Born 1884, Theodor Görner opened a printing press at Rosenthaler Straße 26 in 1922. He was a former member of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) and an opponent of National Socialism. Like Otto Weidt, he employed Jewish workers, initially legally and later using forged papers. Inge Deutschkron’s mother Ella was one of his employees.
In the summer of 1944, Görner made arrangements to help the 14-year-old orphan Sinaida Zuckermann. Her father had been Jewish, and Theodor Görner was denounced as a “friend of the Jews.” During his interrogations and several weeks’ imprisonment, he revealed nothing to the Gestapo about other aid activities. Since his company was classed as “important for the war,” he was released after paying 5,000 reichsmarks to the Winter Relief fund. He then continued to arrange food and housing for victims of persecution, risking being sent to a concentration camp. Theodor Görner was recognized as an Unsung Hero by the Berlin Senate in 1959; in 1967 the Israeli Holocaust memorial center Yad Vashem honored him as Righteous Among the Nations.
