Emil Margulies (1877 - 1943) |
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Born: Sosnowiec, Poland 16.07.1877 (Ober Schlesien/Upper Silesia, at that time part of Russian-Poland). |
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Parents: Moritz Margulies and Clara Sussman |
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Siblings: Anna Margulies Isidor Margulies Julius Margulies Siegmund Margulies Bella Margulies Hanns Margulies Heinrich Margulies |
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Spouse: Fritzi Scheuer (1896 - 1972) |
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Children: 1923 Lea Margulies (born 10.05.1923; died 1970 |
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Died: Israel 16.02.1943 |
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Margulies, Emil (1877-1943), lawyer and Zionist leader. Born in Sosnowiec, Poland, Margulies became an ardent Zionist as a young man and, after his settlement in Bohemia, had a great share in the development of Zionism there and in the West Austrian district. At the Tenth Zionist Congress (1911), he submitted a new statute for the Zionist Movement. Throughout his life he was a "political" Zionist, and in 1923 he was co-founder of the Radical Zionist Fraction (Democratic Zionists), fighting against the enlargement of the Jewish Agency by non-Zionists. Parallel to his Zionist activities, Margulies was one of the principal founders of the Czechoslovak "Jewish Party", of which he became president for a time. He also actively participated in the work on international minority problems and was a Jewish representative to the Congress of National Minorities. Margulies attained world renown through his action in the Bernheim Petition. In 1939 he settled in Palestine, where, together with some colleagues, he opened an office for legal advice. [2] Emil was in close contact with two of his brothers: the oldest, Isidor and the youngest, Heinrich. The parents sent both of them, as well as Emil, to larger cities, when they were still young, where they could visit better schools than were available in the small town of Sosnowitz [PL: Sosnowiec/Sosnowice]. [1] Emil went to school in Bielitz-Biala, and spent his compulsary "military year" in Olmütz and Vienna. He studied in Vienna, Munich, Zurich and Berlin, and then went back to Vienna for his dissertation. His imatriculation record from the University of Zurich: Matriculno. and subject: 12628, phil. (Literat.) 
Dr. Emil spent a couple of years in Graz, Innsbruck and Teschen, and in 1903 he moved on to Teplitz-Schönau, in Bohemia (today: part of the Czech Republik). He lived most of his "european" working life in this area, travelling widely to give talks to various groups, organising different jewish groups and parties, writing articles in newspapers and periodicals, etc. Here are two examples of what were probably hundreds of similar announcements:
Some "highlights" of his life: 1911: 10th. Zionist Congress, in Basle 1914-1918: World War I, Emil Margulies was an officer in the Austrian Army. 1922: The Palestine Mandate 1925: The Minorities Conference The "First Conference of Organised National Groups of European States" was held in Geneva. It was intended as an extension of the League of Nations, to protect the rights of minority groups in Europe. Emil was one of the eight jewish representatives. Through his work here, he became more well-known, and often had to come to Switzerland in connection with work for the League of Nations. 1927: The Diffamation Process ("Ehrenbeleidigungsprozess") In 1926 Emil Margulies wrote a detailed article for the Prague "Selbstwehr" accusing Chief Rabbi Koloman Weber of fraudulence and deceit. This forced Weber to take the case to court, claiming diffamation of character (which is what Emil wanted). The trial was in 1927, the verdict in 1928. Dr Emil Margulies was found "not guilty", thus proving the guilt of Weber. 1927: The Jewish Party of Czechoslovakia Emil Margulies was the ideologist, the propagandist and the leader of the Czechoslavakian Jewish Party. Faerber, 1949 Under his leadership the party managed to win a seat in the Czech. parlament. Emil resigned as leader of the party, when it later decided not to present it's own candidate, and supported a socialist candidate instead. 1933: The "Bernheim Petition", League of Nations According to Paragraph 147 of the 1922 German-Polish Convention, Germany undertook to protect all minority rights in the region annexed to her. In a letter to the Zionist Executive in London, Margulies proposed that a protest be lodged with the League of Nations at Germany's violation of the said paragraph vis-a-vis Upper Silesia. 'A petition must be organized by Jews throughout the world and the initiative must extend to all Jews everywhere. Geneva expects the initiative to come from the Jews...They must not remain silent and wait for others to act on their behalf. [The petition] must be based on legal evidence - not on 'atrocities' - on the violation of an international agreement in that the Jews of Upper Silesia who are lawyers, hospital doctors, university professors, and government clerks are not permitted to work.' On behalf of Fritz Bernheim, a minor employee in a government warehouse in Gleiwitz who had been fired by the Nazis and subsequently emigrated to Czechoslovakia, Margulies submitted a petition to the League of Nations, since by the terms of the Upper Silesia Convention any citizen whose national rights had been infringed could apply to the League. Margulies attached a hundred applications from Jewish organizations to the Bernheim petition, much to the consternation of von Keller, the German delegate to the League, who claimed that one Bernheim had no right to speak for all the Jews. To support his contention, von Keller submitted letters from assimilated Jewish organizations in Germany who protested the right of any Jewish minority to speak on their behalf. An ad hoc committee of jurists rejected the German objection, and in May 1933, the Bernheim petition was brought before the Council of the League of Nations. In this way at least the rest of the world learned of the civil rights problem of the Jews of Germany. http://www.vex.net/~nizkor/ftp.cgi/ftp.py?places/czechoslovakia/czech.001 1938/9: When Germany occupied the Sudetenland in 1938, Emil and his family had to flee Czechoslavakia. They stayed a while in Prague, but in 1939, they had to flee, again, in the last train that was able to cross the borders without hinderance. This time the Margulies family fled to Erez Israel, Palestine. He knew no hebrew, so he couldn't apply for a licence as a lawyer. Instead he opened an office for legal advice, with other Czech colleagues. He also joined various german-speaking clubs and organisations, where he continued to give lectures 1941: Emil "loses" his Czech citizenship: 7 Czech Jewish Exiles Stripped of Citizenship 1943: Emil Margulies died, after a long battle with cancer of the liver. Dr. Emil Margulies, Co-author of the Bernheim Petition, Dies in Palestine. See also the Margulies Family History, Moritz Margulies and Clara Sussman |
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References:
- Dr. Emil Margulies, Ein Lebenskampf für Wahrheit und Recht, Faerber, 1949, Tel Aviv
- Encyclopedia Judaicum, 1971(?)
Oral History
Internet research
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
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