Jack Werber, 92; survivor of the Holocaust helped rescue children

Jack Werber, a Holocaust survivor who helped save hundreds of children and then became an American entrepreneur who helped entertain a generation of others, has died. He was 92.

Werber, of Great Neck, N.Y., had a heart attack and died Nov. 18, said William Helmreich, a professor with whom Werber wrote a book in 1996.

Werber had been arrested by the Nazis in 1939, separated from his wife and young daughter and sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp.

He later discovered that his wife and child had been killed.

In August 1944, a transport of prisoners, including 700 boys, arrived at the camp. Werber, the barracks clerk, worked with other prisoners and some guards to save the children. They hid the youngest ones and found jobs for the others that protected them as much as possible from the harsh conditions, Helmreich said.

After the war, Werber moved to the United States, where his oldest brother and only remaining immediate family member lived.

He started a company that in the 1950s manufactured coonskin caps that were popular among young fans of the Disney television show about frontiersman Davy Crockett.

He also invested in real estate.

Werber was born in the Polish town of Radom, where his father was a furrier.

With Helmreich, the director of the Center for Jewish Studies at Queens College, Werber wrote “Saving Children: Diary of a Buchenwald Survivor and Rescuer.”

Werber is survived by his wife Mildred, whom he married in 1945; their sons, Martin and David; six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.