David Frankfurter

David Frankfurter
David Frankfurter in British Mandate of Palestine, 1945
Born	(1909-07-09)9 July 1909 Daruvar, Austro-Hungarian Empire, (now Croatia)
Died	19 July 1982(1982-07-19) (aged 73) Ramat Gan, Israel
Nationality	Croat, Israeli
Relatives	Mavro and Rebekka (née Figel) Frankfurter (parents)

David Frankfurter (9 July 1909 – 19 July 1982) was a Croatian Jew known for assassinating Swiss branch leader of the German NSDAP Wilhelm Gustloff in 1936 in Davos, Switzerland.

Frankfurter was born in Daruvar, Croatia (then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire), to a Jewish family, father Mavro and mother Rebekka (née Figel) Frankfurter. His father was rabbi in Daruvar and later the chief rabbi in Vinkovci. The Frankfurter family moved to Vinkovci in 1914. Frankfurter was a sickly child and suffered an incurable periostitis for which he underwent seven operations between the ages of six and twenty-three; his doctors feared he would not live a normal lifespan. He graduated from elementary and later secondary school, in 1929, with high marks. After completing his basic education he began a study of medicine. His father sent him to Germany to study dentistry; first in Leipzig and then in 1931 in the town of his ancestors, Frankfurt.

While studying in Germany, he witnessed the coming to power of the Nazis and the initiation of anti-semitic measures. The rise of Nazism in Germany and the banning of Jews from German universities compelled him to move to Switzerland to continue his studies, and he settled in Bern in 1934. There, among the Germans and German speaking Swiss, the Nazi movement gained ground, led by Wilhelm Gustloff. Having become convinced of the danger posed by the Nazis, Frankfurter kept an eye on Gustloff, head of the Foreign Section of the Nazi Party in Switzerland (NSDAP), who ordered the to be published in Switzerland. In 1936, unable to endure the torrent of insults, humiliations and attacks on the Jewish people, of whom he was very proud, Frankfurter bought a gun in Bern. Frankfurter found Gustloff's address easily, as it was listed in the phonebook, and went to the Gustloff home; Gustloff's wife, Hedwig Gustloff, received him and showed him into the study, asking him to wait since her husband was on the telephone but would be with him presently.