Moritz Moses Rabinowitz

I had been thinking about how to begin these “Field Notes,” snapshots of people, places, and stories I encounter across Norway. When I first heard the story of Moritz Rabinowitz during a visit to Haugesund, I knew my first one would be dedicated to him.

Moritz Rabinowitz, c. 1930s. A businessman, community leader, and outspoken voice against fascism.

Moritz Rabinowitz emigrated to Norway in 1909 as a young Jewish man from Poland. He first found work as a retail clerk in Bergen, then as a peddler. In 1911, he took over the lease of a small café in Haugesund and opened an apparel store with only two items in his inventory: one suit and one overcoat.

By the 1930s, he had built a business network that stretched from Stavanger to Kristiansand. He reinvested his profits and soon became a mainstay in the apparel trade in southwestern Norway under the company name M. Rabinowitz. He also founded a manufacturing company called Condor.

By 1940, Rabinowitz employed around 250 people and gave back to his community in ways both big and small, while continuing to send money to his parents in Poland. He donated land for public use, supported causes locally and abroad, and wrote regularly in the local paper about the growing threat of fascism and Nazism across Europe. The widowed Moritz was surrounded by close family: his daughter Edith; her husband, Hans; their young son, Harry; and his sister-in-law, Rosa, who was married to his brother Hermann.

Wedding portrait from the marriage of Edith Rabinowitz and Hans J. Reichwald. Standing in the back, from left: the groom, Hans J. Reichwald, and Hermann Herschel Rabinowitz (brother of Moritz). Seated in front, from left: the bride, Edith, and her father, Moritz. Haugalandmuseet.

Though he belonged to a small minority in an otherwise homogeneous society, Rabinowitz became a public figure in Haugesund and the surrounding region. He sent telegrams to world leaders including Roosevelt, Hindenburg, and Chamberlain, urging them to act on behalf of German Jews. His outspoken stance against fascism made him both respected and targeted, and Nazi newspapers named him the Jewish community’s secular leader in Norway.

"There may be no other Norwegian who has traveled more extensively in Europe than as Rabinowitz, and he knows the flashpoint Poland inside and out... Rabinowitz is the kind of Jew who shouts from the rooftops that he is a Jew... some may find this irritating... but in truth Rabinowitz is more Norwegian than most of us." - Egersundsposten, January 30, 1940

He was not only a businessman but a voice for justice and resistance. In a country on the brink of invasion, that made him a target.

And Rabinowitz had long expected the war to reach Norway.

On April 8, 1940, just one day before the German invasion, he submitted his final op-ed to Haugesunds Avis. In it, he called on readers to support and respect the Norwegian soldiers who now faced the threat of occupation.

The following morning, April 9, marked the beginning of Operation Weserübung, the German invasion of Denmark and Norway. The Germans claimed they were protecting Norway from an Anglo-French occupation, but in reality, it was a calculated move to secure control over Scandinavia.

By April 10, German troops had landed in Haugesund.

German soldiers outside the Haugesund police station on the morning of April 10, 1940. The occupying forces await orders for lodging and assignments. Haugalandmuseet.

Rabinowitz was identified as a high-priority target by the Gestapo. He went into hiding, moving between safe houses along the coast. For a time, he managed to stay one step ahead of his pursuers.

According to local accounts, Rabinowitz fled Haugesund late on the night of April 9 with his driver, Lars Engelsen. The local resistance helped him find shelter in a series of remote locations across Rogaland and Sunnhordland. From his first hiding place, he stayed in contact with his business in Haugesund, which eventually allowed the Gestapo to trace him.

He moved several times, including to a farmhouse where locals built a hiding space under the floor with an escape route leading out to the fields. A small hut was also constructed in the hills above the farm, camouflaged with branches and leaves. When the area became unsafe, he hid there instead.

Eventually, Rabinowitz was taken farther south to Toftekalven, an island at the mouth of the Skånevik Fjord. The only family living there offered him refuge. Though he was given several chances to flee by boat to Iceland or England, he chose to remain in Norway.

By the end of 1940, the Gestapo discovered his location and arrested him on Toftekalven, just outside Skånevik and not far from where I now live.

He was held in jails in Stavanger and Oslo before being deported to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. There, he was placed in the barracks for Jews, though officially listed as a political prisoner.

Even in captivity, Rabinowitz continued to care for the community he loved. He sent final greetings to the people of Haugesund through fellow prisoners and dictated his last will and testament. In it, he left everything to his daughter Edith and expressed hope that his businesses would continue.

His death certificate lists pneumonia as the cause of death, but a fellow prisoner later recounted that Rabinowitz was beaten and kicked to death outside Barrack 38 in Sachsenhausen.

His brother, daughter Edith, grandson Harry, and son-in-law Hans were later deported and murdered at Auschwitz.

On May 6, 1986, the people of Haugesund erected a memorial stone for Rabinowitz.

Moritz’s legacy endures in the memorials, stories, and quiet lessons passed down through generations in this region. His life stands as a reminder of the courage it takes to speak out, the cost of conviction, and the enduring need to defend human dignity.

A recreated M. Rabinowitz advertisement, painted on a downtown Haugesund building after the original was lost to redevelopment.

Condor in Haugesund today, a retail store named in honor of Moritz Rabinowitz and his original apparel company.

There's more to discover. See you in the next note.