Dr. Erich Buchholz was jointly responsible for the Holsatia factories and later became the successor of Julius Neumann. Already in the 1920’s he taught Hebrew and Arabic to his children and published articles on behalf of Israel (then Palestine), full of love of Zion; other articles were devoted to the subjects of economy. Buchholz was both a perceptive philosopher and an inspired economist. His motto for Holsatia was export: He expanded trade relations and export with Egypt, Palestine and other countries in the Middle East.
In his translation of the psalms we find his longing for Zion expressed in beautiful language:
“…If I forget see, o Jerusalem,
let my right hand forget her cunning,
Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth
If I prefer not Jerusalem upon my chief joy”
(based on Psalm 137: 4-6)
Dr Erich Buchholz (1931/32)
Erich Buchholz was a disabled war veteran. He was responsible for the Holsatia factories in the growing economic crisis and arousing atmosphere of anti-Semitism of the 1930′s. Worrying for his family he urged them to immigrate to Palestine. Thus his wife Edith and three children were saved after his early death released him from his suffering.
Unfortunately, his wifeEdith died early, as did their three children.
Their son,Max-Moses later Budmor, went on to become a professor of musicology in New Jersey;
their daughter,Ruth, received her doctorate in Jewish History,
and their other daughter, Alisa, was the faithful keeper of her father’s many-sided written work.
In his eulogy, Rabbi Carlebach dedicated the following words by Goethe to Erich Buchholz, the brilliant economist, philosopher and compassionate man:
“Be insensitive!
An easily moved heart
Is a miserable inhabitant
On this swaying earth”
And thus he continued:
“Erich Buchholz was a man of brilliant intellectual depth, a man of research and thought. He listened to the voices from beyond the stars. He understood the entanglements of the economic present.
He was a miracle of character and talents …”
And today, who recalls the Holsatia factories? Who remembers this unique project and could tell us about it? And who were the founders and what was special about them, about the work of their minds and of their hands…?
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