Harry Israel Abt

Rabbi Harry Israel Abt (31 October 1900 Weener, Leer, Lower Saxony, Germany - 11 April 1977 Johannesburg, South Africa) was the son of Eleazer Abt (1867-1922) and Rosa Abt nee Loewenthal (1874-1943). He married Frieda Nussbaum (1904-2003) on the 8 May 1928 in Berlin, Germany and they had two children. He and his family fled to England from Nazi Germany in 1939 where he was listed as an 'enemy alien'. He was exempted from internment in England. The family came to South Africa in November 1939 from Southampton on the Arundel Castle. His occupation was that of a headmaster.

During World War Two in the latter years of the war, he was a part-time Army Chaplain under the Witwatersrand Command. His principal task was to look after the many Jewish soldiers who were in hospital, particularly at Baragwanath Military Hospital and Tara. His mother perished in Theresienstadt Concentration Camp during the war. During the state of emergency in South Africa after the Sharpeville Massacre in 1961, his services were again requested. He subsequently was Chaplain to a military camp near Johannesburg where there were a considerable number of Jewish boys undergoing army training. He was survived by his wife and three children.

Sources: 1. South African Jewry 1967-68 Edition. A Survey of the Jewish Community; Its Contributions to South Africa; Directory of Communal Institutions; and a Who's Who of Leading Personalities Feldberg Leon (Editor) Abt Harry page 168.

2. Reflections of a part-time Chaplain. Dr H. Abt. The Judean, September 1964 pages 17-19.

3. https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/21549956/person/182253490240/facts4.

4. https://www.geni.com/people/Harry-Abt/6000000012432409336?through=4124733612920062035.