Alois Miedl

Alois Miedl (3 March 1903 - 11 June 1970) was a naturalized Dutch art dealer, originally a German Nazi banker, born in Munich, who had moved to and was mainly active in the Netherlands, involved with the sales of properties stolen from Jews who had fled or had been deported. Early life Alois Miedl was born in 1903 in Munich as son to Alois Miedl and Maria Streicher. His father owned a dairy farm. Alois Miedl married Theodore "Dorie" Fleischer, a Jewish girl with whom he had two children, Ruth Marie (born 1925) and Hanns Alois (born 1933). From 1920 to 1924, Alois worked at the bank of Heinrich and Hugo Marx in Munich, and from 1924 to 1929 at the bank Witzig & Co., also in Munich. In 1930 he became a director of the Berlin Schantung-Handelaktiengeselschaft, and in 1932 he moved to the Netherlands as director of Veland, a subsidiary of the Berlin company. At the same time, he was director of a number of companies in Germany and elsewhere. He was an avid mountaineer. He moved to the Netherlands in 1932, because of his new function there, but probably also because he feared for the security of his Jewish wife in Germany. Nazi connections Before the war, the Miedls frequented the richest Jewish families in Amsterdam, where they had moved to from Munich in 1932. At the same time, he was a friend of many prominent Nazi leaders, including Hermann Göring and Ferdinand aus der Fünten, the head of the Central Office for Jewish Emigration in Amsterdam. He even stayed several times at Hitler's residence Berghof in Berchtesgaden. After the occupation of the Netherlands had started, Dorie was declared an Honorary Aryan. The Miedls organized galas in their home to celebrate Hitler's birthday, with Miedl wearing an SS-uniform and prominent members of the Dutch Gestapo as guests. Second World War Right from the start of the war, Miedl tried to acquire art works from Jewish owners, threatening them that they had the choice between selling to him at severely reduced prices, or being looted by the Gestapo. Many Jews, not seeing any way out, agreed to the blackmail. Miedl not only dealt in art, but also got his hands on other valuables in this way. He also offered protection to some Jews as a form of business transaction, thereby saving about a dozen Jews from deportation and near-certain death. But in other cases, he had no qualms about letting Jewish associates being deported.