they were both arrested in Breslau in 1942 and sent to Auschwitz after it was discovered that they were planning to help Ruth’s sisters flee Germany.

While at Auschwitz, Krumme was designated as a “prisoner-functionary,” and he manipulated selection lists to secure the placement of numerous Jewish prisoners in the infirmary or work detachments to protect them from execution in the gas chambers.

While his wife did perish at Auschwitz, Krumme survived the war, and he lived in Munich — where he was active in fighting neo-Nazism and far-right extremism — until he passed away in 1972.