(PDF) (DOC) (JPG)April 18, 2013

Gilel Storch (Center) with some of the women he helped to rescue.

(MAHWAH, NJ) -“Jews Saving Jews During WWII: The story of Gilel Storch” was the title of a talk given by Robert Molander on April 18  about his grandfather’s efforts, under extraordinary circumstances, to save his fellow Jews from the Nazi killing machine during the Holocaust. The program was sponsored by the Gross Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.

Having narrowly escaped from occupied Latvia to Stockholm Sweden, Gilel Storch pursued a multi-pronged effort to rescue his fellow Jews from the Holocaust.  These included negotiating directly with leading Nazis, securing food for starving concentration camp inmates, securing the release of female prisoners from Ravensbrück Concentration Camp, helping orchestrate Raul Wallenberg’s effort to save Hungarian Jews, and seeking to ensure that camps would be turned over intact to the Allies.

 Mr. Molander interspersed his presentation with excerpts from a 1998 Swedish public broadcasting docudrama with the title, Stateless, Arrogant and Lunatic. This is what British authorities called Gilel Storch in 1945 when he was preparing to go to Berlin to negotiate with Heinrich Himmler, head of the Nazi SS, about saving Jews.

Robert Molander

Robert Molander grew up with his grandfather and heard the story of his well-documented rescue efforts first-hand. He will forever carry loving respect and admiration for what this persistent man, against all odds, was able to accomplish.

Mr. Molander resides with his wife Sabina and two sons Alexander and Paul in New Jersey.  He originally came to the United States through the Sweden-American Foundation to pursue college studies in Economics and International Studies, and went on to earn his MBA from Washington University in St. Louis.  Currently with Novartis Consumer Healthcare, Robert is the company’s Global Head of New Growth Opportunities.

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